Bush: Latin America has "inaccurate picture" of US policy
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-11-07 11:17

US President George W. Bush said Sunday that Latin America has an "inaccurate picture" of the US foreign policy, which has been facing growing protests in the region.

"Neither the US nor Brazil should stop believing in the universality of democracy and freedom," Bush said in a speech to student leaders during his first ever visit to Brazil.

Hundreds of protestors took to the streets on Sunday, waving flags of Brazil, Cuba, Palestine and Venezuela as a sign of opposition to the US foreign policy.

They also burned a US flag and an effigy of Bush, which was wearing Hitler-style mustache.

According to local reports, an unidentified protestor was arrested as police began to disperse an angry crowd of about 150 at the gates of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's official residence just before Bush's team arrived.

In his speech, Bush said the demonstrations against him in Argentina were "something positive."

"What happens in Argentina also happens in the US," he said.

At a breakfast with business leaders earlier in the day, Bush said the United States wanted a "prosperous neighbourhood."

Bush met with his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inancio Lula da Silva during his brief visit. He left Brazil on late Sunday for Panama, the final stop on his three-country tour of Latin America.

The US president has visited Argentina to take part in the fourth summit of the Organization of American States which failed to resolve the differences on setting up a Free Trade Area of the Americas, a regional free trade zone stretching from Canada to Argentina.