El Salvador: Obama visit dispels fears over ties

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110319/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_salvador_obama

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador – President Mauricio Funes said Saturday he is gratified that Barack Obama is including his small country in a tour of Latin America, saying the visit dispels fears relations would suffer under El Salvador's first leftist government.

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Opponents had warned those ties would decline, but Funes said Obama's planned visit Tuesday proves them wrong.

"We have won the battle against disinformation," Funes said at a news conference with foreign reporters. "We have dispelled the fear that relations would deteriorate."

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Funes expressed pride that his small Central American country is one of three stops on Obama's tour. The other two are Brazil, a rising economic power, and Chile, long a beacon of stability and relative prosperity in the region.