Republic of Guatemala May 7, 2005-05-07
Honourable Members of Congress
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC
United States of America
Dear Member of Congress:
We write to you as representatives of Guatemalan civil-society organizations to express our profound concerns about the United States-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA). This agreement will result not only in increased job losses and wage declines for U.S. workers; it will mean the dismantling of the rural sector in Guatemala and the rest of the region. The Bush Administration is ignoring the mistakes of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and is granting excessive privileges to a handful of corporate interests and rich families in our countries who prioritize access to cheap labour and the destruction of natural resources. Failing to protect the environment and health of working families in the United States and Central America is inconsistent with President Bush’s public statements during his re-election campaign.
If implemented, this agreement would lead to the massive migration of our people to the United States. This will cause the loss of family farms and values and the culture of community and solidarity in exchange for the violence of poverty in inadequate cities and massive unemployment for the majority of the population. We aspire to solid and humane integration, in which human dignity comes before corporate interest.
We hope that your effort to support our future as communities and peoples includes the promotion of sustainable development and the preservation of the agricultural sector in our region, our right to the way of live that we decide on, and not the imposition of an agreement that was negotiated behind closed doors and against the basic principles of democracy.
Millions of people throughout Central America have marched and protested against this agreement. There have already been fatal victims of the repression our governments have applied to our constitutional right to peacefully oppose laws that will affect our lives, our future and that of our children and grandchildren.
The undersigned men and women of the MESA GLOBAL, in addition to more than 25,000 who signed a petition calling for the rejection of DR-CAFTA, urge you to vote against this agreement. We sincerely hope that you stand for the principles of the founders of your great nation, principles that truly benefit all of us, such as self-determination and democracy, as well as humane economic progress.
The original copies of the 25,000 signatures were delivered to the Guatemalan Congress on March 2, 2005, a week before the ratification of the agreement in Guatemala.
Most sincerely,
Mesa Global de Guatemala
Organizations and Institutions that comprise the Mesa Global de Guatemala
Alianza de Mujeres Rurales
Asociación para la Promoción y el Desarrollo de la Comunidad - CEIBA
Asociación para el Avance de las Ciencias Sociales – AVANCSO
Consejo de Investigaciones para el Desarrollo de Centroamérica – CIDECA
Centro para la Atención Legal en Derechos Humanos – CALDH
Colectivo MADRE SELVA
Coordinación de Ong´s y Cooperativas – CONGCOOP
Consejo de Instituciones de Desarrollo – COINDE
Coordinadora Nacional Indígena y Campesina – CONIC-CLOC
Coordinadora Nacional de Organizaciones Campesinas – CNOC
Coordinadora Nacional Sindical y Popular – CNSP
Coordinador Nacional de Pobladores y Áreas Marginales - CONAPAMG
Coordinadora de Organizaciones Sociales de San Marcos – COSAM
Comité de Unidad Campesina - CUC
Departamento de problemas socio-económicos - Universidad de San Carlos USAC
Instituto Mesoamericano de Permacultura - IMAP
Federación de Estudiantes de Agronomía de Guatemala –FEAG- USAC
Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo GAM
Movimiento Tzu Kim Pop
Mujeres en Acción
Mujeres Unidas
Organización de Mujeres – MAMA MAQUIN
Proyecto de Desarrollo Santiago - PRODESSA
Juventud - Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca – URNG
Sector de Mujeres -
Unión de Asentamientos de Guatemala - UNASGUA
Unacodi