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Bush visit sparks riot

06nov05

VIOLENT anti-US protests marred the first day of the 34-nation Summit of the Americas in Argentina yesterday.

Riot police fired tear gas while demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails, set bonfires and smashed shop windows about 600m from the hotel where leaders were meeting in the southern beach resort of Mar del Plata.

Hundreds of protesters in ski-masks confronted police after a bigger group of 40,000 rallied peacefully at a football stadium to voice their anger at the trade policies of US President George W. Bush.

Police said 64 people were arrested in the clashes during which a bank and nearby shops were torched. By late yesterday street violence had subsided and a security source said the situation was "under control".

Inside the summit, Latin American leaders are split over a free trade agreement championed by Mr Bush.

Argentine President Nestor Kirchner warned that such agreements had to take into account the gap between rich and poor countries across the region.

"An agreement cannot be the result of an imposition," he said.

Officials struggled to agree on the wording of the final declaration to be adopted today.

Strikes and protests against Mr Bush were staged across Argentina, with 8000 police and soldiers mobilised.

He acknowledged the tensions after meeting with Mr Kirchner.

"It's not easy to host all these countries. It's particularly not easy to host, perhaps, me," Mr Bush, whose motorcade bypassed the protests, said.

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, a virulent critic of the US, addressed the anti-US rally, repeating his accusation that Washington was plotting to invade his country.

"An imperialist invasion of Venezuela will be the start of a 100-year war," Mr Chavez told the crowd.

Among anti-US activists in Mar del Plata was Argentine football idol Diego Maradona.

"I love you. Argentina is great. Let's get rid of Bush," Maradona told the cheering crowd.

In protests elsewhere in Argentina, police in the southern city of Neuquen fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse demonstrators who threw eggs and stones at a Blockbuster video store, part of a US-owned chain.

In Buenos Aires, protesters covered the Obelisk, the capital's central monument, with a banner declaring "Bush Out". Demonstrators burned a US flag nearby.

Market reforms and a proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas touted by Mr Bush have encountered growing scepticism in Latin America, amid persistent unemployment and poverty.

On arrival, Mr Chavez said "the FTAA is dead and we are going to bury it here".

While Mr Bush said this week that efforts to create the FTAA were "stalled", the US wanted to push a free trade agenda with other American countries.

Putting the boot in

ARGENTINE soccer legend Diego Maradona was the star turn yesterday, leading the attack against US President George W. Bush near the international trade summit in Argentina, calling Bush "human rubbish".

Maradona was mobbed by fans as he arrived in Mar del Plata on a special train bringing activists to join protests against the Summit of the Americas.

He wore a series of T-shirts calling Bush "assassin" or declaring "stop Bush" and the chaos at Mar del Plata railway station was such he decided not to lead a rally to a football stadium.

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