Bush protests heat up in Latin America

[babylonsister]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/03/08/bush.protests.ap/

Bush protests heat up in Latin America
POSTED: 2:28 p.m. EST, March 8, 2007


SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- Students, environmentalists and left-leaning Brazilians took to the streets Thursday to protest a visit by President George W. Bush and his push for an ethanol energy alliance with Latin America's largest nation.

Thousands of protesters waving communist flags and banners promoting Brazil's powerful landless farmworkers' movement gathered for a 3-kilometer (2-mile) march through the financial heart of South America's largest city just hours before Bush was scheduled to arrive.

And in the southern city of Porto Alegre, more than 500 people yelled "Get Out, Imperialist!" as they marched to a Citigroup Inc. bank branch and burned an effigy of Bush.

Fearing that Brazil may clear pristine jungle to increase sugarcane cultivation for ethanol production, Greenpeace activists hung a huge banner warning against increased reliance on ethanol as an alternative fuel on a monument to the 17th century Portuguese explorers who conquered Brazil's Indians in search of gold and gems.

"We know that Bush and the United States are known for exploiting weaker countries into deals that will only benefit themselves without worrying about the environment," said Mariana Schwarz, a 25-year-old publicist.

March organizers complained that the ethanol pact could enslave poor Brazilians while enriching overseas investors. The coalition of marchers was expected to include union members and extremists from the Workers Party that supported President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the 2002 campaign that made him Brazil's first elected leftist leader.

"Bush and the United States go to war to control oil reserves, and now Bush and his pals are trying to control the production of ethanol in Brazil. And that has to be stopped," said Suzanne Pereira dos Santos, an activist with Brazil's Landless Workers Movement.

more...

[shance]

1. "Left leaning Brazilians" ? Please. How about citizens against Bush and Cheney?

How the media tries to diminish and marginalize those fighting the abuse is so tiring at times.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Yeah, 'waving communist flags'???

[endarkenment]

8. yes outside of the insular US people actually have poltiical

beliefs across the political spectrum, rather than within a narrow range of hard-right-authoritarian to moderate-right-authoritarian.

[Clark2008]

12. Hell, we have a wide political spectrum, here, too.

We just don't have proper representation outside of the two-party system.

[Colobo]

3. Being from Latin America myself

I think we need to put these "protests" in perspective. These protesters are usually anarchists that dislike the U.S. in general, and have protested every single time a U.S. president goes down there. Yes, Bush deserves to be protested against, but still, most Latin American nations have notorious ultra-leftist groups in college campuses who spend more time protesting for anything and throwing rocks than actually doing something productive.

Most of these protesters are the stereotypical "college lefty"- middle-high and high class students in their early twenties who wear Che t-shirts, go to punk rock concerts, think Greenpeace is "cool" because "we need to save the planet", and abandon all of that as soon as they leave college. Very few of these "protesters" remain loyal to their causes after they get out of college.

[endarkenment]

7. or not...

In Rio De Janeiro hundreds of brazilian preseants filled the Capao Xavier iron ore mine and invaded a sugar mill in protests before the U.S. President George Bush visits the country.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/134530/Brazil_peasants_stage_protests_ahead_of_Bush_visit

While Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is set to play host to Bush on Friday in Sao Paulo, his own political party is backing harsh protests against the visit.

"The party will join social movements in protests against Bush," Workers' Party (PT) chairman Ricardo Berzoini said on the party's website Tuesday.

Demonstrators from a wide range of groups are planning to stage fake bloodbaths to represent Iraq and pummel effigies of Bush, the organizers said.

http://www.mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=551716

[Colobo]

11. All those "protesters" that you see

With their faces covered, throwing stones at the police, should not be taken seriously. Most of them are the majority of the "protesters".

[shance]

13. Well that was a demeaning post of people exercising their right to oppose the abuse

Why do many of us buy into the media induced hatred, demonization and marginalization of those who more often than not, have the courage we lack to speak out, do the right thing and oppose the horrific abuses being implemented upon those who are asking for their most basic needs to be met for them and their famlies.

Is that too much for them to ask?

Wouldn't you ask for the same things? Of course you would.

When did it become "liberal leftist" to simply do what was right? That is what is so frightening. Have we become so insular as to demonize, categorize, minimize those who are doing the work that we are not?

One day it is my hope all mankind will realize that our chain is only as strong as its weakest link. That is why we must insure our weakest link is in fact strong and attended to, just like every other link.

[Tuesday_Morning]

4. more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20070308/bush-latin-america

snip

Protesters, most of them women from the Via Campesina farmworkers movement, briefly shut down an iron ore mine, invaded an ethanol distillery and took over the Rio de Janeiro offices of Brazil's National Development Bank. Fresh graffiti reading "Get Out, Bush! Assassin!" in bright red letters popped up along busy highways near the locations in Sao Paulo where Bush will appear as he kicks off his Latin American tour.

snip

[seafan]

5. L'il Jebbie's been hard at work behind the scenes on the ethanol push.

Jeb Bush encouraged brother to pursue ethanol

By DAVID ADAMS
March 5, 2007

WASHINGTON - When Americans voted for George W. Bush in November 2000, they knew they were electing a man with deep ties to Texas oil.
But six years later, a greener-sounding Bush is about to depart for a trip to Brazil, where he hopes to forge a biofuels partnership that officials believe could revolutionize America's fuel industry and transform its relations with Latin America.
Critics suspect the president's biofuels conversion is only superficial, a late-in-the-day effort to build a less oil-splattered legacy. ..... Such is the level of intensity that Bush and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will meet twice this month, a rarity for even the closest U.S. ally. After they meet Thursday in Brasilia, Lula will come on March 31 to Camp David, where the biofuels pact may be finalized.

.....

For years, Brazil tried in vain to persuade U.S. officials of the merits of ethanol, which had made the largest country in South America virtually energy self-sufficient.
"The price of oil for a long time didn't compel," said Donna Hrinak, U.S. ambassador to Brazil from 2002 to 2004. She recalls Brazil raising the issue in 2003. "Our response was 'We are working on the hydrogen car. We are happy with that and we'll see you later.' "
That began to change with the emergence since 1999 of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who is using his country's vast petroleum reserves to undermine U.S. influence in the region.
Bush got a taste of that firsthand in November 2005 when he attended a regional summit in Argentina that was marred by anti-U.S. riots stoked by Chavez.

On his way back from the summit, Bush stopped in Brazil, where he got a much warmer reception. Lula invited him to his country home, known as Crooked Creek Ranch, for a relaxed barbecue.
"It was a very good, cordial meeting, lots of smiles and a warm atmosphere," said John Danilovich, U.S. ambassador to Brazil from 2004 to 2006, who was present. "There's a real rapport between the two men."
A leftist former union leader, Lula might not seem Bush's natural ally. But he is big on biofuels. He keeps a display in his office of feedstock samples and the fuels they produce. Bush and Lula have grown so close that they regularly speak by phone, often outside office hours.

.....

In the meantime the president received a letter from his brother in Tallahassee. Florida had taken a beating from the 2005 hurricane season, sending gas prices soaring. The governor's contacts in Miami were touting Brazil as a model for energy independence.
Jeb Bush wrote to his brother in April, urging the president to implement "a comprehensive ethanol strategy for our country and our hemisphere."
Rather than buy oil from hostile nations such as Venezuela, which supplies about 12 percent of U.S. petroleum needs, Jeb Bush said the United States ought to buy biofuels from friendly countries such as Brazil and Colombia, as well as Central America and the Caribbean.
Jeb Bush was already deep in talks with the Brazilian ethanol industry about a joint partnership. In December, two weeks before leaving office, he co-founded the Interamerican Ethanol Commission to promote regional production. Rodrigues, who gave President Bush the biofuels lecture, was a co-signer.

.....

Since January, Bush has been on a tear, visiting biofuels labs in North Carolina and Delaware. He hosted a hybrid car demonstration at the White House.
Last week, Bush led a panel of biofuels scientists at a leading enzymes company. Bush chatted knowledgeably about the science of ethanol and new technology to make it from nonfood crops.
"I am passionate about this subject," he told the audience. ..... U.S. environmentalists also remain deeply suspicious of the White House's motives, sensing a rush to redeem the president's legacy in his last two years in office.
"If President Bush really wanted to be the biofuels president, he would put a carbon tax on fossil fuels. He won't do it, though," said Bruce Babcock, a leading agricultural economist at Iowa State University. A carbon tax on gasoline would make biofuels more competitive, stimulating private investment, he said.

.....

U.S. President George W. Bush holds a bottle of ethanol as he tours Novozymes North America Inc. with Mads Torry-Smith, group leader for the Biomass group, in Franklinton, North Carolina, February 22, 2007. REUTERS/Jim Young (UNITED STATES)




(edit-- photo link dead)
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, right, pumps ethanol into a vehicle during ceremonies to open the first public ethanol pump in Florida, Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2006, in Tallahassee, Fla. The pump is the first of 17 ethanol pumps to be installed by Inland Food Stores in North Florida during the next eight months.(AP Photo/Phil Coale)

[leftchick]

6. "Brazil police battle Bush protesters " The Brownshirts Are Out!

here we go.... :(

my god look at the blood. wtf is wrong with these police? they are doing this for booosh?



Policemen fight demonstrators during a protest against the upcoming visit of US President George W. Bush in Sao Paulo, Thursday, March 8, 2007. President Bush will visit Brazil March 8-9. (AP Photo/Maurilio Cheli)

rate it up for the world to see...http://news.yahoo.com/photo/070308/481/xap10103082125

[partylessinOhio]

9. Brazil says Bush Go Home!

Brazilians protest against the visit by U.S. President George W. Bush, scheduled to arrive later in the day for the first leg of a tour of five Latin American countries, along Sao Paulo's Paulista Avenue March 8, 2007. The poster reads, 'Down with the Number One Terrorist. Bush Go Home.'

[Greyhound]

10. K & R

Where's the love people? South America may well be the future for our world and we should be paying attention to what is happening there.

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