Many had predicted sparks when Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez met U.S. President Barack Obama for the first time. But during the Summit of the Americas, the U.S. president quickly disarmed Latin leaders, pledging an agenda and a new style in relations with the Americas.
And Chavez responded after apparently listening to the counsel of Brazil's president.
Chavez Warms to Obama
"I said to Chavez in a speech, 'Chavez, I think that now you have to take the initiative and talk to President Obama. If your issues were with President Bush and not with the United States, this is the time, this climate has been created,'" Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva said.
At the previous summit in Argentina, Chavez led thousands in an anti-American rally. That 2005 encounter led to a wake-up call for the U.S. The Bush administration had virtually ignored Latin America while fighting the war on terror in the Middle East. And during that time, Latin America took a turn to the left.
The feeling in Latin America, says political commentator Carlos Montaner, is that American political and economic values have failed to deal with the needs of Latins, especially the issue of poverty.
American Values Failed Latin America
"And if democracy is the type of organization that somehow sustains that type of capitalism, they don't care about democracy," Montaner said.
Over the last several years, a disenchanted public brought more leftist presidents to power. Two countries, Venezuela and Bolivia, became stridently anti-American, kicking out their U.S. ambassadors.
The rebirth of the Latin left began, ironically, with the fall of the Soviet Union. Overnight Cuba lost its biggest supporter, and Fidel Castro traveled to Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he appealed to like-minded leftists for help.
"And he was trying to create a frame of friends and societies and groups and organizations and political parties that would help the dictatorship of Cuba to survive the disappearance of the Soviet Union, and the subsidies of the Soviet Union," Montaner said.
The "Sao Paulo Forum" also embraced terrorist groups including Colombia's Farc guerrillas, major drug traffickers known for kidnappings and killings.
"Carnivorous Left"
Chavez became one of the forum's key players, using oil profits to bring more leftist leaders to power. He heads a small group that Montaner calls the "carnivorous left," made up of Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador. They have established relations with some of America's worst enemies.
"The relation between those countries, especially between Venezuela and Iran are very dangerous for Americans," Montaner said.
Iranians can now travel to Venezuela and Bolivia without visas. That could lead to radical Islamists joining the stream of illegals already slipping across the U.S border. There are reports that is already happening.
Behind this Latin left resurgence -- Cuba's Fidel Castro, whose prestige has grown despite his country's economic problems and his own retirement.
At the Summit, Latin presidents urged the U.S. to end the 47-year-old embargo against the Castro regime. So far, the U.S. has reduced travel restrictions and Obama welcomed overtures from the Cuban government.
Recognizing the Castro Regime
"The fact that you had Raul Castro say he's willing to have his government discuss with ours, not just issues of lifting the embargo, but issues of human rights, political prisoners - that's a sign of progress. And so we are going to explore and see if we can make some further steps," Obama said.
Raul Castro is thought to see Cuba's situation more realistically than his brother Fidel.
"What he sees is poor people, a very decayed society where no one believes in communism, where the system is completely failure," Montaner said of Raul. "That is a big difference and this explains why Raul Castro, when Fidel Castro is not alive anymore will try to change things."
But even if Cuba does not change, Latin presidents want the Castro regime at future summits. They have even pledged to invite Cuba back to the organization of American states, which expelled the Castro government 47 years ago.
And that would leave the United States out of step as the only country in the hemisphere not recognizing the Castro regime.
* This story originally aired May 1, 2009.