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 Editorials | Issues | March 2007 
Mexico Protesters Call for End to War
 Traci Carl - Associated Press
| | A demonstrator throws a tear-gas canister back to riot police during a protest against the visit to Mexico of U.S. President George W. Bush, at the fence surrounding the U.S. Embassy area in Mexico City Tuesday. (AP/Eduardo Verdugo) |
Protesters demanded "No more war!" and called Mexican President Felipe Calderon a "lapdog" of the U.S. on Wednesday, wrapping up days of often violent protests that dogged President Bush's five-nation tour of Latin America.
As the U.S. leader's plane took off Wednesday, about two dozen protesters circled Merida's central Zocalo plaza shouting "Bush understand this, Mexico doesn't want you!" and "Calderon is a lapdog of the imperialists!"
They demanded the release of dozens of fellow demonstrators who were rounded up the night before during a violent clash with some 200 riot police in the same square.
On Wednesday, protester and university professor Mauricio Macosay denounced the police response as "brutal" and "exaggerated" and said many of those detained had been marching peacefully.
He and others marched through the streets, stopping briefly at the municipal palace and chanting: "Freedom for political prisoners!"
A man in an orange janitor's jumpsuit stopped scrubbing anarchist graffiti from the building's stone pillars to watch.
Bush is blamed here by many for tougher U.S. immigration policies and increasing violence in Iraq, and his visit throughout the region was often marred by violence.
During his stop in Brazil, police fired tear gas and sent baton charges against thousands of protesters, while scores of rioters broke shop windows and ripped computers from offices during the U.S. president's visit to Colombia.
Late Tuesday, about 100 demonstrators battered the metal barriers surrounding Bush's hotel, trying unsuccessfully to pull them down as they screamed: "Murderer!" Many tossed rocks or heavy chunks of concrete over the barriers at riot police lining the other side.
Tourists dining at sidewalk cafes watched the protests curiously, some snapping photographs and or taking videos with their cell phones.
Erin Graham, a 24-year-old student from Houston was in the square with her husband and two small children when the riot police suddenly arrived and began fighting with the protesters. She said she ran over to see what was happening, while her husband stayed behind with the children.
"Studying Mexican history, I have read about this a lot," she said as police vans sped by, their lights flashing, "but I wanted to see it in person." |
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