Brazil Activists Approach Blair
Copyright 2001 Associated Press
July 31, 2001
By STAN LEHMAN, Associated Press Writer
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair was greeted by Greenpeace activists protesting the sale of Amazon forest lumber as he went on a tour Tuesday of Sao Paulo's Botanical Garden.
As Blair entered the garden and prepared to have his photograph taken with Governor Geraldo Alckmin, two protesters tried to push forward past the security guards, apparently to give Blair a letter.
One got about one yard away from Blair before being wrestled to the ground by guards, according to a witness. The protester was then carried away by two other guards and it was not immediately clear whether he had been arrested.
Blair is in the middle of a four day tour of the region that will also include visits to Argentina and Mexico.
He appeared unruffled to find the activists waiting for him.
``Stop Buying Amazon Destruction,'' read one banner held by the protesters.
Greenpeace's spokesman for the Amazon, Paulo Adario, said his group was protesting against Blair's failure to keep a promise to help stop illegal trading in rare, tropical wood. Much of the wood goes to Britain, Adario said.
``We aren't against wood cutting, but we want it to be certified wood that is cut; we want the British government to stop buying predatory wood,'' Adario said.
After touring the garden, Blair opened an exhibition of British art at the new, high-tech cultural center in the city's Pinheiros neighborhood.
There, Blair met Sao Paulo's left-leaning mayor, Marta Suplicy, who said the British leader agreed to meet Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the leader of the opposition Workers' Party, in Europe later this year.
Lula, who is an old-style leftist leader and has lost three straight presidential elections, currently leads the opinion polls for the next vote in October, 2002.
Blair later toured the factory of regional jetmaker Embraer, Brazil's top exporter whose planes are powered by British Rolls-Royce engines.
He then flew with Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso to Foz do Iguacu, where the two are to hold talks Wednesday with Argentine President Fernando de la Rua.