THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

(Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago)

_______________________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release

April 19, 2009

BACKGROUND BRIEFING

BY SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS

ON THE PRESIDENT'S MEETINGS WITH

PRESIDENT PREVAL OF HAITI AND PRESIDENT BACHELET OF CHILE

Diplomatic Center

Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago

9:52 A.M. EDT

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Good morning, everyone. We're going to do a short readout of the meetings the President had yesterday at dinner with Haitian President Preval and President Bachelet, and then this morning with the Central Americans. This will be a briefing on background, as senior administration officials.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Hey, good morning, everybody. The President enjoyed the dinner last night. We just talked with him a little bit on the way over here to get a readout from him because it was, obviously, just heads of state.

And he enjoyed it very much. He made particular note of the elaborate cultural ceremony and expressed his appreciation for that and appreciation for the many, many people of Trinidad who participated in it.

He mentioned that he had an opportunity to -- since we talked to you yesterday he switched tables. He was invited to sit at the head table with Prime Minister Manning, which he was happy to accept such a gracious invitation. He also sat at that table with Prime Minister Preval -- sorry, with President Preval and President Bachelet. He noted in particular that he had a long chat with President Bachelet, expressing his deep appreciation for all she did to make the atmosphere down here very conducive and very collaborative and cooperative.

That's what I got.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Good morning. Earlier this morning the President had the opportunity to meet with the heads of state from SICA, which is the Central American Immigration System, plus its associate member, which is the Dominican Republic. So all of the leaders from Central America and the DR were present at the meeting.

It was a good, constructive conversation focused particularly on those issues that are most relevant to Central America today and to the U.S. relationship with the countries of Central America, which are the impacts of the economic crisis, questions around immigration; there was some discussion of trade; and security issues were very high on the agenda.

The President made clear his desire to continue working in partnership, building off the positive atmosphere that has been here at the summit, to work to make sure that the follow through is concrete; noted that he was accompanied by -- met with senior members of his administration who will continue the work to follow up from the summit to make sure that we are doing what we can in partnership with the countries of Central America to address issues of mutual interest and mutual concern.

And the President-elect of El Salvador, Mauricio Funes, was also in attendance, so the Salvadorans had two seats at the table as they've had throughout the summit. The President once again congratulated President-elect Funes on his election and President Saca for the manner in which the two of them have been handling this historic transition in El Salvador.

Q A question about something that happened yesterday. Evo Morales charged that Americans were behind the assassination plot against him and that he would only restore diplomatic relations with the U.S. when the President publicly repudiated that attempt. Do you guys have a comment on that?