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TAMARA LUSHThe city prepares to host a trade agreement meeting and the people who want to denounce it.
As trade ministers from 34 countries gather in Miami this week, police are bracing for the worst: protesters marauding through the streets, vandalizing downtown buildings and setting cop cars aflame.
Protester Eric Rubin of St. Petersburg is worried about something else: the police.
"We're concerned about violence," Rubin said. "We're specifically concerned about police violence. We hope that the city and the police chief do not allow for police riots and intimidation."
Both sides say they do not want a repeat of the violence that marred the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle. The city sent in the National Guard, tear-gassed thousands of protesters and arrested hundreds. Demonstrators had blocked thoroughfares, set fires, broken windows and looted stores.
"We're expecting 99 percent of the folks that are coming down to Miami to protest peacefully," said Lt. Bill Schwartz, commander of the Miami Police Department's public information office. "But history has shown us, based on other towns, that there will likely be a small handful of people, who like to be referred to as anarchists, who are also coming down."
The fear that this week's Free Trade Area of the Americas conference will be a repeat of Seattle has obscured the message protesters hope to deliver.
The conference is intended as a major step in a decade of negotiations to lift import barriers in the hemisphere. The agreement would create a $13-trillion free trade zone to serve 800-million consumers in the hemisphere's 34 countries, excluding Cuba.
Proponents say the agreement would help eradicate poverty and strengthen democracy throughout the Americas, extending the North American Free Trade Agreement from Canada to Chile.
Critics say it would do more harm than good.
"When people think of free trade, they think of boxes going across countries and tariffs and other boring things like that," said Rubin, state coordinator of the Florida Fair Trade Coalition. "These free trade policies have little to do with boxes and tariffs, and they have everything to do with transnational corporations having more rights than nations, states or localities."
Critics call the agreement "NAFTA on steroids," and argue that it would drive American jobs to Third World countries, harm the environment and encourage inhumane labor practices. Activists from all walks of life plan to rally in Miami in hopes that trade ministers hear their pleas.
The ministers, who meet for five days this week at the InterContinental Hotel, hope to reach an agreement by January 2005.
Miami is also on display; it is one of five cities vying to be the FTAA's permanent headquarters. The others are Atlanta; Panama City, Panama; Puebla, Mexico; and Port of Spain, Trinidad.
Two of Florida's biggest industries - citrus and sugar - are gunning for a showdown with Brazil, which wants to eliminate tariffs on those commodities. If that happened, Brazil would be able to export cheaper sugar and juice to the United States.
Sugar and citrus producers say eliminating tariffs could decimate farmers in the Sunshine State.
"Florida has a lot at stake," said Terry L. McCoy, director of the Latin American business environment program at the University of Florida. "These meetings have a way of spiraling out of control. Will this turn into another Seattle? Will protesters give Miami a black eye?"
Activists say no, though some seem ready for confrontation.
Fred Frost, the president of the AFL-CIO of South Florida, said talk of violence deflects attention from the real issues.
"There's no job safe in this country anymore," said Frost. "Corporate profits are great but the corporations have got to share some of the wealth with some of the people who helped make that wealth."
Activists also are concerned about a proposed part of FTAA that will mirror a clause in NAFTA, allowing lawsuits against governments by corporations whose profits are harmed by laws or regulations. Environmental standards, workers rights and consumer safety could be in jeopardy, all in the name of free trade, activists say.
Proponents say the lawsuits would not establish precedents and would be binding only on the parties in the suits. Tearing down trade barriers would ultimately create more jobs and raise standards of living for millions of impoverished people, they say.
Frost estimates that at least 20,000 people, many of them union members, will turn out Thursday for the main rally of the week, an AFL-CIO-sponsored march in downtown Miami.
Other protesters are organizing teach-ins, "people's tribunals" putting the FTAA "on trial" and daily concerts to get their message out. Some groups are even parading through downtown Miami with giant puppets, a kind of activist street theater.
On Sunday, under police surveillance, about 100 demonstrators gathered at a workshop near downtown Miami, working on puppets, art, a water-recycling system and other projects to get their antiglobalization message across.
About 200 other people wearing bright yellow shirts staged a colorful protest parade on the streets of Fort Lauderdale.
The Miami City Commission isn't taking chances, passing an ordinance last week banning people from carrying rifles, guns and "any length of metal, plastic or other similar hard or stiff material." It also prohibits glass bottles, water guns and lumber more than a quarter-inch thick.
Some businesses and most courts are closing for the week, some law firms are relocating, cruise lines are moving their ships and some downtown streets will be shut down. The Florida Supreme Court's chief justice has even suspended guarantees for speedy trials through Nov. 26 in Miami-Dade County.
Protesters are ready, too, and some are planning civil disobedience to make their point. The Ruckus Society in Oakland, Calif., has held training camps for protesters. Others have instructed volunteer medics to help protesters felled by tear gas or police batons.
A group in Pittsburgh plans to disrupt the summit with a "padded bloc," clusters of people armed with inflatable rafts, shields and foam mattresses to buttress themselves against police.
"Solidarity is needed in Miami," the Pittsburgh Organizing Group writes on its Web site. "This November we'll see you in the streets, rivers, skies, sewers, and high-rises."
Police have amassed riot gear, a makeshift jail and an 8-foot-high security fence around the protest zone. A "rumor control" hotline has been set up, so residents can call to confirm reports of mayhem or problems.
Police have trained for months, even visiting Seattle and other cities to study how authorities handled previous protests.
Protesters worry about Miami police Chief John Timoney, who was Philadelphia police commissioner during the 2000 Republican National Convention. Hundreds of protesters were arrested.
"The stage is set for some civil liberties abuses on the part of the police," said Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, president of the Greater Miami American Civil Liberties Union. "Sadly, I think we're going to see a police overreaction that will essentially trample on the First Amendment of some, and with regard to others, simply silence them."
The people with the most to lose from the FTAA, Florida's citrus growers, are not taking to the streets. They want a seat at the table.
"Citrus growers would deplore any damage to property," said Andy LaVigne, executive vice president of Florida Citrus Mutual. "It is not helpful to anybody's viewpoint."
Orange growers worry that the FTAA will eliminate tariffs, opening the industry to competition from cheaper citrus from Brazil.
Tomato farmers in Florida predict that if Brazil gets its way, the citrus industry will be decimated the way they say the tomato industry was after NAFTA.
"We are literally the poster child for the negative side of NAFTA," said Reggie Brown, vice president of the Florida Tomato Exchange in Orlando.
Florida has about 75 tomato growers, Brown said, down from 300 before NAFTA was adopted 10 years ago. They couldn't compete with Mexico's cheaper tomatoes.
This week's meetings are a quagmire for Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who wants Miami to become home to FTAA's headquarters. He must balance the wishes of the citrus industry with the demands of his brother, the president.
The Bush administration refuses to discuss slashing subsidies and tariffs that protect U.S. farmers, arguing that those trade protections should be negotiated in global trade agreements, not regional ones, because the European Union is the biggest subsidizer of agriculture.
But Brazil contends that its farmers can't compete in U.S. markets, so it is demanding that subsidies and tariffs are on the bargaining table. If not, it has threatened to stop negotiating over investment and intellectual property rights, which are key to U.S. businesses' plans for growth in the region.
"Florida has much at stake as any country does," said McCoy, of the University of Florida. "The governor is in a difficult position."
- Information from the Associated Press was used in this report. Tamara Lush can be reached at 813 226-3373 or at lush@sptimes.com