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Michelle Obama makes visit to Haiti on way to Mexico
By: cnn.comPosted On: 04/13/2010 2:21 P
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Michelle Obama made an unannounced stop in Haiti on Tuesday on her way to a three-day trip to Mexico, the first lady's office said.
Michelle Obama made an unannounced stop in Haiti on Tuesday on her way to a three-day trip to Mexico, the first lady's office said.
Obama and Jill Biden, the wife of Vice President Joe Biden, arrived in Haiti at midmorning and took a helicopter tour of Port-au-Prince, the capital, which was devastated by a magnitude-7.0 earthquake on January 12.
The purpose of the visit is "to underscore to the Haitian people and the Haitian government the enduring U.S. commitment to help Haiti recover and rebuild, especially as we enter the rainy and hurricane seasons, and to thank the women and men across the whole of the U.S. government for their extraordinary efforts in Haiti during the past three months," a White House statement said.
"They will also reach out to the U.N. and international relief communities in recognition of the truly global effort underway to help Haiti," the statement continued.
Obama is scheduled to arrive in Mexico on Tuesday evening on her first solo official trip as first lady.
The White House says the three-day visit is taking place "in recognition of the deep ties between the United States and Mexico."
Obama has several visits and tours scheduled, including a Wednesday morning meeting with Mexican first lady Margarita Zavala at Los Pinos, the Mexican president's residence.
Other events on her itinerary include a tour of the Museo Nacional de Antropologia (National Museum of Anthropology) and a public elementary school that serves low-income students.
The first lady also will give a speech Wednesday at the Universidad Iberoamericana and will attend a reception with women leaders at Los Pinos and a dinner hosted by Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Zavala.
Before leaving Thursday, Obama is scheduled to hold a breakfast for young Mexican leaders and visit the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City.
The first lady's visit reinforces the priority the White House gives Mexico despite the domestic and international problems President Obama faces, university political science professor Miguel Angel Valenzuela Shelley told Notimex, Mexico's state-run news service.
In January, about a week before he was sworn in, President Obama met with Calderon in Washington. The meeting at the Mexican Cultural Institute fulfilled a tradition in effect since 1980 of U.S. presidents talking with their Mexican counterparts before being sworn in, to underscore the special relationship between the two nations.
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