MONDAY, JANUARY 31, 2005
Action Alert: Help Stop CAFTA!
Send a letter from a Nicaraguan civil society leader to Congress along with your own letter!Ruth Herrera, the coordinator of the Nicaraguan National Consumers' Defense Network, has written a letter to our Congress (shown below). She was recently in the United States to participate in the Boston Social Forum and, when she left, she asked us to send this letter to the members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.
In the letter, she clearly lays out the reasons why the popular movements in Nicaragua oppose the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). They expect CAFTA to have a devastating effect on small scale agriculture and small businesses and industries in Nicaragua as well as promote the privatization of water and other public services.
Please take a few minutes to write letters of your own to your Representative and your two Senators urging them to "Vote NO on CAFTA" and to speak out against the trade measure. Enclose a copy of Herrera's letter. In your letter tell your members that Herrera's views are those of the majority of people in Central America. Those majorities oppose the trade agreement. It is only the rich and the governing elites who expect to benefit and therefore are supporting CAFTA.
Points you can make in your letter:
CAFTA will:
1. Destroy Central American small farmers
2. Limit the sovereignty of Central American governments
3. Result in privatization, union busting, and lower wages
4. Cause environmental destruction
5. Limit access to medicine
6. Allow "hot money" to destabilize economies.
Let the Nicaragua Network know when you have sent your letters, including the names of your Senators and Representatives. Then send us a copy of any replies that you receive.
There is pressure building to bring CAFTA up after the elections during the so-called "lame duck" session before the new Congress takes its seats in January. Some analysts say that a lame duck vote is likely if there is no change in the White House or Congress. We need to let the Congress know that, before the elections or after, changes or no changes, CAFTA is a bad agreement and should be voted down.
For more information on CAFTA and advice about lobbying Congress, visit the web page of the Stop CAFTA Coalition.
Ruth Herrera's letter is reproduced below.
Members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives
Washington, DC, USA
Dear Senator/Representative________________________:
I am a Nicaraguan, the coordinator of the Nicaraguan National Consumers' Defense Network. I am writing you with the hope that, by means of this letter, the people of my country may be heard.
Recently, representatives of our governments signed a Free Trade Agreement between the United States and the countries of Central America, known as CAFTA, an agreement which is not accepted by the majority of Nicaraguans. We see this agreement as damaging to our legal system and as a devastating blow to our precarious economy. We believe that if put into effect, this agreement would bring the following consequences:
1.- The disappearance of small and medium scale industrial and artisan production because of profound financial and technological inequalities between these sectors in our countries and the large U.S. companies that, in accordance with CAFTA, will enter our country with special treatment that will put them on an equal footing with our small national industries.
2.- The disappearance of the farming sector in the countryside which will not be able to compete with the billions of dollars of subsidies which your government provides to your agricultural producers.
3.- Irreparable damage to the rights of the indigenous people of my country to control the natural resources on their lands with the usurping under CAFTA of the right to patent medicinal products that historically have been used by our peoples, converting them into pharmaceuticals with prohibitive prices.
4.- Irrational exploitation of our natural resources, by mining, logging, etc., which will increase the levels of misery among our people.
5.- Privatization of potable water systems and of water resources. Because more than half of all Nicaraguans lack potable water in their homes, it is necessary that this vital service be expanded and administered solely by the public sector in our country in the interests of the people and their household and productive activities and not as a commodity to be sold for profit. The Consumers' Defense Network is fighting against the privatization of water and water distribution management which is being pushed by the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and now by the provisions of CAFTA. We see access to water as a basic human right.
6.- CAFTA contains clauses that violate our constitution which is the highest expression of our legal system, taking away functions that belong only to the Judicial Branch and to the Legislature and impeding the exercise of administrative functions that would protect the rights of Nicaraguans and of the nation.
7.- If CAFTA goes into effect, it will not only deepen the levels of poverty in my country, but will make us slaves of the giant U.S. multinational corporations, provoking profound discontent.
The social movements of Nicaragua are presently discussing calling for a referendum on whether to accept or reject CAFTA, an effort which our constitution permits and which obliges government officials and politicians to respect the decisions of the people.
I urge you on my own behalf, on behalf of the social movement which I represent, and on behalf of my people, to oppose with all your democratic commitment the passage of CAFTA by the Congress of the United States.
Sincerely,
Ruth Selma Herrera
National Coordinator
Nicaraguan National Consumers' Defense Network
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