RIO DE JANEIRO – Nearly 2,000 people gathered Sunday on Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro to protest the upcoming visit to Brazil by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and to ask for an explanation from President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for receiving him.

“Lula, explain to your invited guest what human rights are” and “denying the Holocaust is the same thing as denying slavery” were some of the slogans written on posters carried by some of the demonstrators.

At the protest were members of the local Jewish and Arab communities, religious groups with an African origin, homosexual groups and numerous civilians unhappy with the idea of offering a reception with full presidential honors to the Iranian president, who will arrive in Brasilia on Monday.

Among the marchers could be seen Israeli flags, along with the Brazilian flag and the multicolor gay pride banner, as well as T-shirts with comments such as “Peace” and “What kind of guest is this?”

The march lasted about two hours and proceeded along a large part of the walkway running beside the beach, which was packed, just like on every typical sunny Sunday.

The demonstrators blew whistles derisively at Ahmadinejad and Lula, distributed pamphlets, shouted and danced to the rhythms of an African percussion group that enlivened the gathering.

Also, the crowd observed a minute of silence as a gesture of brotherly solidarity with the Iranian people – who, as protesters said, are the ones who are suffering from the “discriminatory policies” of the Islamic republic’s president – after which they sang the Brazilian national anthem.

At the end of the protest, a huge number of white balloons were released skyward with comments such as “Human rights,” “Freedom of the press” and “Peace” written on them. The balloons had been contained in a cage and represented the “victims” of the Iranian regime, in the words of protest organizers.

In addition to the Rio march, crowds also gathered to repudiate the Iranian leader’s visit in Brasilia in front of the Foreign Ministry and in several other cities around the country.

Ahmadinejad will arrive Monday in the Brazilian capital accompanied by a delegation of some 200 businessmen, and he will meet with Lula to try and garner his support for his controversial nuclear program.