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NEWS & LETTERS, November-December 2005Our Life and Times by Kevin A. BarryAnti-Bush protests in ArgentinaProtests against Bush's appearance at the fourth Summit of the Americas in Argentina Nov. 4-5 were held in at least 200 cities in that country. Brazil, Venezuela, and Uruguay also had anti-Bush events. The largest marches were held in Mar Del Plata, south of Buenos Aires, site of both the summit and a counter-summit (the third of its kind) that was held in the days leading up to the arrival of Bush and the other 33 heads of state (Castro was not invited). Bush, who has succeeded in becoming the most hated U.S. president in history in Latin America, was sent away with his tail between his legs, and Mexico's Vicente Fox lost much political capital fighting for Bush's agenda, which was to use the summit as a way to re-launch the stalled negotiations over the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA, or ALCA in Spanish). Since the theme of the summit had nothing to do with FTAA, and since the host of the summit, Argentina, is the country that has sufferred a horrific meltdown of its economy since 2001 as a direct result of U.S-inspired trade liberalization, Bush's arrogance in insisting on discussing FTAA only served to fuel the flames of the protests. The Bush-Fox plan (with Panama's help) was to have all of the summit participants commit themselves to serious FTAA talks in early 2006. Hugo Chavez of Venezuela came with the intent to somehow definitively bury FTAA forever, and both Kirchner of Argentina and Lula of Brazil, along with Uruguay and Paraguay, hoped to prevent any mention of it in the summit's final statement. None of the parties seemed to get all they wanted, though the fact that Bush did not succeed in getting a clear commitment to FTAA led Chavez to proclaim that the weekend will mark a historical new beginning in South America because five countries (the Mercosur countries plus Venezuela) refused to bow down to him. While Bush quietly went to Lula's ranch to have barbecue after his failure, Fox went on a tirade against Kirchner, claiming that it was his fault as host of the summit that led to the lack of consensus on the FTAA, rather than the endless deepening poverty in the region. He also suggested that the 29 countries should proceed to FTAA talks without the five dissenters, despite the fact that those five comprise about half the economic output of Latin America. The issue is to be discussed again in December at WTO talks, so there's still a chance that FTAA will be resucitated in 2006. --Mitch Weerth |
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