Free trade was never meant to dominate the agenda of this weekend’s Summit of the Americas in Argentina, but that is what is on everyone’s minds. Inside the heavily guarded conference rooms, negotiators from 34 countries pored late into the night over paragraphs detailing the progress of the ailing Free Trade Area of the Americas.

Outside on the streets of the seaside resort of Mar del Plata, thousands of protesters marched to show their anger over what they consider a US-led trade initiative designed to extend an imperialist plunder of the region's natural resources and exploitation of its people.