Buenos Aires, November 29 (RHC)-- Leaders are arriving in Buenos Aires for the latest Group of 20 (G-20) summit, set for this Friday and Saturday.  Observers say it promises to be a controversial meeting, with large protests organized, as well as a month-long counter-summit by progressive and social groups.

The counter summit against the G-20 has already begun and is organized around creating a “common agenda for Latin America.”  Cecilia Nahon, former Argentinean ambassador to the United States has said: “Today there is no Latin American agenda in the G-20.  There is no common agenda for Argentina, Brazil or Mexico.”  

Nahon cites an astounding piece of evidence for the slight against Latin America — the fact that the summit was scheduled for exactly the same date that Mexico will inaugurate its new leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) despite Mexico having the second largest economy in Latin America after Brazil.

The protests, organized by different groups, one of which has taken the name “No al G-20,” highlight how the rising right-wing governments of Latin America, such as Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and now Ecuador are taking their marching orders from the United States and the financial agendas of other global actors, and are leaving their own countries and citizens open to exploitation, extraction and ultimately destitution.

There will also be meetings that include voices that aren’t often heard from in the halls of power or among G-20 leaders.  These include a feminist perspective on financial markets, the destructive impact that corporations have on the environment, and the voices of the campesinos who often end up being exploited in the rush to drive up profits.

The protests around the G-20 are being led by a collaboration of social groups with Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel as it's main organizer.