Brazilian Policemen beat a protester during a march against U.S. President George W. Bush in Sao Paulo, Thursday, March 8, 2007. Bush will visit Brazil March 8-9. (AP Photo/Maurilio Cheli)
President Bush tours the Petrobras alternative fuel facility with Brazilian President Liuz Inacio Lula da Silva in Sao Paulo, March 9, 2007. (Jason Reed/Reuters)
Brazil Police Battle Bush Protesters
By STAN LEHMAN
The Associated Press
Thursday, March 8, 2007; 11:04 PM
SAO PAULO, Brazil -- Police clashed Thursday with Brazilians protesting a visit by President Bush and his push for an ethanol energy alliance, while dozens of students in Colombia showed their opposition by lobbing rocks and explosives at authorities.
Violence in Sao Paulo took place several hours before Bush arrived in South America's largest city on the first stop of his five-nation Latin America tour.
Thousands of students, workers and environmentalists protesting President Bush's arrival here Thursday shut down a road in a central business district, and some clashed with helmet-wearing riot police who fired tear gas and beat demonstrators.
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Bush Trip Prompts Few Cheers Among Uruguayans
By Michael Bowman
Montevideo
Thousands of mainly leftist Uruguayans are preparing to demonstrate against President Bush's visit to the South American country, the second stop in a five-nation tour of Latin America. Bilateral trade and the fight against poverty are expected to take center stage in Mr. Bush's talks Saturday with his Uruguayan counterpart, Tabare Vazquez, in the picturesque city of Colonia. But, as VOA's Michael Bowman reports from the Uruguayan capital, the Bush visit has prompted a fierce debate in Uruguay over the U.S. role on the world stage.
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2-0-Sixx file photo
Chavez goes on counter-tour to Bush trip
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Venezuela's firebrand leader said Friday that
President Bush's Latin American tour was nothing more than an attempt to improve America's image, dismissing pledges of U.S. aid as a cynical attempt to "confuse" the region.
President Hugo Chavez, who complained last week that Bush's tour was meant to divide Latin America and isolate his leftist government, launched a counter-tour of his own, arriving late Thursday in Buenos Aires. He said the U.S. leader only recently "has discovered poverty" in the region.
"I believe the chief objective of the Bush trip is to try to scrub clean the face of the (U.S.) empire in Latin America. But it's too late," Chavez said of recent Bush pledges of aid. "It seems he's just now discovered that poverty exists in the region."
In an interview with Argentine state television Channel 7, Chavez promised his scheduled soccer-stadium rally Friday night in Buenos Aires "will be confrontational. I believe you have to point out the contrasts. If he says 'Yes,' we say, 'No!'"
