IRAQ-LATIN AMERICA: Brazil Leads Weekend of Anti-War Protests

<a href=ipsnews.net>Mario Osava*

RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 30 (IPS) - Another weekend of protests in Latin America against the war on Iraq, marked by music and creative slogans, culminated Sunday with a rally in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo, where world-renowned musician and Brazilian Culture Minister Gilberto Gil sang several protest songs. Between 10,000 and 30,000 people, according to press reports or the organisers, took part in the demonstration convened by the governing Workers' Party (PT). Many of those present sang along with Gil to ''Peace'', one of his most famous songs. Two other singers, Supla and Chico Cesar, performed in the peace rally, which was called by a committee that groups more than 100 social organisations and political parties, and by the government of Sao Paulo, Brazil's biggest city. Gil said Brazilians carried the urge to defend peace ''in their genes,'' and expressed his hope that the protests being held around the world would end up eroding the U.S. population's support for the war. ''The participation of artists in the anti-war demonstrations is important, because music symbolises the struggle for peace,'' said the president of the PT, former parliamentary deputy José Genoino. In Mexico, the ''Loveparade'' peace rally, which ended in an enormous dance, began late Saturday and stretched to seven in the morning on Sunday, drawing around 5,000 young people -- very few compared to the projections of the organisers, who hoped for as many as 200,000. Protesters chanted and carried placards against the British-U.S. invasion of Iraq, which has been going on for 10 days. In addition, around 100 graffiti artists covered 300 metres of wall space on a Mexico City school with anti-war designs. Music also formed part of the anti-war events in Buenos Aires, but with a more formal tone: a performance in the historical Colon Theatre in which a children's choir and dancers from a school performed along with popular musicians. Humour and irreverence also played a role in the events organised this weekend by the region's peace movement. In a protest held Saturday in Caracas, alongside placards with the usual anti-war slogans ''No War'' and ''No Blood for Oil'' appeared a poster with the image of U.S. President George W. Bush as a vampire sinking his fangs into oil-rich Iraq and Venezuela. In Rio de Janeiro, the ''Diabush'' (for ''diablo'' or devil), a man sporting a red devil's suit and a mask of the U.S. president's face, carried a sign stating ''I am the one in charge in the world.'' Next to him, a protester wearing a mask of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein carried a fake bomb that read ''No More Bombs.'' The two characters stood out among the roughly 300 people who marched along the famous Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro, and later danced to the music of the afro-Brazilian group Sons of Gandhi. ''The Diabush shows where we are headed if Bush's policies continue: to hell,'' said Deputy Carlos Minc, who headed the protest along with his fellow congressman Fernando Gabeira. Both legislators are members of the PT as well as prominent environmentalists. ''Our War is Against Hunger'' and ''Make Love, Not War'' read banners carried by the demonstrators. Organisations of homosexuals, transvestites and transsexuals were represented in the event, and have organised their own anti-war demonstrations in several Brazilian cities. The colourful clothing and costumes worn by members of sexual minorities also brightened up a peace march that took place in downtown Santiago on Saturday, drawing between 1,500 and 2,000 people who urged President Ricardo Lagos to back a call for the United Nations General Assembly to hold a special session to ''adopt moral sanctions against Bush.'' One sign carried by the protesters read ''Thanks, Ambassador Vega'', an allusion to Chile's representative on the UN Commission on Human Rights, which is holding its annual meetings through Apr. 25 in Geneva, Switzerland. Last week, Vega disobeyed instructions from his government to vote against a motion for the Commission to discuss the humanitarian and human rights situation in Iraq. Instead, the diplomat abstained. Recalled to Chile, he resigned Saturday before the Foreign Ministry could remove him. The proposal to debate the situation in Iraq failed to pass because a majority of the 53 countries represented on the Commission adhered to the argument that the issue fell within the sphere of the UN Security Council. There have also been calls in Latin America to join a new global movement to boycott U.S. products, brands and companies. McDonald's franchises were occupied by nearly 150 student protesters from the movement ''No Pasarán'' in the Argentine capital, and targetted by stone-throwers in Caracas as well as peaceful protests in other cities in the region over the past week. In the eastern port city of Veracruz, in the Gulf of Mexico, around 3,000 people chanted ''Yanquis Out of Iraq'' on Saturday. They convened another demonstration under the theme ''Tamales Against Hamburgers'', to be held outside a local Burger King next Thursday. Tamales are a traditional Mexican dish made of ground beef seasoned with chili, rolled in cornmeal dough and wrapped in corn husks. In Uruguay, U.S. flags were burnt in a protest Friday that drew thousands of anti-war demonstrators in Montevideo and was planned by the country's central trade union and student groups. U.S. embassies and consulates were also the targets of hostility in Montevideo, Caracas and other cities, including Valencia, 120 kms from the Venezuelan capital. Venezuela's Arab community, which numbers around one million in that oil exporting country of 23 million, has also joined the mobilisations against Bush.

• Diego Cevallos (Mexico), Gustavo González (Chile), Humberto Márquez (Venezuela) and Marcela Valente (Argentina) contributed to this report. (END/2003)