As leaders gathered at the Nov. 4-5 summit in Argentina to discuss the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) proposal, more than 1,000 demonstrators protested Bush’s policies. The worldwide debate over free trade has often been accompanied by chaos and violence. Prior summits regarding the issue have also attracted heated protests.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is the top critic of the FTAA proposal. He said he would finally defeat the FTAA proposal.

“Only united can we defeat imperialism and bring our people a better life,” said Chavez while addressing a crowd of 10,000 peaceful protestors. “Here, in Mar del Plata, FTAA will be buried!”

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Argentine President Nestor Kirchner was critical of the United States during the summit, saying that Latin America will no longer tolerate American meddling.

“Past American policy not only generated misery and poverty,” said Kirchner, “but also a great social tragedy that added to institutional instability in the region, provoking the fall of democratically-elected governments.”

As the summit carried on for two days, riot police resorted to tear gas in an attempt to restrain hostile protestors.

Armed with large wooden clubs, protestors demolished stores and windows and set at least one bank ablaze.

They used slingshots to launch rocks and threw sharpened sticks at the riot police. The protestors also set numerous U.S. flags on fire and used them as fuel for bonfires.

“I don’t like Bush, but this is too much. There is no need for violence,” said hotel manager Ramon Madrid to the Chicago Sun-Times.

One restaurant was untouched because it exhibited anti-Bush posters in its windows.

The anti-American protests spread into neighboring Argentine cities like Uruguay where hooded protestors chanted anti-Bush slogans while attacking banks and local shops.

“Get out Bush!” shouted protestors, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, “Fascist Bush! You are the terrorist!”

According to the Washington Post, Chavez and protestors are enraged because they feel that the FTAA proposal has been forced on Latin American countries ever since the proposal was originally raised in 1994 at the first Americas summit in Miami.

Chavez has now suggested an anti-FTAA trade agreement based on socialist ideals. He has been attempting to create a united anti-FTAA region by using Venezuela’s oil wealth to attract neighboring countries. According to CNN, he has offered fuel with privileged financing to various Caribbean and Latin American countries.

Chavez said to the Washington Post that he did not want to intensify the dispute by “putting more fuel on the fire.” He said that Venezuela will continue to attempt to unite the Latin American nations rather than sign a free-trade deal with the U.S.

Chavez has voiced his belief that the FTAA would help big U.S. companies, and this would be at the expense of Latin America’s poor.

“The nature of these comments directly reflects Chavez’s personal cosmovision which is grounded in socialist doctrine and which diametrically opposes the capitalist foundation of the FTAA,” said Steffany Gamsby, Assistant Professor of Foreign Languages. “I know Venezuelans who have left the country because of their perception of the loss of civil liberties. I also have acquaintances who feel that Venezuela is excelling at redistributing the country’s oil-based riches to the poorest segments of society.”

“I am not qualified to venture an overall opinion on the potential effects of the FTAA on any country,” said Gamsby. “I can, however, say that I feel that the U.S. has suffered negative impacts from NAFTA, as can be witnessed by the virtual disappearance of the textile industry from our own state of North Carolina.”

“Mexico supports the FTAA and says it’s the best. I say it’s the worst,” said Chavez to CNN. “We must be capable of debating without fighting.”

When reporters asked U.S. President George W. Bush how he would react to a face-to-face meeting with Chavez, Bush said that he would simply be polite.

“That’s what the American people expect their president to do, is to be a polite person,” said Bush to the Washington Post. “And if I run across him, I will do just that.”