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DLR'sCock
11-05-2005, 03:07 PM
Thousands Protest Bush's Policies at Trade Summit
By Edwin Chen and Patrick McDonnell
The Los Angeles Times

Friday 04 November 2005



Protesters clash with police on the streets of Mar del Plata, Argentina, during a series of marches and rallies.
(Photo: Chico Sanchez / EPA)

Mar del Plata, Argentina - A hemispheric summit meant to help create jobs and spread democracy throughout the region opened today with large-scale anti-US demonstrations and deep divisions among participating nations about the Bush administration's expanded free-trade agenda.

Tens of thousands of protesters marched the streets of this seaside resort calling for Bush to be expelled from the country and later cheered when Venezuela President Hugo Chavez labeled Washington's free-trade program dead and buried.

"Mar del Plata is the tomb of ALCA," said Chavez, using the Spanish acronym for the Free Trade Area of the Americas plan backed by the White House. "We brought our shovels to bury it," Chavez said of the plan, which would create a unified trade bloc from Alaska to Argentina.

The White House and its leading free-trade allies here - Mexico and Chile - are pushing for a revival of the moribund plan, but host nation Argentina and several other South American countries are wary.

"This summit is very politicized," Mexican President Vicente Fox, who backs the free-trade plan, told reporters.

The protests early in the day, which involved more than 30,000 marchers, according to unofficial estimates, were peaceful but intensely anti-Bush, who was lampooned in banners hoisted aloft as a vampire, devil and warmonger, among other depictions.

Later, several radical groups challenged some of the thousands of police stationed in several security rings around downtown Mar del Plata, much of which has been fenced off from the public as presidents and leaders from 34 nations met.



Demonstrators burn an American flag outside the US Consulate in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
(Photo: EPA)

Police in riot gear, including some on horseback, formed a barricade to keep the demonstrators from getting closer to the summit about six blocks away.

With bandannas covering their faces, groups of demonstrators kicked in storefront windows and tossed Molotov cocktails inside the empty businesses and set small fires on the street. Initially, no serious injuries were reported.

It was unlikely Bush ever saw any of the protests, which unfolded several miles from the cordoned-off seaside zone where meetings were taking place and he and other presidents were staying.

All eyes here were on the two antagonistic presidents: Bush, deeply unpopular in Latin America, and Chavez, the firebrand friend of Cuban leader Fidel Castro who has repeatedly accused Washington of seeking to overthrow him and invade his oil-rich nation. The two had yet to be seated together as of this evening, but aides of both men have joked about how they will act when and if they are thrown together.

While far from home, Bush faced reporters' questions about his domestic troubles.

Four times today at the Summit of the Americas he was asked by reporters about the matter, including whether White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove had misled him about his role in the case and whether Bush owed the nation an apology.



A protester kicks in a window of a bank in Mar del Plata, Argentina.
(Photo: Dado Galdieri / AP)

"We're going through a very serious investigation. And I will - have told you before that I'm not going to discuss the investigation until it's completed," the president said.

He refused to answer again whether there were internal White House discussions about Rove's job security. "The investigation on Karl, as you know, is not complete. And, therefore, I will not comment.… It is a serious investigation and we take it seriously," Bush said.

He also brushed aside a question about his low job-approval ratings. "The way you earn credibility with the American people is to declare an agenda that everybody can understand, an agenda that relates to their lives, and get the job done. And the agenda that I'm working on now is one that is important to the American people," he said.

Bush also expressed disappointment that the Senate Judiciary Committee will not hold confirmation hearings on nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr.'s nomination to the Supreme Court until Jan. 9.

"I noticed today that they've got a date. I'm disappointed in the date, but happy they do have a firm date for his confirmation hearing," Bush said.

At today's summit, Bush was not expecting to gain any breakthroughs. Despite the two-day summit's agenda of creating jobs, confronting poverty and strengthening democracies, the leaders have been divided over the best way to create jobs.

Leaders in Argentina, Brazil and several other countries have been reluctant to embrace US efforts to revive the moribund Free Trade Area of the Americas, a free-trade zone blueprint that has stalled because of differences on subsidies and market access.

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DLR'sCock
11-05-2005, 03:08 PM
I for one do not condone nor support this type of useless violent protest.....