Deeply
indebted to the north, the World Bank and IMF coerce Latin American governments
to privatize state-owned enterprises, reduce government expenditures, and open
borders for “free trade”. This “neoliberal” model is forced on the region’s
populations by multilateral institutions, which the U.S. dominates, like the
World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and InterAmerican Development
Bank (IDB). Additionally, neoliberalism
is being promoted globally through the World Trade Organization and in the
Americas with agreements such as the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and
the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Complementing these “free trade” agreements in Latin America are
a package of massive industrial regional infrastructure projects such as the
Plan Puebla Panama (PPP) covering the region from Mexico to Panama and the
Integration of Infrastructure in the Region of South America (IIRSA) spanning
from Colombia to Argentina.
The
package of free trade projects proposed for the region, such as the FTAA,
CAFTA, PPP and IIRSA are not spreading “freedom” nor “developing” the region as
its champions would have it. Rather, these projects are widening the gap
between rich and poor and ruthlessly exploiting workers, indigenous peoples,
and women and destroying the environment. Growing disenchantment with the
failures of this “free trade” model is widely documented even by its champions
such as the IDB who begins their diagnosis of the region stating that 62% of
all Latin Americans say that neoliberalism has worsened their economic
situation; 72% say that privatization has not been a good idea; and 70% say
that the state should maintain control of education, health care, water and
electricity services.
The
FTAA and CAFTA create the regulatory and legal framework for the acceleration
of corporate-led globalization in Latin America by guaranteeing multinational
corporations control of the regions abundant cheap labor forces, state owned
services such as heath care and electricity and vast natural resources such as
oil, gas, minerals, forest products, genetic material and commercial
agriculture. Combined, the
infrastructure megaprojects of the PPP and IIRSA, spanning from Mexico to
Argentina, further entice corporate exploitation of the region providing
investors with the infrastructure that they demand. Together the FTAA, CAFTA,
PPP and IIRSA are pushing to create a singular Latin American free trade zone
responding to the wishes of global capital and multinational corporations while
failing to respond to the majority of peoples’ needs. As a result people are
leaving their communities and immigrating to cities and to the United States in
search of economic survival, only to face repression and economic hardship
there.
Displace thousands of rural and indigenous peoples with massive industrial development projects including hydroelectric dams, mining, oil drilling, commercial agriculture and forestry. Pushing the rural work forces into assembly plant production in already overpopulated urban slums or to migrate to the Untied States.
Deny countries the right to regulate speculative investments-leaving national economies open to the wishes of a few transnational financial corporations.
Give corporations the right to privatize biodiversity and patent and exploit genetic resources and traditional knowledge found mostly in indigenous communities.
Deny governments the right to reject genetically modified crops.
Create and privatize a regional energy market controlled by transnational corporations.
Sixty thousand people,
with banners raised, voices lifted, rejecting
the Plan Puebla Panama (PPP) and celebrating 510 years
of resistance
to the colonization of the Americas-that was what happened
on October
12. Those 60,000 people gathered in small towns throughout
the US and
on dirt roads in Central American villages, as well
as in the largest
cities and in the middle of the largest highways. From
Canada to
Colombia, they protested in front of US embassies, Inter-American
Development Bank (IDB) and World Bank offices, Spanish
embassies,
monuments to Christopher Columbus and the headquarters
of
corporations involved in the PPP.
Essentially a plan to transform much of southern Mexico
and Central
America into a network of transit corridors and maquiladora
zones,
the PPP literally paves the way for the Free Trade Area
of the
Americas (FTAA) (see EF!J September-October 2002). Rural
and
indigenous communities that would be directly affected
by the PPP
understand this only too well, and on October 12, they
showed fierce
opposition to both measures.
The Pan-American highway was shut down at dozens of
points, in every
country from the US to Panama. Close to the Mexican
border, in
Cologenango, Guatemala, 1,000 Mayan Indigenous Peoples
barricaded the
highway with rocks and planks of wood that were embedded
with nails as they
listened to speeches by leaders of peasant groups opposed
to the PPP.
Protesters vowed that they would not allow the construction
of
hydroelectric dams on the Usamacinta River-the life
of the indigenous
people of the region and threatened by the PPP.
Protesters in Guatemala also took over the international
airport in
Petén-where tourists come to visit the famous
Tikal ruins. In
addition, a raucous rally was organized at the offices
of Unión
Fenosa, a Spanish corporation that is involved in the
PPP and trying
to privatize electricity in Nicaragua and Guatemala.
In Chiapas, Mexico, more than 50 peasant and civil
organizations
organized 12 roadblocks on major interstate highways
and roads
connecting Mexico and Guatemala. In one location, 250
people held a
blockade for 24 hours on the south frontier highway.
In another case, more than 1,000 people from the Association
of
Indigenous Communities of the Northern Zone of the Isthmus
(UCIZONI)
blocked the Trans-Isthmus highway on the Isthmus of
Tehuantepec in
Mexico, as well as the highway in Veracruz. They voiced
their
rejection of the PPP and FTAA plans, which exclude indigenous
input
and propose the pillaging of natural resources. UCIZONI
Coordinator
Carlos Beas Torres said, "PPP means the construction
of dams,
highways and port expansions. In other words, things
that advance the
expansion of multinational corporations in the region.
This means the
immediate expulsion of our communities from our lands."
Salvadoran organizers stretched the "day of action"
to an entire
week, starting with blockades on key transit routes
on October 12 and
continuing each day until the week ended on a hopeful
note: a
seed-conservation fair organized in resistance to genetic
engineering.
In Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua, indigenous people
demonstrated
outside the World Bank and IADB offices. The IADB is
the institution
funding much of the PPP development schemes. In Managua,
Nicaragua,
demonstrators managed to shut down the IADB offices
for the day.
A network of more than 30 organizations and 4,000 people
blockaded
the Honduran borders of Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua
to
protest various governmental institutions. In addition,
Mexican and
US activists collaborated to shut down both sides of
the border in
San Diego/Tijuana, El Paso/Ciudad Juárez and
Nogales, Arizona/Sonora.
Two thousand people marched in Santiago, Chile, to
support the
ancestral and land rights of the Mapuche people. On
the same day, a
group of 200 Mapuches reached the city of Concepción
after marching
300 miles in 10 days. They were protesting the construction
of the
Ralco dam mega-project, which will flood Mapuche lands.
Similarly,
indigenous activists from Panama marched 200 miles from
Costa Rica to
Panama City to protest the ecological destruction caused
by mining on
their lands.
In more than 20 North American cities, community organizations
led
rallies and protests in solidarity. As part of a rally
attended by
300 people, "George Bush" and "Christopher
Columbus" crashed the
Ithaca, New York, farmers' market, claiming they had
come to conquer.
Huge Zapatista dolls paraded through the streets of
Louisville,
Kentucky. In Washington, DC, Vernon Bellecourt, an American
Indian
Movement activist, splashed his own blood on the Columbus
statue.
In spite of the stunning array of actions with clear
political
messages, the mainstream media missed the point. The
Associated Press
reported that the actions were "protesting Columbus
Day and
celebrating the region's Indian heritage." Yet
there was so much
more. Teodosio Angel of UCIZONI explained a few days
before October
12: "We will block roads, ports and borders and
will protest
multinationals like Coca-Cola to demand that corporations
and
governments stop robbing our natural resources and basic
rights. For
510 years, governments and corporations have ignored
us, and it
continues today with the PPP."
Bertha Caceres of COPINH (National Civic Council of
Indigenous and
Popular Communities of Honduras) reminded all of us
of the human
element of the October 12 actions. In an interview broadcast
on Free
Speech Radio, Caceres noted, "This entire package
of economic
policies impacts certain sectors more strongly, especially
women. The
privatization of water, of health, of education, affects
women-especially single women with several children.
In a place where
many households are nearly destitute, the impact would
essentially be
the utter denial of our basic rights-the right to water,
to health,
to education."
For more information on the resistance to the PPP,
contact Action for
Community and Ecology in the Regions of Central America,
POB 57,
Burlington, VT 05402; (802) 863-0571; info@asej.org;
www.acerca.org.
San Salvador Beltway Construction Postponed Until At
Least 2004
Organized communities in El Salvador won a major victory
against the Plan Puebla Panama when government representatives
confirmed that construction on the main loop of the
San Salvador beltway would not begin this December,
as originally planned. The government has removed from
the 2003 budget $30 million destined towards beltway
construction, which will delay construction until at
least 2004. The $1 billion megaproject is a critical
node around which gravitates the entire PPP road network,
part of the key infrastructural groundwork for CAFTA;
it would destroy communities and the environment as
4,500 families would lose their homes to construction.
Communities across the San Salvador metropolitan area
have been protesting against the beltway for over a
year, blocking highways and chaining themselves to trees.
On October 12, some 28,000 Salvadorans blockaded highways,
bridges and border crossings at 11 points across the
country, protesting against the PPP and CAFTA. Salvadoran
President Francisco Flores has already seen his approval
rating plummet to below 20% because of his intransigent
refusal to end the healthcare strike; apparently worried
about fallout in the upcoming 2003 legislative and 2004
presidential elections, he decided to put off the beltway
project which has been so widely rejected by the Salvadoran
people.
For months, the government has repeatedly refused offers
by the STISSS and SIMETRISSS unions to negotiate an
end to the month-long healthcare strike. Yesterday,
Minister of Labor Jorge Nieto finally announced on national
television his willingness to negotiate with the striking
unions. Ricardo Monge, Secretary-General of the STISSS,
welcomes the government's offer, but insists that workers
will not be fooled by empty promises: "We have
always been ready to sit down and negotiate an end to
the privatization of health care," he explained,
"but in order for real negotiations to begin in
good faith, Flores must sign [the legislative decree
outlawing privatization]." Should Flores carry
out his threat to veto the decree, Monge predicts a
"total social explosion, a crisis of grave dimensions"
and warned that his union could not be held accountable
for "the actions of individual groups of angry
workers." Today, the Health and Environment Commission
of the Salvadoran Legislative Assembly begins debate
on Flores's voucher privatization plan On Thursday,
over 3,000 doctors at private clinics carried out a
one-day solidarity strike; on Saturday, some 6,000 doctors,
nurses, healthcare workers, patients and supporters
from San Vicente and Usulután marched in Usulután.
This week, doctors at the Ministry of Health public
hospital network are threatening to call an indefinite
strike unless Flores signs the decree.
Electricity workers from the STSEL union entered their
sixth day of hunger strike today, protesting against
illegal firings, the privatization of electricity generation,
and the privatization of health care. Two fired workers
and one member of the union's Board of Directors are
camped out in front of a prominent government building,
drinking only water as they seek to focus international
attention on the Salvadoran government's labor and human
rights abuses. This weekend, they were joined at rallies
by workers from across the electrical sector, as well
as from other unions in the FESTRASPES public-sector
union federation. The STISSS and the SIMETRISSS have
also expressed their solidarity and gratitude for the
electricity workers' sacrifice, and a SIMETRISSS doctor
is on hand around the clock in case of medical emergency.
Hunger striker Roberto Flores, Secretary of Organization
of the STSEL, urged US solidarity activists to pressure
Flores (see October 23 CISPES action alert), expressing
that "whether I live or die depends on the government's
actions." If the government still refuses to negotiate,
STSEL has not ruled out a nationwide strike in the electricity
sector that would shut off the lights for much of El
Salvador.
| Rich
rainforests, and all of its inhabitants, are
threatened by the PPP
photo: ACERCA
|
Managed
Land Degradation
What
will happen to the land when the people are removed?
Alfonso Romo serves as a PPP advisor and directs Grupo
Pulsar, one of Mexico's most important transnational
corporations. Romo is a biotech seed giant and Grupo
Pulsar currently has tree plantations in Chiapas (nearly
50,000 acres). More plantations are planned. These
chemical-intensive, non-labor-intensive operations
will irreparably damage the land without even offering
significant local employment. With Romo's ties to
biotechnology there is certainly a future possibility
of genetically engineered tree plantations being developed
throughout the Central American Isthmus. The World
Rainforest Movement has reported that the development
of primarily non-native tree plantations in the region
is directly due to the demand for raw materials for
packaging for sweatshops.
The
development of roads through the North Atlantic Autonomous
Region of Nicaragua and around the Lacandon Rainforest
of Chiapas have led to dramatic increases in the logging
of the native forests in those regions. Forests on
indigenous lands and in protected reserves alike are
being ravaged, legally and illegally, by national
and multi-national ventures. Indigenous peoples in
forested areas often act as the last line of defense
of their forest homeland. With the expansion of road
construction throughout the Isthmus and the removal
of indigenous peoples from the remaining forested
lands, the forests will be opened wide for unchecked
clearcutting and high grading.
This
transformation of the land from forest to clearing
has other impacts on the people and ecosystems. When
Hurricane Mitch struck Central America in October
of 1998, the most devastation occurred as a result
of the massive mudslides and floods that ensued. The
areas that suffered the most devastation and the highest
losses of life were those areas that had been ecologically
damaged and deforested years before. Where the rainforests
still stood, the damage was minor, because the soils
were able to retain the heavy rains, but where the
land was bare, the rain had nowhere to go except into
huge river floods, and without tree roots to hold
the soil in place, the saturated earth slid off of
the hillsides over the communities below.
| Miltary
convoy driving through Indigenous Villages.
Photo:
ACERCA
 |
Militarization
The
United States military has a long and disastrous history
throughout Latin America. Currently, US military presence
is strongest in El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
After Hurricane Mitch, many American troops that were
sent to the region for relief efforts never left.
It has been reported that 12,000 U.S. troops will
be deployed in a joint operation in Guatemala. The
PPP both opens a corridor and provides a new excuse
for militarization by the U.S. all the way from Mexico
to Colombia. US factories, refineries and smelters
in such an "unstable" region will require
the heavy and on-going presence of the American military.
Indigenous
activists in the region report an increase in military
operations in Central America since September 11.
George Bush's "War on Terrorism" is being
used as an excuse in the region to crack down on activism.
The
on-going US Navy bombing of Puerto Rico's island of
Vieques and the presence of the Southern Command of
the U.S. military in Puerto Rico, is also key in the
overall military dominance of the region.
Indigenous
The
PPP is potentially the greatest threat to indigenous
communities and culture since the landing of Columbus
as neoliberal economics is pitted against indigenous
thought and wisdom.
As
described above, one of the main goals of the PPP
is the privatization of land and displacement of indigenous
communities from their homelands. Indigenous culture
and language is intimately tied to the land. Indigenous
communities and culture in the region are already
under assault by the increasingly dominant American
capitalist consumer culture, and the loss of their
land base will almost certainly sound the death knell
for the remaining traditions that the indigenous communities
still retain.
Uruguayan-born
writer Carlos Fazio states that geo-politics are key
to the PPP. To Fazio, the Plan represents a counter-insurgency
strategy directed at the rebel, largely Mayan, Zapatista
Army of National Liberation (EZLN) and other armed
groups in southern Mexico and Central America. The
Zapatistas' goals of indigenous autonomy and the collective
use of land and natural resources are "antithetical"
to the PPP. In La Jornada, Fazio stated, "The
father of this plan lives in Washington…"
describing Fox's neoliberal affinity and the U.S.
strategic, economic, and energy ambitions in the region.
Resistance:
Finding the Achilles Heel
This
massive remaking of the region is key for the continued
expansion of globalization. Without this new transportation
infrastructure, global trade cannot continue to expand.
The Central American region remains a linchpin for
the expansion of global trade. However, because of
this critical importance to economic globalization,
it is also its Achilles Heel.
If
these mega-project developments can be stopped, a
serious problem arises for the multinational corporations
who need to ship capital goods from ocean to ocean,
from South America to North America or who dream of
cheap assembly plants throughout the region.
Civil
Society Rises Up
The
forces against corporate economic globalization are
on the rise. Opposition to the PPP has already started
in southeastern Mexico and Central America. This spring,
some members of civil society organized their own
consultation: a meeting about the PPP in Tapachula,
a city on the Chiapas-Guatemala border. Present were
over one hundred organizations, including groups from
most of the southern Mexican states, as well as Guatemala,
Nicaragua and El Salvador. The group met for nearly
three days and emerged with a common strategic response
to the PPP. At the end of the meeting, the group issued
a statement reading, in part:
"Given
that any development plan must be the result of a
democratic process, and not an authoritarian one,
we firmly reject the Puebla-Panama Plan…. We
condemn all strategies geared toward the destruction
of the national, peasant and popular economy, [and]
food and labor self-sufficiency."
Opposition
is also mounting in the U.S. In Washington, DC, on
October 1, 2001 approximately fifty people representing
21 organizations gathered to discuss Plan Puebla Panama
(PPP). The meeting was called for by ACERCA with Mexico
Solidarity Network, Global Exchange and CISPES to
build the foundation for a broad US-based movement
against the PPP in solidarity with the global south.
The
meeting brought together many U.S. based NGOs and
representatives from Mexico, Honduras, Panama and
Colombia. The afternoon meeting resulted in an informal
coalition that will work to support the inhabitants
of the region that will be affected by the PPP.
We,
in the anti-corporate globalization movement have
the opportunity to join with our southern allies in
exploiting this Achilles Heel. It is also our responsibility
to listen to and support development plans that come
from the people of the affected region while dealing
a major blow to corporate economic globalization.
As one of our southern allies said, "it is time
to build corridors of resistance to the PPP."
This
briefing paper was prepared by ACERCA with PPP information
provided by Wendy Call, John Ross, and Mexico Solidarity
Network
ACERCA
(Action
for Community & Ecology in the Regions of Central
America)
(Acción para La Comunidad y La Ecología
en Las Regiones de Centroamericana)
Plan
Puebla Panama: The InterAmerican
Development Bank Paves Latin America
(top)
-by Brendan O 'Neill
The InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB)
is literally paving the way for corporate globalization
in Central America with the massive industrial development
project called Plan Puebla Panama (PPP). PPP and its
southern twin, the Regional Infrastructure Integration
Initiative (IIRSA), threaten the social and ecological
integrity of all of Latin America.
PPP and IIRSA are "regional integration"
projects that call for the construction of hydroelectric
dams and high-impact roadways throughout indigenous
territories and intact rainforests, the dredging of
deep water ports in fragile ocean ecosystems and the
creation of sweatshop factories in industrial development
zones throughout the region. These projects, coordinated
by the IDB, will be funded by development bank loans,
private corporations and public institutions.
PPP and IIRSA will lay the infrastructural
foundation upon which "free trade" can be
built and expanded over the geographical area encompassed
by the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
The PPP covers Mexico through Central America, while
IIRSA picks up in Colombia where the PPP leaves off,
reaching into South America. Critics of the PPP argue
that, like the FTAA and the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA), it was created by a handful of
regional political and corporate elites. The IDB has
only held token "consultations" with hand-chosen
organizations in the region and has intentionally
excluded those who will be impacted most by the project.
The Central American Free Trade Agreement
(CAFTA) is currently being negotiated by the US, Costa
Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
This agreement to advance free trade and to "forge
closer economic relations" follows in the same
neoliberal vein as NAFTA. Negotiators hope to have
an agreement before December 2004. In the words of
President Bush, the passing of CAFTA would be another
step toward completing the FTAA. Any advancement in
CAFTA or the FTAA promises to intensify corporate
pressure to implement the PPP and IIRSA.
PPP: Development for Whom and
by Whom?
PPP was originally proposed by Mexico's
President Vicente Fox to link the region from Puebla,
Mexico, all the way to Panama, with a north-south
industrial transportation corridor (i.e. superhighway
to move goods) running along the Pacific Coast. In
addition, the PPP calls for the creation of key industrial
development zones (i.eŠsweatshops), as well as
the dredging and privatization of deep water ports
that would destroy critical habitat. A series of "dry
canals" (superhighways and high speed railways)
running east-west across southern Mexico and Central
America would connect the ports on both coasts with
the industrial zones and the north-south corridor.
The dry canals threaten to displace rural indigenous
people and destroy the ecosystems of the region.
Other PPP megaprojects include the creation
and privatization of a regional energy grid involving
the construction of dozens of hydroelectric dams from
Panama to Mexico, which would feed industrial development.
This promises to flood indigenous communities and
ecosystems. Additionally, privatization of basic services
and natural resources would enable massive oil, mineral,
forestry and commercial agriculture development by
multinational corporations.
Resistance to the PPP
Indigenous organizations such as the
Organization of Indigenous Communities of the Northern
Zone of the Isthmus (UCIZONI) have adamantly rejected
a proposal for a dry canal through the Isthmus of
Tehuantepec in Oaxaca, Mexico. Since the announcement
of the dry canal in 1997 UCIZONI declared, "The
Isthmus is not for sale!" Thus, resistance to
this dry canal by UCIZONI and other indigenous organizations
existed long before it was formally incorporated as
one of many megaprojects of the PPP.
From March 4-18, Action for Community
and Ecology in the Regions of Central America (ACERCA)
led a delegation of North American activists and grassroots
organizers to Nicaragua's North Atlantic Autonomous
Region. Indigenous communities living in the region
are opposing a PPP project that would expand the Bilwi-Puerto-Cabezas
port into the largest in the Caribbean. DELASA, a
private US corporation, is a major player behind this
$150 million, three-part business plan that threatens
to irrevocably alter the entire region. The company
intends to enlarge and pave a road from Managua to
Bilwi and to expand the Bilwi-Puerto-Cabezas port.
This would result in the displacement of many nearby
communities. Indigenous resistance to these projects
includes coordination between ACERCA, the Sumu/Mayagna
indigenous community organization (SUKAWALA) and the
Nation of Mosquita Consejo de Ancianos.
Unified opposition and alternatives
to these corporate globalization projects create the
possibility for the development of locally based,
socially and ecologically just alternatives. While
the anti-globalization movement has targeted the World
Trade Organization, World Bank and International Monetary
Fund, we must also target shameless regional banks
like the IDB. Opposition to the FTAA has been strong,
but to fully combat corporate globalization, we need
to unify the struggles against the PPP, IIRSA, CAFTA
and the FTAA.
With every proposal of the PPP, whether
in the form of a hydroelectric dam or a dry canal,
the privatization of natural resources or the creation
of sweatshops, there is solidarity, resistance and
alternatives being built from the bottom up. At a
July forum against the PPP in Managua, Nicaragua,
ACERCA dialogued with more than 1,000 activists from
around the world about how to stop the PPP in its
tracks. The final declaration of this event included
a call to Northern activists to participate in an
international day of action on October 12, demonstrating
our absolute rejection of the PPP and FTAA, in solidarity
with Mesoamerican resistance.
To get involved with the Network in
Opposition to the Plan Puebla Panama (NoPPP) and to
organize for the day of action against the Plan Puebla
Panama, contact ACERCA, (802) 863-0571; brendan@asej.org;
www.acerca.org.
Brendan O'Neill is the
Central America and Colombia campaigner at Action
for Community and Ecology in the Regions of Central
America (ACERCA). He has participated in two international
forums against the Plan Puebla Panama.
What is NoPPP?
(top)
PURPOSE OF NETWORK
NoPPP is a network of Northern organizations
working to stop the Plan Puebla Panama (PPP) and the
model of corporate globalization behind it. Our members
seek direction from grassroots organizations and anti-PPP
movements in the region of Mexico and Central America.
This is a network only, not a coalition nor an organization.
The purpose of the network is to share
information between organizations and build strategic
alliances to support both the movements in the region
and actions taken in the North (U.S./Canada/Europe)
to stop the PPP. We seek to include grassroots groups,
immigrant organizations, working class groups, students,
and all other constituencies that oppose the PPP and
the model of corporate globalization for the purpose
of sharing information and building alliances across
a broad base.
While expected to abide by our binding
principals, particularly as it pertains to respecting
and working with grassroots southern-based efforts
and initiatives each member organization is encouraged
to formulate its own work plan to fight the PPP and
look for support from organizations inside or outside
of the network. Participating organizations should
not expect a NoPPP governing body or structure to
come up with a campaign plan for members to support.
Communication Mechanisms and Membership
Commitments
The PPP organizing member listserve
and periodic conference calls are presently the specific
communication mechanisms for the whole network. Additionally,
organizations are encouraged to build alliances with
each other outside the formal NoPPP mechanisms. NoPPP
also hosts a PPP informational listserve for anyone
that wants information on the PPP -all members should
promote this informational listserve to activists
and organizations. Members commit to posting all relevant
PPP news and announcing organizing events to the over
200 members from all over the world of the informational
listserve. We host a NoPPP webpage on the ACERCA website
yet we are also considering having an independent
web site for NoPPP.
We aim to hold conference calls every
two months (sometimes more, during periods of high
activity) to update each other on the PPP and actions/movement-building
against the PPP. The purpose of these calls is not
to discuss structure nor to hash out NoPPP campaign
plans, but to find out what members and our Southern
partners are doing and to build alliances as organizations
within the network.
Before joining NoPPP we ask that
you provide the basic information in our NoPPP invitation.
On the conference calls NoPPP members provide updates
on their PPP work and their southern partners PPP
work. If you can’t be on the call we ask that
you submit relevant and brief updates to the organizer
listserve before the call. This complements our goal
of being guided by southern partner’s realities
and experiences.
Decision Making
NoPPP may decide on some occasions to endorse a plan
of action as a network. This will only happen if all
participants in a conference call agree with the endorsement,
the decision is then posted to the listserve, where
members have a specified time period to comment. The
same goes with any other decisions to be made. When
taking on a collective task, project or initiative
as NoPPP we encourage a non-hierarchical, inclusive,
and consensus-seeking decision making process.
Coordination of Calls
In order to ensure that the conference call coordination
responsibility does not fall on one organization we
have a team of Conference Call Coordinators (CCC),
made up of 4-6 organizational representatives. These
reps would each be responsible for coordinating 1-3
conference calls per year, in rotating order. The
organization responsible creates and circulates a
draft agenda (generally consisting of updates on PPP
organizing from involved parties), finds a conference
call system, arranges to pay for the call, identifies
a facilitator and note-taker and post the notes from
the meeting. CCC members will commit to the team on
a yearly basis.
Outreach
An Outreach Committee has been formed to recruit more
organizations into the network. WE ARE PRESENTLY FOCUSING
ON IMPROVING OUR INTERNAL DIVERSITY AND PLURALITY
BY SEEKING YOUTH, PEOPLE OF COLOR, WOMEN AND GRASSROOTS
COMMUNITY BASED (CBO’s) ORGANIZATIONS TO JOIN.
We clarify to any new members that this is an informational
and alliance-building space, not a centralized coalition
that is going to provide a ready-made campaign. Although,
we have an outreach committee we hope that all members
will actively engage in our outreach inviting organizations
that share our goal to stop the PPP and the model
of corporate globalization that is behind it.
To join the PPP informational listserve
e-mail acerca@sover.net
For more on NoPPP go to http://www.asej.org/acerca
Join NoPPP- Network Opposed to the
Plan Puebla Panama! (top)
Greetings from NoPPP,
We, the Network Opposed to the Plan Puebla Panama
(NoPPP), cordially extend an invitation to your organization
to become a member of our growing network. The network
was formed in October, 2001 to respond with solidarity,
partnerships, and action to the growing resistance
and concern from Mexico to Panama over the largest
industrial corporate development project to ever be
launched in the region-the Plan Puebla Panama.
The PPP is a plan to integrate the infrastructure
and regulatory systems from Puebla, Mexico through
Panama by constructing transportation and industrial
corridors, dredging deep water ports, privatizing
a regional energy grid, and developing key free trade
zones. NoPPP echoes those statements drafted at the
international forums against the PPP, recognizing
that the PPP, Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)
and the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA)
fail to respond to the needs of the regions’
poor, indigenous peoples, women, farmers and labor
forces. Conversely, we see that these “free
trade” projects respond in kind to the needs
of multinational corporations at the cost of self-sufficiency,
sovereignty, basic human rights and widespread ecological
destruction. Our members form partnerships and alliances
and share information with other member organizations
and southern organizations to stop the projects of
the Plan Puebla Panama and develop economic, social
and ecologically just alternatives.
To Join NoPPP please mail the following
information to:
ACERCA (NoPPP)
PO Box 57
Burlington, VT 05401
Or e-mail to: U.S..: Adrian (CIS) elzorroadrian@hotmail.com
Stephen (Agricultural Missions) stephen@neccusa.org
Canada: Gloria (SJC-Montreal) sjc@web.ca
Organization Name/PPP contact person
E-mail
Mailing Address phone:
Fax:
Website:
What have you done related to PPP organizing?
What are you currently doing with PPP organizing?
What are the key organizations (north/south)
that you are working with on PPP organizing?
To join the PPP informational listserve e-mail acerca@sover.netFor
more on NoPPP go to http://www.asej.org/acerca
To join NoPPP contact ACERCA
PO Box 57, Burlington, VT 05402
(802) 863-0571 acerca@sover.net
www.acerca.org , www.asej.org
Fact Sheet on the PPP (top)
Plan Puebla Panama (PPP)
The Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) and the Mexican
government have a plan to transform the landscape
and the economy all the way from central Mexico to
southern Panama. The "Plan Puebla Panama"
proposes the industrialization of the region, connecting
the region with dry canals, superhighways, a regional
energy grid, and constructing a string of new "development
zones" of sweatshops. These megaprojects are
meant to open doors for transnational corporations
from the north intensifying the pressure for the passage
of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA)
and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (CAFTA). Communities
throughout Mexico and Central America have called
for a complete rejection of the Plan Puebla Panama
arguing that it in no way responds to the basic needs
of the region's people and is completely contrary
to community-based initiatives for economic, social,
cultural and ecological just alternatives.
The PPP: Corporate Welfare
The PPP is already creating the following megaprojects
from Puebla, Mexico to Panama:
… North-South Pacific Coast industrial corridor
(superhighway to move goods)
… Free trade sweatshop zones and the dredging/privatization
of deep water ports that will destroy critical fisheries
… Connection of ports, the industrial corridor,
and sweatshop zones with "dry canals" coasts
… The creation and privatization of a regional
energy grid involving the construction dozens of hydroelectric
dams from Panama to Mexico to feed industrial development
while flooding indigenous communities and ecosystems
… Privatization of basic services and natural
resources enabling massive oil, mineral, forestry,
and commercial agriculture development by transnational
corporations
The PPP: more Poverty, Privatization and Plundering
The PPP was proposed by Mexican President Vincente
Fox in March 2001, who declared, "The Plan Puebla
Panama is much greater than Zapatismo or any other
indigenous community." While the Interamerican
Development Bank (IDB) is the primary financial institution
behind the planning, financing and execution of the
PPP, the World Bank is also involved in this corporate
globalization project. Additionally, the PPP has drawn
transnational corporate investors including: International
Paper, Monsanto, Duke Energy, Harken Energy, Applied
Energy Services, ENDESA (Spain), and SIT Global.
Join with the III Foro Mesoamericano to Oppose the
PPP
Between the 16th and 18th of July, 2002 in Managua,
Nicaragua, more than 1,000 delegates from over 350
organizations declared: "We call for mobilizations
and demonstrations on the 12th of October as a demonstration
of our total rejection of the PPP and the FTAA, to
coincide with different expressions of struggle on
this day of Mesoamerican resistance."
Mobilize & Resist on October 12, 2002
For more information contact ACERCA & Action for
Social and
Ecological Justice: acerca@sover.net, 802-863-0571;
www.acerca.org
Network Opposed to the Plan Puebla
Panama Talking Points (top)
The Interamerican Development Bank (IDB)
and the Mexican government have a plan to transform
the landscape and the economy all the way from central
Mexico to southern Panama. The "Plan Puebla Panama"
proposes the industrialization of the region, connecting
the region with superhighways and a regional energy
grid, and constructing a string of new "development
zones" of maquiladoras. These megaprojects would
literally pave the way for corporate colonialism in
the region intensifying the push for the passage of
the Central American Free Trade Agreement and the
Free Trade Area of the Americas. Communities throughout
Mexico and Central America have called for a complete
rejection of the Plan Puebla Panama as it promises
to ruthlessly exploit southern Mexico and Central
America's natural environment, labor, and indigenous
communities to serve the interests of transnational
corporations.
These are some of the statements that have come out
of the 3 international forum against the PPP held
in Mexico, Guatemala, and Nicaragua:
… There has been no serious consultation with
communities affected by the PPP by either the IDB
or the involved governments.
… The budget priorities of the PPP are dramatically
skewed. In the Mexican government's 2002 budget for
the program ($697.4 million), 82% of funding is devoted
to transport projects while only 2.9% is targeted
for health or "social development" projects.
Meanwhile, there is no specific attention to rural
development.
… Few, if any, PPP-related projects call for
environmental impact statements. While some of the
proposals outline plans for studies of their ecological
impacts.
… Public information about the PPP is scattered,
incomplete, and confusing. The single largest document
available (at www.presidencia.gob.mx) is devoted to
general information about the demographics and natural
resources of the region, with no details about PPP
projects. Documents at the IDB website give spotty
details and contradict each other. A country-by-country
breakdown of projects and budgets is not available
anywhere.
… The PPP responds to U.S. interests, not the
needs of communities in the region.
… The development model that underpins the PPP
will destroy local and rural economies and will reduce
regional food security.
… The lack of public consultation regarding
the PPP violates international agreements, including
Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization
on indigenous rights.
… The PPP represents a grave risk to the rich
biological and cultural diversity of the region.
… The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor program-which
the Mexican government plans to incorporate into the
PPP-represents a threat to local peoples' land tenure.
… One of the PPP's aims is to reduce migration
by Central Americans and Mexicans to the United States,
but the plan fails to realistically address the social
and economic problems that spur migration.
… The PPP should be canceled and replaced with
a regional development plan that: supports sustainable
rural development, ecological values, and enhances
food security.
A Special thank you to Wendy Call for her extensive
contribution which helped generate much of the above
information on the Plan Puebla Panama.
PPP's CORPORATE INVESTORS (top)
Who are some of the multinational corporations
that are investing in (and will be profiting from)
the Plan Puebla Panama?
… International Paper Company and Boise Cascade
are currently purchasing land in Chiapas and Oaxaca,
Mexico for plantation forestry. International Paper
is also investing in research for genetically engineered
trees.
… Grupo Pulsar- a Mexican biotechnology corporation,
is investing in Chiapas in plantation forestry, biotechnology,
and research on genetically engineered trees.
… ENDESA (a Spanish corporation) is the principal
investor in the regional energy interconnection initiative
to privatize energy and develop hydroelectric dams.
… Harken Energy, Applied Energy Services (AES),
Duke Energy, and Harza are all U.S. energy corporations
that are investing from Mexico to Panama in the development
of hydroelectric dams and the privatization of the
energy grid.
… DELASA Prescott and Follet is U.S.-based investment
group that has a 25-year lease on the privatization,
port modernization and creation of megaprojects (including
factory zones and road expansion) in the port town
of Bilwi-Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua.
Other investors include:
Tribasa, Caros, GAN, ICA, Imbursa, Texas Connection,
International Shipholding Corporation, Monsanto, Shell,
Dow Chemical, Exxon, Shell, and Hutchinson Holdings.
Adapted from a poster by Mexico's Citizen Democracy
Movement (MCD) and the Mexican Action Network Confronting
Free Trade (RMALC). Additional research conducted
by the Working Group of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec
/ GTCI (Mexico) and Action for Community and Ecology
in the Regions of Central America / ACERCA (USA).
PPP INSTITUTIONAL SPONSORS (top)
Which public and multilateral institutions
are financing the Plan Puebla Panama?
1) The federal governments of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala,
El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.
They will use taxpayer funds to finance any "high
impact" investments that will not generate immediate
profits for the private sector.
2) The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) administers
the Mexico Fiduciary Fund, which finances the PPP
infrastructure projects. The IDB acts as the coordinating
body for investment in the PPP.
3) The Inter-Institutional Technical Group (GTI) of
the PPP includes the IDB, the Central American Economic
Integration Bank (BCIE), the Latin American Economic
Commission (CEPAL), the Andean Development Corporation
(CAF), INCAE, United Nations Development Program (UNDP),
The Central American Integration System (SICA), and
the Secretary of Central American Integration (SIECA).
4) Other participating organizations include: Latin
American Association of Integrations (ALADI), Central
America Environment and Development Commission (CCAD),
Coordination Center for the Prevention of Natural
Disasters in Central America (CEPREDENAC), Central
American Indigenous Council (CICA), Indigenous and
Peasant Coordination of Community Agroforestry (CICAFOC),
and Fund for Development of Indigenous Peoples (FONDIN).
5) The World Bank and the UN's Global Environmental
Facility (GEF) administer the Mesoamerican Biological
Corridor, which has been tied to the PPP.
6) Other financial investors and donors include the
World Bank, the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation,
the European Union, Spanish government, and other
bilateral agencies. Within Mexico, funds and support
also come from the governments of the following states:
Campeche, Chiapas, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Puebla, Quintana
Roo, Tabasco, Veracruz, and Yucatan.
Adapted from a poster by Citizen Democracy Movement
/ MCD (Mexico) and the Mexican Action Network Confronting
Free Trade / RMALC (Mexico). Additional information
from International Rivers Network / IRN (USA) and
Interaction (USA).
Frequently Asked
Questions about the Plan Puebla Panama (top)
Written by CIEPAC, Chiapas, Mexico, ciepac@laneta.apc.org
, http://www.ciepac.org/
October 21, 2002 http://www.zmag.org/chiapas1/index.htm>CHIAPAS
1. Is there a one or two sentence
summary of what the PPP is?
On one level the Plan Puebla Panama is very easy to
understand. It is a vast infrastructure construction
project, designed to please big business, that covers
9 states in south-southeast Mexico and the 7 Central
American republics.
2. Who is pushing the PPP the
hardest?
Ostensibly the answer is Mexico, since the PPP was
supposedly conceived by the present Fox administration,
but its antecedents lie in plans and projects previously
designed by the World Bank and the Inter-American
Development Bank for Mexico and Central America. After
Fox was inaugurated in December 2000, he put a number
of the construction projects in Mexico and Central
America into a single PPP package. Fox presented the
package to the Central American presidents in a summit
meeting in El Salvador on June 15, 2001, which was
subsequently approved.
3. Does the PPP have anything to do with NAFTA
(North American Free Trade Agreement)?
NAFTA is a 1994 trade agreement that sets the rules
for trade among nations, in this case between Mexico,
Canada and the US. Now, the US seeks to expand the
same rules to all 34 countries in North, Central and
South America, plus the Caribbean nations (except
Cuba), in a trade agreement known as the FTAA (Free
Trade Area of the Americas).
The FTAA, we might add, has a geopolitical
dimension of great importance to the United States.
It would create a single trading block, from the Yukon
to the Patagonia, under US hegemony, that will rival
the European and Asian blocks. FTAA carves out the
Western Hemisphere for the United States, at least
in terms of trade.
So the trade agreements (NAFTA and FTAA)
are a necessary prerequisite for the proper investment
climate that corporations are looking for. The PPP
goes a step further by channeling billions of state
funds to develop needed infrastructure to further
interest corporations.
4. How does the PPP tie into other
plans?
The PPP ties in with a similar infrastructure project
in South America called IIRSA (South America Regional
Infrastructure Integration Initiative). The PPP and
IIRSA seek to create basic infrastructure, or improve
that which exists, in an effort to entice large corporations
into investing in the area. The improvements in infrastructure
would essentially boost corporate profits by easing,
for example, the movement of goods in and out of the
region, by improving roads. Yet the cost of infrastructure
projects would be borne to a large degree by the people
of the countries involved, either through direct taxpayer
payments, or through loans taken out by participating
countries that will eventually be repaid through taxpayer
contributions.
5. Why is the PPP of importance
to people who live outside the Mexico-Central American
region? Why should it be of particular interest to
Americans?
Because mostly American MNC interests will be benefited.
The PPP will make it easier for large multinational
corporations (MNCs) to invest in a region that is
rich in oil, mineral deposits, timber, tourism sites.
It is one of the most biologically diverse areas in
the world, making it of interest to pharmaceutical,
seed, and genetic-research firms. It is also strategic
for the areas geography since it is the narrowest
part of the Americas, making it a natural corridor
for east-west trade.
6. But wait. You say MNCs will
be interested, but MNCs come in all shape and sizes.
The PPP wouldn’t benefit just American MNCs,
would it?
Quite right. Investment capital from throughout the
world might find it profitable to invest in the PPP
area, but for a number of reasons American companies
are sure to be the major beneficiaries. Here’s
why. For one, it is in the US historical backyard,
where the US has had a major say in how things are
run since the 19th century, to favor its own political
and corporate interests. As US Secretary of State
Colin Powell has said with startling frankness, “Our
objective with the FTAA is to assure for American
corporations control of a territory that runs from
the North Pole to the Antarctica, free access, without
any hindrance or difficulty for our products, services,
technology and capital through the hemisphere”(2).
Security strategists have taken renewed interest in
Mexico and Central America since the September 11
attacks. George W. Bush proposed a new free-trade
agreement with the Central American republics in January
2002. President Bush recently won “fast-track”
negotiating authority from Congress.
All of this means that American MNCs
are the most closely linked to this region.
7. Why has this particular area
been so designated? Why link the south-southeast of
Mexico to Central America?
The official line has to do with promoting foreign
investment in an area which, although rich in natural
resources, has some of the highest poverty in the
Americas. The Fox administration, at the urging of
the IDB and the World Bank, touted the Plan Puebla
Panama as a way of addressing the region’s poverty
in a supposed integration manner. For neoliberal politicians
and strategists, poverty must be addressed, but not
necessarily resolved (which would entail looking at
why people are poor in the first place). Their way
of addressing poverty is through job creation that
hopefully will come with MNC investment, once large
companies are enticed into the PPP area.
8. Well, if the PPP area is so
rich in resources and opportunities, why haven’t
MNCs been chomping at the bit to get in and invest?
MNCs are anxious to exploit opportunities worldwide
that will increase profits, but precisely because
there is competition throughout the world for investment
capital, MNCs can be choosy. They want things their
way, and that means having basic infrastructure constraints
resolved, but obviously at government (i.e., taxpayers)
expense. For example, why put factories in an area
where there is a shortage of reliable sources of energy?
If roads are poor, how are inputs and outputs to make
their way into and out of factories? If large tracts
of land are necessary for monoculture export crops,
have the poor farmers been moved out, or neutralized
by some sort of deal cut by the government? Same goes
for harvesting interesting plants and microorganisms
in areas rich in biodiversity. Have the indigenous
people been removed or neutralized, thus facilitating
MNC access without lengthy delays and (potentially
embarrassing) hassles?
The MNCs want these aspects addressed
before investing a dime. This is on top of the usual
government giveaways: free land on which to build
factories, free utilities and tax holidays for decades,
government-financed training of the workforce, and
other perks.
9. What specifically, then, is
the PPP going to do to entice MNC capital to sit up
and take notice?
One of the major components of the PPP is highway
construction. Two major corridors are to be built,
running roughly from the Texas-Mexico border, around
the Gulf of Mexico, to the Yucatan peninsula, with
spurs leading into Belize, Guatemala and into Honduras.
The other is a Pacific coast route that will run from
Mexico City, parallel the Pacific into Guatemala,
through Central America into Panama.
Another major component in the works
is dam construction. A total of 25 dams is planned
for the region that will generate the energy needed
for greater industrialization of the PPP area and
supply the US market. This aspect harbors the greatest
threat for indigenous people in the area, due to the
flooding of thousands of acres of presently-inhabited
land, and destruction of archeological sites, old-growth
forests, indigenous communities and even cities. Between
two to five dams are on the drawing board for the
Usumacinta River that divides Mexico and Guatemala.
Also, if we look at a map of the PPP
region, we see it is the narrowest point of the Americas.
Much infrastructure is to be built linking the Atlantic
Ocean to the Pacific. A ‘land bridge’
in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, at Mexico’s narrowest
point, is under construction, which would assure speedy
passage of containerized goods for burgeoning east-west
trade.
10. What are the major components
of the PPP?
There are eight components. When formally presented
by PPP officials, the components are usually given
in the following order: 1. Sustainable development
2. Human development 3. Prevention and mitigation
of natural disasters 4. Tourism promotion 5. Facilitation
of trade 6. Highway integration 7. Energy interconnection
8. Integration of telecommunication services
The last four, however, are where the
emphasis is being placed; in other words the infrastructure
needed to entice the multinational corporations into
investing in the PPP area. The greatest funding is
for construction or upgrading highways, followed by
energy interconnection and facilitation of trade.
These eight components each have separate
‘mega-projects’ some 28 in total
11. Just how much money is behind
the PPP and where is it coming from?
The PPP is currently budgeted at US$10 billion, but
some sources place the figure at US$25 billion. Principal
lenders of this amount are the IDB, the World Bank,
European Union, the Andean Development Corporation
(CAF), the Central American Integration Bank (BCIE),
and development agencies of the US, Japan, Spain and
other countries. Some PPP countries will use taxpayer
funds to create or improve PPP infrastructure. For
example, Mexico has budgeted US$550 million for 16
PPP projects and studies in 2002 (down from the original
US$742 million, due to budget cuts). Again, most of
the money has to do with highway construction, on
the order of 84%.
Some private companies have begun to
underwrite certain infrastructure costs, but with
the intent of getting in on the action early in order
to corner the market. One example is found within
the energy interconnection component. This plan will
link the energy grids of Mexico and Central America,
and is slated to cost US$405 million. The Spanish
energy company ENDESA is putting in US$45.8 million
and in so doing becomes a co-owner of the network.
12. How will the PPP affect development?
Depends how you define development. The PPP is a public-works
scheme whose intent is to draw foreign investment
into the region. Consequently the PPP is designed
to please big business interests. While some of the
components (see list in question 10) purportedly address
the poverty in the region, these are the least-developed
and least-funded components. Neoliberal economists
might argue that the PPP covers ‘social development’
insofar as they posit that private investment will
create jobs and thus eradicate poverty.
But this is an absurd simplification.
Neither public nor private investment automatically
leads to higher living standards for the poor, unless
steps have been taken beforehand to eliminate the
structural injustices that exist in the economic,
political, social and cultural spheres. In fact, investment
often deepens poverty, as has been the case during
the last 20 years of neoliberal policies, precisely
because existing injustices have not been eliminated.
Thus the rich and powerful benefit more from investments.
In fact no pro-poor policies are contemplated
for the PPP that would address the roots of structural
poverty. The plans and projects are designed in collaboration
with and for big business, not for the 65 million
people who live in the PPP area, the vast majority
of whom are in poverty (75% living with less than
US$2 a day).
Many activists are against the PPP for
a number of reasons, but among the most important
is the exploitation of natural resources for corporate
profit, with only token consideration, or not at all,
for the people who will be directly affected by the
projects carried out. The PPP area has on the order
of a hundred distinct ethnic groups, the majority
of whom have not heard of the PPP. At times those
consulted by the government and/or the banks have
been brought into the fold with vague promises of
particular works and benefits for their groups.
13. What about the environmental
aspects of the PPP?
Another reason activists have opposed the PPP is that
it is environmentally unsound. One of the principal
components is the ‘Meso-American Biological
Corridor’, one of the World Bank’s pet
projects for years, whose intent is to link various
biologically rich and diverse patches of territory
throughout the PPP region. Although defended on ecological
arguments regarding the need to ensure gene pools
and protect territory for diverse animals and plants,
the corridors will be opened up for exploitation by
pharmaceutical and seed companies, seeking to patent
new biological matter. One of the major bioengineering
and seed companies in the world, Pulsar, already has
signed agreements with Conservation International
to work jointly in the Lacandon jungle in Chiapas.
CI is a supposed environmental NGO, whose 27-member
board of directors harbors CEOs from giant corporations
such as Navigation Technologies Corporation, Eagle
River Inc. (a telecom holding), Hyatt Development
Corporation, First Philippine Holding Corporation.
When one begins to see the multiple
business connections and interests, it is difficult
to avoid concluding that the PPP is more about energy
and resource extraction than it is about development.
14. But surely there will be some
positive ‘spill-over’ effects of this
investment and economic activity for the poor of the
region.
It’s hard to see what they might be. If we keep
in mind that this is a plan for big business, then
it is easy to understand that all its aspects are
geared to please corporate interests, not to benefit
the poor majority. A US$10 billion plan to benefit
the poor majority would look very different, with
emphasis placed on building schools, rural clinics,
feeder roads to get agricultural goods to market,
rather than toll highways, hydroelectric dams, etc.
But if we search for ‘spill-over’
effects, one of the highly-touted benefits that the
PPP will bring is, supposedly, jobs for the poor.
Not just any jobs, but maquiladora jobs. Maquiladoras
are the sweat-shops that have operated on Mexico’s
northern border since 1966. Most of them are assembly
plants that bring in parts from other countries and
use cheap labor to make finished products.
Health and safety requirements, and
labor rights, such as the freedom of workers to organize,
are laxly enforced on the maquiladoras, and sometimes
not at all. Nor do maquiladoras comply with other
requirements, such as using locally-made goods as
inputs, or transferring technology to the host country.
Maquiladoras de-link production from the host country’s
needs, and respond exclusively to the needs of the
MNCs that set them up.
It would be unfair to deny that maquiladoras
have provided employment to over a million people,
just on Mexico’s northern border. But apart
from the (low) wages they pay, their benefits have
been practically nil for the rest of the economy.
In spite of certain dynamism (which, in fact, has
fallen in the past two years), the maquiladoras’
separation from the rest of the economy makes it virtually
impossible for other sectors of the economy to benefit.
Yet this is the economic model that
the PPP seeks to encourage in Mexico and Central America.
The improved infrastructure that the PPP would bring,
plus the low wages paid in south Mexico and Central
America, would entice MNCs to set up maquiladoras
that, in turn, would absorb, in theory, some of the
peasants that are sure to be expelled from their land
due to certain PPP projects such as dams.
15. Are there alternatives to
these corporate-led plans?
Yes. For example the Hemispheric Social Alliance,
a group of civil organizations from throughout the
Americas, has drawn up a detailed alternative proposal
to the free trade agreements and the rules of the
game that the rich and powerful would impose on us
through the FTAA. The proposal has received support
from hundreds of civil and social organizations throughout
the Americas. The HAS’s documents are available
on their web page www.asc-hsa.org or through organizations
such as Common Frontiers in Canada, www.web.ca/comfront
and Alliance for Responsible Trade in the United States,
www.art-us.org .
As Global Exchange has written,
“Policy makers and pundits often try to make
it seem that corporate globalization is a naturally
occurring phenomenon. Nothing could be farther from
the truth. In fact, the current economic processes
known as globalization have been defined and driven
by a very small number of corporations. Citizens around
the world are creating an alternative: grassroots
globalization a peoples globalization that puts economic,
social and political justice at the center of trade
and investment. Citizens groups from across the Western
Hemisphere have written an alternative Agreement for
the Americas that offers guidelines for building this
socially responsible and environmentally sustainable
commerce. (www.globalexchange.org )
16. What are people doing locally
to protest the PPP?
In a year and a half there have been three regional
encounters on the PPP that have brought activists
together from Mexico, Central America and other parts
of the world. These events have been held in Chiapas,
Mexico (March 2001), Guatemala (November 2001), and
Nicaragua (July 2002). A fourth such encounter is
scheduled for Honduras in March 2003. Attendance at
the events has grown from over 300 participants in
Chiapas to over 1,200 in Nicaragua, representing over
400 organizations.
Participants at the PPP encounters have
sounded a resolute NO! to the PPP. Activists are coordinating
education and protest activities on a national level,
and, in Nicaragua, agreed to a region-wide day of
protest on October 12, 2002. The protests will vary
from country to country, but may include sit-ins at
border crossings, protest marches at PPP infrastructure
works, demonstrations at the Inter-American Development
Bank and World Bank offices in each country, etc.
17. What can I do to help?
Find out more about the PPP and then talk about it
to your organization, community or neighborhood group.
Get training so as to give talks. There are organizations
who can help you to do this. Talk to groups about
the PPP’s links to the wider FTAA negotiations
now underway. Tell people that there are alternatives
to corporate globalization, and that different options
have been proposed by the Hemispheric Social Alliance.
Get the word out that people organizing together have
achieved victories against corporate globalization
throughout the world, and that activists, organizers,
and common citizens from the PPP have met on three
occasions in the past year and a half to say NO! to
the PPP. And that they need your solidarity and participation.
Find out how you and your group can protest the PPP
on October 12, or join the activities of other groups.
Continue to encourage grassroots globalization.
Notes within the text: (1) One of
the most complete books is a series of essays published
as “Mesoamerica, los rios profundos: Alternativas
plebeyas al Plan Puebla-Panama” (published by
Instituto Maya, Armando Bartra, Coordinator, Mexico
City, 2001). We know of no book yet in English on
the subject. (2) Osvaldo Leon, “Movilizacion
continental contra el ALCA”, January 24, 2002,
in ALAI (Agencia Latinoamericana de Informacion),
http://alainet.org/docs/1698.html (3) The figure for
Mexico during 1994-1998 is 85.1%, according to a Economic
Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN)
study by Enrique Dussel Peters, “El Tratado
de Libre Comercio de Norteamerica y el desempeno de
la economÌa en Mèxico” (Mexico
City, 2000), ref. LC/MEX/L.431, p. 20. Miguel Pickard
The Center for Economic and Political
Investigations of Community Action, A.C. CIEPAC, CIEPAC
is a member of the Movement for Democracy and Life
(MDV) of Chiapas, the Mexican Network of Action Against
Free Trade (RMALC) www.rmalc.org.mx, Convergence of
Movements of the Peoples of the Americas (COMPA )
www.sitiocompa.org, Network for Peace in Chiapas,
Week for Biological and Cultural Diversity www.laneta.apc.org/biodiversidad,
the International Forum "The People Before Globalization",
Alternatives to the PPP http://usuarios.tripod.es/xelaju/xela.htm,
and of the Mexican Alliance for Self-Determination
(AMAP) that is the Mexican network against the Puebla
Panama Plan. CIEPAC is a member of the Board of Directors
of the Center for Economic Justice http://www.econjustice.net
and the Ecumenical Program on Central America and
the Caribbean (EPICA) http://www.epica.org.
To join the PPP informational listserve
e-mail acerca@sover.net.
For more on NoPPP go to http://www.asej.org/acerca
Place an order
now! (top)
After a long delay, we are happy to announce the publication
of:
Plan Puebla Panama: Battle Over The Future of Southern
Mexico and Central America
The Plan Puebla Panama (PPP) is a $10
billion, 25-year-long series of industrialization
projects that is steamrolling through the whole region
of Mesoamerica, including 9 states in southern Mexico
and the 7 countries of Central America. The plan threatens
to displace hundreds of indigenous communities and
destroy precious rainforest and wetland ecosystems.
This 48-page, (5.5" x 8.5")
illustrated booklet details corporate globalization's
latest threats to Mesoamerica as well as the challenges
and resistance the PPP faces.
The booklet covers a range of social
and ecological issues that fall under the umbrella
of PPP (see table of contents below). It is designed
for grassroots education and outreach in North America.
It will be a valuable tool for your organizing efforts,
helping spread the word about the dangers of corporate
globalization as well as the growing resistance to
the PPP in Mexico and Central America.
The booklet is the product of a collective
effort between the organizations that make up the
U.S. - Canada PPP Coalition, with collaboration from
Mexican, Central American and North American civil
society groups.
************************************************************************
ORDERING INFORMATION
*Please send checks (made payable to
ASEJ) to the following address:
ASEJ/ACERCA
PO Box 57
Burlington, VT 05402
*Also please include with your check:
- how many booklets you want to order
-specify how many in English &/or Spanish
- include the mailing address that you want your booklets
mailed to
-if you work with an organization please include your
organization's information as well
Pricing:
(as of October 1)
*1-10 Booklets- $5.00 each (shipping included)
*11-99 Booklets- $4.00 each (shipping included)
*100 or more Booklets- $3.50 each (plus shipping)
(Discounts are available for low budget
community groups)
** If you have any questions please
call Lauren/Brendan at ACERCA at 802-863-0571 or email
acerca@sover.net
To Learn More:
ACERCA would like to continue dialogue
and organizing beyond these booklets, and collaborate
with you to STOP THE PLAN PUEBLA PANAMA!
*Organize an action in your community
on October 12! (see action alert below)
* Subscribe to the PPP informational listserve by
e-mailing: acerca@sover.net and asking to be on the
PPP info listserve in the subject line. *Visit our
web site at www.asej.org or www.acerca.org
Place an order
now! Plan Puebla Panama: Battle Over The Future of
Southern Mexico and Central America
(top)
Table of Contents
Overview
Intro to the Plan Puebla Panama
Analysis of the PPP
BOX: PPP Sponsors
BOX: PPP Corporate Investors
Map of PPP Projects
Free Trade Agreements and MegaProjects
Free Trade Area of the Americas: Goal of the PPP
BOX: CAFTA as a Corporate Entryway
Mesoamerican Biological Corridor: Biodiversity for
Sale?
Issues
Maquiladoras: The March (of Sweatshops) towards the
South
BOX: Toxic Legacy of the Maquiladoras
Damming the Future: Communities Speak Out against
Dams
PPPetroleum: Big Oil Sharpens its Claws
BOX: Militarization: Accept the PPP or else©
Frankentrees: Genetic Engineering and the PPP
Megahighways and Electrical Grids: Who Benefits?
NAFTA + PPP = Migration
Regional Case Studies
Guatemala: Rainforests under Siege
Panama: Indigenous People and the PPP
Nicaragua: Dry Canals vs. Communities
Resistance and Alternatives
Building a Solidarity Economy in Mesoamerica
BOX: The Zapatistas Take Initiative
Nueva Libertad: Solidarity Economy in Practice
Foro Managua Declaration (excerpt)
Resources for Action
PPP Webliography
Contact Information
Acknowledgements
Webliography
and Links on the PPP
LIST
OF "OFFICIAL" WEBSITES in ENGLISH and SPANISH
Additional
Online Articles
Maps
Print
this page!
