MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Hillary Clinton adds Buenos Aires to her Latinamerican tour

The two ladies have strong personalities

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will add Argentina to her Latinamerican tour which begins Monday at the inauguration of Uruguayan president elect Jose Mujica in Montevideo, U.S. officials said on Sunday.

Later in the day Ms. Clinton is scheduled to travel to Buenos Aires to meet with Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez who has a particularly busy day, not only participating at the inauguration of president elect Mujica but also because in the morning she will be opening regular sessions of Congress with a state of the country speech.

On Tuesday, Clinton is due to fly to quake-hit Chile, where she will meet outgoing President Michelle Bachelet and President-elect Sebastian Pinera for a few hours, before departing for Brasilia.

Argentina's omission from her original schedule underscored what some analysts say are cool ties between Buenos Aires and Washington. This week Mrs. Kirchner criticized President Obama for “not having fulfilled” the region’s expectations.

US officials said the stop was added due to Clinton's shortened schedule in Chile, where the government is facing the aftermath of Saturday's devastating earthquake that killed more than 710 people.

Clinton had originally been due to meet Mrs Kirchner on the sidelines of the Uruguayan presidential inauguration and had planned to arrive in Chile on Monday.

Argentina is seeing new tensions with Britain over the Falkland Islands, but US officials say Washington is neutral in the dispute since it is a “bilateral” issue. However Argentine press reports insist that Mrs. Kirchner will be pressing on Mrs. Clinton about the dispute aggravated by a round of exploratory drilling in the Falklands waters by British companies.

From Chile Mrs. Clinton flies to Brazil to meet with President Lula da Silva. Brazil is a voting member of the UN Security Council, but has warm relations with Iran and has been reluctant to further punish Tehran for its nuclear enrichment program.

The Secretary of State ends her tour in Costa Rica and Guatemala, where Ms Clinton will also meet other regional leaders.