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Rio de Janeiro: Ahmadinejad visit sparks protests

Demonstrators protest the upcoming visit of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as they march along Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday. Felipe Dana / Associated Press

By LOS ANGELES TIMES
Published: 11/23/2009 2:30 AM
Last Modified: 11/23/2009 6:08 AM

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrives Monday in Brazil on a Latin American and African tour amid U.S. and domestic criticism that, by playing host, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is squandering his newfound global influence.

The first visit by an Iranian head of state to Brazil has generated two protests in the past week in which thousands of demonstrators, many of them Jews alarmed by Ahmadinejad's views on the Holocaust and on Israel, took to the streets and beaches of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, citing his calls for Israel's destruction and his declarations against homosexuals, along with his government's nuclear activities. About 500 people gathered Sunday for a protest at Rio de Janeiro's Ipanema Beach. Protests in May forced Ahmadinejad to cancel a previously scheduled visit.

The Iranian leader, who is also visiting Venezuela, Bolivia, Gambia and Senegal, said before leaving Tehran on Sunday that he hopes to help spearhead a new alliance with Latin America and Africa.

"These countries are important and each has a determining role in their region or continent," Ahmadinejad said ahead of his first stop in Banjul, capital of the West African Muslim nation of Gambia.

"New orders should be established in the world," he said. "Iran, Brazil and Venezuela in particular can have determining roles in designing and establishing these new orders."

In Brazil, Ahmadinejad and Lula are expected to sign joint cooperation agreements in biotechnology, energy and farming.

Some 200 Iranian businessmen are traveling with Ahmadinejad, who is also due to address the Brazilian Congress and speak to students in Brasilia.

Ahmadinejad has been weakened by a domestic opposition movement that accuses him of stealing Iran's June 12 presidential election. By LOS ANGELES TIMES

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