Summit of the Americas: Obama arrival in Columbia

As Chicago gears up for the May NATO Summit, the pool report from the arrival of President Barack Obama to the Summit of the Americas in Columbia gives a taste of the protocol involved to greet a head of state–Obama in this case–at the airport.

Pool report No. 6

Josh Gerstein

POLITICO

April 13, 2012

(Apologies for a filing delay due to usual blackberry issues.)

AF1 took off from Tampa at 230PM ET and landed in Cartagena at 434PM local/534PMET.

No news in flight but pool was visited by Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.), who was a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia in the 1960s. He said the Peace Corps left in 1982 due to drug-related violence and returned just last year.

POTUS was off the plane at approx. 445PM local and was met by a military band and honor guard wearing white uniforms. A list of the official greeters is below.

As AF1 landed, children peered through a chain link fence near the airport. Onlookers gathered almost all the way along the motorcade route. The roads we traveled were much narrower than usual, so many of the spectators were quite close to the motorcade. Everyone I saw looked friendly though their enthusiasm had abated a bit by the time the press vans went by. I saw one man holding a large American flag. There were also signs calling for Obama’s re-election, and even one calling for Hillary to run for president in 2016.

POTUS arrived the Hilton around 5PM.

During the downtime before dinner, POTUS is expected to do some interviews, per Jay Carney. Carney didn’t know which specific outlets, but said he believed they were domestic/US.

White House info on greeters:

Greeted at the base of the stairs by:

1. Vice Foreign Minister Lanzetta

2. Rear Admiral Csar NARVEZ, Commander, Caribbean Naval Fleet

3. Dr. Juan Claudio MORALES, Chief of Protocol, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

4. US Ambassador to Colombia P. Michael McKinley

Greeted by Host Committee:

1. Ambassador Gabriel SILVA, Colombian Ambassador to the United States

2. Juan Carlos GOSSAIN (PRO: Goss-AIN), Governor of the Bolvar Dept.

3. Ana Elvira GMEZ (PRO: GO-mez), spouse of Governor Gossain

4. Campo Elias Teran DIX (PRO: Dees), Mayor of Cartagena

5. Nereyda HUMANEZ (PRO: Oo-MAN-ez), spouse of Mayor Dix