Cumbre de los americas

In case anyone was wondering, I'm just fine out here, not that anyone of you were :). Bush came down to Argentina for the Americas summit and there were quite a few protests against him. No surprise but he's not all that popular here. The summit was actually down in Mar de Plata, a beach resort area a couple of hours from Buenos Aires. Most of the protests were held down there (tens of thousands from all over South America marched against him), led by the president of Venezuela and Maradona, controversial former Boca player (Hand of God incident - English soccer fans will know). Anyway, everyone down here had been talking about it forever and they actually canceled classes during the first day of the summit because our school thought the city would basically shut down.

The protests in Buenos Aires weren't all that bad. A couple of small marches and a big rally but mostly peaceful. When I was there at least. A couple of friends and I went down to the rally to check it out. We were pretty careful about not speaking English or otherwise advertising ourselves at Americans. They had all these politicians, writers and community leaders giving speeches as well as some live music. It was definitely interesting to see. Argentineans follow and emulate American culture but when it comes to our politics and president, they are very vocal.

People marching in groups with maybe a couple hundred people.

Most of the protest speeches were about Iraq and the proposed free-trade agreement. I talked to a bunch of Argentineans about it and it was eye-opening to see these issues from their perspective. Most of them are distrustful of American corporations undercutting Argentinean interests. They also really resent America's heavy-handed approach to Iraq and pushing American capitalism on the rest of the world. One of the great things about spending time living outside of the country is getting new perspectives from non-Americans. For once, America and our politics aren't the center of the universe and I'm actually learning about what's going on the rest of the world. That sounds cheesy but I thnk its really important to remember that we are just one country and one viewpoint in the world, especially considering how global everything is becoming.

Some interesting things about the rallies. Che lives on. He's like Elvis though no one really thinks he's still alive. But Che is definitely an icon in the socialist movement down here. Doesn't matter that he led an army that killed a whole bunch of people in the name of communism; he speaks for the people! I've seen so many Che flags, t-shirts, backpacks and grafitti stencils.

The big rally. Yet another Che flag.

The protests did end up getting a little violent but I was safe at home. Apparently, they torched a couple of McDonalds and Burger Kings since they are the biggest brands out here. Those and Citibank. Btw, I tried McDonald's and its the same but different. Good but in a totally different way. I've decided to add it to my travels and I'm going to try McDonald's in as many different countries and I can. Sort of a running theme.

I couldn't get a great picture but there are all these policemen lined up in front of the McDonald's because they were anti-American targets.

Anyway, sorry this post is a bit abrupt. I'm running out the door and I want to post this since this happened last weekend and I also won't be here this weekend. I'm going to an estancia (basically a ranch in the countryside) and won't be back until Sunday. After that I only have one week left in Buenos Aires! I'm leaving for Patagonia the week of Thanksgiving and then I will be back for a few days before heading home. Can't believe how the time has flown...