March 11, 2007
A bubble’s South American trip
Thus far there’s been plenty pompped up ceremonies and officials tours, reviews, inspections and viewings on Our Fine President’s ongoing tour of the neighbors to the south. There’s also been regular protests and several riots, but most of that unpleasantness has been kept out of the site of the great champion of freedom.
On Friday it was Sao Paulo and a visit with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva where the two discussed the many great things you can power with corn and sugar as they stoked the fire between each others dreams of a candy corn empire to rival OPEC. There were violent protests and clashes with security forces, but not near the places Our Fine President visited.
Next came a quick stop through Uruguay to talk trade with his counterpart, President Tabare Vazquez. That was a quiet stop in advance of his extra brief drop in on Columbian President Alvaro Uribe. Our Fine President spent just six hours in Bogota because of security concerns and a growing corruption scandal in Uribe’s government.
Once again there were violent protests going on around the visit, but the uproar was not allowed to interfere with the respectful solitude afforded a visiting head of state. The AP described the security arrangements thusly:
Bush received a red-carpet greeting by a military honor guard when his plane landed. Upon arrival in the palace courtyard, horses pranced and a large military band played the national anthems of both countries before the two presidents reviewed troops.
Some 20,000 police and heavily armed troops were mobilized to prevent any rebel attack.
Sharpshooters were positioned on rooftops, the city center was shut down to traffic and Bogotanos had to do without their beloved “ciclovia,” in which major avenues are given over on Sundays to biking, skating and jogging.
Bush rode to the palace on a route lined with gun-toting police standing guard every few feet, and his motorcade included white pickup trucks with local security officers filling the beds. Manhole covers were spray-painted to alert security agents to tampering.
I wonder if he thinks it’s always been like this for every visiting leader. Everywhere he goes in the world, people protests and complain about his actions and decisions. Security concerns force him to make his and his top deputies visits a surprise and when they’re announced the walls of security keep every bit of unvetted reality out of site.
Does he hear about the protests? Does he ever wonder what it is that has them so upset their taking to the streets to shout against him, burn his effigy and decry his nation. For someone always described by his subordinates as inquisitive and involved, he never shows much curiosity about how those with views opposite his came to believe him to be wrong with just as much certainty that he believes he’s right.
He’s probably just as oblivious about the isolation of his visits. Everywhere he goes gets sanitized and emptied before he rolls through. He sees lots of military and industrial places. Apparently his next two stops in Guatemala and Mexico will include visits to Mayan ruins and stick to rural and out of the way settings for official meetings.
It seems strange when the “leader of the free world” can’t visit much of that world without vacating cities, stirring up protests and sticking to the back roads to avoid being noticed too much. It doesn’t bode well for the future of an empire when the emperor can’t make open visits to the colonies without such troubles.