Thousands Protest Against Bush, U.S. Trade

[IfasehunReincarnated]

Thousands Protest Against Bush, U.S. Trade


Thousands participate in a rally against the visit of U.S. President Bush in Mar del Plata, Argentina, Friday, Nov. 4, 2005. President Bush is in Mar del Plata to participate in the Fourth Summit of the Americas. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

By BILL CORMIER, Associated Press Writer


MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina - The Summit of the Americas opened Friday as a battleground over free trade, with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and thousands of protesters vowing to bury a U.S.-led plan to create one of the world's largest free trade zones.



Demonstrators flooded the streets hours before the summit started, shouting insults about the visiting American president and chanting "Get out Bush" and "Fascist Bush! You are the terrorist!"

Later, Chavez stood in front of a six-story banner of revolutionary Che Guevara to urge the crowd of more than 10,000 to help him block efforts to relaunch talks for a Free Trade Area of the Americas, or FTAA.

"Only united can we defeat imperialism and bring our people a better life," he said, adding: "Here, in Mar del Plata, FTAA will be buried!"

But one of the region's strongest free trade advocates, Mexican President
Vicente Fox, said 29 of the 34 nations participating in the summit were considering forging ahead on the trade zone — without the participation of Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Top-level negotiators at the fourth Summit of the Americas have so far failed to agree on key language aimed at relaunching talks as soon as April for the proposed bloc stretching from Alaska to Argentina — an ambitious proposal originally raised in 1994 at the first Americas summit in Miami.

The trade bloc, if achieved, would rival the
European Union as the world's largest, but its creation has been stalled for years amid bickering over U.S. farm subsidies and other obstacles.

The prospect of a rebirth for the FTAA drew hordes of protesters into the streets of the coastal resort Mar del Plata, where leaders shuttled between luxury hotels as security helicopters rattled overhead and armed frogmen guarded the coast in rubber boats that bobbed in a choppy sea.

The crowd was generally peaceful, though some self-proclaimed anarchists spray painted slogans on a bank.

Wearing "Stop Bush" T-shirts and unfurling leftist banners on the ocean breeze, protesters said they also opposed the U.S.-led war in
Iraq and policies they blamed for Argentina's economic 2001-2002 crisis. They alternated between soccer chants of "Ole! Ole!" and anti-Bush slogans.

Chavez arrived in Argentina early Friday after a week of criticizing Bush and U.S. policies. Claiming free trade is being forced on Latin American countries, he instead has pushed for an anti-FTAA deal based on socialist ideals.

The Venezuelan leader has strained relations with Washington and regularly claims the United States is trying to overthrow his government — an accusation U.S. officials dismiss. He has used Venezuela's oil wealth to push for regional solidarity, offering fuel with preferential financing to various Caribbean and Latin American countries.

Venezuela is a member of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and the world's fifth largest oil exporter as well as a major supplier to the U.S. market.

Bush, who met with Argentine President Nestor Kirchner early Thursday, made no mention of free trade but said the two had a frank talk about Argentina's struggle to extricate itself from its financial meltdown.

Kirchner led a difficult renegotiation of more than $100 billion in public debt that was the largest sovereign default in history.

"The president was quite frank," Bush said.

He added that the U.S. was committed to exploring the summit's theme of job creation.

Some 40 percent of Argentina's 36 million people remain in poverty, and many blame trade liberalization for destroying local industries and causing a flood of cheap imports.

Salvadoran President Tony Saca, one of the strongest U.S. allies in the region, said there was still momentum toward creating a hemispheric treaty — despite Chavez's opposition.

"Today we are not attending the burial of the FTAA in this summit," he said. "We, the majority of the presidents, have come here to reiterate our firm resolve and commitment to free trade, to an economic opening and to programs that generate employment."

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Associated Press Writers Alan Clendenning, Dan Molinski, Nestor Ikeda and Vivian Sequera contributed to this report from Mar del Plata.

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http://www.summit-americas.org

[SoularFlarez]

I saw him talken this mornen LOL he didnt look like he beLIEve a single word he was sayen.. he looked kinda scared too

[rebelAfrika]

It just turned violent too...It's all over CNN.

http://assatashakur.org/forum/showthread.php?t=11715