Fifty thousand demonstrators greeted George Bush in Santiago

[donsu]

http://www.counterpunch.com/

Fifty thousand demonstrators greeted George Bush on his arrival in Santiago Chile for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit meeting of twenty-one Pacific Rim nations. The largest and most militant demonstration since the dictatorship of General August Pinochet, the protestors called for an end to neo-liberal free trade agreements like those advanced by the APEC leaders. The demonstrators carried banners proclaiming "No to the dictatorship of the market" and asserted that trade accords drive workers and peasants into a "race to the bottom."

The ire of many protestors centered on Bush and the war in Iraq. Chants of "Terrorist Bush," and " Bush, Fascist, Thief, Murder!" rang through the air. While the demonstrations were overwhelmingly peaceful, groups of anarchists, punks and others broke away from the main march to vandalize a McDonald's restaurant and corporate stores. About 200 people were arrested and over 25 injured.

Bush, on his first trip outside the United States since the elections, found another unwanted answer to the question he posed in the aftermath of 9/11: "Why do they hate us?" It is certainly not for "our freedoms" as Bush inanely asserts. Aside from the war in Iraq, many protestors in Chile are deeply hostile because the United States backed a military coup on September 11, 1973 that took away their freedoms. It deposed the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende and marked the beginning of a seventeen year dictatorship. One banner stated: "US Terrorist State: The First September 11." A common refrain of demonstrators who want no further US meddling in their affairs proclaimed: "Bush, listen, Chile is not for sale."

-snip-

Bush spent much of his time in Santiago trying to bludgeon the other twenty heads of state into endorsing his war-mongering schemes for going after North Korea and Iran for their alleged weapons of mass destruction. There is indeed a Chilean alternative to Bush: it is to pursue former dictators and the real terrorists by using international law and building a global international criminal system that will be based on an egalitarian economic system that empowers people at the grass roots to build their own future.
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[knowbody0]

1. cowboy still pounding his chest over the fall of saddam

kept away from the protestors and no doubt oblivious to the hatred of those around him at these meetings. boss of the world, ordering countries to co operate or else. what a puke. he is not my president