Quake Overshadows Clinton Tour of Region

Ginger Thompson and Alexei Barrionuevo
The New York Times
February 28, 2010

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s five-nation Latin American tour, which begins Monday and is meant in part to address regional tensions, is instead likely to be overshadowed by the response to Chile’s earthquake and efforts to line up support for the American campaign to isolate Iran.

Mrs. Clinton is expected to stop in Santiago, Chile, on Tuesday to meet with President Michelle Bachelet and President-elect Sebastián Piñera, the first conservative politician to rise to power there since the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

State Department officials said Chile, which has its own sophisticated emergency response agency, was not likely to need anywhere near the level of assistance being provided to Haiti. But they said they expected Chile to request United States support for a field hospital and satellite communications equipment...

“...Brazil is striking out on its own with Iran,” said Christopher Sabatini, senior director for policy at the Council of the Americas in New York. “It’s made clear it won’t do the bidding of the United States.”

Mr. Sabatini said that disagreement was likely to remain “a major irritant” in Brazil’s relationship with the United States.

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