The accelerating process of integration is increasing the exclusion of more and more social, political, and business sectors.  Both poverty and the expulsion of people from their places of origin toward the United States, in search of the “American dream,” are increasing.  The reality is such that there is no precedent to the social mobilizations going on in the continent today.  Diverse political actors have been unable to ignore the call of the excluded.  Among them are the Churches.

THE CHURCH IN CENTRAL AMERICA

In an open letter to the presidents of Central America, the legislators of Honduras, and the Congress of the United States, published on May 14th, 2003, the Diocese of Trujillo, which includes the regions of Colón and Gracias a Dios in Honduras and represents the bishop, priests, and laity, declared that, “We have understood and reflected on the Free Trade Agreements which have been promoted and incorporated into the national economy in recent years, and we wish to publicly proclaim our position of rejection and condemnation towards them.” 

Facing the process which the US government is directing in order to take regional steps toward the implementation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the members of the Diocese concluded that, “The Free Trade Agreement between the United States and the countries of Central America (CAFTA), which is currently being negotiated by the governments involved, is not a response to the realities of poverty and exclusion lived by millions of human beings in the region of Central America, realities which have been caused by the reprehensible external debt and by the policies of the unjust global trade system.” 

This is the courageous church which has taken a clear and decisive stand against the process of neoliberal globalization.  In their analysis, they reveal that the “treaties comprise a full plan of economic, political, social, and cultural domination over our peoples, which is proposed in language that calls for prosperity and development.  These treaties, however, displace human beings, replacing them with economic relationships, and undermine the bases of a society that is thirsty for justice, peace, equitable development, and meaningful democracy.  These treaties subjugate the life of these peoples, violating their sovereignty and their right to self-determination.”

The members of the Diocese of Trujillo predict the worsening of consequences that are already observable in the region.   It is not necessary to look far to realize that, “The entry into effect of these FTAs will translate for communities into privatization of health, education, and water services, higher taxes, lower purchasing power, greater migration from rural areas to the cities, and less work opportunities.  These, in turn, will provoke increasing delinquency, drug addiction, family disintegration, and poverty.” 

As we have already observed elsewhere, FTAs are not designed for everyone, but rather for the benefit of large transnational corporations (TNCs).  Consequently, their effects are not only harmful for the poor, but also for other sectors: “The situation will not be easier for small and medium-sized producers and businessmen, some industrialists, and the urban population.  We urge these groups to question the government’s position, and to demand that it take better decisions for the future of the country.” 

The Church of the Diocese of Trujillo concludes with several invitations: “In the face of these deadly initiatives, we feel ourselves obliged to call civil society organizations, institutions that work directly with communities, churches, and the people in general to inform ourselves, reflect, and work together to define our strategies of protest and resistance.  We demand that the Government and the Deputies speak the truth about the content and the effects of the FTAs.  We also urge them to govern in the interests of the impoverished majority and not for the benefit of elite agroexporters who impose their interests above those of the majority ... Finally, as the Church and as part of the people, we commit ourselves to accompanying communities on their difficult path of resistance and hope.  We are inspired by the example of the risen Christ, who has placed us on the side of Life and Life with abundance.”

A few weeks later, on the 2nd and 3rd of June in Managua, Nicaragua, representatives of popular organizations, cooperatives, labor unions, environmental, consumer, indigenous, campesino, student, and solidarity groups and other social movements from all over Central America participated in the Central American Encounter for Reflection and Coordination.  In light of the effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), they reviewed the impact that CAFTA, the FTAA, and the Plan Puebla Panama (PPP)could have on the region.  They concluded that “CAFTA, the PPP, and the FTAA are important components of the imposition on our region of the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO).  This framework is complemented by the structural adjustment programs imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.”

The participants in this encounter were the Popular Block of Central America; the National Network for Consumer Defense (Nicaragua); the Association of Rural Workers (Nicaragua); Indigenous People of Telpaneca (Nicaragua); Indigenous People of Chorotega (Nicaragua); León Committee for Peace (Nicaragua); Popular Block (Honduras); the Ecological Unit of El Salvador; the Sinti-Techan Network (El Salvador); the Platform Against Free Trade – COMPA (Costa Rica); the COMAL Network (Honduras); the Center for Consumer Defense (El Salvador); the Arenal Solidarity Group (Nicaragua); the Popular Block-Colomoncagua (Honduras); the Social Movement of Nicaragua; the Multisector Cooperative of Jalapa (Nicaragua); the Zapatista Solidarity Committee (Nicaragua); COMPA (Honduras); Popular Encounter (Costa Rica); the Mexican Action Network against Free Trade (Mexico); the Movement for Local Survival (Nicaragua); Citizen Action (Nicaragua); Citizens´ Movement for a National Project (Nicaragua); the National Union of Small Farmers (Nicaragua); COMPA (Nicaragua); the Coordinator for Indigenous and Campesino Organizations (Guatemala); the Movement for Social Action Against the FTAA-Estell (Nicaragua); and the Center for International Studies (Nicaragua).

A parallel and very significant meeting was held from the 2nd-6th of June, 2003 in San Pedro Sula, Honduras: the Seminary Workshop on International Trade, the FTAA, and Fair Trade.  More than 70 delegates attended, among them 9 bishops, priests, members of religious orders, and lay people representing organizations of the Pastoral Social-Caritas de America, which comprises the Bolivarian Zones, the Southern Cone, the Caribbean Basin, CAMEXPA, and North America.  They were organized by the Department of Pastoral Social Work of CELAM and by Caritas for Latin America and the Caribbean.  In the context of the “poverty of millions of our brothers and sisters on the Continent,” this meeting was intended to follow up on the commitments made at the Synod of America.  It is important to note that the brother country of Honduras, the poorest in the region, has this year become the strongest voice of witness and resistance.  From the 18th-24th of July, Honduras will sponsor the Day of Resistance, during which there will be celebrations held for the Second Mesoamerican Forum Against Dams, the Fourth Mesoamerican Forum Against the PPP and the Third Week for Biological and Cultural Diversity (www.ciepac.org). 

The antecedents of the Seminary Workshop in San Pedro Sula go back to January 2002 in Washington, D.C.  There, the “Presidents of the Episcopal Conferences of Canada, the United States, and Latin America, along with executives of pastoral social work and church experts, came to dialogue with the Presidents of the multilateral lending organizations ... and with the CEOs of some of the largest multinational corporations.  The central motivation for this meeting was to initiate an essential dialogue about the phenomenon of economic globalization and the need we felt as the Churches of the Continent to humanize the global economy, in order to stop the growing impoverishment of our peoples.”  The project “Toward a more humane, cooperative, and supportive economy” was formed out of this encounter, to continue the conclusions that came out of the meeting of the Church leaders will the leaders of the global economic system.  (Document of San Pedro Sula, Honduras, June 6th, 2003).  

Later, in March of 2003, the Fifteenth Continental Congress of Caritas and the Continental Encounter for Pastoral Social Work were held in Mexico, where the situation of continental poverty and the search for alternatives were the center of analysis.  In the same month, the presidents and executives of the Pastoral Social and Caritas of the continent met “to read the signs of the times by the light of faith.  The fruit of our common prayers and reflections during these has been the design of the following mission and vision, to guide the path of our Churches in the service of all our brothers and sisters, above all those who live in inhuman poverty and suffering, and to accompany our peoples in the transformation of reality.”  Their mission is to, “Encourage, by the light of the Gospel and the Social Doctrine of the Church and with the prominence of the poor and excluded, the process of the transformation of the reality of America’s peoples, in order to build,  in harmony with the Creation, a just, fraternal, and cooperative society which will be a sign of the Kingdom of God.”

The Pastoral Social-Caritas defined their vision: “We want a supportive, just, democratic, and pluralistic continent where the public powers are representative, transparent and participatory, so that each man and woman may live with dignity, have their basic needs satisfied, and sustainably use the resources of the creation for the common good.”  These, then, are some of the antecedents of the Seminar in San Pedro Sula.  There, the bishops, priests, members of religious orders, and lay people confirmed the “signs of death” in our continent, characterized by the “free market which acts with complete freedom.  Transnational corporations continue to grow stronger and take control over the production, trade, and services of our countries.”

The Church also reached an important conclusion: “The international financial system wants to impose a deceitful kind of integration which involves scandalous inequalities.  Multilateral organizations like the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization, are often closely connected to a political and economic strategy of domination.”  This commits the Catholic Church and Caritas to raise their prophetic voices against these organizations when they appear, as they have done in Chiapas and many other parts of the continent, to offer loans and entice cash-starved governments.  At the same time, however, they brush aside concerns over the  “loss of sovereignty and autonomy to multinational corporations.  The financial system and transnational organisms and consortia constitute serious obstacles to authentic integration, both within and between countries.”  For this reason, among others, “in a great number of countries the political parties and their directors face a severe crisis of credibility, which is itself a product of their repeated disinterest in dealing with the challenges and needs of their national majorities.”

However, in San Pedro Sula, the participants also pointed out “signs of life in the fair trade market, promoted by our communities, popular organizations, campesino and indigenous organizations, women’s associations, and social movements.”  Among those signs “the search for alternatives within a true perspective of integration and solidarity is growing stronger.  We note fair trade, economic solidarity, and barter being carried out in organized communities; research, training, and participation by many sectors of the population and the Church with respect to equitable trade, economic, and political processes; the efforts of the Episcopal Conferences and their departments of Pastoral Social Work-Caritas to develop alternatives for economic solidarity; and the struggle for the defense of resources like land and water and public services like social security, water, energy, and communications.” 

The bishops, members of religious orders, and lay people agreed to promote the leadership of the Church in its prophetic role; to educate and organize within the Church; to exchange experiences between Church groups relevant to economic solidarity; to “proclaim, as Episcopal Conferences for the Latin American Continent and the Caribbean, that the Free Trade Agreements that are being promoted have a neoliberal emphasis; to defend water and the earth, because of their connection to the ancestral cosmovision of our peoples, the universal destiny of goods, food security, our cultures, our art, and the sovereignty of our States, none of which should be negatively affected FTAs.”  Finally, they decided to “Support and initiate, from the Church and along with civil society, the development of alternative policies of fair trade that favor small producers.”

THE CHURCHES IN SOUTH AMERICA

18 months remain until the deadline that the United States has imposed on itself for the continent’s presidents to sign the FTAA.  The USA has already consolidated its market in the Caribbean and controls that region’s policies, democracies, and presidents.  Haiti is completely indebted and dependent and lacks its own army.  The Dominican Republic is dominated by the Empire; Jamaica and Puerto Rico have nothing to say, even less the other islands of the Antilles and the Caribbean.  Cuba continues to be a bastion of resistance, despite the recent assaults by the USA and the European Union, who have been trying in vain to topple the country.  In Mexico, President Vicente Fox and his government are totally inoffensive to Washington and are his principal allies.  Central America is undergoing a process of Imperial absorption through the FTAs and the unconditional support of the Bush administration by its governments. 

But farther South, things are harder for Washington.  The government of Venezuela opposes it and the situations of Peru and Ecuador are unstable.  In Uruguay the presidency is teetering.  The social, political, and economic situation in Argentina does not provide security for the investments of large corporations.  The recent presidential victories of Lula in Brazil, Néstor Kirchner in Argentina, and Nicanor Duarte in Paraguay, who affirmed on May 28^th that “the priority is to strengthen Mercosur” and that it is necessary to “think twice, three times” before joining the FTAA, lay the groundwork for a politically stronger Mercosur, which could confront the United States´ strategy. 

Because of these factors, the United States is seeking to gain a stronger position in South America and compete in the regional market with Brazil, the continent’s strongest economy.  This process can also be observed by the growing presence of the US military and the construction of new American military bases (see map at http://www.ciepac.org/images/maps/militina.jpg).   Like in the 1970s, when Washington supported military dictatorships in the region in order to advance its own interests, today the economic war is intensifying in its final stages as the continent’s society continues to mobilize against it.

Toward the end of May 2003, the US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick visited Brazil to pressure the Lula government to advance in the FTAA negotiations.  He even offered the carrot of opening the United States’ textile market.  In that way, he gave the Brazilian business sector the illusion that it would be able to compete in the US market despite the large subsidies that the Empire provides to its cotton producers.

For its part, Brazil is seeking to strengthen the region and the Common Market of the South (Mercosur), which it co-founded in 1991 along with Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay.  Brazil does not want to negotiate patents or government purchases and services within the FTAA, and opposes the deals that Washington offers to its steel industry and America’s agricultural subsidies.

In Brazil as well, Washington’s power is being faced by a committed Church.  The posture of the Brazilian bishop Demetrio Valentini, head of the Department of Pastoral Social Work, is clear: “In the face of an American continent writhing in misery and hunger, we must choose between two paths.  Is this the time of compassion or of exploitation?  The reply of the Gospel is clear: ‘Go and learn what this means: I want mercy, not sacrifices.’  I want love and solidarity, not this obscene and hypocritical FTAA.”  (Cited in “Selling the Future?” by Promoters of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of the Creation, Rome, 4/24/03.)

For their part, thousands of people from the countryside and the cities met on June 6th and 7th, 2003, in La Paz, Bolivia, for the Second National Encounter Against the FTAA.  In this meeting, they demanded that the government organize a popular referendum on the FTAA.  Unlike other bishops in the American continent that resist walking with social movements, the Church participated in this event.  The priest of the Episcopal Conference of Bolivia, Gregorio Iriarte, affirmed that, “When we speak of resistance to this mechanism, it is not because we are against integration, but because the FTAA is not integration—it is annexation and submission to the multinationals of the United States.”

The participants in this encounter defined, among their objectives and tasks, to reject the FTAA negotiations and the new round of WTO talks and to question the negotiations for the FTA with Chile because of a lack of transparency and its links to agreements that compromise that country’s water and mineral resources.  They also declared themselves in support of regaining national control over the companies and natural resources seized by transnational capital.  Furthermore, they rejected the Plan Colombia and demanded the demilitarization of Bolivia; promoted a future encounter on the topic of the country’s natural gas and fossil fuel resources; supported a campaign against the transnational company Bechtel’s compensation demand against the Bolivian government; and promoted a campaign against transgenic products, among other agreements (ALAI-AMLATINA, 6/17/2003). 

In Argentina, more than 100 representatives of churches, mainly from Latin America and the Caribbean but also from Europe, North America, Africa, and Oceania, met for the consultation “Globalizing a Full Life” in April of 2003.  The meeting was convened by the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI), and was co-sponsored by the World Council of Churches and other ecumenical organizations.

During this meeting, the participants analyzed the document “Seeking ways out ... walking forward.  The Evangelical Churches say, ‘Enough!’” developed by sociologists, economists, theologians and pastors.  In the document, the authors urge the governments of the region to unite to “have the courage and political will to not pay” the “immoral and unpayable” external debt, and to practice “economic disobedience” against the “mandates of the international financial institutions [IFIs]” because, as the document affirms, “outside of the system there is salvation.  ... Without the debt or the IMF, Latin America and the Third World could have accumulated the necessary capital to grow at the pace required by the needs of their peoples.”  The document assures that its content is the fruit of the reflection of churches that are changing from being “an insignificant minority ... [to] being a proactive minority that is motivating and facilitating changes.” 

They propose several initiatives aimed at a fusion of “the economic with the ethical and social,” including “the respect and promotion of human rights.”  One is a proposal to reform the IFIs like the IMF, the WTO, and the World Bank, to which the governor of the Mexican state of Chiapas, Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía, wants to indebt his state.  They also propose the benefits of international public institutions to regulate the capital markets and strengthen international rights; an economic integration “with a Latin American face,” who characteristics do not precisely coincide with those of the FTAA; and a new economic and social pact and new conception of the State, among others.

The document contains a theological chapter, based on the Bible, that sustains the hope that “another world is possible.”  The participants called the document “contemporary, concrete, proactive, and prophetic,” and a good reflection “of what is happening in this part of the world, in the South.”  They also proposed including in it topics like the political elites, corruption, social and military violence, migration, and the destruction of nature.  They also recommended including a gender perspective and references to other regions of the world.  This document seeks to be a tool for the negotiation work that the CLAI will carry out with the governments of the USA and Canada and the IFIs.  It is a very different work than the counterinsurgency work done by many “Protestant churches” in the indigenous communities of Mesoamerica.

For sources and more information, see: http://alainet.org/listas/info/alai-amlatina; www.noalca.org; www.bolpress.com.

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