Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA

CAFTA Protests

Trade Protesters Seize Estates

July 2, 2006

On June 30 Guatemala's National Coordinating Committee of Campesino Organizations (CNOC), the Social Organizations Collective and other groups announced plans for protests against DR-CAFTA on July 1. Hundreds of campesinos started protesting even before July 1, occupying five government-owned estates on June 29.

The Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR- CAFTA) went into effect in Guatemala on July 1 amid protests against the US-sponsored pact, which seeks to bring Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the US together in a trade bloc. The agreement took effect in El Salvador on Mar. 1, and in Honduras and Nicaragua on May 1. Costa Rica's legislature has not yet approved the pact.

DR-CAFTA was scheduled to go into effect in the Dominican Republic on July 1, but the implementation was delayed by a disagreement over US demands for legislation protecting industrial secrets for pharmaceutical companies. "We're not giving in," Marcelo Puello, Dominican assistant secretary for foreign trade, said on June 30. "The negotiating team closed this chapter, and the people in charge of implementation agreethat we won't give in on something that would be outside the text of the treaty."

For DR-CAFTA to go into effect in Guatemala, Congress had to meet US demands by passing an Implementation Law and by ratifying three international treaties: the Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure, the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, enforced by the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV).

Under DR-CAFTA, 94% of Guatemala's exports to the US will be exempt from tariffs, while 82% of US exports to Guatemala will be exempt, according to Economy Minister Marcio Cuevas. Guatemala imports about twice as much from the US as the US imports from Guatemala; in 2005 total Guatemalan exports were worth $3.378 billion, with 52.5% going to the US; Guatemala's imports were worth $8.815 billion, with 38.7% coming from the US. Cuevas predicted that the trade pact could generate 10,000 new jobs in its first year, but Guatemalan-US Chamber of Commerce executive director Carolina Castellanos warned: "Let's remember that the free trade pact isn't a magic wand which goes into effect on Saturday and on Sunday we all already have jobs and are exporting."

On June 30 Guatemala's National Coordinating Committee of Campesino Organizations (CNOC), the Social Organizations Collective and other groups announced plans for protests against DR-CAFTA on July 1. "The TLC [Free Trade Treaty] will submerge millions of people in extreme poverty, especially in the countryside," CNOC leader Aparicio Perez charged. Some sectors had pushed for Congress to pass a Rural Development Law and other compensatory legislation that would help Guatemalan producers meet the competition of heavily subsidized US agricultural products, but Congress postponed discussion of the laws. [CNOC experienced two break-ins in offices it was using in early May]

Hundreds of campesinos started protesting even before July 1, occupying five government-owned estates on June 29. CNOC coordinated the occupations, which were carried out by two of its affiliates, the Campesino Unity Committee (CUC) and the Verapaz Union of Community Organizations (UVOC). According to CNOC the estates were: La Nube, in Gualan, Zacapa department, occupied by 50 families; San Jose las Lagrimas, Esquipulas, Chiquimula department, invaded by 120 families; Santa Ines, in Santa Cruz Verapaz, Alta Verapaz department, occupied by 22 families; Sexan, in Chisec, Alta Verapaz, invaded by 80 families; El Zapotal, in Chisec, Alta Verapaz, invaded by 25 families. As of July 2 campesinos had occupied a sixth estate.

At least one of the estates, San Jose las Lagrimas, belongs to the military. According to Aparicio Perez, the occupations were also intended to protest the military, which was about to celebrate Army Day, June 30. "We reject the plundering of lands that community members suffered at the hands of the military governments during the [1960-1996] armed conflict, and today we are demanding that the lands be returned," he said. CNOC also condemned the role of the military in the evictions of landless campesinos who have invaded estates in the past.

This year the military held its first public Army Day parade in Guatemala City since the civil war ended in 1996. Some 300 human rights activists protested, shouting "Murderers, murderers" at the soldiers. The parade came as Spanish judge Santiago Pedraz was visiting Guatemala in connection with genocide charges that activist Rigoberta Menchu Tum filed against four former military officers and two civilians in 1999.

July 4, 2006

Protests in Front of Guatemalan Congress

Dozens of indigenous people, farmers, women and representatives of other sectors protested in front of the Guatemalan Congress building Tuesday, against the Free Trade Treaty (FTT) with US, in force since July 1st.

Edwin Ortega, from the National Trade Union Coordinating Office, told Prensa Latina that the Congress affected national interests with the FTT approval. He said they were in presence of a total loss of sovereignty, an intervention, not by the force of weapons, just like in 1954, but by economic means, threatening to submit Guatemala to another 50 or 100 years under control of great transnational capitals.Ortega said FTT would benefit great enterprise owners, and will have negative consequences for most of the Guatemalan population, especially small and medium producers.

Daniel Pascual, leader of the Guatemalan Farmers Unity Committee, said the government should have consulted the people on a treaty that would affect the nation's political economic, social and cultural life, since hundreds of families have already occupied several state farms in the north and east of Guatemala.

Aparicio Perez, leader of the National Coordinating Office for Farmers´ Organizations, warned that import of basic grains from US would lead hundreds of thousands of farmers to poverty, and there will be no other choice for them to take struggle and resistance actions. On July 1st, popular organizations put a flower offering in front of the Guatemalan Congress building, as a signal of mourning, because of the FTT entry in force.

 

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