Scandal upstages Obama's efforts
Source: Agencies |
April 16, 2012, Monday
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A PROSTITUTION scandal involving US security personnel in Colombia threatened to eclipse President Barack Obama's charm offensive to Latin America.
In a major embarrassment for the US at the Summit of the Americas attended by more than 30 heads of state, 11 US Secret Service agents were sent home on Saturday and five military servicemen grounded over "misconduct" allegations in a hotel.
Prostitutes were taken to the hotel, Colombian police said.
The widening controversy was overshadowing a host of weightier topics at the two-day summit that began on Saturday.
"I had a breakfast meeting to discuss trade and drugs, but the only thing the other delegates wanted to talk about was the story of the agents and the hookers," chuckled one Latin American diplomat in the historic city of Cartagena.
A US lawmaker who heads a congressional committee that oversees the Secret Service told CNN the incident apparently involved 11 agents "and they did bring women back to their rooms."
Representative Peter King, chairman of the US House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, said "one of the women did not leave the room in the morning" and that a hotel manager tried to get in the room. King said the woman emerged and said "they owed her money."
As well as the hotel incident a day or two before Obama's arrival on Friday, locals also said the Americans were involved in a fracas at a brothel in the dingy outskirts of Cartagena.
Locals were deeply unimpressed.
"They came to look after their president, not to have a party," Cartagena street vendor Rosa Elena Prieto said. "The weak flesh of men costs them their jobs."
Making no reference to the scandal, Obama tackled head-on accusations he had neglected Latin America while dealing with conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and other faraway global priorities.
"We've never been more excited about the prospect of working as equal partners with our brothers and sisters in Latin America and the Caribbean," he told business officials before the start of the main heads-of-state summit, which started yesterday.
Obama also hailed the potential to boost trade between the "nearly a billion consumers" of North and South America.
Washington was also standing fast against widespread demands to include Cuba in future summits and there was squabbling over this meeting's final declaration.
In a major embarrassment for the US at the Summit of the Americas attended by more than 30 heads of state, 11 US Secret Service agents were sent home on Saturday and five military servicemen grounded over "misconduct" allegations in a hotel.
Prostitutes were taken to the hotel, Colombian police said.
The widening controversy was overshadowing a host of weightier topics at the two-day summit that began on Saturday.
"I had a breakfast meeting to discuss trade and drugs, but the only thing the other delegates wanted to talk about was the story of the agents and the hookers," chuckled one Latin American diplomat in the historic city of Cartagena.
A US lawmaker who heads a congressional committee that oversees the Secret Service told CNN the incident apparently involved 11 agents "and they did bring women back to their rooms."
Representative Peter King, chairman of the US House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, said "one of the women did not leave the room in the morning" and that a hotel manager tried to get in the room. King said the woman emerged and said "they owed her money."
As well as the hotel incident a day or two before Obama's arrival on Friday, locals also said the Americans were involved in a fracas at a brothel in the dingy outskirts of Cartagena.
Locals were deeply unimpressed.
"They came to look after their president, not to have a party," Cartagena street vendor Rosa Elena Prieto said. "The weak flesh of men costs them their jobs."
Making no reference to the scandal, Obama tackled head-on accusations he had neglected Latin America while dealing with conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and other faraway global priorities.
"We've never been more excited about the prospect of working as equal partners with our brothers and sisters in Latin America and the Caribbean," he told business officials before the start of the main heads-of-state summit, which started yesterday.
Obama also hailed the potential to boost trade between the "nearly a billion consumers" of North and South America.
Washington was also standing fast against widespread demands to include Cuba in future summits and there was squabbling over this meeting's final declaration.
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