US President George W. Bush on Sunday ramped up his efforts to curb Venezuela and Cuba's clout in Latin America, accusing them of trying to "roll back" fragile democratic and free-market gains in the region.
After talks with Brazilian Pres-ident Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Bush bowed to his host's view that successful WTO negotiations have to precede new talks on creating the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
Bush, who reportedly brought his own food and chef to the Summit of the Americas in Argentina, also made a point on Sunday of praising Brazil's shared passion with his home state of Texas: barbecue.
PHOTO: EPA
Lula served Bush -- who was on his first visit to Brazil -- trad-itional fare of beef, lamb, ox tail and some cheese, according to the White House.
The US president, who had predicted the meal "will remind me of home," later declared the meal "unbelievably good barbeque."
He also promised to take Lula up on a fishing invitation once he leaves the White House.
Amid concerns in Washington that poverty may enhance the appeal of anti-US, economically populist messages, Bush said in a speech that "ensuring social justice for the Americas requires choosing between two competing visions."
"One offers a vision of hope. It is founded on representative government, integration into the world community and a faith in the transformative power of freedom," he told students, diplomats and business leaders.
"The other seeks to roll back the democratic progress of the past two decades by playing to fear, pitting neighbor against neighbor and blaming others for their own failures to provide for their people," he said.
He never named Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez or Cuban leader Fidel Castro, but White House aides tacitly acknowledged that they were the targets of what was the keynote speech of a five-day, three-country trip to the region.
Bush also celebrated US ties with the region's richest economy despite opposition here to his vision for a mammoth hemispheric free-trade zone stretching from Canada to Chile.
"He has got to be convinced, just like the people of America must be convinced, that a trade arrrangement in our hemisphere is good for jobs, is good for the quality of life," Bush conceded during a joint appearance.
In a joint statement, the two leaders vowed to work together to promote improved governance, regional and trans-regional dial-ogues, development and poverty alleviation.
Bush and Chavez stayed away from each other at the 34-nation summit in Argentina, where Venezuela and four other countries including Brazil blocked progress on the FTAA. Castro was not invited.
Brazil has said there is no point in doing so until after the so-called Doha Round of WTO talks, which have bogged down over agricultural subsidies -- the same chief obstacle in the Americas trade debate.
Lula called US aid to its farmers "unjustified barriers to our bilateral trade" and that he and Bush had explored their differences "without surprises or confrontations."
Earlier, in a roundtable discussion with prominent Brazilians, Bush shrugged off the sometimes violent protests he attracted at the summit in Argentina, saying: "I expect there to be dissent. That's what freedom is all about."
Outside the residence where Bush and Lula met, some 200 protesters chanted "Fascist Bush, the real terrorist" and burned an effigy of the US president dressed in a shirt with a swastika.
Also see story:
Americas' free-trade zone facing an uphill struggle
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
HIGH HOPES: The power source is expected to have a future, as it is not dependent on the weather or light, and could be useful for places with large desalination facilities A Japanese water plant is harnessing the natural process of osmosis to generate renewable energy that could one day become a common power source. The possibility of generating power from osmosis — when water molecules pass from a less salty solution to a more salty one — has long been known. However, actually generating energy from that has proved more complicated, in part due the difficulty of designing the membrane through which the molecules pass. Engineers in Fukuoka, Japan, and their private partners think they might have cracked it, and have opened what is only the world’s second osmotic power plant. It generates
Hundreds of Filipinos and tourists flocked to a sun-bleached field north of Manila yesterday, on Good Friday, to witness one of the country’s most blood-soaked displays of religious fervor, undeterred by rising fuel prices. Scores of bare-chested flagellants with covered faces walked barefoot through the dusty streets of Pampanga Province’s San Fernando as they flogged their backs with bamboo whips in the scorching heat. Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists said they saw devotees deliberately puncturing their skin with glass shards attached to a small wooden paddle to ensure their bleeding during the ritual, a way to atone for sins and seek miracles from
Chinese dissident artist Gao Zhen (高兟), famous for making provocative satirical sculptures of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東), was tried on Monday over accusations of “defaming national heroes and martyrs,” his wife and a rights group said. Gao, 69, who was detained in 2024 during a visit from the US, faces a maximum three-year prison sentence, said his wife, Zhao Yaliang (趙雅良), and Shane Yi, a researcher at the Chinese Human Rights Defenders group which operates outside the nation. The closed-door, one-day trial took place at Sanhe City People’s Court in Hebei Province neighboring the capital, Beijing, and ended without a
RSS