Home > Programs > 2002 Ministerial on the FTAA > Protesters confront US-backed 'free trade' pact

New York Times: As U.S. Seeks a Trade Accord, Brazilians Recall Discord

By Eamon Martin
Posted: November 7, 2002
From the Asheville Global Report

Nov. 6 (AGR)— Thousands of small-scale farmers, indigenous groups, students, and activists from around Latin America came together in Quito, Ecuador, over the weekend to protest plans to put in place a United States-backed free trade agreement which would tear down trade barriers from Alaska to Argentina starting in 2005. Despite heavy police repression, determined demonstrators persisted, shouting that the free trade zone would turn Latin America into a US colony. At one point, police themselves rebelled and joined the protests.

Demonstrations were held across Quito on Thursday and Friday by a range of groups eager to show trade ministers from the continent’s 34 nations — gathered in the city for a two-day meeting on a preliminary accord for the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) — that the free trade model promoted by the administration of President George W. Bush will hurt, rather than help, most societies in Latin America.

At least 60 members of the groups, marching to the meeting venue at the JW Marriot Hotel, were reportedly injured in clashes with military and police forces who used tear gas and fired guns at the demonstration.

The FTAA “will put an end to life, natural resources, national production, and the environment” and worsen “poverty, hunger, and unemployment” in the country, said the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), one of the major groups backing the march.

The coalition, which has achieved a high profile for its protests against the government’s economic austerity measures, believes the agreement would hasten petroleum and mining exploration in the country’s fragile Amazon region, and hurt the livelihoods of small-scale farmers by opening up markets to imports of subsidized food products from the US.

Other groups involved in the demonstrations took over a branch of a downtown Quito McDonald’s restaurant.

Some US-based groups have also raised concerns over the effect of such an agreement on workers’ rights across the hemisphere. New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) asked trade ministers Thursday to carefully consider labor rights as they prepared the FTAA blueprint.

“Free trade won’t lift lives if it rewards, rather than discourages, harmful child labor, sex discrimination, and anti-union conduct,” said Carol Pier, HRW’s labor rights and trade researcher.

According to Jason Mark of California-based Global Exchange, a social justice organization, the agreement would be “yet another example of the kind of free-market fundamentalism that has created a global race to the bottom that erodes environmental protection, workers’ livelihoods, and human rights.”

Opposition to the FTAA has been strengthened by the experience of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) — involving the US, Canada, and Mexico — which serves as a model for the new plan. A recent study by two Tufts University researchers concludes that Mexico has received virtually no benefits from NAFTA. Instead, they found that unemployment and environmental degradation in the country have increased.

“It is widely accepted that the goal of economic integration should be to raise living standards,” wrote Timothy Wise and Kevin Gallagher. “According to our review of the public record, NAFTA has yet to fulfill that promise.”

While trade liberalization has increased investment in Mexico, and foreign direct investment has nearly tripled, economic growth remains sluggish — under one percent annually — and real wages for most Mexican workers have dropped by 23 percent since NAFTA began, according to Wise and Gallagher.

Moreover, NAFTA has not brought cleaner technologies to Mexican industries; industrial pollution has nearly doubled since 1988 and real spending on the environment has declined by 45 percent since NAFTA took effect, the researchers said.

Ecuador’s own experience with opening its markets to international trade has also been negative. A recent review by SAPRI-Ecuador—a group of World Bank government, and nonprofit organizations—concluded that two decades of such policies have “stripped Ecuador of its productive capacity, de-industrialized the country, and reduced food security,” among other ill effects.

Police rebel,
US Trade Rep humiliated

On Thursday afternoon, after the worst of the police violence against the tens of thousands of protesters had taken place, a police platoon, including various officers, rebelled against their own government, and joined with indigenous leaders and other protesters in demanding that the trade ministers from 34 countries meeting to negotiate the FTAA agree to receive a delegation from the protesters carrying a declaration of opposition to the FTAA.

According to sources, this news rocked the Ecuadorian government which has seen two previous presidents thrown out of office by the indigenous movement in alliance with rebel security forces. At that point, the Ecuadorian government sent in the army to relieve the police, on the one hand, and on the other, began to lean heavily on the trade ministers, and especially on Robert Zoellick, the US Trade Representative, to accede to the protesters demands.

As the popular movements re-grouped at Arbolito Park in the afternoon, the government extracted a reluctant offer from the ministers to receive a delegation composed of two representatives of the protesters. When the indigenous leaders of the CONIAE, Leonidas Iza and Blanca Chancoso, said no to the offer, the ministers came with an offer of ten. When that was refused they said that 30 people could come, but that too was refused, as was an offer of forty.

The protesters finally accepted to send a delegation of 50 people, over the strenuous objections of Zoellick, to be accompanied by the entire march up to the innermost security perimeter.

At about 6:30pm the delegation passed the barricades, escorted by special forces soldiers heavily armed with automatic weapons. Although the agreement was for a delegation of fifty, in fact 65 protesters managed to get into the Swiss Hotel where the historic meeting was to take place. The delegation included the top leadership of Latin America’s most powerful social movements, including Iza and Chancoso, Joao Pedro Stedile of the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) of Brazil, Rafael Alegria of the international farmers’ movement, the Via Campesina, Juan Tiney of the Latin American Coordination of Rural Movements (CLOC), and many others. Also included were representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who work with these movements, like Peter Rosset of Food First and Nicola Bullard of Focus on the Global South in Thailand.

The delegation entered the basement auditorium of the hotel at the same instant as the 34 trade ministers, led by Zoellick. As the ministers sat down across the room, facing the protesters, Peter Rosset stood up and addressed Zoellick. “Excuse me,” he said, “are you an American?” As Zoellick turned to see who was addressing him personally, Peter Rosset continued: “I am an American too, and I am ashamed at how you and the Bush Administration are trying to force Latin American governments to sign a trade agreement that will only bring them misery and poverty, and will bring the same to the American people.”

As the protesters applauded and some of the Latin American trade ministers smirked, Zoellick looked very sour, at what was only the beginning of a very uncomfortable meeting for him.

The next treat for Zoellick was a speech by parliamentarians from 11 countries, ranging from Canada to Bolivia, in which they called on their respective governments to “reject the FTAA and recall their negotiators at once.” While the speech was being read, three congress people actually stood in front of Zoellick with placards reading “No al ALCA” (No to the FTAA).

A short time later, Iza addressed the ministers. He began by saying, “Señores, I wish to say to you, not to offend, but only to speak the truth, that you cannot understand how the poor live in the Americas, because you were born in golden cribs.” He then went on to humbly and movingly lay out exactly why the FTAA would mean “death to the indigenous peoples’ of the Americas.”

This was followed by a reading of the protesters’ declaration, by Nicaraguan farm worker leader Maria Elena who began by saying “this is not a consultation or a dialog, this is a statement of implacable opposition to the FTAA by all the peoples’ of the Americas.” The declaration warned that, “if you don’t listen to our voices and those of millions more across the continent, you will be responsible for putting the very future of the Americas at risk.” She concluded by shouting, “Yes to Life! No the FTAA! Another America is Possible!!!”

As the unusual encounter ended, Rosset addressed Zoellick once more.

“You know as well as I do that all opinion polls show Americans want no more free trade agreements, and you should be ashamed to go against the wishes of your own people,” he said.

Shouts of “shame on you!” came from the protesters. Even some journalists yelled “sell out!” while others said that Zoellick should be ashamed he doesn’t speak Spanish. The whole meeting was translated for him via earphones. A protester spoke to the Latin American ministers, saying, “have you no self-respect, that you accept the imposition of this guy who can’t even speak our language?” All the media cameras immediately zoomed over to record the miserable expression on Zoellick’s face, as several Latin American ministers tried to hide their smiles and chuckles behind their fists.

“After today’s Seattle-like protests,” concluded Rosset, “the US government and the transnational corporations can never again claim that opposition to free trade comes only from a small group of northern environmentalists. It is abundantly clear that people from all walks of life, across all of Latin America, do not want anything to do with the FTAA, the World Trade Organization or any other manifestation of trade liberalization.”

Anti-FTAA solidarity protests were reported in various cities worldwide, most notably in Montreal, Canada where at least 10,000 people demonstrated.

In April of 2001, during the first FTAA negotiations in Quebec City, Canada, 40 – 60,000 people protested the meetings. After three days, police had arrested 463 people while dispensing 4,709 cans of tear gas and 822 plastic bullets in an attempt to quell the dissent.

Sources: Food First, OneWorld US, Reuters, Toronto Star