In Haiti, where President Michel Martelly attended an election party at the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince Tuesday night, Obama’s reelection also was greeted with optimism.

A release from Haiti’s National Palace said Martelly “hoped that the bilateral cooperation between the United States of America and the Republic of Haiti will continue and strengthen in the interest of both countries.’’

Martelly didn’t go into details about what Haiti expects, but immigration activists said they’d like to see more movement on allowing already-approved Haitian families to reunite. Since the January 2010 earthquake, U.S. lawmakers and advocates have been asking the Department of Homeland Security to expedite parole of 112,000 beneficiaries of family-based visa petitions that have been languishing on wait lists.

Farnsworth, meanwhile, said there are several events that would “grab the attention of political Washington’’ and force more attention on the region: the death of one or both of the Castro brothers and the prospect of fundamental change coming to Cuba, the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and a succession fight, or if China — the main customer for Latin American commodities — doesn’t hit growth of at least 8.5 to 9 percent.

“If any of these things happen, it could change things — and it could change things on a dime,’’ he said last week during a Latin America Predictors Forum in Coral Gables.

Haiti Correspondent Jacqueline Charles and Latin American correspondent Jim Wyss in Bogota contributed to this report.