SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador, March 23 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama is cutting his El Salvador trip short to return to Washington to deal with fast-changing events in Libya, the White House said.
Obama was to leave El Salvador Wednesday morning after convening a conference call with his national security staff, the White House said late Tuesday.
The president -- traveling with his wife, daughters, mother-in-law and a family friend -- had planned Wednesday to tour El Salvador's Mayan ruins and pay homage to Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was assassinated by a sniper as he celebrated Mass March 24, 1980, in the early days of El Salvador's civil war.
He visited Romero's tomb Tuesday, a day earlier than scheduled.
First lady Michelle Obama and the daughters were to tour the Mayan ruins Wednesday without the president, administration officials said.
In an interview with The Miami Herald, the president downplayed criticism of the Libya intervention from several Latin American countries.
"Politics internationally are always complicated," he said. "You have a lot of countries that have a lot of interests."
He said U.S. action has "saved lives" and caused "few, if any, civilian casualties."
Referring to denunciations from Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Bolivia's Evo Morales, Obama said, "There will always be the very few usual suspects who are going to be very critical of what the United States or Western countries do, no matter what."
Obama largely stuck to his schedule throughout the long-planned five-day trip to Brazil, Chile and El Salvador, even as he authorized U.S. ships and airplanes to enforce a no-fly zone in Libya.
