Anti-US protesters are planning a mass demonstration against President George W. Bush"s visit to Argentina this week for the Summit of the Americas in the seaside resort of Mar del Plata.
Luis D"Ela, who heads one of the country"s so-called piquetero movements ?leftwing groups of disaffected unemployed ?said the protest would bring together up to 100,000 people and would include popular figures such as Diego Maradona, the former Argentine soccer star.

The idea is to show the victims of imperialism, Mr D"Elia told the FT on Monday. We want to put a stop to Bush"s military build-up and his persistent threats of invasion around the world.

Family members of fallen US soldiers in Iraq would attend as well as Iraqi civilians who had suffered at the hands of US troops. But he said the centrepiece of Friday"s protests would be a speech by Hugo Chavez, the radical Venezuelan president, scheduled for 1pm on Friday to coincide with the official start of the summit.

Mr D"Elia said the protest would also reject the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the ailing trade initiative that diplomats say the US will try to revive during the two-day summit.

The FTAA would wipe out our industry and exclude 82 per cent of our exports. We have already seen the results of imperialist economic policy, and in Argentina it destroyed our wealth,he said, referring to the financial chaos that shook the country in December 2001.

The march, together with other protests to mark Mr Bush"s first visit to Argentina and rallies in support of Mr Chavez, have forced local authorities to mount the most intense security operation in the country"s history.

An extra 7,000 police have been deployed on the normally calm streets of Mar del Plata, a 176km no-fly zone has been established with orders to shoot down any unauthorised aircraft, and three concentric circles of imposing metal fencing have been erected around the centre with highly restricted access.

We have been imprisoned, said one resident yesterday morning.

Yet Mr D"ELia insisted that despite Argentines?strong anti-US sentiment ?a poll published in yesterday"s Pagina/12, a daily newspaper, suggested that almost 60 per cent of the population rejected Mr Bush"s visit ?there would be no violence during Friday"s march.

The only violent person in Mar del Plata will be Bush himself. He"s the only terrorist around here,he said.

He added that the march had the support of President Nestor Kirchner"s administration. "A march of that magnitude does not take place without an OK from above."