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Riot police clash with protesters

Riot police advance after firing rubber bullets at demonstrators opposed to the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas talks in Miami on Thursday. PHOTO: AP

Riot police fired rubber bullets and used long batons, plastic shields, concussion grenades and stun guns in clashes with hundreds of demonstrators protesting talks aimed at creating a hemisphere-wide free-trade zone.

It was not immediately known how many people were injured. Some journalists were among the hurt, struck by thrown debris or rubber bullets. Miami police said two officers were injured.

At one hospital, 12 demonstrators and three police officers were treated for injuries, Jackson Memorial Hospital spokeswoman Lorraine Nelson said.

About 140 arrests were made on Thursday on charges such as obstruction, battery, aggravated assault, unlawful assembly, resisting arrest, trespassing and burglary, bringing the arrest total for the week to about 150, said Stephen Thompson, a Miami-Dade Corrections Officer at the FTAA Miami Unified Command Center.

Alonzo Mendez was bleeding from an abrasion he said was caused when a rubber bullet hit him in the chest.

"I was just taking pictures and they fired at me," he said.

Thursday's clashes occurred before and after a peaceful march organized by the US labor unions, which are also opposed to the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas.

An estimated 8,000 to 10,000 marchers took part, saying the 34-nation FTAA would take thousands of US jobs to other countries, reduce workers' rights by exploiting cheap labor and drain natural resources.

Soon after the march, several dozen protesters resumed battling with police, pushing up against police lines and throwing water bottles, colored flares and rocks at officers. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the demonstrators after the protesters set small trash fires in the street and used slingshots to fire projectiles at officers.

The afternoon battle appeared more violent and chaotic than the morning clashes, when at least 1,000 protesters -- many wearing bandannas across the bottom half of their faces, surgical masks and blue baseball helmets -- battled with officers who used their batons to push the demonstrators back.

Despite the clashes, most of the protesters were peaceful, carrying puppets, holding signs and chanting, "This is what a police state looks like."

Beating on an African drum, Joshua Xander, 21, of Cincinnati, said the police are "totally doing what they feel necessary. We are doing what we think is necessary -- conflict of interests."

Police set up a perimeter around the protesters, marching toward them in waves and firing rubber bullets to force them back.

"As the level of confrontation escalated, so did the level of presence by our police officers," police spokesman Jorge Pino said. "We are employing different kinds of techniques ... and are willing and able to take whatever action is necessary to keep the city and our community safe."

The morning clashes delayed the start of the AFL-CIO's march, and its leaders complained that police were preventing buses carrying marchers, some of them elderly, from reaching the staging area.

"Everybody is just letting their feelings known in a peaceful way," said William Vargas, one of 800 union parade marshals who helped keep the peace.

The unions' protest included huge puppets of dolphins and sunflowers, people walking on stilts and many chanting slogans such as "Just Say No Way to George Bush's FTAA."

Bob Wessell, a 49-year-old steel worker from Indiana, said his job making hospital beds may be lost because of cheaper manufacturing in China.

"I am here to save American jobs and make the world a safer place to live," Wessell said.
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