Summit security rattles residents

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — The Americans have landed in Argentina. They brought warships and radar planes, spies and snipers, helicopters and armored cars. They laid in food, water and supplies by the ton — anything President Bush and his team might need over the next few days of the Summit of the Americas.

The Argentines are on the move, too. Federal police and military specialists have poured into the city of Mar del Plata. Residents frustrated by the intense security have poured out. And other Argentines are flocking to the beach city, eager to protest, agitate and otherwise make their views heard.

The summit, which opens Friday, brings together leaders of 34 countries in the Western Hemisphere. (Cuba and Fidel Castro are not invited.) But the central figure is Bush. The U.S. president, who is due to arrive today, will have an elaborate security apparatus protecting him. And he will need a tough skin as well.

A "Peoples Summit" which started Tuesday will draw thousands of peace activists, labor leaders, leftists and indigenous representatives from across South America, including Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona and Bolivian presidential candidate Evo Morales. They all defy Bush, his foreign policy and the free-market principles that the United States fosters across Latin America. Other groups are demonstrating as well.

The demonstrators vow to be peaceful. In any case, they will be contained far from the luxury hotels where the summiteers are staying.

Many residents have left the city to escape the three rings of security that form half-moons around the beachfront hotels and severely restrict walking, much less driving, in the area. As many as 250 city blocks will be affected, with more than 8 miles of fencing constructed to limit access. The skies also will be closed to commercial traffic once Bush arrives.

The head of the summit's joint security team said Argentine and American experts have been working side by side since nearly the first of the year.

But some residents in this city of nearly 600,000 think the security effort has gone overboard.

And what makes the inconvenience harder to bear for some is the sense that it stems almost completely from Bush's presence. Opinion polls show Bush is unpopular in South America, with some of the highest negative ratings found in Argentina.

"Fundamentally the problem resides in the visit of the North American president," said Oscar Alfredo Rocca, 55, who owns a property management firm in Mar del Plata. "The protests are not against the summit itself. They are because of 'amigo Bush.' ... There is no talk of any other president."

Additional information on the "counter summit" was reported by The Christian Science Monitor.