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4th Summit of the Americas

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The tourist resort of Mar del Plata, 400 kilometers southeast of the Argentine capital Buenos Aires, is the venue of the Fourth Summit of the Americas, which will gather the leaders of all the countries of the Western Hemisphere, except Cuba. Massive popular protests against the presence of U.S. President George W. Bush on Latin American soil and security arrangements have been planned in the days leading up to the summit.

Summit discussions

The Summit of the Americas and the Free Trade Area of the Americas

Talks about a possible free trade zone encompassing thirty-four nations in the Western Hemisphere now know as the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) began on December 11, 1994 at the first Summit of the Americas in Miami. The concept of a 34-nation free trade zone, however, only came to prominence and the public consciousness seven years later at the Quebec City Summit of the Americas which was met with large protests and demonstrations by people involved in the anti-globalization movement. President Bush stated prior to the Summit that the U.S would continue to push in favor the FTAA agreement despite opposition from some left-wing governments in the region. Though President Bush acknowledged that progress on the FTAA talks had stalled, he stated that the Doha Round global trade talks aimed at securing a global trade pact by the start of 2006 had to now take priority over the FTAA stating to reporters in Washington "The Doha round really trumps the FTAA as a priority because the Doha round not only involves our neighborhood, it involves the whole world." President Bush also went on to urge the Brazilian government to put pressure on the EU to cut its farm subsidies, a major issue in world trade negations.

Security

Security for the summit includes 10,000 police and security forces, with at least some armed with machine-guns. More than twenty streets have been blockaded in the main beach district. Three concentric rings of chain-link fence have been erected in the city, and residents living inside have been issued special passes to be permitted in to get to their homes.

Ships belonging to the Argentinian Navy are in place offshore, while helicopters patrol the beach area. There is a one hundred mile no-fly zone in effect around the city for the duration of the summit and planes in violation will be shot down.

Protests against FTAA and Bush

File:Latam summit.jpg
Thousands march in front of a banner with the portraits of regional presidents associated with efforts to promote Latin American integration (from L-R, Fidel Castro of Cuba, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Nestor Kirchner of Argentina, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Tabare Vazquez of Uruguay) during a protest against the presence of U.S. President George W. Bush in Mar del Plata, Argentina, November 4, 2005. (David Mercado/Reuters)

Leading up to the summit, Bolivian presidential candidate Evo Morales, Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona, and Cuban singer and composer Silvio Rodríguez planned to travel together to take part in the "Peoples' Summit" or the "American Anti-Summit", summoning Latin American activists who oppose the neoliberal "Washington Consensus", the Free Trade Area of the Americas, and U.S. President George W. Bush.

Morales, Maradona and Rodríguez are part of a group of participants who are planning to travel aboard a train named the "Alba Express" from the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires to Mar del Plata. The "Alba Express" will be joined by road by hundreds of buses carrying members of political and social organisations, protests organizers claimed days before the summit. [1]

The group arriving in Mar del Plata aboard "Alba Express" went to World Cup Stadium of that city where Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez spoke to the crowd, then joined the "peoples' march" summoned to repudiate the presence of U.S. President George W. Bush in Latin America. [2]

After the march, the protests turned violent. Protesters lit fires, hurled Molotov cocktails, and set fire to a bank. Police used tear gas in an attempt to quell the violence. Unconfirmed reports indicate that there have been at least twenty injuries resulting from the violence.[3]

See also

References

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