Nowhere have President Obama's foreign policy approaches been in starker relief than during his unfolding travels in South America. Right now the use of military power in Libya is overshadowing his lead-by-example public diplomacy in his own hemisphere.

President Barack Obama held up Latin America as a shining example for those in the Middle East fighting for democracy, while urging leaders in the region to recommit themselves to defending human rights and strengthening democratic institutions in their own countries.

Reaching out to a vast but overshadowed region, President Barack Obama on Monday called Latin America a rising giant in the world that must live up to greater responsibilities and speak up for those whose rights are crushed.

A day after giving the go-ahead for joint military strikes against Libya, President Barack Obama and his staff tried to refocus his first-ever trip to South America with a brief tour of the city and a speech hailing Brazil’s economic might and vibrant democracy.

Amid unrest in the Middle East and the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, President Barack Obama is staying the course by going ahead with his five-day trip to Latin America. The first family will depart Friday night for stops in Brazil, Chile and El Salvador, where the president will meet with the leaders of each country to discuss trade and the global economy.

When Barack Obama lands in Brazil this weekend, he will find a country transformed. In little more than a decade, some 30 million people have been lifted out of poverty and the country has risen to seventh place in the world economy.

Obama is set to depart Friday night on a five-day trip to Brazil, Chile and El Salvador — his first journey in the Americas south of Mexico. But with the crises brewing elsewhere, few outside the region may notice.

Today, with popular revolutions upending the political order in the Middle East, an unprecedented natural disaster devastating Japan, and his own government hovering on the verge of shutdown, it may seem odd to many that U.S. President Barack Obama is choosing to embark on a five-day tour of a region often considered an afterthought in international politics.