Nov 3, 12:54 PM (ET)
By Kevin Gray
MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina (Reuters) - Shopkeepers raced to board up storefronts and residents fled this Argentine seaside resort on Thursday as thousands of protesters prepared marches against U.S. President George W. Bush during an Americas-wide presidential summit.
Bush was scheduled to arrive late Thursday for a two-day Summit of the Americas in a country where anti-Bush sentiment runs high due to the war in Iraq and U.S.-backed, free-market policies that Argentines say pushed millions of their compatriots into poverty.
"People see all the iron barricades and police on every corner and they get scared," said construction worker Hernan Brito, who received five last-minute requests to board up store windows from merchants who he said also fear looting.
U.S. interests like Blockbuster video stores and Citibank branches were covered with corrugated metal shields ahead of protest marches early Friday.
More than 7,500 police officers erected a security ring around the summit hotels and patrolled the streets and beaches of this normally bustling city of 600,000, which looked more like a ghost town. Coast guard boats and helicopters trolled the shore, while air space was restricted.
"We hope protests are carried out in a peaceful way, but if they are not, we are prepared to give wrongdoers a forceful response," said Federal Police commissioner Daniel Rodriguez.
Leftist activists mostly from Latin America are holding an alternative Peoples' Summit and Bush's main critic in the region, leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, is due to speak there on Friday.
The war of words between Bush and Chavez over trade and development will take center stage at the summit, but Chavez also aims to be the victor on the streets.
A Chavez-sponsored train will bring anti-Bush celebrities like Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona to the city. U.S. anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan and other relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq are also expected in town.
Cuba's Fidel Castro, the only leader not invited to the summit, sent a delegation of Cuban athletes to the Peoples' Summit to support his friend Chavez.
Argentina's "piqueteros" -- the militant unemployed who sprang to fame during the country's 2001-2002 economic crisis -- are organizing their own march for Friday.
BUNKER MENTALITY
The bunker mentality even spread to the capital Buenos Aires, 250 miles to the north, where two separate riots took place this week. The government blamed a hodgepodge of labor and leftist groups for the destructive rampages.
But fears of terror attacks also came into play. Buenos Aires subway employees refused to work during the summit due to what they perceived as a security threat.
Bush may also face protests when he travels to Brazil on Saturday.
In Argentina, the summit of 34 leaders will concentrate on job creation as the key to long-term prosperity for Latin America, where the $3,000 per capita income is less than 10 percent of the U.S. average.
More prickly issues, like the U.S. push to restart stalled talks for the Free Trade Area of the Americas or FTAA in 2006, may not make much progress in the forum due to resistance among Latin America's big economies.
In a first act of protest at a Thursday meeting of foreign ministers, a young woman with a green scarf over her face held up the sign "No to FTAA."
Locals who had hoped for a boost from the summit scoffed at it for the trouble it was causing their businesses.
"They say the summit is focusing on job creation, but we have to leave our jobs so they can do it," said an angry Gloria Martinez, who sells Mar del Plata's famous sweaters.
(Additional reporting by Raymond Colitt in Brasilia)
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