The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, November 22, 2004, Page 4, Image 4
Bush attempts
to connect with
Latin America
By TERENCE HUNT
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SANTIAGO, Chile — President Bush,
trying to mend relations with Latin
America, pledged Sunday to make a
fresh push for stalled immigration
reforms and defended the U.S. invasion
of Iraq, saying “history will prove it
right.”
While the Iraq war is widely opposed
in Latin America, Bush said, “The
United States of America will stay the
course and we will complete the task.”
Immigration is a sensitive issue
throughout the region and Bush said
that his proposed guest worker initiative
would strengthen border security and
help the economy.
“We would much rather have
security guards chasing down terrorists
or drug runners or drug smugglers than
people coming to work,” Bush said at an
economic summit here. “And so,
therefore, I think a guest worker
program is important.”
Winding up a three-day visit, Bush
spoke at a news conference as a new
security flap surfaced following an
embarrassing fracas on Saturday in
which Bush intervened and pulled his
Secret Service agent away from Chilean
guards. An elaborate state dinner with
200 people Sunday was downgraded to
an official working dinner, reportedly
because Chilean President Ricardo
Lagos balked at Secret Service demands
for guests to walk through metal
detectors.
There was no mention of either
incident when Bush appeared with
Lagos at the end of the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation forum, which
closed with pledges to shore up global
security, fight terrorism and push ahead
with negotiations to lower trade barriers.
Both Bush and Lagos acknowledged
they had disagreed about Iraq. “Most of
the time we will be in agreement.
Sometimes we won’t,” Lagos said. “But
that’s life.”
Bush said he respected Lagos’
decision and said they were still friends.
“What we’re doing is the right thing in
Iraq and history will prove it right,” the
president said.
Bush said no one could argue that
Iraq was better off with Saddam Hussein
in power, or dispute the need to support
democracy. The president mistakenly
said Iraq’s elections were being planned
for June 30 rather than Jan. 30.
Bush said some of the Pacific-Rim
leaders at the summit had expressed
concern about the declining value of the
U.S. dollar. He said he reiterated the
U.S. government’s commitment to a
strong dollar.
To address short-term deficits, Bush
pledged to work with Congress on
budgets aimed at reducing the massive
federal deficit by half over five years. He
said he’s also committed to reforms that
will help reduce long-term liabilities,
such as Social Security for future
retirees.
“My commitment to the
international world is that we’ll deal
with the short-term deficient and the
long-term unfunded liabilities so that
people can then take a look at our dollar
in terms of fiscal austerity in
Washington,” he said.
While in Chile, Bush lost a political
batde in Washington when Republicans
in Congress blocked passage of an
RESS
From left to right, President of Chile Ricardo Lagos, U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin, walk in together
wearing traditional Chilean ponchos as they arrive for the APEC Leader’s Official Photograph at La Moneda Sunday in Santiago, Chile.
administration-backed overhaul of the
nation’s intelligence agencies. Bush said
he was disappointed and would continue
efforts to get it passed when he returns
to Washington.
He said he and Vice President Dick
Cheney had talked with key members of
the House. “It was clear I wanted the bill
passed,” Bush said.
Bush opened the day with Mexican
President Vicente Fox, discussing
immigration issues that are sensitive on
both sides of the border. Bush began his
presidency with a campaign to improve
relations with Mexico, but his attention
was diverted by the terrorist attacks of
Sept. 11,2001.
Renewing a plan, which stalled in
Congress after he unveiled it in January,
Bush urged changes in U.S. law that
could allow millions of undocumented
laborers to work legally in the United
States on temporary visas but would not
provide a path to citizenship. Fox hopes
to persuade Bush to expand his plan.
“One way to make sure the border is
secure is to have reasonable immigration
policies,” the president said. Pledging to
push for the immigration bill, Bush said,
“I’m going to find supporters on the Hill
and move it.”
Fox said he wanted to meet with
Bush in Washington, possibly in
February or March, to discuss economic
security issues. “Mexico wants to fulfill
its responsibility to make its economy
grow, make it stronger, to have more
jobs in Mexico,” Fox said. “That is our
first priority.”
Asked whether Bush had promised to
move the immigration legislation
forward, Fox told CNN’s “Late
Edition:” “What I got, and very firmly,
is his will, his will to attend this issue.”
The summit was a staid gathering of
21 Pacific Rim leaders, but it was not
without levity.
For their group photo, the leaders
posed in colorful, hand-woven
ponchos — following a summit
tradition of wearing native garb of the
host country.
Bush, arriving at La Moneda palace
earlier in the day, greeted Lagos with
self-deprecating humor: “Ricardo, aqui
esta el gringo.” Translation: “Ricardo,
the gringo’s here.”
And on Saturday night, Bush waded
into a scuffle that erupted when Chilean
authorities blocked the president’s
Secret Service agents from
accompanying him into a dinner. As
tempers flared and a shoving match
ensued, Bush pushed into the
commotion, grabbed his lead agent,
Nick Trotta, and pulled him inside.
Flying home to Texas today, Bush
will stop in Cartegena, Colombia, to
meet with President Alvaro Uribe, a
conservative whose war against
narcoterrorists and leftist rebels has
received major funding from the United
States.
The visit allows Bush to make a
visible statement about the U.S.
commitment to fighting terrorism. It
also is meant to highlight American
contributions that have helped to bring
some stability to a country ravaged by
decades of guerrilla war.
Powell starts Mideast peace mission; Israel might remove
troops in West Bank before Palestinian Authority election
By MARK LAVIE
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
JERUSALEM — Secretary of State
Colin Powell embarked Sunday on a
mission to revive the Middle East peace
process after Yasser Arafat’s death,
saying he will ask Israel to help with the
upcoming Palestinian election to pick a
successor.
Israel said it would consider pulling
back troops from disputed areas in the
West Bank.
On his way to the Middle East,
Powell told reporters on his plane that
U.S.-Palestinian cooperation in setting
up the elections “will encourage a degree
of cooperation that can spread into other
areas.”
. “This is a moment of opportunity,”
Powell said. “I’ll be encouraging both
sides to do everything they can to make
sure that this election comes off and that
the maximum number of Palestinians
get the opportunity to participate.”
, He said there were “many things” the
Israelis could do to help, and he will
discuss them during a Monday meeting
with Israeli officials.
Powell arrived in Israel hours after
Assistant Secretary of State William Burns
held talks with both sides, becoming the
first senior U.S. diplomat to meet with
top Palestinians in several months. Powell
has separate meetings scheduled with
Israeli and Palestinian officials Monday.
The visits are pan of an international
push for progress toward a new Israel
Palestinian accord after Arafat’s death
Nov. 11 and ahead of Jan. 9 elections to
pick his successor as president of the
Palestinian Authority. The United
States and Israel boycotted Arafat,
charging he was tainted with terrorism.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw
will visit the region this week, and
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel
Moratinos is expected Dec. 2.
“I am here to stress strong American
support for the Palestinian election,”
Burns said after meeting interim
Palestinian Authority President Rauhi
Fattouh in the West Bank city of
Ramallah.
Near Ramallah in Beitunia, Israeli
special forces killed a Palestinian fugitive
and two other militants in a car Sunday,
the military said. The military said the
Palestinians opened fire first. Palestinian
security officials said the three were
members of the A1 Aqsa Martyrs’
Brigades, a violent offshoot of the ruling
Fatah party.
Israeli troops also shot and killed an
armed Palestinian who tried to attack a
Gaza road used by Jewish settlers, the
Israeli army and Islamic Jihad said.
In the meeting with Burns,
Palestinian leaders asked the United
States to pressure Israel to remove troops
from West Bank cities and towns to
allow campaigning and a free election.
“We are determined to do everything
we can to help in that process and we
also support steps by Israel which are
needed to facilitate this election,” Burns
said, without elaborating.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman
Mark Regev said Israel has “every
intention of redeploying (troops) so as to
allow them to have their process of
election.”
Shortly after the latest round of
Mideast violence erupted in 2000, Israel
sent troops back into West Bank areas
ceded to the Palestinians under interim
peace accords. Troops set up dozens of
roadblocks and cut off cities and towns,
often confining hundreds of thousands of
Palestinians to their home communities.
Palestinians have had only one general
election, in 1996. Elections have been
scheduled several times in recent years
but then canceled, as Palestinians said
they could not carry out a campaign with
the Israelis in control of the territory.
Now, Israel appears ready to
cooperate.
Israel has explained its draconian
security measures, which have contributed
to severe disruption of the Palestinian
economy and widespread poverty, by
pointing to more than 100 Palestinian
suicide bombings in the past four years
and the need to prevent further attacks.
However, Arafat’s death has softened
the Israeli line and raised world
expectations for a thaw.
Regev said the new Palestinian
leadership “could help us by coming
down on the terrorists,” but he did not
make that a condition for an Israeli
withdrawal of troops.
For their part, Palestinians say Israel is
to blame for the violence and should
resume peace talks with no preconditions.
Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb
Erekat said the Palestinians were trying,
through the Americans, to set up a
meeting with their Israeli counterparts to
discuss elections arrangements, he said.
“We are expressing a readiness to
meet with the Israeli side in order to
coordinate with them immediately the
administrative and security
arrangements,” Erekat said.
Burns, who met separately Sunday
with Israeli national security adviser Giora
Eiland, said he hoped the Palestinian
elections, together with an Israeli plan to
withdraw from the Gaza Strip and four
West Bank settlements, could jump-start
the stalled “road map” peace plan.
President Bush launched the peace
plan last year. It envisaged three stages
leading to a Palestinian state, but neither
side Fulfilled the initial steps and it
Faltered.
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