SUMMIT NOTEBOOK: Distance shows in photo (Bush & Chavez)

[Judi Lynn]

Friday, November 4, 2005 · Last updated 6:16 p.m. PT

SUMMIT NOTEBOOK: Distance shows in photo

By NEDRA PICKLER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER



President Bush, far right, joins other leaders at the Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina, Friday, Nov. 4, 2005. From left to right on bottow row are: Canada's Prime Minister Paul Martin, Mexico's President Vicente Fox, Chile's President Ricardo Lagos, Argentina's President Nestor Kirchner, Bolivia's President Eduardo Rodriguez, and U.S. President George W. Bush. From left to right on top row are: Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning, Paraguay's President Nicanor Duarte, Peru's President Alejandro Toledo, and Suriname's President Runaldo Venetiaan. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina -- The staff for the Summit of the Americas was doing its best to keep some distance between President Bush and Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, leaders less than warm toward each other.
(snip)

When the leaders of the 34 nations gathered for their official summit photograph, Bush was supposed to be in the front row, just off the center. Chavez was supposed to be behind him in the second row.

Before the leaders turned out for the picture, set up on a hotel rooftop overlooking the ocean, summit staffers noticed the close configuration - and decided it wasn't ideal. They moved Bush's name tag a few places to his left.
(snip)

Smoking cigars given to him by Cuban President Fidel Castro, Maradona said of the U.S. president he blames for the war in Iraq: "We are going to stand against the human trash known as Bush."
(snip/)

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1102AP_Americas_Summit_Class_Photo.html



Diego Maradona

[Fridays Child]

1. "President Bush, far right...." Well, that just about says it all.

I mean, really.

[BlueIris]

3. You read my mind.

Nice to see my telepathic link with DU still holds.

[bitchkitty]

2. Be still my heart -

Maradona is handsome! :)

[Say_What]

4. Kirchner and Bush meeting

I read that they "parted ways on important issues"... and that Bush told him he could deal directly with the IMF. That raised a red flag when I read it and it might be prudent to watch what happens between Argentina and the IMF. Kirchner was quoted as saying that it "wasn't a meeting for nice words, but to speak the truth"...

Today is gonna be another fun day for the Bushies in Brazil. Bush the Uniter. :rofl:

[Straight Shooter]

5. It wasn't a suck-up photographer who took *that* picture.

bush looks smaller than everybody. Which he is. He is a little, little man, if you know what I mean.

edit typo

[Orrin_73]

6. I like your Maradona pics

especially the one where he is smoking.

[sarcasmo]

7. They wanted Hugo in the far corner so he didn't knock MR Danger out.

[daleo]

8. Canada's Paul Martin was closer to Chavez than Bush.

Just in front of him actually. Good.

[eek]

9. maradona leads angry protests (looka his t-shirt)

<<Earlier, the tone was struck by the former football star Diego Maradona, who wore a "Stop Bush" T-shirt to an anti-Bush "counter-summit" that drew some 4,000 protesters from around the world and easily eclipsed the official summit in the public's attention. "I'm proud as an Argentine to repudiate the presence of this human trash, George Bush," said Maradona.

Maradona's anti-Bush sentiment was replicated across a country driven to a near standstill by tens of thousands of people angry at the Iraq war and the US president's push for a region-wide free trade deal. Hospital and subway workers went on strike in Buenos Aires.>>