President Bush opened a weeklong tour of Latin America on Thursday as police clashed with protesters in Brazil and across the region.
Riot police fired tear gas and beat some protesters with batons after more than 6,000 people held a largely peaceful march through the financial district. And in the southern city of Porto Alegre, more than 500 people yelled, "Get out, imperialist!" as they burned an effigy of Bush outside a Citigroup Inc. bank branch.
Meanwhile, the police commander of Colombia, which Bush will visit on Sunday, said authorities had thwarted leftist rebel plans to disrupt Bush's visit to Bogota.
"We have taken measures to neutralize them," said Gen. Jorge Daniel Castro, Colombia's highest-ranking police officer.
Also in Colombia, at Bogota's National University, 200 masked students clashed with 300 anti-riot police and shouted "Out, Bush." In Mexico City, about two dozen demonstrators gathered in front of the U.S. Embassy chanting slogans against Bush and the U.S. project to construct border fences.
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Bush "enjoys traveling to thriving democracies where freedom of speech and expression are the law of the land." Bush himself played down expected protests in interviews with Latin American news organizations ahead of his trip.
"I am proud to be going to a part of the world where people can demonstrate, where people can express their minds," he said in an interview with Univision.
He told CNN En Espanol: "The trip is to remind people that we care."
