Mexicans Reject Bush Visit

The strict security measures established in Merida, Mexico proved ineffective Monday, faced with the increasing rejection of US President George W. Bush s visit all over Mexico.

"Yucatan is not the US backyard," read a huge banner students put up at the Plaza de Armas, in actions planned before and during Bush s meeting Monday with Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

It was a tense calm in the Yucatan capital, one that could break anytime, as happened in each of the four plazas Bush has visited in his Latin American tour of Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, and Guatemala.

The opposition PRD (Democratic Revolution) also prepared protests, and Gerardo Fernandez, national PRD communication secretary pointed out to press in Mexico City the contradiction between what Calderon said and what he has done about drug traffic.

He noted that this scourge originated in the United States, and yet US police and security corps "can do whatever they want, and ignore constitutional rights in Mexico." Another march Monday is occurring in Jalisco, capital of Guadeljara, convoked by the umbrella organization, Dialogo Nacional.

The Dialogo Nacional press release said the objective is to go to Washington s consulate to repudiate the visit by Bush, who has come "to foster his imperialist project for economic, political, and military expansion."