US President George W. Bush discussed immigration and free trade with Guatemalan President Oscar Berger yesterday as he continued a five-nation Latin American tour marked by mass anti-US protests.
Bush's regional arch-nemesis, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, was again close by, in Nicaragua, blasting "the North American empire" and its "chief" for alleged attempts to stomp out revolutionary movements in Latin America.
Several key streets in the center of the Guatemalan capital and a highway leading to an air force base where the US presidential plane landed on Sunday night were closed to traffic as part of massive security measures introduced by the government.
Later in the day, Bush was due to visit a Mayan agricultural cooperative in the town of Chirijuyu, which specializes in growing vegetables for export to the US. On Saturday Bush had said that the US must help people like members of the cooperative build a better life for their families.
"By doing so, we will increase living standards for all our citizens, strengthen democracy in our hemisphere and advance the cause of peace," he said in his weekly radio address.
Berger, officials said, was likely to ask Bush to impose a temporary US moratorium on deportations of illegal Guatemalan immigrants, as the Bush administration and Congress try to work out a more lasting solution to the whole immigration issue.
Meanwhile, several dozen demonstrators protested Bush's visit to Guatemala in front of the US Embassy on Sunday.
And Chavez accused Washington of trying to destabilize governments attempting to assert their independence from the US.
"The North American empire is trying to snuff out the flame of liberty," he declared upon his arrival in Managua. "It uses its reactionary politics of interference, invasions, assassinations and genocide and is trying to foment coups d'etat."
Chavez has shadowed Bush practically since the beginning of his trip. When Bush was in Uruguay on Friday, Chavez held a massive anti-US rally in Argentina.
When Bush flew to Colombia on Sunday, the Venezuelan leader popped up in Bolivia.
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