Obama support Lation nations drug efforts

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador -- President Barack Obama vowed closer cooperation yesterday with the Central American nations where U.S. policies on crime, immigration and other issues have outsize influence on populations that depend heavily on their giant neighbor to the north and impact U.S. society in turn.

Speaking in El Salvador, the final stop on his three-country Latin American tour and the only one in Central America, Obama promised work on increasing trade and economic growth, fighting drug trafficking and creating opportunities so that people can find opportunity in their home countries and "don't feel like they have to head north to provide for their families."

"The United States will do our part" in combatting the increasing scourge of drug trafficking, the president said, standing next to El Salvador's president Mauricio Funes, who welcomed Obama's attention to the oft-overlooked region. Obama announced a new $200 million partnership with El Salvador to combat drug wars that have led to a spike in murders here and in other Central American countries.

Obama's five-day visit to Latin America has been overshadowed from the start by the war he's running in faraway Libya, and just before the news conference started the White House said Obama would be cutting his visit short to return to the United States today.

Obama said during his news conference with Funes Tuesday that he was confident the United States would transfer control of the Libya operation to an international coalition in days.

Despite Libya's shadow, Obama sought to make clear that El Salvador is a critical partner on immigration and narcotics trafficking, issues of increasing concern to the United States.

Among the issues he and Funes addressed was rising crime south of the U.S. border. El Salvador has seen murder rates increase amid an influx of drugs and traffickers displaced by crackdowns in Colombia and Mexico. Obama said a new partnership to combat narco-trafficking could focus on strengthening courts and civil society groups in order to keep young people from turning to drugs and crime.