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Bush stops in Guatemala for talks | |
(about 8 hours later) | |
The issues of immigration and drug trafficking have dominated talks in Guatemala between President Bush and his counterpart Oscar Berger. | |
Mr Bush said he hoped to push reforms through Congress soon to allow more immigrants to work legally in the US. | |
Protests greeted his one-day visit, the fourth stop on his Latin American tour. | |
Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, has used a parallel tour to speak out against what he calls the interference of the "American empire". | |
Mr Chavez paid a brief visit to Jamaica, where he met Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, before arriving in Haiti late on Monday. | |
He was greeted by Haitian President Rene Preval and crowds of flag-waving supporters. The two leaders are expected to discuss aid for the Caribbean nation. | |
The Venezuelan president has already visited Nicaragua, Bolivia and Argentina, where he started his tour on Friday with a massive anti-Bush rally. | |
Deportation question | |
Several hundred protesters, mainly from student groups, trade unions and indigenous communities, demonstrated near the presidential palace in Guatemala City as Mr Bush and Mr Berger held talks. | |
Speaking at a joint press conference afterwards, Mr Bush said he hoped to push immigration reforms, including a temporary worker programme, through Congress in the next few months. | |
"I told the president, it seems like to me we got to get this done by August, I hope so," he said. | |
"We don't believe in timetables. But I do believe in pressing hard and working with Democrats and Republicans to get it done." | |
However, Mr Bush insisted deportations of illegal workers - a contentious issue in Guatemala because hundreds of thousands of its citizens live illegally in the US - would continue under US law. | |
Mr Berger responded: "The Guatemalan people would have preferred a more clear and positive response - no more deportations." | |
Mr Bush promised to stand together with Guatemala in the fight against corruption and drugs trafficking. | |
The two leaders also discussed a recent increase in violence in the Central American nation. | |
'Bad energy' | |
Mr Berger and his wife had earlier taken the president and First Lady Laura Bush to the mainly-indigenous town of Santa Cruz Balanya. | |
They visited a US military medical training team helping to provide medical and dental care to rural areas. | They visited a US military medical training team helping to provide medical and dental care to rural areas. |
Mr Bush also called on a Maya agricultural co-operative - where he talked to farmers about the benefits of free trade - and the Maya archaeological site of Iximche. | |
Indigenous Mayas staged a protest during Mr Bush's visit to Iximche and said they would "cleanse" the ancient site to remove "the bad energy" he had left. | |
Mr Bush was due to leave for Mexico late on Monday, where he will finish his week-long journey to five Latin American countries. | |
After a stop in Colombia on Sunday, he pledged his personal support to its fight against drugs. | |
So far, Mr Bush's Latin America trip has produced one deal - an agreement with Brazil for co-operation in the promotion of ethanol, a bio-fuel. | So far, Mr Bush's Latin America trip has produced one deal - an agreement with Brazil for co-operation in the promotion of ethanol, a bio-fuel. |