Post date: Mar 20, 2011 5:41:53 PM
U.S. President Barack Obama tours Rio de Janeiro amid protests, driving by the city's beaches to its notorious "City of God" slum.
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL (MARCH 20, 2011) POOL - President Barack Obama toured Rio de Janeiro on Sunday (March 20) as he courted Latin America on a tour overshadowed by a U.S. and European air assault on Muammar Gaddafi's forces in Libya.
On the second day of what aides call his signature first trip to the region, Obama got a glimpse of Rio's famed beaches and mountains from his helicopter, and played soccer with slum kids in a display of cultural affinity.Next to first lady Michelle Obama and his two daughters, Obama also watched a Capoeira dance presentation put on by a local charity group.
But his attention continued to be divided by the biggest military intervention in the Arab world since the Iraq invasion.
The military campaign against Gaddafi's forces that was launched on Saturday intruded on Obama's schedule of diplomacy and business promotion in the Brazilian capital, Brasilia, and seemed certain to do the same in Rio.
Obama is seeking improved relations with Brazil after a period marked by tensions and neglect, during which China overtook the United States as Brazil's main trade partner.
Based in a hotel overlooking Copacabana beach, he was spending the day visiting a vibrant metropolis that encapsulates what he called Brazil's "extraordinary" rise as a global power in recent years.
The White House has justified Obama's five-day Latin American tour in large part for its potential dividends of boosting U.S. exports to help create American jobs, also considered crucial to his 2012 re-election chances.
Obama's Rio visit has is also being marked by a series of protests that ranged from themes such as anti-imperialism to concerns over Brazil's oil reserves.
Outside Obama's hotel, dozens of relatives of passengers from an Amazon flight, that crashed after clipping wings with a Legacy jet in 2006, called on the sentencing of the U.S. pilots who were operating the plane.
They laid out 154 black plastic bags to represent the bodies of their loved ones on Copacabana's sand in a peaceful demonstration.
Obama's remaining sightseeing visit in Rio will be to the city's iconic Christ the Redeemer hilltop statue. His visit to that location had to be postponed from morning until evening to give the President time for early briefings on the Libyan situation.
President Obama will leave Rio on Monday morning for a visit to Chile, and will wrap up his regional tour on Wednesday in El Salvador.