[Mb-civic] Anti-U.S. Protests Flare at Summit - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Anti-U.S. Protests Flare at Summit
As Bush Meets With Allies in Argentina, Rally Led by Chavez Turns Violent

By Monte Reel and Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, November 5, 2005; Page A01

MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina, Nov. 4 -- Anti-American demonstrators torched 
storefronts and battled police Friday in this Atlantic resort following 
a large, peaceful protest, spearheaded by Venezuelan President Hugo 
Chavez, over President Bush's plans to revive a free trade accord at a 
regional summit.

While Bush held closed-door meetings with allies among the 33 other 
presidents attending the fourth Summit of the Americas, Chavez 
antagonized him from the sidelines, rallying thousands of supporters in 
a nearby soccer stadium with a promise to bury U.S.-style capitalism 
throughout Latin America.

"Each one of us brought a shovel, a gravedigger's shovel, because here 
in Mar del Plata is the tomb of the Free Trade Area of the Americas," 
Chavez told the cheering crowd of 40,000 at the noon rally. The 
flamboyant Venezuelan leader has cast himself as Latin America's 
revolutionary alternative to Bush and U.S. economic policies.

The protesters included celebrities such as the Argentine soccer legend 
Diego Maradona and the Bolivian grass-roots politician Evo Morales. Many 
had come by train from other cities. After the rally, some demonstrators 
formed small groups, smashing store windows with bricks and setting 
bonfires of looted furniture in the largely deserted downtown area.

Security officials fired tear gas and erected roadblocks around the 
summit headquarters. By evening, riots were also reported in the 
Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, where vandals set fire to a McDonald's 
restaurant.

At the summit, Bush and some of the Latin American participants sought 
ways to compromise on the decade-old regional trade proposal, which has 
been stalled by disagreements over U.S. and European farm subsidies. 
Some countries argue such subsidies would tilt the trade balance 
unfairly against Latin America.

Despite deepening skepticism about the benefits of free trade across a 
stubbornly poor region where the wealth gap has grown in recent years, 
Bush maintains that the accord would eventually create jobs and reduce 
poverty.

Mexican President Vicente Fox said that 29 of the governments 
represented at the summit generally support the trade pact, and he 
proposed an alternative agreement that would exclude dissenters.

Bush spent much of the day pressing his case with presidents of 
countries that do not share Chavez's animosity toward free trade, 
including Colombia, Peru and several Central American nations.

Thomas A. Shannon Jr., assistant secretary of state for the Western 
Hemisphere, insisted that the idea of a vast hemispheric trade pact 
remains viable, saying there was still "significant support within the 
region for economic integration and for a Free Trade Area of the Americas."

Bush also met with Argentine President Nestor Kirchner, a populist who 
has been lukewarm about some aspects of the free trade agenda. Bush 
thanked Kirchner after the meeting, saying, "It's not easy to host all 
these countries. It's particularly not easy to host, perhaps, me."

Kirchner said he was "very satisfied" with his "candid" talks with Bush. 
But both Argentina and Brazil, the region's agricultural giants, 
continued to express reservations about a free trade pact.

Chavez was expected to participate in the summit, which is scheduled to 
conclude Saturday, and Bush told reporters he would greet the Venezuelan 
courteously if they met face to face.

"I will of course be polite," Bush said. "That's what the American 
people expect their president to do, be a polite person."

But at the official portrait of summit participants, the two men were 
seated far apart. For the rest of the day, Chavez assumed the role of 
gleeful outside provocateur, whipping up the stadium crowd that roared 
its antipathy to Bush before spilling into the streets.

"We thought maybe we'd be able to avoid something like this happening 
here, but a lot of people are very angry," said Maria Paula Arevala, 30, 
a law student who watched the rioting from a street corner.

Much of the public's animus was aimed directly at Bush. Hundreds of 
protesters had traveled through the night from Buenos Aires in a mass 
pilgrimage led by Maradona. Carrying signs comparing Bush to Adolf 
Hitler, the protesters chanted in unison as they filed into the stadium: 
"Bush, the fascist! Bush the terrorist!"

Standing beside Chavez at the rally under a steady drizzle was Maradona, 
who had used his popular television talk show to urge Argentines to join 
the protest. The Nobel peace laureate Alfonso Perez Esquivel and several 
labor union representatives also attended.

Backed by a giant portrait of the Argentine-born Cuban revolutionary Che 
Guevara, Chavez addressed the crowd for more than two hours. He touched 
on many of his favorite themes: the injustice of U.S. economic policies, 
his opposition to the war in Iraq, his allegations of a U.S. plan to 
invade Venezuela and his dream of a "Bolivarian revolution" that would 
spread socialism throughout Latin America.

Beaming from the podium as the crowd chanted against Bush, Chavez donned 
a Cuban baseball hat and listed an eclectic group of role models that 
included Cuba's communist leader, Fidel Castro, the late Argentine 
politician Eva Peron, Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King Jr.

"If we are united, we can defeat imperialism and create a better life," 
Chavez said, portraying the United States as the main obstacle between 
Latin America and prosperity. "Just as the empire failed to stop the 
Cuban revolution, they also will fail to defeat the Bolivarian revolution."

Many people at the rally seemed inspired by Chavez and his defiant message.

"Chavez defends our countries," said Graciela Fleidas, 43, an unemployed 
textile worker from Merlo, Argentina. "We're looking for alternatives to 
the way the United States controls the world, and Chavez has something 
to say about that."

"We're a people united against free trade, because free trade is a 
policy of death for our countries," said Carlos H. Reyes, 54, of Honduras.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/04/AR2005110401724.html?nav=hcmodule
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