MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bush Meets Chilean President Bachelet

U.S. President George W. Bush and his Chilean counterpart, Michelle Bachelet, discussed the situation in Latin America in their meeting at the White House on Thursday.

Bush said in brief remarks to the press after the meeting that Bachelet "shared with me her strategy to encourage there to be peaceful development and prosperous development" in Latin America.

"The neighbourhood is very important to the United States of America; it's very important for our country to be engaged and working with friends and allies to help others. So I've been looking forward to this meeting for quite a while. We've got very good relations with Chile, and I intend to keep them that way," he said.

"I assured her that the United States of America shares her same sense of social justice, and that our desire is to help, when we can, people to become educated so they can realize their dreams," Bush said.

For her part, Bachelet likewise expressed satisfaction with U.S.-Chilean ties, adding, "And we'll continue that way." Bachelet, who is scheduled to have lunch with Bush, also is slated to deliver a speech to the Organization of American States on Thursday afternoon.

In addition, she will meet with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Before her meeting with Bush, Bachelet placed a floral wreath on Sheridan Circle in Washington, where a plaque marks the spot where former Chilean Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier and his U.S. secretary Ronnie Moffit were killed in a car-bomb blast by the secret police of Augusto Pinochet in September 1976.

"The death of Letelier filled us with horror at the time. It was the fruit of an epoch that we would like to be able to forget and (which we hope) will never occur again," Bachelet said.

In remarks at the circle and alluding to the student protests that have wracked her country in recent days, Bachelet also said that Chile has a mature democracy in which social demands can be put forward, but with "respect."