22 November 2004 - MiddleEast.Org - MER is Free
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Bush and Chile, Past and Present

CIA Chilean Presidential Murder and Regime Change Still Haunts

Fearing Bush Assassination Extraordinary Security Concerns

MIDDLEEAST.ORG - MER - Washington - 22 November: Today is the anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas in 1963. And what happened over the weekend in Chile shows the extraordinary concern there is that President Bush could be the victim of an assassination attempt.

Over the weekend during Bush's short visit to Chile there was an extraordinary double display of this concern. First Bush himself got man-handled in a crowd of security people literally having to pull his senior protective body man after him through a small blocking crowd of Chilean security. Later the elaborate State Dinner the Chilean President was putting on was abruptly canceled when the American's demanded that every one of the two hundred carefully selected guests go through metal detectors and possible body frisks. The Chileans said not very dignified, no need; the Americans said too bad, no dinner.

Some thirty plus years ago now, as Chileans still remember, their country was the victim of CIA-engineered regime change in that era. In a plot in which the CIA and the White House (Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon then in charge) were involved, the popularly elected socialist Chilean President, Salvadore Allende, was killed and the awful era of military police-state rule began.

This simple picture from the protesting streets of Santiago this weekend tells a story difficult to put in words. What the Americans did in Chile a generation ago remains alive in memory and helps explain why the extraordinary Bush events this weekend in Santiago took place as they did, and why Bush security acted as they did.

And in future years, even generations from now, what is happening in Falluja and in Iraq, and what is in fact taking place throughout the MiddleEast region these days spearheaded by today's CIA and Pentagon -- at the behest of the White House of course -- will continue to reverberate with as yet untold ramifications.

Of course, as usual, the front page Washington Post story today that follows gives the facts but doesn't give this crucial historical and political context.

Spats Over Security Roil Summit in Chile

After Saturday Scuffle, Lavish Dinner Canceled as U.S. Demands Screening

By Mike Allen

Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 22, 2004; Page A01

SANTIAGO, Chile, Nov. 21 -- For President Bush, it must have been like going out without his wallet. He turned around and the presidential shadow -- his Secret Service agent -- was gone.

Moments later, Bush single-handedly rescued the agent from a boisterous scuffle between U.S. and Chilean security forces. The role reversal became the talk of an international economic summit that was studded with bizarre incidents in which diplomacy took a beating, in some cases, literally.

Unidentified U.S. and Chilean security agents grapple after the Secret Service agent was blocked from entering a building with President Bush.
(Carlos Quezada -- La Tercera Via AP)

And in a final summit twist, Chilean authorities canceled an elaborate social dinner for 200 that had been planned for Sunday night after President Ricardo Lagos would not agree to the Secret Service requirement that his guests pass through metal detectors. The event was downgraded to a small working dinner for 12.

The incident involving the bodyguard Saturday evening began when Nick Trotta, the number two agent on Bush's security detail, opened the door of a black Cadillac limousine for the president and first lady Laura Bush when they arrived at a former train station that was the site of the closing dinner of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

Bush and the first lady walked into the beaux-arts banquet hall, and Chilean officers, who appeared to be waiting for the moment, stepped in front of Trotta, blocking him from entering.

U.S. officials said Chilean police had been chafing for a week about a demand by Secret Service agents that they control the president's space, even when he was on sovereign turf. Now, it was payback time.

In the fracas that ensued, amid a flurry of half nelsons, one Secret Service agent wound up jammed against a wall. "You're not stopping me! You're not stopping me! I'm with the president!" an unidentified agent can be heard yelling on videotape of the mayhem.

It took Bush several minutes to realize what was happening. The president and the first lady walked on through the door onto a big red carpet, looking relaxed. They greeted Lagos and his wife, Luisa Duran. "You want us to pose here?" Bush asked Lagos with a grin, and they turned to face a wall of flashes.

Then Bush either realized he was missing something, or he heard the commotion. The president, who is rarely alone, even in his own house, turned and walked back to the front door unaccompanied, facing the backs of a sea of dark suits. Bush, with his right hand, reached over the suits and pointed insistently at Trotta. At first the officials, with their backs to him and their heads in the rumble, did not realize it was the president intervening. Bush then braced himself against someone and lunged to retrieve the agent, who was still arguing with the Chileans. The shocked Chilean officials then released Trotta.

Trotta walked in behind Bush, who looked enormously pleased with himself. He was wearing the expression that some critics call a smirk, and his eyebrows shot up as if to wink at bystanders.

Bush adjusted his right cufflink and muttered something to Lagos, took the first lady's arm and headed into the dinner of grilled fish.

The incident was played scores of times on satellite channels viewed around the summit. Conversations about it quickly overwhelmed talk of formal summit business, which is focused on such issues as development, trade and investment.

Chilean journalists were critical of Bush's actions. Marcelo Romero, a reporter with Santiago's newspaper La Cuarta, said: "All of us journalists agree that President Bush looked like a cowboy. It was total breach of protocol. I've seen a lot of John Wayne movies, and President Bush was definitely acting like a cowboy."

Christian Chandia from Radio Agricultura said: "Unfortunately all the news will be about the security incident and fighting terrorism, but nothing to do with what happened here at the APEC summit."

U.S. officials took a lighter view of the events. "The president is someone who tends to delegate," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said at breakfast. "But every now and then, he's a hands-on kind of guy."

On Saturday night, a few dozen American journalists crowded into the networks' transmission room to watch tapes showing the altercation from different angles, with cheers erupting when a new version arrived.

Even before the pre-dinner altercation, U.S. officials had been joking that Bush's two days in Chile had occasionally seemed like a wrestling smackdown. APEC has 21 member countries, and tension inevitably results at international gathering when the U.S. president barges in with a small air force, an entourage of 260, a press corps of 100 and a motorcade of 20 vehicles.

The president is a stickler for decorum in his events, and Asian reporters had angered him Saturday morning when they bulldozed into a cramped room where he met with a parade of foreign leaders.

"Easy! Easy!" Bush chided as Chinese reporters knocked a 5-foot-9, 280-pound cameraman off a ladder.

The melee occurred as the American and Chinese press pools were ushered into the hotel room where Bush had just met with Chinese President Hu Jintao. As is typical of such White House shoots, journalists were brought in at the end of the meeting so the leaders could say a few words, and the president and his guests were already seated at the front of the room.

CNN's Mark Walz had his camera trained on Bush when a thundering herd of Asian reporters hit him in his blind spot. Walz, who has covered the White House since the last year of the Reagan administration, said it was the first time he had been knocked down. The cameraman landed on his feet and kept shooting, with an Asian reporter wedged under his right bicep.

Walz's colleagues commended him, both for keeping the camera on Bush and for not making a jerk of himself in front of the president. "I didn't want to embarrass myself or the American press by kicking it up a notch," he said.

In the hall afterward, a couple of pairs of journalists went at each other like a locker-room fight.

White House officials did not say much about the Chilean hospitality, but one aide ventured a prediction: Lagos need not watch his mail for an invitation to Bush's ranch.

Special correspondent Brian Byrnes contributed to this report.

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Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2004/11/1207.htm