La administración de Bush está impulsando estos acuerdos de libre comercio en el contexto del crecimiento de intervención militar estadounidense en la región, como por ejemplo el intento de golpe de estado en contra del gobierno de Hugo Chávez en Venezuela elegido democráticamente y también el aumento de fondos para el Plan Colombia.

El enfoque en comercio da a los progresistas, la oportunidad de dar a Bush la primera derrota de su nueva administración.

La reciente victoria izquierdista en la elección presidencial en Uruguay dió un golpe al ALCA. El gobierno de Chávez en Venezuela, del presidente Luiz Inacio ‘Lula’ da Silva en Brasil, y ahora también el gobierno de Uruguay se han puesto en contra de la ALCA. Esto hace al TLC mucho más importante para los Estados Unidos por su interés de ganar control económico sobra las américas. También significa que una derrota del TLC podría interrumpir el proceso entero del ALCA.

La administración de Bush empezó a negociar el TLC hace dos años, esperando poca oposición en los Estados Unidos y en Centroamérica. Pero calcularon mal. Trabajadores, campesinos, estudiantes, consumidores y partidos políticos de oposición en Centroamérica se han unido con activistas de comercio justo, trabajadores y activistas de solidaridad en los Estados Unidos para resistir el tratado. Campesinos que cultivan la remolacha en el medio oeste de los EEUU y los pescadores de camarones en el estado de Luisiana han sumado sus voces a la creciente oposición.

Cientos de miles de personas en Centroamérica han marchado repetidamente en contra del TLC y la política neoliberal del libre comercio y la privatización. Aunque la oposición ha sido más fuerte en Centroamérica, la posibilidad más grande de parar el TLC está en el congreso estadounidense.

Históricamente, el partido demócrata no se ha opuesto a los acuerdos de libre comercio, a menos que necesitaran el apoyo de los sindicatos. El candidato presidencial demócrata John Kerry fue muy ambivalente en sus pronunciamientos sobre el TLC. Eso, junto con la victoria republicana, podría causar que algunas personas piensen que la posibilidad de aprobar el TLC ha aumentado, pero de hecho todavía hay una lucha importante que librar. Muchos de los demócratas que se retiraron o que perdieron eran fuertes defensores del libre comercio – siete de los 21 demócratas que votaron para el “Fast Track” en 2001 ya no están en el congreso. Además el demócrata de Minnesota Collin Peterson, un opositor fuerte del TLC en la cámara de representantes, ya es el congresista demócrata con mayor precedencia en el comité de agricultura en el congreso. El movimiento anti-TLC en los EEUU está unido para parar el acuerdo defectuoso y ha forzado al liderazgo demócrata del congreso a declarar su oposición al acuerdo. Las líneas de batalla ya quedan claras.

Pero todavía no se sabe cuándo el congreso va a votar sobre el TLC. El líder mayoritario (republicano) del congreso Tom Delay de Texas dijo que a los republicanos todavía les faltan unos votos y dijo que la aprobación del TLC, “va a venir cuando tengamos los votos para aprobarlo.” Hasta la fecha no tienen los votos. Lo que queda claro es que Bush no tiene el respaldo de la opinión pública, y que el movimiento creciente en contra del libre comercio ahora tiene la oportunidad para movilizar los activistas anti-Bush que antes no estaban organizados.

Cuando al principio propusieron el TLC, pocas personas en los EEUU pensaron que el plan podría ser derrotado. Cuando organizadores salvadoreños oyeron eso, contestaron que, “Nosotros no escogemos las batallas basados en que se puede ganar, sino que escogemos las batallas basados en las necesidades de nuestra gente, sabemos que la lucha es justa, y si seguimos organizando para una causa justa, algún día vamos a ganar.” Tres años después, activistas estadounidenses y centroamericanos están a punto de hacer algo que muchos pensaron que era imposible – derrotar a Bush y sus aliados en el tema del TLC y dar un golpe fuerte a su agenda del comercio.

Para incorporarse a la lucha en contra del TLC, visite la página web de la coalición “STOP CAFTA” ( www.stopcafta.org) o la pagina web del Comité en Solidaridad con el Pueblo de El Salvador ( www.cispes.org)

Cherrene Horazuk es una experta sobre Latinoamérica y fue directora nacional del Comité en Solidaridad con el Pueblo de El Salvador (CISPES).

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The Colombia Action Network is issuing the following call for protests at John McCain's campaign events and at the Republican National Convention, September 1-4 in St. Paul, MN. McCain arrived in Colombia on Tuesday and is promoting his close relationship to death squad leader Colombian President Uribe as a campaign issue.

Hands Off Colombia! End Military Aid to Colombia Now!

Republican presidential candidate John McCain's position on Colombia is unacceptable for advocates of peace and justice. McCain supports free trade policies that benefit wealthy corporations while exploiting the poor. McCain favors spending billions on military aid to the brutal right-wing government in Colombia. McCain has already expressed his unconditional support for the U.S. occupation of Iraq. His current visit with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe proves that he would deliver a continuation of the Bush Administration's brutal policies in Latin America as well. By standing with Uribe, McCain is showing that he supports terrorism, death squads and bloodshed.

The U.S. role in Colombia:

Since 2000, the U.S. has spent over 5 billion dollars funding a right wing government that uses our dollars to kill trade unionists, human rights workers, and campesinos (peasants). The paramilitaries are armed, trained, and directed by the Colombian military, under the leadership of U.S. Generals and 800 U.S. Military advisors. The paramilitaries are funded by Colombian and American narco-traffickers and U.S. corporations like Coca-Cola, Chiquita, Drummond Coal and Occidental Oil. Their paramilitary cohorts cut off the heads of peasants with machetes and dismember bodies with chain saws to terrorize and silence peasants who attempt to organize. In Colombia, speaking out against unjust land grabs and unjust labor practices often involves risking one's life.

The U.S. is supporting an oligarchy in Colombia—a small class of rich families who rule through fire and blood. To maintain this tiny elite, the U.S. is conducting a dirty war against the poor peasants and workers of Colombia, known as “Plan Colombia”. The peasants and workers are not helpless victims however, and many have joined the guerrilla movements, especially the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) that has grown and developed into the most powerful rebel force in Latin America today. The FARC, like most people, believes that Colombians should receive the economic benefits of their natural resources, not U.S. corporations. The FARC uses a variety of tactics to fight against the theft of indigenous and peasant lands by the expansions of foreign oil companies.

No Blood for Oil!

Just like Iraq, Colombia has oil. The U.S. imports a substantial amount of oil from Colombia. Corporations like BP Amoco and Occidental Oil want to claim even more of Colombia's oil. This comes at the expense of Colombia's national oil company ECOPETROL and hurts the national income of the Colombian people.

In addition to oil, Colombia is rich in minerals and agricultural products including coal, emeralds, silver, bananas, and other fruits. The Amazon rainforest is rich in water sources and medicinal plants. McCain favors a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that would weaken Colombian labor and environmental protections, allowing U.S. corporations to maximize profits while denying sovereignty to the Colombian people. McCain is bad news for the majority of Colombia's people.

The Republican agenda: An agenda for war!

McCain has a track record of supporting war in both Afghanistan and Iraq. However, his bloody foreign policy is not exclusive to the Middle East. President Bush expanded “Plan Colombia”, labeling peasant rebels as “terrorists” and McCain has embraced every bloody aspect of it. McCain has loudly defended Colombian President Uribe from charges that his government violates human rights. McCain calls for closer U.S.-Colombian relations and an expedited FTA – despite proof of Uribe's connections to paramilitary death squads. Republicans have thwarted the Latin America solidarity movements' efforts to close the School of the Americas. Republicans have defended the use of torture in Iraq, at the School of the Americas and at Guantanamo Bay. Lastly, McCain is committed to continuing the attacks on Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez. Attacks on Chavez are a vehicle to attack the entire Bolivarian Revolution, along with all the great gains made for the people under Chavez. The U.S. has built three military bases on Colombia's border with Venezuela to threaten the Venezuelan people's efforts. McCain stirs up fear of Chavez to justify continued military aid to Colombia and a FTA with Colombia, Panama, and Peru.

March on the RNC!

The people of Colombia, like the people of Iraq, need us in the streets protesting at the Republican National Convention. We need to stop the U.S.-sponsored wars in their countries. We need to stop our tax dollars from being spent to prop up the corrupt narco-trafficking regime of President Uribe. McCain is making Colombia an issue in this presidential campaign and we must respond!

The American public is increasingly aware of the U.S. atrocities committed in Iraq, and a majority in this country opposes the war. This public outrage will manifest itself at the RNC. We have an opportunity to educate the 50,000+ people who come to the RNC that the U.S. occupation of Iraq is just one example of this country's quest for empire. Current U.S. policies toward Latin America, particularly Colombia, are the cause of widespread violence and injustice. These policies, which McCain promises to continue, must be confronted at the RNC.

For more information about the September 1 demonstration at the Republican National Convention go to marchonrnc.org. For more information about protests at the RNC go to protestrnc2008.org.

Colombia Action Network

The Colombia Action Network (CAN) is an organization of U.S. activists in solidarity with the Colombian people. We stand resolutely opposed to U.S. intervention in Colombia. For more information, please contact us info@colombiasolidarity.org

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FTAA: Poverty and Misery for the Americas

The FTAA is a plan for poverty, misery, and ruination. The FTAA does to all of Latin America and the Caribbean what the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) did to Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. In all three countries workers’ standard of living is driven down, wages are lowered and work conditions have deteriorated.

Union workers in Canada and the U.S. have been undercut by NAFTA, while peasants in Mexico have been driven off their land by the ‘competition’ of unfairly subsidized corporate farming in the U.S. These peasants are forced to move to city slums or migrate north to the U.S., where the same corporations take advantage of them. Workers are forced to compete with each other in a race to the bottom, while the rich, mostly in the U.S., stand back and count their profits.

For evidence, look at the maquilladoras that NAFTA created along the Texas-Mexico border. Jobs are moved there and the corporations take no responsibility for the neighborhoods – no streets, no water supply, no electricity, no schools, no local government. In short, chaos and desperation!

The FTAA will do away with trade protections that U.S. big business finds unfavorable to its corporations and financial investments. The FTAA is NAFTA on crack. The FTAA will put into practice a program that undercuts national independence abroad while giving U.S. corporations more power.

Privatization will be the order of the day in Latin America. The FTAA will accelerate the sell-off of profitable state industries, such as the state oil company in Colombia, ECOPETROL, which provides over $2 billion (or 23% )of the Colombian government’s revenue every year.

Pollution control standards at all levels will be trampled over. As with NAFTA, if a government body puts up a fight over pollution issues, then corporations will sue them in court and demand millions. The Canadian government paid a U.S. corporation called Ethyl $13 million in damages, and the company’s legal costs, to settle a $251 million lawsuit over a gas additive called MMT that Canada had banned. Canada also agreed to proclaim that MMT is safe even though Canada’s own health department does not think so.

The rich man’s democracy that exists in the U.S. and all its neo-colonies in Latin America and the Caribbean will be strengthened by a negotiated contract called the FTAA.

Growing Resistance

When protesters in Miami turn up the heat on the FTAA, they will have a large array of supporters throughout the hemisphere. In Colombia, where the freedom fighters of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and ELN (National Liberation Army) govern half the country, a recent joint communiqué proclaimed unity in “Pushing forward all the political processes that favor peace with social justice and the pursuit of political alternatives in opposition to Plan Colombia and the FTAA.”

In socialist Cuba, the people are building an alternative political and economic model that contrasts with the hunger and suffering that imperialist globalization forces on its neighbors. In Brazil, over 10 million working-class people have signed petitions against the FTAA, and the Brazilian government is attempting to create a separate market bloc with other Latin American countries.

The government of the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela has taken a tough stance against the FTAA. Venezuelan President Chavez said, “Signing the FTAA as it is now is like saying ‘Rest in peace for the republic. It is not worth it,’ and ‘We still have a colonial-model economy.’” Chavez told Reuters press, “Venezuela is on the side of the people and we propose a new integration system that is definitely not the FTAA, which, as it has been put forward, is a perverse mechanism that would be a death order for the future of the region.”

Across Latin America and the Caribbean, the workers movements, the peasants and farmers associations, the student movements, the left and nationalist political parties, indigenous peoples and revolutionary guerrilla armies are actively opposing the FTAA.

When young people and workers in the U.S. unite to fight the FTAA in Miami, they will speak and act for millions whose voices will not be featured on CNN or Fox news. Like the Battle of Seattle, where the dreams of the big capitalists went up in smoke, the street heat in Miami may bring a victory for the people throughout the Americas.

#UnitedStates #Editorial #Editorials #Americas #WorkersAndGlobalization #FTAA #miamiProtest

Join tens of thousands in Washington DC on Saturday, September 29 to say:

• No to Plan Colombia
• No to the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas)
• U.S. Bases out of Vieques and all of Latin America & the Caribbean
• Close the School of the Americas / WHISC
• Stop the Direct Assault Against People of Color and the Poor in the Americas through the Phony War on Drugs

The U.S. government is continuing its legacy of intervention in Latin America and the Caribbean by imposing pro-corporate, anti-people economic policies, by providing military aid and training to repressive governments, and attempting to crush any movements that support alternative models. We must stop these policies and stand in solidarity with our sisters and brothers throughout the Americas. They are at the forefront of opposition to these policies, and are creating alternatives that place human need above corporate greed.

The U.S. government is using its armed forces to push through economic policies that only serve to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. This war system works hand in hand with the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade Organization (WTO). The U.S. government is using the production of narcotics in the southern part of the American continent as an excuse to militarize the Americas. There are currently military bases in Cuba, Ecuador, and Puerto Rico and a strong military presence in Bolivia, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Peru.

Current U.S. policy towards Colombia is a failed policy which is inflaming a violent conflict and contributing to increased human rights abuses. We call for an end to all military aid to Colombia and for an end to U.S. funding of fumigation in Colombia and the Andean region. We recognize that U.S.-funded fumigation of coca crops is destroying critical biodiversity throughout the Amazon region and is creating health and food security crises among the local populations. At the same time – with the excuses of the “drug war”, and “illegal” immigration – the U.S. has militarized its border with Mexico. It is also increasingly militarizing the police forces in urban and rural areas and is brutalizing the people of color who live there. We know that all this repression has the same root and the same purpose: to maintain U.S. economic control, and to concentrate wealth in even fewer hands.

Challenges to this anti-people model – especially those rising from democratic processes and civil society – are a tremendous threat to U.S. control in the region. We support the peaceful resolution of differences in our personal lives, in our communities, in our nation and in the world. We condemn the actions of the United States government that increase economic and social inequality, undermine democratic institutions, and fund police and military violence.

We uphold the right to self-determination and national sovereignty. The nations and peoples of the hemisphere have the right to pursue self-government free of external military and economic pressures.

We who live in the United States must realize the responsibility of the U.S. government in creating and maintaining inequality in the Americas. We must work to end all U.S. military aid and training to the region, to stop the blockade of Cuba, to end the continued colonial exploitation of Puerto Rico and its use as a giant military base from which invasions to other countries are rehearsed. We must say no to the U.S. viewing and using other countries as their backyard.

We propose alternatives to the pro-company, anti-people economic model – alternatives that overcome repressive structures in our own countries, as well as the existence of the same structures elsewhere. We propose alternatives that include real community building, fair economics, and self-determination. Therefore, we oppose the so-called “war on drugs”, Presidential fast track authority in trade negotiations, and NAFTA- style Free Trade Agreements between the U.S. and the other countries of the Americas.

We call on people of conscience around the world to join us on September 29 in our protest against U.S. military and economic intervention in Latin America and the Caribbean. We are organizing a massive protest in Washington D.C. as part of the week of action against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. We call for people to organize local demonstrations on the same day. We are also coordinating with movements throughout Latin America and the Caribbean to make this an International Day of Action Against U.S. Military and Economic Intervention in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Signed:

• Nicaragua Network
• CISPES(Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador)
• NISGUA(Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala)
• Colombia Action Network
• Witness for Peace
• Latinos and Latinas for Social Change
• Chicago Nicaragua Solidarity Committee
• Guatemala Human Rights Commission – USA
• Rights Action

Stop U.S. Intervention in Colombia

The Colombia Action Network (CAN) is a national network of local activist groups fighting to stop U.S. intervention in Colombia and supporting progressive forces working for social justice within Colombia. We encourage everyone to use our activist resources and take up our campaigns. Resources, background info and up-to-date information is available on our website. Get in touch with us!

Colombia Action Network

www.actioncolombia.org

actioncolombia@hotmail.com

612-872-0944

#WashingtonDC #AntiwarMovement #Colombia #Cuba #ElSalvador #Honduras #Americas #Bolivia #IMF #Statement #FTAA #freeTrade #PlanColombia #WorldBank #InternationalBank #SchoolOfTheAmericas

The context of the attempts by the Bush administration to push these trade agreements is that of growing U.S. military intervention in the region, including efforts to overthrow the democratically elected Chavez government in Venezuela and increasing funding for Plan Colombia.

The focus on trade gives progressive activists the opportunity to hand Bush the first major defeat of his new administration.

The recent left victory in the Uruguayan presidential elections dealt a blow to the FTAA. The Chavez government in Venezuela, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio ‘Lula’ da Silva and, now, the government of Uruguay have all lined up against the FTAA. This makes CAFTA much more important for the U.S.’s bid to gain economic control of the Americas. It also means that a defeat on CAFTA could derail the entire FTAA process.

The Bush administration began negotiating CAFTA two years ago, expecting little opposition in the U.S. or in Central America. However, they miscalculated. Workers, farmers, students, consumers and opposition political parties in Central America have come together with fair trade, labor and solidarity activists from the U.S. to organize resistance to the agreement. Sugar beet farmers in the upper Midwest and shrimpers in Louisiana have added their voices to this growing opposition.

Hundreds of thousands of people throughout Central America have repeatedly marched against CAFTA and broader neo-liberal economic policies of free trade and privatization. Though opposition has been strongest in Central America, the greatest possibility for stopping CAFTA will be in the U.S. Congress.

The Democratic Party has not historically opposed free trade agreements, unless they were seeking labor’s endorsement, and Kerry was very ambivalent in his statements about renegotiating CAFTA. This, along with the Republican victory, may cause some to think that the possibility of passing CAFTA has improved, but in fact a major fight remains. Many of the Democrats that are retiring or have been voted out were fierce free-traders – seven of the 21 Democrats that voted for Fast Track in 2001 will no longer be around. Also, Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN), a staunch opponent of CAFTA, will take over as the ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee. The anti-CAFTA movement in the U.S. is united in stopping the seriously flawed agreement and has forced the congressional Democratic leadership into vowing opposition. The battle lines have been clearly drawn.

The timing for a vote, however, remains in question. House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-TX) stated last week that Republicans were still a few votes away and said, “It will be coming up when we have the votes to pass it.” To date, they do not have the votes. What is clear is that Bush is far from having a mandate, and that the growing movement against free trade now has the opportunity to mobilize the previously unorganized anti-Bush activists.

When CAFTA was first proposed, very few people in the U.S. thought the plan could be defeated. When told this, numerous organizers in the Salvadoran movement stated, “We do not choose our battles based on what can be won; we choose our battles based on what the needs of our people are. We know that our struggle is just, and if we continue to organize for what is right, we will one day be victorious.” Three years later, activists from throughout the U.S. and Central America are about to do what many thought impossible – hand Bush and his cronies a defeat on CAFTA, and a major blow for the trade agenda.

To get involved in the battle against CAFTA, contact the Stop CAFTA Coalition or the Committee In Solidarity with the People of El Salvador.

Cherrene Horazuk is an expert on Latin America and former national director of the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador.

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