Translation software sucks, BTW. I never use it. I don't really speak Spanish, but I can read it pretty well, with the help of a Spanish/English dictionary, and my husband (who is from Chile originally, believe it or not).
I think it's nice that the Chilean paper wrote at least these two articles about Nick Trotta and took the time to find out something about him.
I asked my husband your question about what Chileans thought about the whole thing, overall. He said the overall attitude in Chile was that the Secret Service was "overzealous" in their duties, and that they thought their agents were justified in blocking the USSS. They're sticking up for their guys just like we're sticking up for ours. They don't understand why the president travels with such MASSIVE security, all the planes and limos and other vehicles. None of their presidents have ever been assassinated (the thing with Allende happened during a military coup, so you can't count that). While it's the best place to live in South America (they have the highest standard of living in SA, they don't have the drug trafficking, marxist rebel, hostage taking, street children, massive government corruption problems that other SA countries have, although there's a lot of property crime), they are still a relatively small country and they just don't understand what it's like to be a huge country with a leader who is the most powerful person on the planet. They really don't get it. Chileans are very patriotic and/or nationalistic, and they're sticking up for their guys just like we're sticking up for our guys. But I also want to mention that El Mercurio published a letter to the editor from a reader that pointed out that if anything bad had happened to Bush during that scuffle, Chile would have been in deep ca-ca. (words to that effect)
As to Bush stepping in and grabbing his agent, opinion is more mixed. A lot of people think he was being a "cowboy" (saying it like it's a bad thing), but a lot of other people don't have a problem with what he did or thought he did the right thing.
I agree. It's a bit surprising too. I doubt most of our papers would have done the same thing, if the position was reversed.
Thanks for the information about Chile. The "third world" stuff that some people here were saying just didn't seem right, but I didn't know for sure.
I guess it is hard for other countries to understand the level of protection we have for the President, but at least after this, most countries probably will not want to take any chances with him. I can't image anyone wanting to take the risk, as the opinion writer said, of being in "deep ca ca" (or whatever words he actually used!) or being embarrassed by a security breach.
I do believe that our guys were not at fault, but they must still be alarmed and embarrassed that it happened.
I just don't know what we would do if something happened to President Bush.