What's in an Obama-Chavez handshake?

By Steve Holland - Analysis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - What's in a handshake? The clasping of hands by President Barack Obama and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has set off a debate over what kind of signal Obama was sending.

To the White House, the friendly Obama-Chavez encounter at a weekend summit of Latin leaders was a sign of a new U.S. foreign policy aimed at improving relations around the world.

"It's unlikely that as a consequence of me shaking hands or having a polite conversation with Mr. Chavez that we are endangering the strategic interests of the United States," Obama said.

But to some of his critics, the handshake was a sign of American weakness.

"Everywhere in Latin America, enemies of America are going to use the picture of Chavez smiling and meeting with the president as proof that Chavez is now legitimate, that he's acceptable," Republican Newt Gingrich, a former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, told NBC's "Today" show.

Obama and Chavez had two highly public encounters at the summit in Trinidad and Tobago -- a handshake, a chat and then later when Chavez gave Obama a book, "The Open Veins of Latin America," published in 1971 by Uruguayan Eduardo Galeano.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney, in an interview with the Fox News Channel, said Obama's encounters with both Chavez and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega were not helpful and "sets the wrong standard."

He accused Obama of taking an apologetic tone about past U.S. policy on his trips to Europe and Latin America.