Police and radical protestors continued to clash here late Friday nearly three hours after the opening of the third Summit of the Americas, which was delayed by earlier violent protests.
A couple of hundred meters (yards) from the Quebec Convention Center where 21 presidents and 13 prime ministers -- excluding Cuba -- gathered for the opening ceremony, anarchists attacked another part of a three-meter (10-foot) high, 3.8-kilometer (2.4-mile) security perimeter, according to an AFP reporter on scene.
A few of the 2,000 protestors in the streets succeeded in ripping down two more sections of the wire fence constructed on concrete blocks -- each about two meters (6.6 feet) in height.
Hundreds of police in riot gear responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, said Michael Blackburn, a spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
In total, five policemen have been injured in the melees, including one who was beaten with an iron bar, and 28 people -- two of which were two minors -- have been arrested, Blackburn said.
Around 11:00 pm (0300 GMT), tear gas filled the downtown city air and even entered the convention center, where the summit press center is located.
Thirty-four leaders from North, South and Central America are gathered here for the summit to discuss economic integration and democracy among other issues over the next two days.
Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, the host of the summit, denounced the anarchists in his opening statement, saying the "type of behavior that we have seen outside by small groups is contrary to the democratic principles we all hold dear."
"I welcome those who have come to Quebec City to make known their views on how best to advance the social and economic interests of our fellow citizens, but violence and provocation is unacceptable in a democracy," he said.
Protestors earlier Friday threw large concrete blocks, projectiles and a few molotov cocktails at police after pulling down about 160-meter (525-foot) of a fenced security perimeter put in place to keep them out of the area around meeting sites.
The clashes happened as demonstrators attempted to break through the security fence that police had erected Thursday.
Protesters had led two separate marches from Laval University Friday: a peaceful one down side streets, the other by anarchists who formed a "red" group ready to be arrested and clash with police at the wire security fence.
As many as 7,000 by some accounts and 5,000 according to police marched from the university along Boulevard Rene-Levesque to the fence, but only a small fraction of those were anarchists bent on violence.
Thousands of activists gathering here this weekend to protest the summit have criticized summit leaders for shutting them out of negotiations on a Free Trade Area of the Americas, which they say will not protect ordinary citizens or their concerns.
One 30-year-old self-proclaimed anarchist from Montreal, who refused to give her name and marched with a black flag, said free trade is about "a handful of big fat pigs just trying to get fatter."
In Havana, Cuban leader Fidel Castro sent a message of solidarity to protesters here after seeing the "brutal form with which the Canadian authorities repressed peaceful protests." Castro's message, read by a TV presenter, said "It is shameful."
US President George W. Bush, who arrived here midday Friday, also caught television images of the protesters clashing with police and said he rejected their criticism of free trade.
"If they're protesting because of free trade, I would say, I would disagree .... Trade not only helps spread prosperity, but trade helps spread freedom." Bush said at a photo opportunity with Central American leaders.
The FTAA would eliminate trade barriers throughout the Americas, from the northern reaches of Canada to the tip of Chile, by 2005 and would become the world's largest trade pact, once implemented.
Organizers of a People's Summit, which met here this week as part of the activist movement, said any hemispheric trade pact must be put to a referendum in all the 34 nations -- QUEBEC CITY, Canada (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
