U.S. Kicks Off Andean Free Trade Talks Amid Protests
By Javier Mozzo

CARTAGENA, Colombia (Reuters) - Thousands of protesters took to the streets across Colombia on Tuesday as the war-torn nation hosted the launch of Andean free trade negotiations with the United States.

Colombia, Peru and Ecuador -- home to 80 million, mostly poor, consumers -- jointly kicked off the talks with the world's largest economy at an inaugural ceremony on Tuesday evening in the palm-lined port city of Cartagena.

South American officials have set a February 2005 target date to finalize an accord.


"The (negotiations) we begin today seek permanent integration, opening the doors to growth, better jobs, income," said Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, a staunch U.S. ally in the war on drugs.


Public school teachers and state workers staged a one-day strike throughout Colombia, home to the world's biggest cocaine industry, to protest a feared flood of imports under a free trade accord with the United States.
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"This is going to cost jobs," one protester screamed into television cameras in the oil refining town of Barrancabermeja, where hundreds of refinery workers are on strike.


Protesters in Cartagena threw rocks at riot police, who responded with tear gas, causing some minor injuries and preventing the opposition march from reaching the summit.


Demonstrations were more violent at the national university in Bogota, where students hurled Molotov cocktails and small, home-made bombs, called "papas explosivas," at police. One officer was injured, authorities said.


Colombia, locked in a four-decade-old guerrilla war, receives hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid from the United States.