Letters from Our Readers

This Week in the Americas

Hong Kong Report #3
WTO Staves Off Crisis but Fails to Resolve Contradictions
By Laura Carlsen

After its Sixth Ministerial in Hong Kong in mid-December, the World Trade Organization “went home limping, but still on its feet.” The multilateral trade and investment organization was saved by a thread from a third failure, which would have shown its inability to reconcile the neoliberal agenda with its mandate for development.

If the final draft agreement managed to stave off institutional crisis for the time being, it did little or nothing to resolve the root contradictions facing the World Trade Organization. Everyone went home grumbling. Developed countries had hoped to gain more in market access, services, and intellectual property protection. Developing countries saw their development demands for the most part rejected, ignored, or postponed. Protesting organizations once again found themselves on the outside of a process that will define the future for millions of their constituents throughout the world and their attempts to challenge the non-democratic nature of the WTO and its decisions were once again met with repression. This report portrays the process and briefly evaluates the results and their implications.

Laura Carlsen, reporting from Hong Kong, directs the Americas Program of the International Relations Center, online at www.irc-online.org.

Haiti’s Flawed Electoral Process Bodes Ill for Future Stability
By Brian Concannon Jr.

Haiti's election dates have now been reset for the fourth time in the last five months. The Interim Government of Haiti will now miss the February 7, 2006 deadline for transferring power that it had promised to meet for 21 months. These delays, and the logistical problems underlying them, are a cause for concern. But the logistical defects should not obscure the more fundamental problems that will prevent the elections, whenever held, from helping Haiti to break from its brutal history of political instability.

Brian Concannon Jr., Esq. is an analyst with IRC's Americas Program. He directs the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, www.ijdh.org, and is a former OAS Elections Observer and UN Human Rights Observer in Haiti.

Evo Morales No Che Guevara
By Ronald Bruce St John

Evo Morales, president-elect of Bolivia, is often described in the Western media as a “leftist” if not a reincarnation of the legendary Ernesto “Che” Guevara. A mid-December article in The Independent saw Morales walking “In the footsteps of Che Guevara” while a more recent Los Angeles Times editorial was entitled, “Where ‘Che' Left Off.” Flaccid comparisons like these fuel the conservative hysteria generated by Morales' election, adding to the confusion as to the current political situation in Bolivia.

In the wake of his impressive victory, Morales has displayed admirable energy, reaching out to diverse constituencies in an apparent effort at national reconciliation. He met with members of the Asociacíon de Bancos Privados de Bolivia, a grouping of private bankers, as well as other private businessmen around the country. In addition, he traveled to Santa Cruz to meet with the Comité Civico Pro Santa Cruz in recognition of Santa Cruz as the motor for national development as well as the birthplace of the regional autonomy movement. Morales drew repeated applause from his Santa Cruz audience, a group harshly critical of him in the past, when he guaranteed a referendum on regional autonomy and a constituent convention, together with “no expropriation or confiscation” of private property or assets. Even though Morales has pledged to develop legal markets for coca and crack down on drug trafficking, a close aide suggested recently that Bolivia would reject U.S. economic and military aid, which approximated $91 million in 2005, if it was contingent on continued coca-eradication efforts.

On a more positive note, a late-December decision by the European Union to fund a study of coca distribution and use, in an effort to determine how much of it goes to legal uses as opposed to cocaine production, was a welcome initiative which promised to reduce the rhetoric on both sides of the issue.

Ronald Bruce St John, an analyst for Foreign Policy In Focus (www.fpif.org), has published extensively on Latin American issues for over three decades. Author of The Foreign Policy of Peru (1992) and La Política Exterior del Perú (1999), he is working on a history of Bolivian foreign policy.

New Year Sees Delay in CAFTA Implementation
By Todd Tucker

As the January 1 implementation deadline for the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) went by, the five Central American countries that signed the agreement with the United States are balking at added U.S. demands for domestic legislative reforms as prerequisites to implementation. The United States has also postponed the implementation deadline to give time to make its own adjustments and wrest even greater concessions from its future CAFTA partners.

Days before the January 1st deadline for CAFTA was to go into effect, news broke that several of the CAFTA countries' parliaments have grave misgivings about the national legislation required to implement the deal. In Costa Rica's case, the Congress is unwilling to ratify the controversial agreement at all. As opposition to the agreement increases, the Bush administration has decided to put off the Jan. 1, 2006 implementation until it can persuade the governments to accept anti-public interest reforms to their domestic laws.

Todd Tucker is Research Director with Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch (www.tradewatch.org) and a regular contributor to the IRC Americas Program (www.americaspolicy.org).

Hong Kong Report #2
Chronicle of the International Farmers’ March
By Laura Carlsen

December 17th, the day of the international farmers' march in Hong Kong, turned out to be a day of resistance and repression. The events of that day reflected the lines drawn between two versions of the future: on one hand, the defense of sovereignty and the family farm agricultural model; on the other, globalization imposed from above by large corporations.

Laura Carlsen, reporting from Hong Kong, directs the Americas Program of the International Relations Center, online at www.irc-online.org.

Mexico in Mercosur: A Trojan Horse?
By Laura Carlsen

Mexico's two professed goals in associating with Mercosur (participation in the political decisions made by the block as well as forging a larger commercial block) raise many questions. What is Mexico looking for with its integration into Mercosur? Mexico's persistence in promoting commercial blocks with leanings toward massive global trade liberalization contradict some versions of the plans of Mercosur, which lean toward national and regional economic strengthening as a basis to improve competitiveness on the world market. Perhaps it is an exaggeration to say that Mexico is a Trojan horse presented to Mercosur representing U.S. interests. However, without a doubt their application pushes a model of economic integration that is important to evaluate carefully. Before leaning more toward NAFTA, Mercosur has the task of refining its own criteria in order to redefine a new integration strategy that today does not seem to have found its new course.

Laura Carlsen directs the Americas Program of the International Relations Center, online at www.irc-online.org.

Letters from our Readers

Subject: U.S. foreign Policies are not helping Latin America at all

The [unspecified Americas Program] article I just read, definitely shows what I like to call a true altruist spirit, USA’s (American? we’re all Americans!) foreign policies are totally focused on exploiting and taking advantage of South America’s current status, however a rising movement on countries like Venezuela (Hugo Chávez), Bolivia (Evo Morales) and Chile (Michelle Bachelete) has started. These countries will not be tricked by the U.S. government anymore, and this particular reaction will extend to the rest of South American countries for sure. Therefore I strongly agree that we should admire and encourage the braveness and will that it takes to make these kinds of radical changes happen, instead of considering them as a threat.

--Julián Sánchez

Re: Hong Kong Report #1: Deciphering the Language of Globalization
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/2996

I suppose research and analysis has to come before design but it’s a real relief to finally see a few proposals for alternatives to neoliberal global capitalism. I’m referring to the “healthy development mix” in the article. Yes, the crimes of the neoliberals are obscene. But I’m very enthusiastic to see the details of the alternative policy. This is for two reasons—first, we want to implement the new system ASAP. And second, the neoliberals are not going to change. We simply have to build the alternative ourselves and get nations to sign on in a separate economic club. We need to spread the idea that people need to start making their economic decisions based on things besides “pure” economics. You’re off to a good start. Keep it up!

--RT Drury

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