Bush in free trade talks as summit violence rages

US president George Bush and fellow leaders at the Summit of the Americas prepared today to debate whether to rekindle languishing talks on a hemispheric-wide free trade bloc, as protesters set fire to businesses and clashed with police.

Their two-day meeting at Argentina’s seaside city, Mar Del Plata, was almost eclipsed by the violent streets protests against Bush as more than 30 leaders met behind imposing street barricades. Frogmen in speedboats, security forces on rooftops and a phalanx of some 8,000 riot police and troops stood guard as the leaders deliberated on trade liberalisation and jobs.

Yesterday, the first official day of the summit, rioters smashed the glass fronts of at least 30 businesses, set fire to a bank and battled police with slingshots and rocks. Police fired tear gas to repel the protesters, arresting 64.

No deaths or serious injuries were reported at the summit.

The violent protests have become synonymous with presidential summits, especially those involving Bush, like the third Americas summit in Quebec in 2001.

For the demonstrators, meetings such as these that promote a globalised economy aim to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.

Inside the summit, which ends today, a more diplomatic battle was being waged. The US worked to build support for reviving the Free Trade Area of the Americas, while Bush’s nemesis, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, was doggedly determined to quash the idea. The FTAA, which would bring down trade barriers from Canada to Chile, has stalled amid opposition from Venezuela, Brazil and others.

“Only united can we defeat imperialism and bring our people a better life,” Chavez said, addressing more than 10,000 protesters at a soccer stadium hours before heading out for the summit’s inauguration.

“Here, in Mar del Plata, FTAA will be buried!” He was joined at the stadium by Argentinian soccer great Diego Maradona and Bolivian presidential hopeful Evo Morales.

Protesters unsuccessfully tried to break through the first of several police blockades protecting Bush and the other leaders at the summit, but the inauguration went off without a hitch.

This irked the mayor of Mar Del Plata, many of whose residents are strongly opposed to Bush and his foreign policies.

“What I’m most upset about is that I’ll bet you Bush wasn’t even told about” the riot, said Daniel Katz.

Anti-American protests also turned violent elsewhere as demonstrators attacked US interests in other Argentine cities. Four police officers were injured in Rosario in clashes that followed an attack on a branch of US-based Citibank.

In the capital city of Buenos Aires, activists tossed Molotov cocktails at two fast-food restaurants and a US-based bank, among other targets.

In neighbouring Uruguay, hooded protesters chanting anti-Bush slogans attacked a series of bank buildings, shops and shattered windows in an outburst swiftly quelled by riot police. Left-wing groups were blamed.