http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Summit.html
Quebec Summit Opens Amid Protests By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 4.21.01
Filed at 10:57 a.m. ET
QUEBEC (AP) -- Western hemisphere leaders debated how to create the world's largest free-trade zone without eroding hard-fought democratic gains, while riot police were on high alert as busloads of demonstrators gathered Saturday to protest capitalism, globalization and the trade plan.
President Bush told the 34-nation Summit of the Americas that expanded trade ``creates new jobs and new income. It lifts the lives of our people, applying the power of markets to the needs of the poor.''
Other leaders said democratic nations have not done enough to help the needy. ``The challenge we all face as leaders,'' said Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, ``is how best to steer our government agendas back to the most critical problems facing our citizens.''
Mexican President Vicente Fox said, ``There is a lot to celebrate but there is also a lot to lament. We need a strong expansion of economic citizenship, to democratize the markets. Only by doing that can we develop the energy of the millions who have been excluded from economic development.''
Outside, the streets were littered with spent tear gas canisters and debris from clashes between police and protesters. The confrontations lasted well into the night with police first using tear gas, then rubber bullets and powerful water cannons to disperse the crowds.
Police arrested about 100 people. Authorities said five police officers were injured, and several protesters and journalists also were seen with minor injuries. Tens of thousands of protesters were gathering Saturday for more demonstrations.
Bush, making his first appearance at an international summit, urged his fellow leaders to work toward building ``a fully democratic hemisphere, bound by goodwill and free trade.''
For his part, he promised to hold ``intense consultations'' with members of Congress to obtain the authority he needs to negotiate the Free Trade Zone of the Americas that the leaders hope to establish by 2005.
``I'm confident I will get it,'' Bush said, predicting that Congress will grant the authority before year's end.
Acknowledging the protests, Bush said he would listen to the voices ``inside this hall and those outside this hall who want to join us in constructive dialogue'' about expanded trade.
``Open trade reinforces the habit of liberty that sustains democracy over the long haul,'' Bush said.
Chretien opened Saturday's meeting with a call for fortifying smaller democracies that are ``facing a crisis of legitimacy and relevancy.''
``The declining voter turnout is just one indicator of this phenomenon,'' Chretien said. ``It challenges us to be ever more creative in the policy directions we set.''
He urged leaders to set aside reservations about freer trade in the hemisphere. ``Today, more than ever before, we will be judged as elected leaders on a basis of how much we contribute to improving the well-being of our people,'' Chretien said.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday that few of the goals set out at the first Summit of the Americas, in Miami in 1994, have been met.
``It's not just that we haven't advanced -- we have gone backwards,'' he said. ``Today there is more poverty than yesterday. Today there are more children in the street than yesterday.''
As the summit opened Friday evening, police protected by helmets and shields kept protesters at bay with volleys of tear gas that sent a burning mist to greet leaders as they arrived.
Those opening ceremonies were delayed an hour after demonstrators tore down a section of the concrete blocks and chain-link fence that barricaded the heart of Quebec City where the summit is being held.
Protesters hurled rocks, bottles, hockey pucks, stuffed animals and part of the destroyed fence at police. Officers advanced on demonstrators banging their shields with truncheons to beat out a menacing rhythm.
Some of the leaders inside said they shared the protesters' concerns, although they criticized their violent methods.
Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso said the protest ``is motivated by the fear of a free trade agreement or globalization without a human face.''
He said Brazil would insist that ``trade openings are reciprocal and help close rather than widen the disparities in our region.''
Prime Minister Owen Seymour Arthur of Barbados noted that the leaders were trying to unite the some of the world's most powerful and its poorest countries in ``the same economic and social space.'' He called for a ``people-centered'' summit that would make concessions for poorer nations.
Bush, in his weekly radio address Saturday, said expanded trade has benefited the United States.
``Many American businesses are finding new markets and opportunities in the Americas, which creates jobs at home and promotes economic growth abroad,'' he said. ``And all Americans benefit when our closest neighbors are peaceful, stable and enjoy stronger economies.''
The president said the forces of democracy, while strong, are threatened by poverty, illiteracy and illegal drugs in the Americas. ``So at this summit we are discussing a very practical agenda to strengthen democracy,'' he said. ``We must tear down the barriers of ignorance and illiteracy that limit the ambitions of so many children in our hemisphere and feed their frustrations.''
All 34 countries at the summit have endorsed the goal of a free-trade zone stretching from the Arctic Circle to Cape Horn. The only absentee is Cuba, not invited at the insistence of the United States even though the rest of the region is friendly to Havana.
Cuba's President Fidel Castro expressed sympathy for the protesters. The police action against ``peaceful demonstrations by those protesting the crime some are trying to commit against the political and economic rights of the people of Latin America and the Caribbean ... is shameful,'' Castro said in a message read on state television.
At the three-day gathering, participants are expected to adopt a ``democracy clause'' that would revoke free trade privileges if countries abandon democracy, such as in a military coup.
For the United States, Mexico and Canada, the hemispheric pact would expand an existing free trade agreement to include Central and South America and the Caribbean. [end]