3rd Summit of the Peoples of America - Mass continental protest march against Bush

MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina.—The chief of the White House, W. Bush, is about to receive a clear signal of continental rejection generated by his neofascist policies, when tens of thousands of people march through the streets of this city at the end of the sessions of the 3rd Summit of the Peoples, attended by more than 600 organizations and social movements of the region.

The final objectives of the march, ratified yesterday in a press conference by Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, one of the organizers of the event whose debates focused on alternatives in the face of capitalism, are to express a round NO to Bush and the imperialist FTAA project (Free Trade Area of the Americas).

The outstanding human rights defender also assured that if there would be support mobilizations in many parts of Argentina.

The Continental Mobilization Event: No to Bush! Another America is possible! (the name given to the march) is also a demonstration of support on the streets of Mar del Plata for the Bolivarian Revolution and its leader, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who is to take part in the protest and is to speak in a mass meeting in the World Stadium, where later on, eminent singer-songwriters like Silvio Rodríguez, Amaury Pérez, Daneil Viglietti, Rally Barrionuevo and Panco Villa, and others, are to raise their voices.

Those attending the demonstration include Pibe de Oro and Diego Armando Maradona, who have reiterated their wish that Argentines deliver an unequivocal message: "Goerge Bush is persona non grata for our peoples!"

From dawn Argentine Channel 23 has been transmitting live the arrival of Maradona, Evo Morales, Miguel Bonaso and other outstanding participants in the Summit at the railroad terminal in Buenos Aires to take the train which will bring them here. Maradona said that he was hoping for a peaceful march, without violence, which would demonstrate to Bush "how much damage he has done to us." Replying to journalists he affirmed: "I love Fidel very much, with all my heart."

The 300-plus Cuban delegates to the 3rd Summit will be on the march in tight ranks alongside their brothers and sisters from the region, moreover defending the America’s right to its much-needed integration, already proposed in the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA).

Until late last night the artist members of the Cuban delegation were preparing large banners: one of them with the face of Che accompanied by the flags of the continent.

The demonstrators are to walk almost 30 blocks of the Independence Avenue, from the intersection with Luro Street to the World Stadium. The people who have been meeting over these days in the city, 400 kilometers from Buenos Aires, are to be joined by almost 1,000 more leaving the capital at 6:00 a.m. on the so-called ALBA Train.

ALARCON SPEAKS

Ricardo Alarcón, president of the Cuban National Assembly, who is heading the island delegation, affirmed that what has been happening in the last few days is the real Summit of the Americas, because it is a people’s one; he stressed that the FTAA is moribund and thanked Adolfo Esquivel Pérez for his efforts in developing the event.

Addressing thousands of people attending the Assembly of the Peoples of America in the Polivalente Stadium, Alarcón commented that this Friday’s anti-Bush march will be orderly, disciplined, peaceful and civilized, which is the way of the peoples. War, violence and irrationality, he said, "belong to Bush, not us." He also spoke of the struggle of our people for the liberation of the Five, criticized the bellicose policy of the White House and called on Latin Americans to continue united for their genuine and essential independence.