Lula's own Workers' Party to protest Bush's visit

dpa German Press Agency Published: Tuesday March 6, 2007

Sao Paulo- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva'
will play host to US President George W Bush on Friday, but that
won't stop his own political party from joining harsh protests
against Bush's visit.
"The party will join social movements in protests against Bush,"
said Workers' Party (PT) chairman Ricardo Berzoini on the party's
website Tusday.

Demonstrators from a wide range of groups are planning fake blood-
baths to represent Iraq, and effigies of Bush's to be pummelled by
participants, the organizers said.

"The government has to maintain a state-to-state relationship. But
the PT, as a party, has an opinion which is even more steadfast than
that of the government and always expresses its disagreement with the
way in which the United States behaves on the world stage, on
political, commercial, military and environmental questions," he
explained.

The website reflected harsher attacks from the party's leftist
factions, including a remark by Joao Felicio - a former chairman of
the trade union movement CUT - that "Bush Jr represents the
degeneration of the Empire and its most rotten face."

With the nod from the party leadership, large numbers of PT
members are expected to attend protests organized for Thursday and
Friday during Bush's visit.

Many walls in Sao Paulo - where Bush is set to meet Lula on Friday
- showed the slogan "Out with Bush," drumming up support for a
demonstration which organizers expect will draw 20,000-30,000 people.

The National Student Union (UNE) has organized a march through Sao
Paulo city centre on Thursday, timed to coincide with Bush's arrival.

Brazil is the first stage of a Latin American tour which is to
take Bush to Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico.

"There will be dolls with Bush's face which will be hit by
demonstrators, and signs which identify Bush as the (Adolf) Hitler of
the twenty-first century," said UNE president Gustavo Petta.

He added that protests are set to include a "bath in red ink (to)
represent deaths in Iraq."

Although Brazilian authorities plan to isolate demonstrators from
any contact with Bush, the UNE director of international relations
Lucia Stumpf said the organization has designated a "hunt commando"
with a view to following Bush's track in Sao Paulo.

"We want to demonstrate all our repudiation to humanity's number
one enemy," Stumpf said.

The UNE is one of 60 organizations planning anti-Bush rallies in
Brazil.

Federal Sheriff Flavio Trivella, in charge of security operations
for Bush's visit, said the authorities are ready even to prevent
visual contact between the US president and his critics.

"President Bush is someone who has many enemies around the world,"
Trivella said recently. "There has never been such a high-risk visit
(to Brazil)."

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.

Brazilian intelligence has intensified its investigations around
the country's Arab community - both in Sao Paulo and in the city of
Foz do Iguazu, on the so-called Triple Frontier with Argentina and
Paraguay. Washington suspects that there are supporters of the
Hezbollah movement in the area.

© 2006 - dpa German Press Agency

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