Guatemala Harvests Bad Old Days over CAFTA

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Fri, 1 Apr 2005 22:57:35 -0500

Guatemala Harvests Bad Old Days over CAFTA

 

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Council On Hemispheric Affairs

 

Monitoring Political, Economic and Diplomatic Issues Affecting the

Western Hemisphere

Memorandum to the Press 05.36

 

 

Guatemala Harvests Bad Old Days over CAFTA

 

Analysis prepared by Xuan-Trang Ho, COHA Research Associate

Wednesday, 30thMarch 2005

 

*

 

Guatemalan Congress ratified the Central America Free Trade

Agreement (CAFTA) on March 10 despite mounting protests in the

nation's capital, which so far have left at least one protestor dead.

The U.S. turns a blind eye on Guatemalan military's transgressions.

*

 

If the U.S. Congress ratifies CAFTA, the U.S. should expect

hundreds of thousands more illegal immigrants from the region flooding

the U.S. in search of jobs.

*

 

Siding with U.S. authorities and foreign investors while

ignoring his own population's anxieties, President Oscar Berger

expressed his complete support for CAFTA. Berger adamantly refused to

call for a national referendum regarding the ratification of

CAFTA—which his opponents support—fearing that it would be defeated.

*

 

Sixty percent of Guatemalans are small farmers who, for the best

of reasons, are afraid that CAFTA would negatively affect their

livelihood.

*

 

As Central America's most populous nation with 12 million

inhabitants, Guatemala has the region's largest economy and one of its

largest militaries, but also its greatest maldistribution of wealth.

*

 

Lawmakers in the U.S. are far from unified over CAFTA: many

Democrats oppose it because labor and environmental protections are

too weak; some farm-belt Republicans fear that their districts could

lose jobs or become less competitive; while sugar growers and textile

producers are wary of competition from cheap Central American labor

and low cost production.

*

 

Washington is pushing for CAFTA hearings beginning on April 6,

2005, though many Hill protagonists are skeptical whether a divided

Congress will approve the pact. President Bush failed to get the votes

needed in 2004 to bring CAFTA to the floor, and it is uncertain

whether he will be able to nail down the necessary support this time

around.

 

 

On March 9, 2005, police forces in Guatemala City fired tear gas and

beat demonstrators who were protesting the ratification of the

U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). President Oscar

Berger deployed 500 soldiers wielding truncheons to the city's

historic center armed with water cannons and with the intent to halt

nearly 1,000 union members, farmers, students and indigenous people

who were demanding a national referendum on the contentious issue.

 

All told, some 8,000 protesters have been involved in recent

demonstrations over CAFTA, making these rallies among the largest

protests in Guatemala's modern history. Despite such public outcries,

President Berger and his government have failed to respond to his

constituency. Instead, the Berger administration continually has bowed

to foreign interests and the country's landholding elites.

 

 

Full article...

http://www.coha.org/NEW_PRESS_RELEASES/New_Press_Releases_2005/05.36%20CAFTA%20t\

he%20one.htm

 

 

 

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