BUENOS AIRES police and city hall officials cancelled the Prince of Wales's trip to one of Argentina's poorest shanty towns after anti-British riots sparked by the prince's comments on the Falkland Islands (Malvinas).
The local authorities said they feared for Prince Charles's safety if he visited the Villa Lugano shanty town on the edge of the capital. However, a spokeswoman for the prince denied the visit had been cancelled because of security. The prince's itinerary was too hectic and his programme of visits had to be scaled down, she said.
The Federation of Shanty Towns issued a statement saying the authorities "have had the disrespectful and demagogic bad taste to take for a walk around one of our most marginal shanty towns, the prince of English colonialism".
Meanwhile, in the poor, northcentral province of Santiago del Estero, a small left-wing party petitioned a federal judge to arrest Prince Charles for alleged British human rights violations during the 1982 Falklands war with Argentina, in the same way that Chile's Gen Pinochet was arrested in London for alleged human rights violations.
The prince's long-awaited trip got off to a promising start on Tuesday evening, as he danced the tango with the President's daughter, Zulema. The tango ended in a tangle however, as rioters clashed with police, transvestites stormed the British embassy and Prince Charles crossed swords with the Vice-President, Mr Carlos Ruck auf, who described the visiting heir as "a colonial usurper".
The diplomatic twist began just after President Carlos Menem and Prince Charles swapped compliments during a gala dinner at the Alvear Hotel, where the prince told the audience he planned to return once he had taken tango lessons to improve his step. Minutes later, however, the guests were stunned as Prince Charles dropped a bombshell: "My hope is that the people of modern, democratic Argentina, with their passionate attachment to national traditions, can live amicably alongside the people of another smaller democracy just a few hundred miles off your coast" - a reference to Argentina's claim to sovereignty over the islands.
As if on cue, 400 protesters gathered a few streets away, where riot police erected barriers and blocked off access to the hotel. To the battle cry of "Brits out of the Malvinas and Yankees out of Latin America", protesters forced their way beyond the barriers, resulting in scuffles, 58 arrests and a dozen injuries.
Mr Ruckauf abandoned all pretence at diplomatic niceties and described Prince Charles's comments as "absolutely inappropriate . . . a typical British trap which has been used elsewhere in the world".
Mr Ruckauf then described how the British "first fill the stolen territory with their people" and then "invite the inhabitants to free themselves by entering the economic empire known as the Commonwealth".
Argentina's Foreign Minister, Mr Guido di Tella, moved quickly to smooth ruffled feathers, advising Mr Ruckauf to "re-read the constitution", saying the prince's words were a mere reminder to the islanders that they had no reason "to fear or worry" about Argentina's sovereignty claim.