Over the weekend, President Bush was in Chile to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. The Chilean police were not happy with their agreement to allow Bush's secret service to accompany Bush and had made secret plans to modify the agreement without the knowledge of President Bush and the secret service. Their mistake.

Bush and the first lady walked into the beaux-arts banquet hall, and Chilean officers, who appeared to be waiting for the moment, stepped in front of Trotta, blocking him from entering.

In the fracas that ensued, amid a flurry of half nelsons, one Secret Service agent wound up jammed against a wall. "You're not stopping me! You're not stopping me! I'm with the president!" an unidentified agent can be heard yelling on videotape of the mayhem.

The president, who is rarely alone, even in his own house, turned and walked back to the front door unaccompanied, facing the backs of a sea of dark suits. Bush, with his right hand, reached over the suits and pointed insistently at Trotta. At first the officials, with their backs to him and their heads in the rumble, did not realize it was the president intervening. Bush then braced himself against someone and lunged to retrieve the agent, who was still arguing with the Chileans. The shocked Chilean officials then released Trotta.

The Washington Post has the story and the video (ad up front, skirmish about halfway through the short video clip).

It would be easy to dismiss this as what happens when a president visits the third-world, but in fairness to the Chileans, the arrival of a US president is massive ordeal. A typical visit entails the arrival of a small air force, an entourage of 260, a press corps of 100 and a motorcade of 20 vehicles. However, I don't know what the Chilean police were thinking about trying to change plans that had been previously negotiated. That is just foolish.

All in all, I think White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan summed up the events fairly well and with the right perspective. The president is someone who tends to delegate, but every now and then, he's a hands-on kind of guy. I doubt we'll see a repeat of this type of antics while Bush is in Columbia (use "junkmail" as the id and password).

The Spanish colonialists who fortified the Colombian seaport of Cartagena 400 years ago to guard against pirates and rival imperial powers could only have dreamed of the security being implemented for President Bush's visit Monday.

About 15,000 Colombian security forces -- backed by warplanes, helicopters, battleships and two submarines -- will safeguard Bush's four-hour trip to discuss the nation's war on drugs. That is the same number of American troops deployed in the Fallujah offensive in Iraq.

This makes the typical presidential entourage look small.

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