MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina — President Bush left the country before the conclusion of a two-day summit here as key South American leaders rejected the White House's vision for a free-trade zone that would stretch from the Arctic to the southern tip of South America.
Fierce opposition from the populist presidents of the continent's three largest economies -- Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela -- thwarted the resuscitation of the so-called Free Trade Area of the Americas, or FTAA.
"There are two points of view on the continent," said Argentine Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa, referring to the five dissenting nations, including Uruguay and Paraguay. The five nations account for more than half of the continent's economic activity.
Senior administration officials immediately disputed the notion that the session was a failure for Bush, noting that 29 of the 34 participating nations favored the trade pact, and that the summit's final document calls for further talks next year.
"Isn't that in itself an important accomplishment?" one administration official said.
But coming amid lackluster poll numbers for the president back home, some observers called the talks' collapse another disappointment for Bush.
"I don't think Bush would have gone down there if he knew he'd run into this kind of opposition," said Mark Weisbrot, codirector of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington. "The FTAA may not be completely dead, but it's close to dead -- and the body's twitching."
Bush's principal South American antagonist, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, deemed the outcome an unequivocal victory for critics who say open markets can lead to further poverty by opening the door to plunder by powerful foreign interests.
"The great loser today was George W. Bush. The man went away wounded," a triumphant Chavez told reporters here, alluding to the president's quick departure. "You could see defeat on his face."
Throughout much of the day, mystery surrounded the fate of the proposed free-trade zone, as ministers huddled behind closed doors in an effort to craft a solution. Several news conferences called to discuss the summit's final document were postponed.
At one point, it was rumored that Bush, hopeful of a definitive final statement, would stay beyond his scheduled 4 p.m. departure. That turned out not to be true: Air Force One lifted off into the azure sky above the choppy Atlantic just a few minutes behind schedule -- and before the document was finalized.
