HSA BULLETIN April, 29 2009
1. Rafael Correa wins 51.7% of the vote and is re-elected in Ecuador
2. Central American social movements oppose the resumption of FTA talks with the EU
3. All over the continent they are getting ready for the May First.
4. Indigenous peoples convene the Sixth Continental Summit of the peoples of Abya Yala.
5. Four memoranda on crimes of the Bush eradeclassified.
6. Organizations in defence of the original text in the Referendum on Water in Colombia
7. Mesoamerica fights dams
8. Protests on Uribe’s European tour
9. Via Campesina says that the G8 is not a legitimate space to define agricultural policy.
1. Rafael Correa wins 51.7% of the vote and is re-elected in Ecuador
Last Sunday Ecuador re-elected Rafael Correa as its president. In the electoral fight, his closest rival was Lucio Gutiérrez. In his first declarations, Correa announced that he will deepen socialism, will create a plan for the return of migrants and will make progress in the initiative for a financial architecture suited to Latin America. Before the polls many candidates agreed not to sign Free Trade Agreements.
More information in Spanish:
-Preliminary results: http://lta.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idLTASIE53Q10020090427
-Interview with El PAÍS of Spain: http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internacional/problema/eje/Venezuela/Bolivia/Ecuador/elpepuintlat/20090428elpepuint_5/Tes
Communication on the FTA Pact
Quito, 22 April 2009
Press Release
Within the framework of the electoral campaign, the WOMEN'S FORUM and ECUADOR DECIDES promoted a PACT for the RIGHTS OF WOMEN and COMMITMENT WITH THE AGENDA OF THE SOCIAL SECTORS for the RESPECT and APPLICATION OF THE CONSTITUTION, with various candidates of different political sectors. The action included the presence of more than 30 candidates to the National Assembly and other dignitaries.
Some outstanding points in this signed agreement are:
1. Application of laws to guarantee the rights of women, health, life and sovereignty.
2. To modify the structural causes that generate inequality between men and women, eradication of the violence against women, to guarantee women's access to resources under equal conditions, to guarantee the exercise of women's political rights.
3. To generate participative processes of legislative and financial developments with the social organizations.
4. To revoke all international treaties that violate our sovereignty
5. Prohibit the signing of Free Trade Agreements.
6. To guarantee sumak kawsay, food sovereignty, the rights of nature, for a equitable, free, just and solidarity Ecuador.
We note the presence of María Paula Romo, first female candidate to the National Assembly for Pichincha from list 35, as well as César Rodríguez, Silvia Salgado, Oscar Bonilla, Isabel Terán, María Augusta Calle, Rodrigo Collahuazo, María José Carrión, etc.; also of Wilma Salgado and Brenda Torres from lists 17-32, César Montúfar of list 51, Margarita Carranco and Catherine Chalá of list 24, María Arboleda and Gayne Villagómez of lists 29-50. In addition present were more than 60 leaders of diverse social organizations that in their capacity as social leaders witnessed the signing of the agreement.
Many other candidates of the political movements present and of other movements and parties later declared their desire to adhere to the pact, but because of campaign commitments could not be present.
ECUADOR DECIDE
FORO DE LA MUJER
2. Central American social movements oppose the resumption of FTA talks with the EU
Central American governments announced formally that they will resume a new round of negotiation towards an Association Agreement with the European Union. Meanwhile, the social movements and organizations of the region are preparing a pronouncement against this decision. The European negotiating team announced that the Regional Economic Financial Fund with 60,000 million euros demanded by Nicaragua will be discussed in a special commission of finance ministers.
More information in Spanish:
-News of renewal: http://www.prensa-latina.cu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=75071&Itemid=1
-Government communications:
Association Agreement between Central America and the European Union
Joint Press Release
The EU and Central America are renewing negotiations for an Association Agreement. All the chief negotiators from the EU and Central America met in Brussels on April 23-24, and have decided to resume negotiations. The parties reviewed all the pending questions and confirmed their determination to reach a rapid conclusion to this Agreement. They agreemed on an ambitious calendar for exchanging proposals and for intermediate meetings on the three pillars of the Agreement. The next meeting of Chief Negotiators will happen in Prague on May 14th. Both parts have decided to establish a bi-regional working group to study the creation of a financial mechanism for the regional development of Central America, which will present its proposals in the shortest time. The EU and Central America are firmly committed to conclude these negotiations in the next few months. With this goal, a new round of negotiations in Brussels is anticipated from 6 to 10 July.
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Brussels, Friday 24 April 2009.
3. All over the continent they are getting ready for the May First celebrations
Marches, festivals, and the cancellation of events because of the so-called swine flu in Mexico characterize the commemoration of May First on the Continent; International Workers' Day. (In spite of the fact that this day celebrates union militancy in Chicago, the U.S. is virtually the only country which refuses to celebrate this historic commemoration of workers). The embargo against Cuba, the economic crisis, rights of immigrant workers, domestic agendas against corruption, and the political situation in Latin America will bring millions of workers into the streets.
More information in Spanish:
-México cancels:
-Cuba against the embargo:
-Venezuela celebrates and alerts:
-March for immigrants in Orlando USA:
Argentina that capitalists pay for the crisis: http://documentoscs.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20la%20Plaza%20de%20Mayo%20el%20Primero%20con%20CI
Honduras in the face of crisis: http://www.elheraldo.hn/layout/set/print/Ediciones/2009/04/20/Noticias/Obreros-se-preparan-para-marcha-del-1-de-mayo
4. Indigenous peoples convene the Sixth Continental Summit of the peoples of Abya Yala.
On the shores of Lake Titicaca, shared by Chile, Bolivia and Peru, the VI Summit of the Peoples of Abya Yalse will be celebrated in the city of Puno, Peru, from May 27-31. The summit hopes to bring together more than 20,000 members of indigenous communities from the whole continent to pass "from resistance to the construction of power” with proposals for the survival of all humankind.
More information in Spanish:
Convocation: http://www.cumbrecontinentalindigena.org/
5. Four memoranda on crimes of the Bush era declassified
Two weeks ago the Department of Justice declassified four memoranda which were used in 2002 by the White House to give its endorsement to the CIA to interrogate in clandestine prisons. These were directed at foreigners inside and outside the United States, who were arrested on the presumption that they belonged to international terrorist groups. The public opening of these documents has unleashed a scandal by which high officials of the White House, including the ex-president George Bush should be brought to justice.
More information in Spanish:
-Column of Amy Goodman: http://www.democracynow.org/es/blog/2009/4/23/los_torturadores_deberan_ser_castigados
6. Organizations in defence of the original text of the Referendum on Water in Colombia
Social organizations which for three years have been promoting a referendum to declare water a human right and a public good, denounced the fact that the House of Representatives approved a draft of a law with substantial modifications. This constitutes a trap for the more than two million people who signed by the original text. The organizations, headed by the environmental group Ecofondo, announced that they will continue working so that the original text is respected during the remainder of the legislative process.
More information:
- website of Ecofondo: http://ecofondo.org/mambo/index.php
7. Mesoamerica fights dams
Mexican social organizations sent a letter to President Felipe Calderón to request the definitive cancellation of three dam projects that have caused displacement and violations of the ancestral rights of the peoples who inhabit these territories. The communication is signed by hundreds of people from all over the continent.
Meanwhile, in Boquete, Panama, the 5th Mesoamerican Forum against dams met. 264 representatives of social organizations signed the final declaration, where they maintained that: "the original peoples are the main victims of an economic model obsessed with economic growth, something which violates life and favors the avarice of a small group of companies and people".
More information,
To sign the manifesto against dams in Mexico: http://www.rmalc.org.mx/manifiesto/manifiesto.htm
News of the Foro Mesoamericano: http://www.agenciapulsar.org/nota.php?id=14918
8. Protests on Uribe’s European tour
European social organizations working on human rights in Colombia, are organizing protests and vigils on April 29-10, in opposition to the brief tour that Colombian president Alvaro Uribe is making to Europe. He is a president who is surrounded by scandals and violations of human rights. The demonstrators are called for April 29th, in front of the embassy of Colombia, in Madrid Spain, where Uribe will be given the Freedom of Cadiz Prize. On April 30th, the protests will be at the Vatican. The Colombian organization Justice and Peace has requested that Pope Benedict XVI not receive Uribe.
-Amnesty International: http://www.europapress.es/epsocial/noticia-amnistia-pide-espana-no-olvide-situacion-ddhh-colombia-sigue-siendo-grave-20090427140628.html
-Letter against the meeting with the Pope: http://justiciaypazcolombia.com/Encuentro-del-Papa-Benedicto-XVI
9. Via Campesina says that the G8 is not a legitimate space to define agricultural policy.
The international organization Via Campesina denounced the meeting behind closed doors held by the presidents of the so-called G8 on April 20th. The meeting is not the appropriate place to define agrarian policy for the world in time of crisis. The declaration, affirms Via Campesina, on the one hand, speaks of putting "agriculture and the rural development… in the center of economic growth while reinforcing the role of the family farm and the small agriculturists and their access to the Earth", and on the other hand "to reach a balanced, global and ambitious conclusion of the Doha Round," two policies that it concludes are incompatible.
More information,
Site of Vía Campesina: http://www.viacampesina.org/main_sp/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=734&Itemid=1