Obama to meet El Salvador leader

US President Barack Obama has left Chile for El Salvador, on the final leg of his five-day trip to Latin America.

He will discuss with President Mauricio Funes how to boost the Central American nation’s economy and its “citizen security”, say White House aides.

The status of the estimated 1.6 million people of Salvadoran origin living in the US is also expected to come up.

El Salvador is plagued by violence, much of it linked to drug traffickers with ties to criminal gangs in the US.

Mr Obama is expected to hold a joint news conference with Mr Funes later on Tuesday.

‘New partnership’

The US president is also scheduled to tour the National Cathedral in the El Salvador capital San Salvador on Wednesday, the final day of his trip.

White House aides said Mr Obama would visit the tomb of Archbishop Oscar Romero.

An outspoken advocate for the poor and backer of political reform, the archbishop was assassinated in March 1980 after celebrating Mass.

The killing came at the start of a 12-year civil war that claimed an estimated 75,000 lives.

The conflict pitted the US-backed right-wing military government against a coalition of left-wing rebel groups.

In Chile on Monday, Mr Obama called for a “new era of partnership” with Latin America, “based on mutual interest and mutual respect, but also on shared values”.

During his trip to Brazil, Mr Obama praised that country’s democracy and held trade talks with President Dilma Rousseff.