"John Wayne" Bush rides to rescue

By Mike Allen
The Washington Post

LAWRENCE JACKSON / AP President Bush, center left, reaches into the crowd for his Secret Service agent who was blocked from entering the Estacion Mapocho Cultural Center for the APEC Summit dinner on Saturday.

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SANTIAGO, Chile — For President Bush, it must have been like going out without his wallet. He turned around and the presidential shadow — his Secret Service agent — was gone.

Moments later, Bush single-handedly rescued the agent from a boisterous scuffle between U.S. and Chilean security forces, a role reversal that became the talk of an international economic summit.

The incident Saturday evening began when Nick Trotta, the No. 2 agent on Bush's security detail, opened the door of a black Cadillac limousine for the president and first lady Laura Bush when they arrived at a former train station that was the site of the closing dinner of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

Bush and the first lady walked into the banquet hall, and Chilean officers, who appeared to be waiting for the moment, stepped in front of Trotta, blocking him from entering.

U.S. officials said Chilean police had been chafing for a week about a demand by Secret Service agents that they control the president's space, even when he was on sovereign turf.

Amid a flurry of half nelsons, one Secret Service agent wound up jammed against a wall. "You're not stopping me! You're not stopping me! I'm with the president!" an unidentified agent can be heard yelling on videotape of the mayhem.

It took Bush several minutes to realize what was happening. Then he either realized he was missing something, or he heard the commotion.

The president, who is rarely alone, turned and walked back to the front door unaccompanied. With his right hand, he reached over the suits and pointed insistently at Trotta.

At first the Chilean officers, with their backs to him and their heads in the rumble, did not realize it was the president intervening. Bush braced himself against someone and lunged to retrieve the agent, who was still arguing with the Chileans. The shocked Chilean officials released Trotta.
 
Trotta walked in behind Bush, who looked enormously pleased with himself. He was wearing the expression that some critics call a smirk, and his eyebrows shot up as if to wink at bystanders.

Chilean journalists were critical of Bush's actions. Marcelo Romero, a reporter for Santiago's newspaper La Cuarta, said: "It was total breach of protocol. I've seen a lot of John Wayne movies, and President Bush was definitely acting like a cowboy."

U.S. officials took a lighthearted view. White House press secretary Scott McClellan chuckled about the incident. "The president is someone who tends to delegate," McClellan said. "But every now and then, he's a hands-on kind of guy."

APEC has 21 member countries, and tension inevitably results at international gathering when the U.S. president barges in with a small air force, an entourage of 260, a press corps of 100 and a motorcade of 20 vehicles.

And in a final twist, Chilean authorities canceled an elaborate state dinner for 200 that had been planned for last night after President Ricardo Lagos would not agree to the Secret Service requirement that his guests pass through metal detectors. The event was downgraded to a small working dinner for the two presidents and their staffs.

In other developments at the conference:

Meeting with Mexican President Vicente Fox, Bush renewed support for changes to U.S. immigration law to allow undocumented laborers to work legally in the United States. "I told President Fox that I had campaigned on this issue," Bush said. "I made it very clear my position that we need to make sure that where there's a willing worker and a willing employer, that that job ought to be filled legally in cases where Americans will not fill that job."

Pacific Rim leaders pledged to shore up global security and push ahead with the World Trade Organization's negotiations on lowering global trade barriers. "We've got to reject the blocks and barriers that divide economies and people," Bush said. "And I believe, with the right policies, we can continue to grow."

Material from The Associated Press and Los Angeles Times is included in this report.