Obama takes in Rio with Libya on his mind
By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Jim Kuhnhenn,Mar 20 , 2011
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RIO DE JANEIRO – President Barack Obama played grand tourist to Rio de Janeiro's vivid extremes on Sunday, motorcading from brilliant beaches to a notorious slum even as he monitored U.S. military strikes in faraway Libya.
With his whole family in tow on the second day of a Latin American tour meant to knit economic and cultural ties, the president visited the City of God shantytown that gained fame after a movie by the same name was nominated for four Oscars. At a community center in the heart of the jostling slum, the president plunged into the lives of children there, playing soccer with kids and watching enthralled at a dazzling martial arts display.
The president shed his coat and tie, rolled up his sleeves and dribbled one-on-one soccer with one surprised boy. Michelle Obama and daughters Sasha and Malia got involved, too, kicking a ball around with the kids.
Then the president walked out into the streets and waved to throngs of residents who cheered him from rooftops and balconies. Dozens of young children pressed up against a chainlink fence trying to get a look.
On the metal roofs of the poor shantybuildings armed guards stood by. It was a short visit but the president got a glimpse of the poverty of the slum, visceral scenes of jumbled dwellings, and people lining the streets.
Meanwhile, seemingly a world away U.S. warplanes launched a coordinated assault against Moammar Gadhafi's defenses a day after the president authorized the military action to enforce an internationally authorized no-fly zone to protect Libyan civilians. The president had been on a conference call with his top advisers earlier Sunday to get briefed on the effort as juggled his touristing and economic outreach in Latin America with the unceasing demands of being commander-in-chief.
The president's sightseeing Sunday was sure to endear him even more to a diverse and multicultural country where his personal story already makes him popular. That advances the overall goals of the five-day Latin American trip — with Chile and El Salvador next on the itinerary — which aims to cast Obama and the United States as attentive neighbors from the North, eager to capitalize on the region's economic successes while addressing common security concerns.
From the start, however, Obama's attention has been divided. He's been forced to shuttle from meetings with his host, President Dilma Rousseff, and with Brazilian and U.S. executives to briefings and secure calls with his national security team
With the conflict in North Africa sure to continue to intrude, Obama was heading from his shantytown tour to deliver a speech promoted as an address to the Brazilian people. He'll speak from inside the Theatro Municipal performance hall that sits on Cinelandia Plaza, a historic square that was the scene of a 1984 protest that set the stage for the eventual end of a 20-year military dictatorship.
The speech was originally billed as an outdoor event on the plaza open to all, but U.S. officials decided at the last-minute to move the speech inside the theater and make it invitation-only "due to a number of concerns," according to a Friday press release from the U.S. Embassy. Scaffolding for the stage on which Obama was to speak was quickly removed from the square.
The president will end his stay in Rio with a nighttime walking tour of Corcovado Mountain to the Christ the Redeemer Statue that is the very symbol of the city. Initially, Obama had planned to visit the Christ statue at mid-morning. Aides said the change in schedule and shifting the speech to an indoor venue were due to logistical adjustments. They said they feared the statue would be shrouded in fog Sunday — a mist did cover the hills around Rio.
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