Alliance for Responsible Trade

From the Stop CAFTA Coalition and the Quixote Center:

In Costa Rica, there has been a call for nationwide actions by farmers, indigenous communities, civic and patriotic committees and diverse social organizations organizing against the US-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA). The action will take place Wednesday the 27th and Thursday the 28th this week. They will be protesting the implementation agenda for the laws required under DR-CAFTA, and they have asked that organizations in the U.S. send letters of support for their movement. Several of us have quickly constructed a letter, which has an initial group of signers. We apologize for the short time line but the Costa Rican groups would like to have this letter to take to the action on Wednesday. We are only asking organizations who can decide quickly to sign on to this.

The deadline is Today Feb 26th 6pm EST! If your organization can sign the letter below, please send your organizational adhesions to: burke@cispes.org.

The undersigned groups and individuals in the United States offer our solidarity with the struggles of the people of Costa Rica and the Patriotic Committees in this moment of decision

We salute your courage in:

• Standing firm against the implementation of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) that has already caused negative effects in the countries that have approved it. This is documented by several reports, including "DR-CAFTA Year Two: Trends and Impacts", released by the Stop CAFTA Coalition in the United States.^[1]
• Denouncing the attempts by your government to repress and instill fear in the popular movement against DR-CAFTA through unprovoked acts of violence such as those perpetrated on February 5th.
• Your courage in rejecting the process of ‘expedited process' being carried out in the National Assembly for passage of laws and changes to the constitution which will change life forever in Costa Rica. The many changes which are being demanded in these laws, are not well understood by the population, and violate the will of the people in many ways. Each of the proposed changes should be the subject of national debates, so that the citizens of Costa Rica have an opportunity to legitimately decide on their future.
• Rejecting the certification of the October 2007 Referendum on CAFTA. The multiple violations of electoral law require that the results be rejected.

We reiterate our admiration of the Costa Rican people who have maintained a democracy and an infrastructure which has prevented the kind of poverty which is pervasive in all of your neighboring countries. We denounce these calculated efforts to steal these many achievements from the Costa Rican people. We support your efforts to combat the legal changes that would eliminate the many rights which the people in your country continue to hold as sacred.

Count us as part of your numbers in the struggle against the DR-CAFTA. This effort also continues in all the signing countries.

Initial signers:

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^[1] download the report "DR-CAFTA Year Two: Trends and Impacts" http://lasolidarity.org/CAFTA_report/CAFTAYear2_monitoring_eng.pdf