Argentine football legend Diego Maradona gestures after putting on a t-shirt that reads 'Stop Bush' during a news conference at a Buenos Aires train station November 3, 2005. Maradona and other activists will travel by train to Mar del Plata, 400 km (250 miles) south of Buenos Aires, to participate in the Third People's Summit, the alternative to the Summit of the Americas.

Pilger on Latin America: The Rise Of America's New Enemy : "Hugo Chavez is neither a 'firebrand' nor an 'autocrat' but a humanitarian and a democrat who commands almost two thirds of the popular vote, accredited by victories in no less than nine elections. Compare that with the fifth of the British electorate that re-installed Blair, an authentic autocrat. Chavez and the rise of popular social movements, from Colombia down to Argentina, represent bloodless, radical change across the continent, inspired by the great independence struggles that began with Simon Bolivar, born in Venezuela, who brought the ideas of the French Revolution to societies cowed by Spanish absolutism. Bolivar, like Che Guevara in the 1960s and Chavez today, understood the new colonial master to the north. 'The USA,' he said in 1819, 'appears destined by fate to plague America with misery in the name of liberty.'"

Argentine football legend Diego Maradona gestures after putting on a t-shirt that reads 'Stop Bush' during a news conference at a Buenos Aires train station November 3, 2005. Maradona and other activists will travel by train to Mar del Plata, 400 km (250 miles) south of Buenos Aires, to participate in the Third People's Summit, the alternative to the Summit of the Americas.

Pilger on Latin America: The Rise Of America's New Enemy : "Hugo Chavez is neither a 'firebrand' nor an 'autocrat' but a humanitarian and a democrat who commands almost two thirds of the popular vote, accredited by victories in no less than nine elections. Compare that with the fifth of the British electorate that re-installed Blair, an authentic autocrat. Chavez and the rise of popular social movements, from Colombia down to Argentina, represent bloodless, radical change across the continent, inspired by the great independence struggles that began with Simon Bolivar, born in Venezuela, who brought the ideas of the French Revolution to societies cowed by Spanish absolutism. Bolivar, like Che Guevara in the 1960s and Chavez today, understood the new colonial master to the north. 'The USA,' he said in 1819, 'appears destined by fate to plague America with misery in the name of liberty.'"