AP Photo XRM102
By DAN MOLINSKI
Associated Press Writer
MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina (AP) - Shouting ``Yankee, get out!'' and singing protest songs, thousands opposed to President Bush held a massive rally at a basketball arena just days before Bush arrives at this seaside resort for the Summit of the Americas.
After protesters in Buenos Aires set fire to a train station Tuesday, Argentine Interior Minister Anibel Fernandez said the government was prepared to guarantee the summit's security as more protesters - including jobless Argentines, teachers and labor union representatives - were expected to arrive Wednesday in this resort 230 miles south of Buenos Aires.
The luxury hotel hosting the summit was guarded by more than 8,000 police and security forces, and surrounding streets were emptied.
``There are no weaknesses'' in the summit's security, Fernandez said.
On Tuesday, organizers of the so-called ``People's Summit'' gave fiery anti-Bush speeches that echoed through a drab concrete stadium several miles from the site where leaders of 34 Western Hemisphere nations will meet Friday and Saturday.
The protesters included Argentine Adolfo Perez Esquivel, who won the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize for opposing his country's military regime.
``We've had enough of Mr. Bush, who has committed crimes against humanity,'' Perez told reporters. He called Bush a ``murderer'' for his actions in Iraq and elsewhere.
Activists say they not only will protest Bush's actions in the Middle East but also free trade policies they say enslave Latin America workers. They are hoping to draw 50,000 people for their highlight event - a protest Friday.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a leftist whose government has used the country's vast oil wealth to fund social programs for the poor, was invited to attend the march. Chavez, an outspoken critic of free trade, has strained relations with Washington and regularly claims the United States is trying to overthrow his government, an accusation U.S. officials have dismissed.
Job creation will be high on the agenda of the summit of the Organization of American States. Thomas Shannon, the new U.S. assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said Bush will make several proposals designed to generate jobs.
``It's our hope that coming out of the summit, the leaders will have some concrete steps that all the countries of the region can be taking,'' Shannon said. ``With jobs you can attack social exclusion.''
Some 220 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean live in poverty.
Barbara Wood, who came from Vancouver, British Columbia, with about a dozen fellow members of a labor union, said the People's Summit was about putting ``people at the center, not politics.''
In the run-up to the summit, violent protests broke out in the capital of Buenos Aires over poor commuter train service. Mobs set fire to 18 dilapidated trains in a working-class suburb, overturned police cruisers and battled with riot police, who fired rubber bullets.
Fernandez denied that the Buenos Aires protests were related to the summit. Authorities blamed the unrest on leftist elements and labor activists. About 20 people were injured, and police took dozens of people into custody.
