Anti-Bush Protesters Gather in Argentine Resort Ahead of Americas Summit
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By Dan Molinski Associated Press Writer
Published: Nov 2, 2005
MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina (AP) - Shouting "Yankee, get out!" and singing protest songs, thousands opposed to George W. Bush held a massive rally at a basketball arena, two days before the U.S. president arrives at this seaside resort for the fourth Summit of the Americas.
After protesters in Buenos Aires set fire to a train station, Argentine Interior Minister Anibel Fernandez said the government was prepared to guarantee the summit's security as more protesters - including jobless Argentines, teachers and labor unions - were expected to arrive later Wednesday.
Heavy security precautions were being taken in Mar del Plata, 230 miles (370 kilometers) south of Buenos Aires. More than 8,000 police and security forces were guarding the summit's site, and surrounding streets were deserted.
"There are no weaknesses" in the summit's security, Fernandez said.
On Tuesday, organizers of the so-called "People's Summit" gave fiery anti-Bush speeches that echoed through a drab concrete stadium several miles (kilometers) from the luxury hotel where leaders of 34 Western Hemisphere nations will meet Friday and Saturday.
Most of the leftist protesters were young people, but also in the crowd was Argentine Adolfo Perez Esquivel, who won the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize for his opposition to his country's military regime.
"We've had enough of Mr. Bush, who has committed crimes against humanity," Perez told reporters on the sidelines of the rally. He called the U.S. president a "murderer" for his actions in Iraq and elsewhere.
"This is a chance for the real people to hold their own summit," said Wayra Aru Blanco, a 33-year-old Bolivian Indian, beating a calfskin drum as brightly dressed South American Indian women played reed flutes.
In the run-up to the summit, violent protests broke out in the capital of Buenos Aires over poor commuter train service. Mobs set fire to 18 of the city's dilapidated trains in a working class suburb, stoned and overturned police cruisers and battled with riot police who fired rubber bullets into the crowds.
There was no immediate indication the violence was related to the impending anti-Bush protests at the summit, but authorities blamed the unrest on leftist elements and labor activists. Some 20 people were injured, and police took dozens of people into custody.
Fernandez denied that the Buenos Aires protests were related to the summit.
Protesters in Mar del Plata will spend days protesting Bush's actions in the Middle East to free trade policies they say enslave Latin America workers. They are hoping to draw 50,000 people for their highlight event - a protest Friday.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a leftist whose government has used the country's vast oil wealth to fund social programs for the poor, was invited to attend the march. Chavez, an outspoken critic of free trade, has strained relations with Washington and regularly claims the United States is trying to overthrow his government, an accusation U.S. officials have dismissed.
Barbara Wood, who came from Vancouver with about a dozen fellow members of a labor union, said the People's Summit was about putting "people at the center, not politics."
"Bush and the other presidents can do whatever they want," she said.
Job creation will be high on the agenda of the summit of the Organization of American States.
"It's our hope that coming out of the summit, the leaders will have some concrete steps that all the countries of the region can be taking," said Thomas Shannon, the new U.S. assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs.
He said Bush would be armed with several job-generating ideas.
"With jobs you can attack social exclusion," Shannon said.
Some 220 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean live in poverty.
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