Adam Thomson / Financial Times & – 2005-11-01 23:37:42
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/2f2dba78-4a7c-11da-b8b1-0000779e2340,ft_acl=,s01=1.html
Bush Facing Anti-Imperialism Protests During Argentina Visit
Adam Thomson / Financial Times
Buenos Aires (November 1, 2005) — Anti-US protesters are planning a mass demonstration against President George W. Bush’s visit to Argentina this week for the Summit of the Americas in the seaside resort of Mar del Plata.
Luis D’Elía, who heads one of the country’s so-called piquetero movements — leftwing groups of disaffected unemployed — said the protest would bring together up to 100,000 people and would include popular figures such as Diego Maradona, the former Argentine soccer star.
“The idea is to show the victims of imperialism,” Mr D’Elía said yesterday. “We want to put a stop to Bush’s military build-up and his persistent threats of invasion around the world.”
Family members of fallen US soldiers in Iraq would attend as well as Iraqi civilians who had suffered at the hands of US troops. But he said the centrepiece of Friday’s protests would be a speech by Hugo Chávez, the radical Venezuelan president, which is scheduled for 1pm on Friday to coincide with the official start of the summit.
Mr D’Elía said the protest would also reject the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the ailing trade initiative that diplomats say the US will try to revive during the two-day summit.
“The FTAA would wipe out our industry and exclude 82 per cent of our exports. We have already seen the results of imperialist economic policy, and in Argentina it destroyed our wealth,” he said, referring to the financial chaos that shook the country in December 2001.
The march, together with other protests to mark Mr Bush’s first visit to Argentina and rallies in support of Mr Chávez, have forced local authorities to mount the most intense security operation ever seen in the country’s history.
An extra 7,000 police have been deployed on the normally calm streets of Mar del Plata, a 176km no-fly zone has been established with orders to shoot down any unauthorised aircraft, and three concentric circles of imposing metal fencing have been erected around the centre with highly restricted access.
“We have been imprisoned,” said one resident yesterday morning.
Yet Mr D’Elía insisted that despite Argentines’ strong anti-US sentiment — according to a newspaper poll almost 60 percent of the population dispprove of Mr Bush’s visit — there would be no violence during Friday’s march.
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US Imperial Forces Occupy Major City In Argentina
“Cornplanter” via Email / Phoeix Five Earth Changes Bulletin
BUENOS AIRES (October 30, 2005) — The most popular vacation city in Argentina is Mar del Plata, located about 400 km southeast of Buenos Aires, on the beautiful Atlantic coast. Six million people or more stream through this city of perhaps only 550,000 permanent residents, but with a population during the vacation season of well over 2 million people. This is a city of beaches, vacations, fishing, film festivals, and all the fine things you would expect in a prime recreational area, which also has thriving local industries.
All this has ended, and has been completely disrupted for several weeks… and months now. The local owners of homes have all been issued papers which allow them to live there, but no visitors are allowed. That’s right: No visitors. No tourists. No sunbathers or sports fishermen. In fact, the city is filled with black-clad military people marching around and checking everything and everyone all of the time.
For months they have been building defensive structures in this city, the likes of which have never been seen in Argentina. Well, they still are not seen by most people. The whole place is a secret zone. And it is not just the Argentine Military. Nope, its the US, as Black-Suited Military, the CIA, and countless “private contractors.”
Three days ago, a pair of huge US military cargo planes landed there and from each one was taken two huge double ended military helicopters, according to frightened local witnesses. Several US Vavy ships are there. The local people report a war zone, with no war. All the schools in Mar del Plata are closed now and during this time. All of Argentina is aghast, worried, and offended.
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
It be da Man: George W. Bush. Need I say more?
OK, there’s more.
On Thursday, November third (for some reason you probably have not seen this on US news programs) President George W. Bush will appear in Mar del Plata, Argentina, at the “Summit of the Americas” a month-long conference of all the countries in North, Central, and South America.
One wonders how Mr. Bush can take the time away from his busy schedule of vacationing in Texas and speaking to select Republican support groups about the glories of US democracy in Iraq, or enjoying sightseeing trips to hurricane zones, to go to Mar del Plata at what appears to Argentineans to be a cost to the US of a billion dollars or more, just to confer with the heads of state of other American countries, such as Nestor Kirchner of Argentina, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, and Fidel Castro.
Nestor Kirchner, who just this past week won a “landslide” re-election in Argentina, talked yesterday about the “New Argentina” which has been rebuilt in very few years since being bankrupt and formerly abandoned by the World Bank.
Kirchner said that the “Old Argentina” (based on US economy) was gone, and that the “New Argentina” (after the bankruptcy and failure of the banks) was for Argentineans; Bush could only have the “old Argentina.” Apparently, the Argentine President and the whole country is ridiculing Mr. Bush.
Well, Mar del Plata is cordoned off from the world. Local residents marched in a protest parade a few weeks back… without their clothes!!!!!! You didn’t see that on ABC News, did you? The whole country is incensed that Bush is visiting. And, of
course, the whole country is on all sorts of terror alerts, with bomb threats in the subways for Buenos Aires, and anger and anguish everywhere.
Along with the US military occupation, “control”, and total disruption of Mar del Plata for the pending Summit of the Americas trip by Mr. Bush, there is also expected to occur a well-publicized “Anti-Summit March,” led by the most famous and adored man in Argentina (and possibly in the whole soccer watching world): Diego Maradona.
Diego Maradona, acknowledged by soccer fans and players (Including Pele) around the world as the greatest player to ever score a goal, was a plump, broken, and drug-ridden man when I was in Buenos Aires a couple years ago. Today, he is drug free, thin, more popular than ever, and host of a three hour TV show. To compare his popularity with a US sports star, you would have to take all the Football, baseball, and Basketball all-stars for 20 years and combine them together with all the top hollywood stars.
When I saw Maradona at his lowest point — near death and not caring about anything except drugs — he was still by far the most popular person in Argentina. Now, he is the most popular TV show host, able to interview anyone in the world. And, he is leading the march to discredit George W. Bush.
The Mayor of Mar del Plata, (like everyone else; fed up with the US-CIA presence) says she is extremely pleased that Diego Maradona will be at the head of the Anti-Summit march in her city, because, she says, the city will be more protected with him there. I am certain that even minimal brains like Carl Rove the Wonder Boy realize that harming Diego Maradona would easily cause the whole world to unite against the US.
Yes, Diego Maradona, who recently interviewed his friend, Fidel Castro on his TV show, and the extremely popular Argentina President, Nestor Kirchner, and the whole population of Argentina are voicing and showing opposition to President Bush. People are starting a campaign to wear black ribbons during the Bush visit. And even the schools in Buenos Aires over 400 KM away will be closed for two days, just as a precaution against terror during the Bush visit….
No one knows where Bush will stay. No one knows his travel routes or times. All the people know is that Mar del Plata is imprisoned, and that for the sake of the world’s most hated man (Bush) they must endure this humiliation.
Maybe some of this will show up on TV in the US. I have not seen anything.
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