Dear friend,
Remember NAFTA, the “free trade” agreement that sent a million American jobs to sweatshops in Mexico? Congress is set to vote this week on another corporate rule treaty called CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement. CAFTA, which would expand NAFTA to Central America and the Dominican Republic, would devastate farmers, privatize essential public services, and accelerate the race to the bottom on wages in the US and all over Central America.
The vote is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, July 27th—tomorrow.Multinational corporations have spent millions shoring up support for CAFTA. President Bush is now spending taxpayer money to buy votes for CAFTA. As Bush's polling numbers fall, support for the war in Iraq recedes, and his top advisor is embroiled in a political scandal, Bush wants a “policy win” to attempt to demonstrate that he’s not a lame duck.
That's why we need your help. Please fax or call your Representative TODAY.
CAFTA squeaked through the US Senate with the tiniest margin ever for a trade vote. Its passage in the House is far from assured. We can win the vote in the House if we pressure our elected officials to represent the people, not the corporate interests. Please take a moment to fax and call your Representative and urge him/her to vote against CAFTA. You’ll be glad you did when we beat CAFTA!
You can send a fax at
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/CAFTA_HouseOr call free at 1-866-340-9281.
A few key talking points:
* CAFTA is a death sentence for people with HIV/AIDS, as it will cause prices for lifesaving medicines to skyrocket to an inaccessible $5,000 a year for 275,000 people in Central America with HIV/AIDS.
* CAFTA is anti-development, and will cause the privatization of essential public services like health care, education, and water distribution in Central America.
* CAFTA will accelerate the race-to-the-bottom on wages and working conditions in the US and Central America.
* CAFTA, like NAFTA, will devastate small farmers in Central America and the US.
For further inspiration, below is an opinion piece on CAFTA that was written by Father Jose Andrés Tamayo Cortez of Honduras, winner of the 2005 Goldman Environmental Prize for Central & South America.
Thanks as always for your hard work on behalf of peace and justice,
Global Exchange
P.S. On another topic, for those of you who live near Atlanta, we urge you to make plans now to attend the August 6 march and rally to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. For more information, see
http://www.votejustice.org.**********************************************
CAFTA Threatens Our Forests, Water, Air and the Lives of Millions of Peopleby Father Jose Andrés Tamayo CortezThe U.S. Congress is preparing to vote on the ratification of the Dominican Republic - Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). In their hands lies the destiny of the forests, the water, the air and the lives of millions of people from Alaska to Costa Rica. In Honduras, my native country, they have already ratified the agreement against the will of the people. Through marches we demanded that they listen to the opposition, but the government, instead of listening, responded with fierce repression. This agreement was approved in the same way it was written; behind closed doors, contradicting the democracy that they tell us exists in our country.
As well as a Priest, I am a representative of the “Movimiento Ambientalista de Olancho” (Olancho Environmental Movement), a coalition of various environmental groups in Honduras whose mission it is to conserve our natural resources. In spite of all our effort, no one took in to consideration our opinion that CAFTA would have disastrous consequences for our natural environment because of the lack of regulations on industry. It is clear that this Agreement was planned and created by the most dominant corporate interests. In fact, these transnational and national corporations have already spent years appropriating our resources and buying off successive governments. DR-CAFTA simply legalizes this plunder.
They tell us that CAFTA will help the economic and social development of Honduras, but by its inherently anti-democratic and exclusionary nature, it is very clear that we don't need this type of development. We have seen the devastating effects the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has had on Mexico. NAFTA has restricted the Mexican government's ability to set responsible agricultural, labor and environmental regulations, leading to 1.5 million campesinos losing their land, falling wages, increasing erosion, air and water pollution. Without regulations built in to this agreement we run the risk of not being able to stop the devastating effects of the foreign corporations that are cutting down our forests, extracting our minerals, stealing our natural resources and exploiting our people in their insatiable thirst for profit.
We know the type of development that CAFTA offers; it is development that generates wealth for the largest corporations because the agreement was made by and for these very corporations. They look only for cheap labor and a flexible government that permits them to supercede labor rights and national laws in a “race to the bottom.” It might be true that CAFTA will generate employment, however these jobs, as well as being unstable, submit our people to inhuman conditions, with unjust salaries so that their products can be sold for high profits in other countries. The fruits of our sweat, labor and sacrifice will not remain in Honduras, nor will they be shared with the citizens of Honduras, but rather they will be taken by the large foreign corporations that do not respect the dignity, the rights nor the voice of our people.
In Honduras we are already seeing how this “development” is destroying the environment. In the state of Olancho, because of illegal and unregulated deforestation, erosion is spreading, the water levels are dangerously low and natural springs have completely dried up.
As was the case with NAFTA in Mexico, the chaos caused by CAFTA will increase levels of migration from Central America and the Dominican Republic towards the United States. Taking in to account the increase of the repression on the US/Mexican border and the increase of racist laws affecting immigrants, the passing of this agreement is a crime against the people of Central America & the Dominican Republic.
Without concrete laws that protect the environment, CAFTA will be terribly destructive for Honduras and Central America. With CAFTA, profits for the largest corporations are given a higher value than human, animal or plant life. But life and natural resources are human rights; therefore, to destroy God’s creation is a crime against humanity, the last recourse that we have is to defend life with our own life. Therefore we must continue to struggle so that the people of North America understand that by passing CAFTA they are threatening the lives of thousands of brothers and sisters, and their ability to live with dignity and respect, as God wants for all of “America.”
I ask the people of the United States to write, call, yell and demonstrate in order to demand that your Congressional Representatives vote against CAFTA. In solidarity and in the name of God… 
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