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   Vol.66/No.46           December 9, 2002  
 
 
Conference on FTAA
opens in Havana
 
BY RÓGER CALERO  
HAVANA--More than 1,000 representatives of trade union, political, indigenous, environmental, religious, and social organizations from 41 countries are meeting here November 23–28 for an international conference to discuss opposition to the U.S.-backed trade bloc known as the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The largest delegations have come from Mexico and the United States.

Present at the opening session of the event were Cuban president Fidel Castro and other representatives of the revolutionary government, as well as delegates from Cuba’s trade union federation and other mass organizations.

Cuba has led an international campaign to educate around and oppose the FTAA since it was first projected in 1994. If the imperialist powers realize their plans, the U.S.-dominated trade bloc will eventually include Washington, Ottawa, and 32 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The background to the debate on the FTAA is "the deepest and most horrendous economic, social, and political crisis in Latin America, and the serious economic crisis in the United States," said Osvaldo Martínez, director of the Havana-based Center for Research on the World Economy, who gave the opening presentation.

Martínez explained that through the FTAA and other trade measures, Washington seeks to be able to plunder more freely Latin America’s national resources and reinforce the existing unequal terms of trade between imperialist and semicolonial countries. The FTAA, he noted, is inseparable from the growing U.S. military intervention in Latin America.

Conference delegates also heard presentations about the current stage of the negotiations for the trade agreement, projected to go into effect in 2005, and on campaigns being organized to oppose the FTAA.

Evo Morales, the main leader of the coca farmers in Bolivia and presidential candidate in that country’s elections earlier this year, gave a feature presentation at the end of the session. He said Washington’s so-called war against drug trafficking is simply an excuse for increased U.S. military intervention in South America and "for the U.S. rulers to solidify their power in our countries."

Morales spoke about the fight by the indigenous movement in Bolivia to take back the territory stolen from them by wealthy landlords.

The indigenous leader also called on the organizations present to wage an international effort to condemn mounting threats by pro-imperialist forces in Venezuela to carry out a coup against the elected government of President Hugo Chávez.  
 
 
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