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Bush faces mass protests, opposition to trade pact in Argentina
Wracked by multiple political crises at home and receiving the lowest approval rating for any recent US president, George W. Bush is leaving the country Thursday to face an even more hostile audience.
The two-day quadrennial Summit of the Americas being held in the Argentine seaside resort of Mar del Plata Nov. 4-5 will be marked by one of the largest demonstrations in the country’s history—called to repudiate the policies of the Bush administration.
On the eve of the summit, the Argentine daily Pagina 12 reported a poll showing that six out of ten Argentines oppose Bush’s presence in the country. By contrast, 75 percent welcomed the visit by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who has been vilified by Washington and has in turn denounced US foreign policy.
Protests began yesterday over the Bush visit—three days before his arrival—with blockades of bridges and highways in the Buenos Aires area and the appearance of posters throughout the Argentine capital bearing the slogans “Stop Bush” and “Fuera Bush,” in some cases superimposed over photographs of wounded Iraqi children.
Nor are the protests limited to Argentina. Last Wednesday, some 6,000 people marched on the US Embassy in Brasilia in an anti-Bush protest. The US president is scheduled to visit the Brazilian capital following the summit, going from there to a stop in Panama before returning to Washington.
The presence of the US president in Argentina has been preceded by the imposition of a massive security clampdown. An army of 7,000 additional police has been deployed in the resort city, which has been divided with three concentric circles of chain-linked fencing. Residents of the area surrounding the summit site have been identified and provided with passes to enter and leave their own homes. “We’ve been imprisoned,” one of them told a local television network.
A 100-mile no-fly zone has been declared surrounding the city, with orders to shoot down unidentified planes.
In addition to the blanket of security imposed by the Argentine government, Bush is arriving with an entourage of some 2,000, much of it composed of security personnel. Last Friday, two giant US military cargo planes arrived in Buenos Aires carrying large quantities of arms and two helicopters for use in guarding the US president.
On Friday a mass march expected to draw as many as 100,000 people will take place in Mar del Plata. Leading it will be popular football star Diego Maradona and Argentine Nobel Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel.
Bush is “a torturer, violator of human rights, an assassin, a violator of United Nations resolutions, of international treaties and of the sovereignty of peoples, as has happened in Iraq,” Pérez Esquivel said in a radio interview Saturday explaining his participation.
Maradona, who now hosts one of Argentina’s most popular television shows, said, “In Argentina, there are people who are against Bush being there. I am the first. He did us a lot of harm. As far as I’m concerned, he is a murderer; he looks down on us and tramples over us. I am going to lead that march along with my daughter.”
Also participating in the march will be Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a US soldier slain in Iraq, and Javier Couso, the brother of the Spanish television cameraman who was killed when an American tank fired on the Hotel Palestine, the headquarters of international journalists, during the US storming of Baghdad in April 2003.
Read More
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/nov2005/summ-n02.shtml
On the eve of the summit, the Argentine daily Pagina 12 reported a poll showing that six out of ten Argentines oppose Bush’s presence in the country. By contrast, 75 percent welcomed the visit by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who has been vilified by Washington and has in turn denounced US foreign policy.
Protests began yesterday over the Bush visit—three days before his arrival—with blockades of bridges and highways in the Buenos Aires area and the appearance of posters throughout the Argentine capital bearing the slogans “Stop Bush” and “Fuera Bush,” in some cases superimposed over photographs of wounded Iraqi children.
Nor are the protests limited to Argentina. Last Wednesday, some 6,000 people marched on the US Embassy in Brasilia in an anti-Bush protest. The US president is scheduled to visit the Brazilian capital following the summit, going from there to a stop in Panama before returning to Washington.
The presence of the US president in Argentina has been preceded by the imposition of a massive security clampdown. An army of 7,000 additional police has been deployed in the resort city, which has been divided with three concentric circles of chain-linked fencing. Residents of the area surrounding the summit site have been identified and provided with passes to enter and leave their own homes. “We’ve been imprisoned,” one of them told a local television network.
A 100-mile no-fly zone has been declared surrounding the city, with orders to shoot down unidentified planes.
In addition to the blanket of security imposed by the Argentine government, Bush is arriving with an entourage of some 2,000, much of it composed of security personnel. Last Friday, two giant US military cargo planes arrived in Buenos Aires carrying large quantities of arms and two helicopters for use in guarding the US president.
On Friday a mass march expected to draw as many as 100,000 people will take place in Mar del Plata. Leading it will be popular football star Diego Maradona and Argentine Nobel Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel.
Bush is “a torturer, violator of human rights, an assassin, a violator of United Nations resolutions, of international treaties and of the sovereignty of peoples, as has happened in Iraq,” Pérez Esquivel said in a radio interview Saturday explaining his participation.
Maradona, who now hosts one of Argentina’s most popular television shows, said, “In Argentina, there are people who are against Bush being there. I am the first. He did us a lot of harm. As far as I’m concerned, he is a murderer; he looks down on us and tramples over us. I am going to lead that march along with my daughter.”
Also participating in the march will be Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a US soldier slain in Iraq, and Javier Couso, the brother of the Spanish television cameraman who was killed when an American tank fired on the Hotel Palestine, the headquarters of international journalists, during the US storming of Baghdad in April 2003.
Read More
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/nov2005/summ-n02.shtml
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Leaders from 34 nations have begun arriving in Argentina for the fourth two-day Summit of the Americas.
They are meeting in the coastal resort of Mar del Plata amid much uncertainty about what can be achieved on the summit's main aim of job creation.
There are deep divisions over free trade, with the US championing it as the best way to relieve poverty.
President George W Bush is among those attending the talks. He is expected to be targeted by left-wing protesters.
Thousands of people are due to stage a protest rally that will be addressed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Argentine former football legend Diego Maradona and Bolivian left-wing presidential candidate Evo Morales will also take part in Friday's demonstration.
A train that will take Maradona and dozens of other well-known people such as Bosnian filmmaker Emir Kusturica and Cuban singer Silvio Rodriguez is to leave Buenos Aires late on Thursday.
The train dubbed "Alba Express" will be joined by road by hundreds of buses carrying members of political and social organisations.
The caravan is expected to arrive in Mar del Plata early on Friday. Anti-globalisation and anti-US activists have been holding a parallel "People's Summit" there.
Foreign ministers from the region have been holding talks ahead of the summit.
Poverty
More than 8,000 police officers are guarding the venue of the Summit of the Americas.
The rivalry between Mr Bush and Mr Chavez is expected to dominate the meeting.
In his keynote speech, Mr Bush will argue that the way to guarantee prosperity is by encouraging free trade and a flourishing private sector and by deepening democracy, the BBC's Jamie Coomarasamy in Mar del Plata reports.
Although, Mr Bush has acknowledged that efforts to form a Free Trade Area of the Americas have stalled, our correspondent says.
The Venezuelan government has said that it will reject any summit declaration which contains references to free trade in the Americas.
Some 96 million people in the region are surviving on less than $1 per day, according to the United Nations.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4403202.stm
They are meeting in the coastal resort of Mar del Plata amid much uncertainty about what can be achieved on the summit's main aim of job creation.
There are deep divisions over free trade, with the US championing it as the best way to relieve poverty.
President George W Bush is among those attending the talks. He is expected to be targeted by left-wing protesters.
Thousands of people are due to stage a protest rally that will be addressed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Argentine former football legend Diego Maradona and Bolivian left-wing presidential candidate Evo Morales will also take part in Friday's demonstration.
A train that will take Maradona and dozens of other well-known people such as Bosnian filmmaker Emir Kusturica and Cuban singer Silvio Rodriguez is to leave Buenos Aires late on Thursday.
The train dubbed "Alba Express" will be joined by road by hundreds of buses carrying members of political and social organisations.
The caravan is expected to arrive in Mar del Plata early on Friday. Anti-globalisation and anti-US activists have been holding a parallel "People's Summit" there.
Foreign ministers from the region have been holding talks ahead of the summit.
Poverty
More than 8,000 police officers are guarding the venue of the Summit of the Americas.
The rivalry between Mr Bush and Mr Chavez is expected to dominate the meeting.
In his keynote speech, Mr Bush will argue that the way to guarantee prosperity is by encouraging free trade and a flourishing private sector and by deepening democracy, the BBC's Jamie Coomarasamy in Mar del Plata reports.
Although, Mr Bush has acknowledged that efforts to form a Free Trade Area of the Americas have stalled, our correspondent says.
The Venezuelan government has said that it will reject any summit declaration which contains references to free trade in the Americas.
Some 96 million people in the region are surviving on less than $1 per day, according to the United Nations.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4403202.stm
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