Hemispheric hospitality

THE 34-NATION Summit of the Americas, kicking off today in Mar del Plata, Argentina, was a hot topic on Thursday’s Spanishlanguage editorial pages. La Nacion of Buenos Aires struck the courtly tone of the gracious host, recounting the history of the summits and the nowmoribund Free Trade Area of the Americas. Whatever the outcome of the summit, La Nacion declared that, for Argentina, the gathering “represents a chance to show the world the recovery achieved after the political, economic and social crisis suffered in late 2001.”

El Informador of Guadalajara, Mexico, meanwhile, counseled attendees not to pay too much attention to the scheduled protests directed at President Bush, who arrived in Buenos Aires on Thursday. Despite the “recurrent antipathy that the presence of Bush awakens,” the editorial said, summit participants should focus on revisiting the Free Trade Area of the Americas.

La Republica of Lima, Peru, examined the galvanizing issue for those anti-Bush protesters: the war in Iraq. Some two weeks ago, Peruvian investigators announced that U.S. firms had recruited 562 Peruvians to serve as security guards in Iraq, and for far lower pay than similar recruits from other Latin American countries. “These Third World replacements are sent to do jobs that norte Americanos don’t want to do,” La Republica lamented, noting that the high unemployment rate in Peru allows U.S. companies to pay less for Peruvian “cannon fodder” -- literally (and more vividly), “cannon meat.” The editorial called for government scrutiny of the contracts of such workers, “who risk their lives -- the only thing they have left.”