Bush Faces Fight at Free Trade Talks in Argentenia

By Elisabeth Bumiller & Larry Rohter
NYT's

President Bush arrived in this beach resort city on Thursday night for a gathering of Western Hemisphere leaders after one of the worst weeks of his presidency, only to be greeted by strong anti-American sentiment and taunts from Venezuela's populist president, Hugo Chavez.

Mr. Chávez, who has repeatedly accused the Bush administration of trying to assassinate him and invade his oil-producing country, is using the international summit meeting here to protest the administration's free trade message and to attempt a showdown with Mr. Bush, the man the Venezuelan government calls "Mr. Danger."

Air Force One landed shortly after 8 p.m. on a rainy spring evening, and Mr. Bush went immediately to his hotel, the Sheraton Mar del Plata, on a bluff overlooking the Atlantic.

Mr. Bush and Mr. Chávez are expected to see each other Friday in a group session at the opening of the Summit of the Americas, a two-day, 34-nation gathering. The meeting is officially to focus on creating jobs and promoting democracy. But Mr. Chávez said this week that his main goal at the meeting was the "final burial" of the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas accord, which is already stalled.