Stories from Bolivia's Challenge to Globalization

This video accompanies the book "Dignity and Defiance: Stories from Bolivia's Challenge to Globalization". For more information, check out the website: www.democracyctr.org/book

Do not put 20,000 Bolivians out of work

If President Bush implements his threat to remove Bolivia from the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPDEA), more than 20,000 innocent Bolivian workers may find themselves out of a job just as the president leaves his. With the global economy already reeling, Bush's plan would thrust these workers and their families into unemployment in South America's most impoverished nation.

The victims of President Bush’s move will be women and and men who eke out modest livings as weavers, jewelry-makers and carpenters, creating products for U.S. markets. Regardless of whatever disputes the U.S. government may have with President Morales, it certainly has more reasonable ways of addressing them than putting innocent people out of work, especially in a moment when the world needs all the honest economic exchange it can come by.

The Democracy Center, based in Cochabamba, Bolivia, has begun this petition to give people an opportunity to speak out against President Bush's plan. On October 31 we will present the petition, including the names of all who sign it, as part of our formal comments to the Bush administration, as allowed under U.S. law. Sign it now!

VOICES FROM LATIN AMERICA

Voices from Latin America, is a campaign that seeks to bring Latin American perspectives into the U.S. debate. www.democracyctr.org/voices

Ana Ella Gómez from El Salvador

Ana Ella Gómez works in the area of research and advocacy at the Center for Consumer Defense in El Salvador. The Center is a civil society organization whose objective is to contribute to the construction of a widespread consumer movement with the capacity to influence public policy, with emphasis on public services in favor of citizen interests and needs, especially for those who are most vulnerable and affected by the current economic model. Ana also supports the promotion and coordination of campaigns and initiatives for political advocacy on these subjects. Anas words in this interview place special emphasis on the United States interventionist policy in Latin America.

Nelly Avendaño from Perú

Nelly Avendaño is a water and basic public service defender in Peru. Since 2004, she has been fighting, along with the Water Defense Front, against the privatization of this basic resource. Currently she is working with her community, Huancayo, to build a new model for public water management. It will be a model that is modern, participative, and efficient. Nelly strongly questions the sale of water and natural resources as promoted in the Free Trade Agreement, signed recently between the Peruvian and the U.S. government.

Condoning Unlawful External Debt: a voice from Uruguay

Eduardo Busollo is a member of the National Commission in Defense of Water and Life in Uruguay. Eduardo calls for eliminating the pressure for payment of unlawful external debt that drags down Latin American countries, which, as he mentions, was acquired during dictatorial regimes in past decades. He also recommends that the United States government stop acting by force and take responsibility for problems at home before trying to solve those that other countries have.

Power of the People

Vote is not enough? We want deep changes! A Bolivian explains to a gringo the impact of U.S. policies have in Latin America. This is political humor showing how people from the U.S. and Latin America can work together to influence in the decisions that impact BOTH of our lives.