Protests, "super-security" await Bush in Brazil

By Diana Renee, dpa
Eds: epa photo 00000400946537; Bush arrives in Brazil Thursday; see
also eca 229, 230

Sao Paulo (dpa) - ...

Besides the 300 US agents set to accompany Bush, the US president will be protected by some 200 Brazilian federal agents and an as yet undisclosed number of members of Brazil's army and air force ...

Around 10,000 people are expected at protests organized by the Coordination of Social Movements, aimed not only at the war in Iraq and the anti-terrorist policies of the Bush Administration, but also at the negotiations between Brazil and the United States to promote the production of ethanol in Latin American and Caribbean countries.

A manifesto which the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) and other Latin American peasant organizations made public last week argued that the ethanol association which Bush and Lula are negotiating constitutes "an aspect of the geopolitical strategy of the United States to weaken the influence on the region of countries like Venezuela and Bolivia." ...

Bush's visit to Brazil is the first leg of a tour which is also to take him to Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico.

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