BUSH VISIT: PROTESTS IN SAO PAOLO, CHAVEZ DENOUNCES “HYPOCRISY OF EMPIRE”

BRAZIL / MISNA ON Ladysilvia; Over 30,000 people took the streets of Sao Paolo in protest against George W. Bush, who yesterday began his widely contested Latin American tour in Brazil, in a night of high tension and unrest between demonstrators and police that resulted in at least twenty wounded. The mobilisation, promoted by numerous social organisations " from the Movement of the Sem Terra (Landless) farm-workers (MST) to the Coordination of women of Brazil (CMB) " was concentrated in the centre of the Brazilian capital, canting slogans such as “No more American imperialism” and “Bush out of Iraq”.

Demonstrations were staged also in Puerto Alegre and Rio de Janeiro, but without significant incidents. The MST strongly criticised the new energy plan that Bush and President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva are due to officially launch today for new impulse in the production of bio-fuel from vegetable sources. The risk, according to Irma Ostrosky of the MST, “is that the tropical agriculture disappears, buried by vast extensions of mono-crops that devastate bio-diversity and limit food production just to make cars run”. Protest marches were organised also in Colombia, where Bush is expected Sunday amid tight security measures, with the deployment of some 21,000 soldiers and police officers. Hundreds of people took the streets of Bogotá against the Free Trade Accord signed last November between Colombia and the US, as also against the failing ’Plan Colombia’, the ambitious anti-drug and anti-guerrilla plan financed by Washington. Colombian police chief Jorge Castro declared that the guerrillas of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) are planning attacks in occasion of Bush’s visit. Meanwhile, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez yesterday from Buenos Aires began his own “anti-imperialist, for Latin American unity” tour in direct contrast with the US leader. Chavez’s tour will mark its peak today with an “anti-Bush rally” organised at the stadium of the Argentine capital by the ’Mothers of Plaza de Mayo’ and the ’piqueterà (unemployed) groups.

On arriving in Argentina, Chavez denounced “the hypocrisy of Bush who now says he's worried about poverty in Latin America. Now he's discovering ... after so many years that there's poverty in Latin America, precisely when the empire is the principal culprit”. Chavez is due to sign a “surprise” accord with his counterpart Nestor Kirchner, according to press indiscretions in the farming sector, in addition to reinforcing the already strong energy cooperation between the two countries. There is a notable absence in Buenos Aires of Bolivian President Evo Morales. Based on the official agenda, Bush and Lula today will visit the petrol-chemical plant of Guarulhos, 40km from Sao Paolo; and later will hold a press conference. [BO]

Press from Ladysilvia National Network