ARGENTINA: Tens of thousands of marchers protested yesterday against president George Bush and his free-trade push, as leaders from the Americas gathered in an Argentine resort for a contentious debate on improving Latin America's economy.
A mixed bag of protesters - from Bolivian Indian women in traditional bowler hats to mothers of Argentine "dirty-war" victims - filled 15 city blocks carrying signs with "Fuera Bush" (Get out, Bush) and flags with the face of Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara. About 7,500 police kept a heavy guard at the meeting site and in the city centre, but paid little attention to the protesters, who were six kilometres away.
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, the left-wing leader who opposes Mr Bush's economic model, prepared to take the protesters' message inside the summit meeting room. He vowed to bury the stalled Free Trade Area of the Americas, or FTAA. "Every one of us has brought a shovel, an undertaker's shovel, because here in Mar del Plata is the tomb of FTAA," Mr Chavez told a full stadium hosting an alternative peoples' summit before the afternoon start of the two-day meeting of leaders.
By his side was Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona, who carried the flag of Cuba and wore a T-shirt saying "War Criminal".
They were joined by Bolivian indigenous leader Evo Morales, frontrunner for the presidential election on December 18th.
A large Cuban delegation of athletes sent by president Fidel Castro, who was not invited to the summit, was also popular with the crowd, estimated at 25,000.
Marchers urged the region's leaders to pursue alternatives to the US-backed free-market recipes, which dominated in the region in the 1990s, but failed to reduce poverty and inequality.
"We are here to show our proposals and alternatives to build a new dawn in Latin America," said Argentine Nobel Peace Prize winner and author Adolfo Perez Esquivel.
President Bush told reporters he would be polite if he saw Mr Chavez, but offered implied criticism of Venezuela's democracy. He said he judged leaders "based upon their willingness to protect institutions for a viable democratic society."
Mr Bush also met Argentine president Nestor Kirchner and praised the country's comeback from a 2001-2002 economic collapse. Many Argentines blame the collapse on policies backed by the United States and the International Monetary Fund.
While protests were peaceful and far from the summit site, more radical groups were expected to challenge the several rings of police security in downtown Mar del Plata. Coast guard boats and helicopters patrolled the shore.
Outside of the Middle East, South America may be one of the most hostile places to US policies, despite Bush vows upon taking office that it was a top foreign policy priority.
Many in the region feel that Washington meddled too much in the past in economics and politics, then ignored the region in order to focus on the war on terrorism.
While the emerging markets of Asia have roared ahead in the last 20 years, Latin America's economies, rich with minerals, gas and farmland, have fallen into a cycle of boom and bust.
Nowhere is that more evident than in Argentina, which was a model of free-market policies in the 1990s that fell from grace with $100 billion in unpayable foreign debt and slid quickly into poverty for millions.
"Free trade means big US and European corporations gobbling up our companies and national interests," said Pedro Moreira, a 69-year-old unemployed Argentine who carried a sign reading "Get out, Bush. Another world is possible."
Washington hopes to win a commitment to revive talks for the FTAA in 2006, after opposition from Latin America's big economies over US agriculture subsidies blocked it this year.
Mr Chavez's opposition is not enough to block a deal, but he may pose a threat to reaching a consensus statement on the trade agreement at the summit.