Security lockdown in Peruvian capital for EU-LatAm summit

(LIMA) - The Peruvian capital Lima was in the grip of tight security Wednesday ahead of a summit this week of around 50 heads of state and government from Latin America and the European Union.

Police in riot gear and crowd barriers have turned parts of the city center into no-traffic areas in preparation for the main meeting Friday. Warplanes and anti-aircraft missile launchers were also deployed.

The Fifth EU-Latin America and Caribbean Summit has two principle subjects on the table: fighting poverty, and climate change.

Host country Peru has scrambled to establish its credentials on the latter issue, hastily creating an environment ministry.

President Alan Garcia said the new ministry would be tasked with formulating policy to confront global warming, which is blamed for a chronic lack of water in the largely arid country.

The huge gap between the haves and have-nots in Latin America will also generate much discussion, especially given the struggles many of the consumers in the region -- and elsewhere -- are facing as food prices soar.

Latin American economic growth is expected to reach 4.7 percent this year, despite a global downturn. Foreign investment, which hit 100 billion dollars last year, continues to flow in.

But more than a third of the region's population -- some 194 million people -- still live in poverty, and they are worst hit by the 86 percent increase in food prices recorded by the United Nations over the past 36 months.

Europe, for its part, is keen to forge closer relations with Latin America at a time when China, in particular, is taking a bigger share of commodities exported from the region.

"Europe is worried about the food issue, about the Doha Round (of trade negotiations), but what most interests the region is developing trade and investment," explained Rubens Barbosa, the head of the trade council of the Industry Federation of Sao Paulo in Brazil.

Amid all the talking, there are tensions, especially between leftist leaders and European chiefs.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has left his attendance at the summit in doubt, was nurturing feuds with both Spain and Germany.

Last weekend he again criticized Spain's King Juan Carlos for having told him to "shut up" at a previous summit in November.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who will be at the Lima summit without the king, has said he is ready to speak with Chavez if the Venezuelan firebrand turns up.

But the chill could run deeper between Chavez and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the light of an ongoing war of words.

Merkel last week said "Chavez is not the voice of Latin America," and urged the countries in the region to put distance between themselves and him.

Chavez responded by saying Merkel "is from the German right, the same movement that supported Hitler and the same movement that supported fascism."

While Peru's security mobilization outside the summit's venue looked hefty enough to keep the peace in the streets, it was uncertain what measures could be taken inside to do the same between some of the delegations.