ACTIVISTS climbed a construction crane and hung a banner overnight ordering members of the World Trade Organisation to leave this Mexican resort, then refused to come down until officials were gone.
The stunt, in which three activists stripped naked and waved at delegates entering the conference site, was the latest in a series of publicity-seeking events aimed at influencing or even shutting down the WTO meeting.
Delegates are trying to negotiate a treaty aimed at opening world markets to agricultural products, but they are deadlocked over how much to cut subsidies and tariffs.
Some protesters argue WTO officials should use the treaty to help poor nations. Others say agriculture should not be part of the talks because every nation has the right to use subsidies and tariffs to protect its domestic food supplies.
The United States, Europe and Japan have been widely criticised for subsidising their farmers and flooding the world market with cheap commodities.
To prove that point, the international aid group Oxfam staged a mock breakfast of world leaders yesterday morning on Cancun's white-sand beaches.
Activists dressed in giant fibreglass heads designed to look like US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, among others, dined on European subsidised milk and "crunchy corn dump-its".
Oxfam said the breakfast was "to demonstrate the waste and injustice of European and American agricultural subsidies".
"What we'd really like to see is these guys sitting down with the poorest countries to explore ways to make trade fair," Oxfam spokesman Adrian Lovett said.
In downtown Cancun, near where a Korean activist committed suicide on Wednesday to protest WTO policies, several Italian activists splattered in red paint designed to look like blood chanted: "The WTO sows death."
Lee Kyung-Hae became a hero to the protesters after fatally stabbing himself during a violent clash with police.
Lee was well-known to WTO officials and envoys after a two-month, one-man protest outside the organisation's Geneva headquarters earlier this year.
He also attempted suicide in the lobby of the building in 1990, when he plunged a knife into his stomach.
Protesters have held numerous vigils in his memory, and planned to commemorate his death during a major march tomorrow.
Demonstrations haven't been limited to the beaches and hotels outside the talks. Yesterday, members of accredited nonprofit organisations dumped a bag of corn in front of a news conference by US trade officials.
The event prompted WTO officials to ban all nonprofit groups from news conferences.
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