MIAMI, (AFP) - Thousands of riot police fanned out across downtown Miami to face an expected flood of anti-globalization protesters, as trade ministers from the Americas prepare for a major free-trade summit here.
However the only major protest of the day was held by about 300 members of a group called Root Cause, which staged a noisy and colorful march to a downtown park.
"We're obviously doing something right," said Melodie Malta, one of the protestors, commenting on the heavy police presence as she danced to the beat of homemade drums. "It's an appropriate picture, and an unfortunate one."
Anticipating larger protests, some 2,500 police from 40 area jurisdictions have surrounded a six-block downtown area with barricade fences and roadblocks.
Trade ministers from every country in the Americas, except Cuba, will meet Thursday and Friday at a hotel within the protected area to work on the Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement.
Police seek to avoid the violent clashes that marred meetings of the World Trade Organization in Seattle in 1999 and in Cancun, Mexico, in September.
Authorities are preparing for around 30,000 protesters, though they believe fewer will show up. Protesters say they are expecting anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 from around the country.
Protest marchers, virtually all wearing yellow t-shirts, banged on drums, blew bugles and horns, and danced as they took turns chanting slogans like "They say free trade, we say go away!"
Carl Jordan had traveled from Baltimore, just northeast of the US capital, to join the protest. "We're for trade, but fair trade," he said.
The crowd, surrounded by police officers on bicycles, marched from the nearby city of Fort Lauderdale to a park a few blocks from the hotel where the summit is to be held.
Tom Garrett, who walked under a foam dolphin costume, said he was protesting the free trade deal because, as he put it, "when corporations take over there is mass cruelty to animals."
Many of the trade ministers will arrive in Miami fresh from last week's meeting in Bolivia, where the leaders of Spain, Portugal and their former colonies in the Americas held a two-day summit addressing agriculture, trade, poverty and anticorruption measures.
The controversial issue of agricultural subsidies is also set to dominate the Miami talks, as Brazil and the United States -- the two hemispheric trade giants -- strongly disagree over such subsidies.
The issue prompted the surprise collapse of the WTO talks in Cancun after Latin American countries rebelled against US and European Union farm subsidies.
Ministers have just 14 months to go to meet the January 1, 2005, deadline to complete negotiations.
Officials held workshops for business leaders on issues ranging from market access and government procurement to property rights.
On Tuesday, US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick announced here that the United States will continue to seek separate trade agreements with countries and regional groups in the Americas -- a way to undermine any potential opposition from Brazil and Argentina at the FTAA talks.
US officials would begin free-trade talks next year with members of the Andean Community -- Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia -- as well as with Panama, Zoellick said.
"We intend to work closely with the Andean countries to support the US goals of achieving hemispheric economic integration and dismantling trade barriers around the world," said Zoellick.
"Some countries want to move more quickly" to reach a free trade deal, he said.
US officials are already in the final stages of negotiating a free trade deal with the five Central American countries -- Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Costa Rica.
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