The presidents of the US and Venezuela played starring roles in the 34-nation Summit of the Americas, arguing over the merits of free trade while hundreds of leftist activists arrived for a massive march early yesterday.
Hundreds of protesters -- including soccer great Maradona, who donned an anti-George W. Bush T-shirt, and Bolivian presidential hopeful Evo Morales -- boarded a train late on Thursday to join the thousands who have already converged on this coastal resort.
Demonstrators included hundreds of Cubans who made the trip after their president, Fidel Castro, was snubbed by the summit's organizers, the Organization of American States (OAS).
PHOTO: AFP
As officials prepared to hold the inauguration ceremony yesterday afternoon, more than 8,000 security forces were dispatched to maintain order.
Security included navy ships sailing along the coastline and helicopters clattering overhead. Most of the summit hotels were in a section of the city that has been cleared of pedestrians and traffic and surrounded by guards.
Roughly 10,000 demonstrators planned to march some 30 blocks to a stadium where Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez planned to give a speech.
He's been US President George W. Bush's most vocal critic at the 34-nation summit.
The march's route wasn't expected to bring the protesters near the summit site.
While the summit's leaders agreed ahead of time to focus the two-day meeting on creating jobs and reducing poverty, in recent days their attention has shifted to the Free Trade Area of the Americas, (FTAA), a deal proposed by Washington that would break down trade barriers from Alaska to the tip of South America.
Jose Miguel Insulza, secretary-general of the OAS, said he was disappointed by attention to the free trade deal.
"This is not a summit about the FTAA," a frustrated Insulza said.
But Bush seems to be winning over supporters for the FTAA. A high-ranking Brazilian official, who said he wasn't authorized to give his name, told reporters that 28 of the 34 countries participating in the summit had agreed to relaunch trade talks as early as April.
Washington believes the proposed accord, which has stalled amid opposition by several Latin American countries, is vital to creating jobs and increasing wealth in the region.
Chavez says that free trade is being forced on Latin American countries. He said such a deal would only help the rich and instead has pushed for an anti-FTAA deal based on the socialist ideals of Latin American liberator Simon Bolivar. Chavez has openly supported protesters who have spent all week rallying against free trade. The Venezuelan leader has promised to "bury" the FTAA.
"We're going to say `No to Bush' and `No to FTAA,"' Argentine labor leader Juan Gonzalez said. "We don't have any confidence in anything he might propose here, whatever it is will only prolong hunger, poverty and death in Latin America."
While Cuba wasn't invited to the summit, the communist island's Parliamentary speaker Ricardo Alarcon showed up in Mar del Plata, anyway.
He mocked the process, telling reporters: "They are going to take a good photo with Bush, have lunch, eat dinner, and gab some more. What is happening over there is a plan that does no good for the people of the Americas."
The summit will not focus only on Bush, Chavez and free trade. With poverty and joblessness as the central theme, Brazilian negotiator Nunes Tovar said serious efforts must be made to address problems in countries such as Haiti, the hemisphere's poorest nation.
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