Thousands of protesters marched through Brazil's largest city today calling US President George W. Bush a warmonger and planet polluter as he started a tour aimed at winning friends in Latin America.
"No. 1 Enemy of Humanity" and "Get out Bush!" read signs carried by protesters. To the beat of Afro-Brazilian drums, they demanded an end to the war in Iraq and what they called state-sponsored torture, US imperialism and growing economic inequality.
Mr Bush is due to arrive tonight night in Brazil, a country Washington sees as a potential counterweight to the influence of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez and his plans for a socialist revolution in Latin America.
The five-country tour aims to repair Mr Bush's standing in Latin America, where polls show widespread opposition to the Iraq war and US trade and immigration policies.
After Brazil, he will travel to Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico. "It's nothing more than to say we want to be your friends," Mr Bush said in an interview with Colombian television before he set out. "My trip is a chance to tell the people ... that the United States cares deeply about the human condition."
However, more than 6,000 anti-Bush protesters of all ages marched down Sao Paulo's famed Avenida Paulista, the business heart of South America, police said.
Police guarded McDonald's and Citibank branches in case they were targeted as US symbols, but no violence was reported. Environmental group Greenpeace held a side protest against what it said was a lack of action by Mr Bush and Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to halt global warming.
Activists draped a banner over a national monument saying: "Ethanol is not enough. Stop global warming." The reference was to an initiative on biofuels that is the official centerpiece of the Brazil leg of the tour.
Mr Lula and Mr Bush, whose countries produce 70 per cent of the world's ethanol, will discuss plans to co-operate on the production of biofuels and promote their use in Latin America.
US officials have said the drive will help reduce poverty by creating jobs - a policy dubbed ethanol diplomacy. They also hope it will limit the appeal of Mr Chavez, who has used Venezuela's oil wealth to win followers in countries such as Bolivia and Ecuador while railing against Mr Bush.