Symbolism triumphs over action in Lima

The presidents did everything but kiss

By Rob Watson BBC Washington Correspondent

The latest report from Rob Watson who is travelling with US President George W Bush on his three-nation Latin American tour.

Day three:

The 0400 starts have finally claimed their first victim.

One unfortunate member of the travelling press missed the flight from Mexico to Peru.

No, she didn't get the day off, she had to follow on in what someone described as an equipment plane, whatever that is.

Sitting on the normal plane, I used the flight unwisely.

Although I knew I should have slept I couldn't resist looking at the in-flight entertainment schedule, and ended up watching two and a half films over the five and a half hour flight.

I say "unwisely" but there was something satisfyingly bizarre about watching Moulin Rouge as the plane bounced across the choppy air of the equator.

Dramatic landing

The approach into Lima was worth the bouncing.

Peru's red carpet was pressed into service

Nestled between the towering Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean there are few more dramatic places to land.

Crawling up the barren mountains are the many shanty towns that surround the city and where the poverty is striking.

I wondered whether President Bush had noticed them too and whether if he had he thought the UN development conference he had just left would do them much good.

Red carpet a-plenty

This was of course the first ever visit by a sitting US president to Peru.

Vice-President Richard Nixon had been here in the 1950s but given what happened to him, it was not a landmark anyone seemed keen to talk about.

It was not perhaps surprising then that the Peruvian Government gave Mr Bush a very warm welcome.

It looked as if the country's entire supply of red carpet had been used up, laid out in strategic parts of the city.

Spot the change

The whole purpose of the president's visit was to show US support for Peru's transition from ex-President Alberto Fujimori's authoritarianism to current President Alejandro Toledo's democracy.

But it was a tricky transition to spot.

That was not President's Toledo's fault as such but rather due to the threat of another terrorist attack, following last Wednesday's car bomb, which caused the government to deploy its military and police in generous numbers just in case.

'Good friends'

At their joint news conference, Project Bolster Toledo was in full swing.

The presidents' wives got the red carpet treatment too

President Bush, who loves to describe fellow leaders as "my good friend", was good-friending President Toledo for all he was worth.

He joked the two men were the same age but noted how Mr Toledo's hair was still black.

Referring to the Peruvian leader's Amerindian heritage and his impoverished upbringing and ultimate rise to power, the US president said: "I'm inspired by his life, I'm inspired by his story".

At the end of it all, one watching journalist said they had done everything but kiss each other.

Taxing symbolism

All in all though it was a taxing day for the White House press pack.

The problem with such visits as this which are high on symbolism and short on substance is that they do not lend themselves to the kind of reporting that journalists like best: lots of action, a few facts and a bit of drama.

That may explain why a colleague switched one of the filing centre's TVs from a local channel covering "Bush La Visita" to a cable channel showing US college basketball to the appreciative cheers of the symbolically challenged press-pack.

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Follow Rob Watson's reports on President Bush's tour:

Click here for day two
Click here for day one