Clinton dances the rhumba. (AFP/Getty Images)
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday slugged back a beer and kicked up her heels at a Cuban-themed nightclub in Cartagena, as the brewing Secret Service prostitution scandal stunned the Summit of the Americas in Colombia.
America’s top diplomat was all smiles as she arrived after midnight with a dozen pals and her State Department security detail at Cafe Havana in the Colombian seaside town.
Clinton — in Cartagena with President Obama for the weekend-long Summit of the Americas — looked relaxed in a casual black dress as she and her pals took a large table at the popular club, where a large sign bearing the official seal of Cuba and the words “Republica de Cuba” hangs prominently over the bar.
Someone in Clinton’s party had called Cafe Havana hours earlier, asking to reserve space for an unnamed VIP, according to Colombia’s El Pais newspaper.
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The revelry came on the heels of demands by dozens of summit attendees that the US drop its half-century isolation of Cuba.
Photos snapped by surprised onlookers show the former first lady swilling a Colombian-brewed Aguila (“Eagle’’) cerveza straight from the bottle and hitting the dance floor.
Witnesses said Clinton played maracas and danced the rumba to three songs played by the club’s Cuba-centric house band.
In all, Clinton’s party ordered a dozen beers, two shots and bottles of water. They left their waiter a $40 tip.
Before leaving, Clinton shook hands with the 11 band members and thanked them for the good time. Clinton spokesman Phillipe Reines wouldn’t comment on the choice of venue for the night out.
“I was in my hotel room, reading,” Reines said.
He also declined to discuss the implications of America’s top diplomat partying at a Cuban-themed hot spot. Clinton’s festive summit break came days after 11 Secret Service agents were summoned back to Washington from Colombia and put on administrative leave after being enmeshed in an embarrassing hooker scandal.
Meanwhile, the summit ended yesterday without a joint declaration after the US and Canada refused to budge on the Cuba issue.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, the simmit’s host, had opened the conference Friday by blasting the continued blacklisting of Cuba as unjustified and unacceptable.
Additional reporting by Josh Margolin