SOUTH AMERICA/BLIX REPORT: Latin American governments this week rejected the prospect of unilateral US action against Iraq in what amounts to an unprecedented show of independence from US foreign policy goals.
Mexican President Vicente Fox, the US government's closest ally in the region, urged President Bush to respect the work of UN weapons inspectors. "No to unilateralism, no to war, yes to peace and yes to the disarming of Iraq and the strengthening of the UN," said President Fox, following a meeting with French diplomats on Wednesday.
At the other end of the continent, Brazil's left-wing President Luis Inacio Lula Da Silva has led a polite but firm diplomatic offensive against the US build-up to war while always condemning Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and urging compliance with UN weapons inspectors.
Opinion polls from Mexico to Brazil consistently reveal 80 per cent to 85 per cent of people rejecting any US-led war on Iraq, with only slightly lower percentages rejecting even a UN-endorsed war to oust the Iraqi tyrant.
An estimated 120,000 people marched against US war plans in Porto Alegre, Brazil, at the end of the World Social Forum (WSF) in January, while over a million people are expected to join tomorrow's planned protests from Tijuana to Tierra del Fuego.
In Mexico City, the anti-war demonstration will end in dramatic style, with organisers calling on the estimated 100,000 protesters to fall to the ground "so that the government gets a glimpse of what masses of lifeless civilians look like". A dozen Mexicans have begun the journey to Baghdad, offering themselves as "human shields" in the event of war.
Argentina's Mothers of the Disappeared will lead Saturday's protest in Buenos Aires, calling on mothers everywhere "to reject war and promote life". Foreign ministers from Mercosur, South America's common market linking Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, issued a statement this week urging the US to respect the work of UN weapons inspectors. The Mercosur statement also reiterated its members' "rejection of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction".
In Argentina, the opposition Alternative for a Republic of Equals (ARI), led by Ms Elisa Carrio, yesterday presented a Bill in parliament to block the prospect of Argentinian troops being sent to Iraq to aid the US effort.
"One cannot maintain an ambiguous attitude on the madness of Bush because the position taken by Argentina will affect the survival of the nation in the event of a third world war," said Ms Carrio, currently leading opinion polls in the race for the presidency, which concludes in April.
Argentina established a close relationship with the US government under the Carlos Menem administration (1989-1999), applying for external membership of NATO and welcoming US troops for manoeuvres. Last year's economic collapse hardened anti-US feeling.
The opposition Bill was prompted by a leaked document revealing that Argentina's conservative Foreign Minister, Mr Carlos Ruckauf, offered to send troops, including a number of nuclear experts, for "humanitarian duties" in the Gulf.
Meanwhile at a regional conference in Colombia last week, US State Department envoy Mr Phil Chicola, anxious to calm the growing anti-US mood in the hemisphere, told visiting delegates that war in Iraq would be "short and quick with the minimum loss of life and damage".
Venezuela appeared to be the only country with no energy left to debate the issue. "The only war that counts here is the internal war," said Ms Doris Theis, at Venezuela's Department of Foreign Affairs.
Venezuela is still recovering from a crippling two-month general strike.