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NEWS & LETTERS, July 2004Our Life and Times by Kevin A. BarryProtest in MexicoAt least 111 protesters were arrested May 28 in Guadalajara, Mexico during the march against the third summit of heads of state of European Union (EU), Latin American and Caribbean nations. There are reports that many of those arrested were forced to strip naked and were left in a room where a jailer would look in on them periodically and shout insults. In addition to the march on the day of the summit, there were weeklong activities leading up to it by many organizations who came to Guadalajara from throughout Mexico, including students from UNAM (in Mexico City), and a delegation from Chiapas. A few days before the march, in one of the official meetings leading up to the summit, the EU leaders voted down a proposal to include a paragraph in the summit's final declaration condemning the U.S.'s torture of prisoners in Abu Ghraib. Bush's biggest EU allies, Tony Blair and Silvio Berlusconi, did not attend. This was the third such summit between the EU and Latin American and Caribbean leaders, the first being in Brazil in 1999 and the second in Spain in 2002. Since the last meeting, the growth in the EU to 25 member states has given some hope to leaders in Latin America that their relationship to the EU can help them counteract the failures of commercial agreements with the U.S., especially NAFTA, as the EU has funds to help its poorest members. --Mitch Weerth |
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