Action for Community and Ecology in the Regions of Central America GREEN PAPER 3: Freedoms That Are Abolished

Table of Contents Introduction 1) Trade and Investment: a little history 2) What is in the FTAA Agreement? Biotechnology and the FTAA Protecting Intellectual Property Free Flowing Capital What about Free Flow of People? Militarization and Globalization in the Americas Free Trade and Economic Developmen 3) Making the FTAA a Reality Corporate Globalization in the Americas Dry Canal Megaprojects and the FTAA Dry Canal Megaprojects and the FTAA 4) The FTAA and the Future of the Hemisphere Protecting Corporate Profits FTAA Attacks the Forests 5) Is THIS What Democracy Looks Like? The FTAA's Threat to Democracy North American First Nations: Going Corporate? Free Trade and the Proliferation of Sweatshops 6)THIS is What Democracy Looks Like Free Trade and the Proliferation of Sweatshops 7) What You Can Do Sources Acronym List download this document (488k). ACERCA

Dry Canal Megaprojects and the FTAA by Anne Petermann ACERCA Development Advisor Road being bulldozed through Lacandon rainforest in Chaipas, Mexico- destruction of wilderness corridors is just one of the few devastating effects of the corporate greed promoted by free trade agreements. photo by Orin Langelle Global capital, in desperate need of an alternative to the aging Panama Canal, has proposed dry canal megaprojects to move goods from coast to coast. These dry canals are proposed for Mexico's Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Nicaragua, Colombia and other areas and will devastate the land and people for hundreds of kilometers in all directions. The Central American region has become a linchpin to the expansion of global trade. Using high speed rail to transport containers of capital goods from one coast to the other, these dry canals are highly valued for a variety of reasons. The aging Panama Canal, besides filing up with silt due to deforestation, also has both ports controlled by a Chinese multinational corporation. This control of a critical trade route by "communists" worries some capitalists. Meanwhile, the canal is no longer able to manage the increased pressure of a rapidly growing number of ships moving global goods. An alternative is desperately needed. These megaprojects will involve the construction of massive deep water ports on each coast, capable of hosting the largest ocean freighters. These ports will be connected by high speed rail lines. Such a massive transportation corridor will lead to further exploitation of forests and minerals and attract sweatshops, industrial shrimp farms, oil refineries and vast industrial development, leading to wholesale destruction to the environmental and cultural integrity of the region. The FTAA and these megaprojects are part of the on-going colonization of Central and South America to further the expansion of trade and the exploitation of resources for the benefit of the North.