Blog from the Summit of the Americas

Readers: Here is another dispatch from one of The Democracy Center’s fine volunteers, Gretchen Gordon of the US. Gretchen is part of an entourage of Bolivian and US volunteers on site at the Summit of the Americas this week in Argentina. I think her on-the-ground report is a good perspective for those of you following President Bush’s visit from afar.

Blog from the Summit of the Americas

As heads of state from 33 countries in the Hemisphere prepare to converge on the beach city of Mar del Plata, Argentina for the economic Summit of the Americas in the coming days, outside the barricaded Security Zone, a different sort of convergence is already in full swing. Under the banner of "Another Americas is Possible," the People´s Summit of the Americas, the parallel meeting of social movements from throughout Latin America, was inaugurated Tuesday with a full day of workshops, panels, and cultural events aimed at proposing alternatives to the official liberal economic Summit agenda. While social movements participating in this third People´s Summit continue proposing alternatives to the Washington Consensus of economic liberalization, increasing U.S. intervention abroad in recent years has solidified the focus of this year’s summit in the unequivocal rejection of what is seen as a growing U.S. economic, political, and military imperialism of Latin America.

The FTAA Agenda

The Summit of the Americas process was initiated at the first summit in Miami in 1994 with the focal point of creating a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) spanning the continent. Eleven years later after several failed negotiating rounds, the FTAA looks like it likely will not come to fruition. The U.S. government, however, continues to push for the inclusion of the FTAA in Summit proceedings. It faces strong opposition from many Latin American countries, including most notably Venezuela, Argentina, and Brazil, which reject many of the expansive liberalization policies mandated by the FTAA and call for greater access to U.S. markets for Latin America products. Argentinean president Nestor Kirchner has firmly rejected the inclusion in Summit proceedings of language relating to a restart in FTAA negotiations, and Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has predicted that the summit will instead see the "burial" of the FTAA.

Juan Gonzalez, leader of the Center of Argentinean Workers, speaking at an inaugurating press conference for the People´s Summit Tuesday, celebrated the contribution of the efforts of social movements in the defeat of the FTAA. "The FTAA was not able to be enacted in January of 2005 as scheduled because the people said "no" to the FTAA... "Today we have the satisfaction of having exceeded the expectations of participants from across Latin America."

While representatives of social movements from around the continent celebrated the failure of the FTAA, they warned that the neoliberal policies included in that agreement have found a home in other institutions and forums promoted by Washington, such as the Central American Free Trade Agreement, the Andean Free Trade Agreement, and as conditions of lending agreements by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

Who Decides Latin America’s Development Path?

A central critique of the over 100 organizations participating in the People´s Summit is that the economic and political policies generated in the official summit are imposed on the people of Latin America by the U.S. and Latin American governments described by De la Cueva "surrounded by their walls, each time more isolated from their people."

"We have to say to the presidents that are going to be coming here that they have a bit of dignity and that they don’t buy the US agenda...," said De la Cueva. "We’re here to put forth proposals from the people."

Chechua indigenous representative Blanca Chancosa criticized U.S. rhetoric of increasing democracy in the region, "We want a true democracy in our countries. We don’t want a patronizing democracy like Mr. Bush wants to impose," stated Chancosa. "The countries of South America should be sovereign with dignity. Not an imposition, not a single owner who decides the lives of the people and that is supposed to be democracy. To this we say no."

Many of the social movements gathered in Mar del Plata are raising concerns over what they see as the increasing threat of U.S. military intervention in the continent. Argentinean Nobel Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, spoke against increasing U.S. military presence through initiatives such as Plan Puebla-Panama and Plan Columbia, the planned opening of an FBI office in Paraguay, and interventions such as that in Haiti. "Our people don’t need more armies, much less North American armies. What we need are resources for healthcare, for education, for life- not for killing."

Discussions both within the official summit and the People´s Summit will continue through Saturday. U.S. proposals on the FTAA are likely to be met with resistance within the official proceedings, and it remains to be seen what the final summit declaration will contain in other areas. Outside the security barricades, however, the message from the People´s Summit is unequivocal, that another Americas is not only possible, but urgent.