Thread: Bush to attend Summit of the Americas in Argentina

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Posted on Wed, Oct. 05, 2005



Bush to attend Summit of the Americas in Argentina

BY PABLO BACHELET

Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - (KRT) - The White House confirmed Wednesday that President Bush will attend a summit of Latin American heads of state in Argentina next month, ending speculation that he would skip the event due to security concerns or to avoid an encounter with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Bush will be in the beach town of Mar del Plata for a meeting of 34 hemispheric leaders Nov. 3-5, part of a regional integration project launched in Miami more than 10 years ago. He will then travel to Brazil and Panama.

The trip by Bush, often criticized for ignoring Latin America, will be his fourth visit to the region, compared to six trips to 12 countries by former President Bill Clinton. Bush has visited Chile, Peru, El Salvador and Colombia and made two trips to Mexico.

Bush has also hosted Mexican President Vicente Fox and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe at his Texas ranch and has met most Latin American leaders at the White House, including Argentina's Nestor Kirchner, a sometime critic of Bush's policies. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Treasury Secretary John Snow also have traveled to Latin America.

The announcement put to rest, at least temporarily, widespread speculation that Bush would not attend the Summit of the Americas because of plans by Argentine radicals to stage massive protests of Bush and U.S. policies. Some analysts also believed that Bush wanted to avoid a run-in with Chavez, a leftist-populist who continually accuses Washington of plotting to topple and even kill him.

"There is great nervousness about what to expect out of Hugo Chavez and how the Argentines will deal with that and whether Bush will be upstaged and even embarrassed," said Peter Hakim, who heads the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington think tank that has monitored the summit process. "In the end, not to go probably creates a worse impression than going."

The Summit of the Americas process was launched with much fanfare in Miami in 1994, when leaders enthusiastically embraced concepts like free trade, privatization and economic deregulation. Later summits were held in Santiago, Chile; Quebec; and Monterrey, Mexico, with Bush taking part in the last two.

But critics say the process has lost much of its initial spark. Talks to create a hemisphere-wide Free Trade Area of the Americas have stalled and much of South America is governed by left-wing leaders critical of the "neo-liberal" economic policies espoused by Washington.

Negotiators at the Organization of American States in Washington hope to produce a final draft declaration later this week. The main theme, proposed by Argentina, is "Creating Jobs to Fight Poverty and Strengthen Democratic Governance."

Bush wants countries to commit to lower barriers to trade, investment and private enterprise to encourage more economic growth. But many Latin Americans say these policies have only served to worsen the disparities between rich and poor.

Leaders of the piqueteros - groups of Argentine militants who regularly shut off traffic in Buenos Aires demanding jobs and more benefits - have threatened to disrupt the summit proceedings. A spokesman for the Argentine embassy in Washington said U.S. officials never raised security concerns.

Bush is traveling to Brazil at the invitation of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a moderate leftist who gets along well with the White House. He will also meet with Panamanian President Martin Torrijos, son of the military dictator who negotiated with former President Jimmy Carter the return of the Panama Canal.

His trip ends Nov. 7.

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© 2005, The Miami Herald.

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Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

When the Summit of the Americas was held in Denver back in 95 or 96 I learned for the first time how the State Department takes our tax dollars and gives them to foreign students to study in our colleges and unviersities! Our local Denver Newspaper said the other day the tuition at the University of Colorado was going up 17% next year and Washington gives our taxes to foreign students to study here? YUP I cannot verify it BUT some of the 9-11 attackers could have been here on these USAID scholarships?

The colleges love these students since it represents just more money into their coffers.....many of these students can apply for residency to stay here too! I saw that at a college website for foreign students.... Another immigration type visa......to stay...how many never go back home?

I could be wrong but I believe Hugo Chavez met Bush in Texas in 2000 before Bush was elected......