PANAMA CITY (AP) – President Barack Obama met privately with his Venezuelan counterpart Saturday amid a bitter dispute between the two nations over recent U.S. sanctions on seven senior Venezuelan officials.
The meeting between Obama and President Nicolas Maduro took place on the sidelines of the Summit of Americas.
Venezuelan presidential aide Teresa Maniglia said the two leaders greeted each other in Spanish but offered no additional details.
“There was a lot of truth, respect and cordiality” she said on her Twitter account.
There was no immediate comment from the White House and Obama did not mention the encounter in remarks at the conclusion of the summit.
The encounter comes after the Obama administration froze the U.S. assets of seven officials accused of human rights abuses during anti-government protests last year in Venezuela.
Maduro and much of Latin America has denounced the action as an aggressive move that will only add to tensions in Venezuela, a deeply polarized South America nation where the opposition is seeking to force Maduro to resign.
Without mentioning Venezuela by name during a talk at the summit, Obama defended his administration’s right to criticize policies it doesn’t agree with.
“When we speak out on something like human rights, it’s not because we think we are perfect but it’s because we think the ideal of not jailing people if they disagree with you is the right idea,” he told regional leaders.