Replace the Failed NAFTA Model!
[The Nicaragua Network joins Witness for Peace, the Stop CAFTA Coalition and other groups in sponsoring this day of action. For more information, visit here.]
Join us in calling for trade justice between now and October 12: Host a movie night, do some street theater, or join a demonstration.
Jobs erased, farmers displaced.
Environment polluted, democracy diluted.
NAFTA has now been in effect for 15 years–15 years too many.
People throughout the Americas, including a proven majority of U.S. citizens, reject the destructive model of the North America Free Trade Agreement. Yet, it continues to profit the few at the expense of the many. On October 12–Indigenous Peoples Day–WFP will join social movements across the hemisphere in launching coordinated, eye-catching actions to call for this failed model to be replaced with trade that actually benefits the majority. (More background below) Download the October 12 flyer and packet overview.
Join us! Here’s how:
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[The Nicaragua Network joins with Jubilee USA Network, Africa Action and Transafrica in the campaign to stop vulture funds. We urge you to ask your Representative to co-sponsor this bill.]
On June 18th, Representative Maxine Waters introduced the Stop VULTURE Funds Act (H.R. 2932), a bill in the House of Representatives that would prevent vulture funds from making this excessive profit at the expense of poor countries. (Click here to see the current list of cosponsors.)
‘Vulture fund’ is a name given to a company that seeks to make profit by buying up debt in default on the secondary market for pennies on the dollar, then trying to recover up to ten times the purchase price, often by suing impoverished countries in U.S. or European courts.
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Protest against DR-CAFTA in Dec. 2003.
Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Michael Michaud (D-ME) have written a trade bill that, if passed, could begin the massive overhaul needed in our trade model. It was introduced on June 25 in the House of Representatives by Rep. Michaud. Many articles in the bill answer our concerns about the impact of DR-CAFTA on the poor majorities in Central America. There would still remain work to be done to tear down the current model and build a better one, but it’s a serious beginning! The TRADE Act would apply to all future agreements but would also mandate a reopening of NAFTA, CAFTA and other trade agreements to put them into compliance with the act.
The Nicaragua Network recommends that you urge your Representative to support it!
Here’s how the TRADE Act measures up to the Pledge for Trade Justice put out by the Stop CAFTA Coalition, of which the Nicaragua Network is a member:
Read more.
News Flash!
On March 11 the board of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, headed by Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, decided to continue the current suspension of aid to Nicaragua under the MCC and reevaluate again in June. Acting MCC Chief Executive Officer Rodney Bent said, “The government of Nicaragua has failed to reaffirm its commitment to democratic principles and practices since [the aid] suspension in December.” The MCC called on the government of Nicaragua to address what officials alleged were “credible allegations of fraud during the November 2008 municipal elections.” The MCC left suspended assistance for all new activities not yet under contract while continuing assistance for a rural business development project benefiting small and medium agriculture-related enterprises, including some 30,000 people in rural areas. Government economic advisor Bayardo Arce, in commenting on the decision, considered it “positive.”
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[The Nicaragua Network received the following letter from the Jubilee USA Network (of which we are a member) to be forwarded to our supporters. For more information, visit the Jubilee web page.]
Dear Nicaragua Network,
Last night Timothy Geithner officially became our new Treasury Secretary when the Senate confirmed his appointment. This position has gained new prominence as the global financial crisis deepens. In addition to leading our nation’s economic recovery, Secretary Geithner is also charged with shaping our country’s international economic policies.
Urge Secretary Geithner to support debt cancellation and other policies that alleviate the impact of the economic crisis on poor people in developing countries! Click here to find out how to tell our new Treasury Secretary “What’s on your Heart?”
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Español abajo
For Immediate Release
Jan. 5, 2009
Contact: Chuck Kaufman
202-544-9355 o); 202-256-8032 cell)
Nicaragua Network Asks Europe Not to Cut Aid to Nicaragua
The US-based Nicaragua Network has joined the Grupo Sur of European non-governmental organizations to plead with the European Union and Nicaragua donor countries not to cut or suspend their aid to Nicaragua based on concerns about fraud during the Nov. 9 municipal elections in Nicaragua. “Cuts or suspension of aid is collective punishment that will only hurt the poor in Nicaragua,” said Chuck Kaufman, Nicaragua Network national co-coordinator. The Nicaragua Network is a US grassroots network of local committees that has worked for three decades to improve US-Nicaragua relations and to support social and economic justice in the Western Hemisphere’s second poorest country.
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Groups Who Opposed Central America Agreement Plan to Call for Suspension
under Obama Administration
DECEMBER 4, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Katherine Hoyt, Nicaragua Network, (619) 423-2909
WASHINGTON, December 4. Members of the Stop CAFTA Coalition, along with allies in Central America and the Dominican Republic, have compiled a report that describes the trends and impacts of the first three years of the U.S.-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA). The report, titled “DR-CAFTA: Effects and Alternatives” is the third in a series of reports by the Stop CAFTA Coalition; the first was published in September 2006 and the second in September 2007. The latest report can be downloaded directly here. All three reports can be found at www.stopcafta.org. For the report in Spanish, click here.
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To read the second monitoring report from the Stop CAFTA Coalition, click here!
By Katherine Hoyt
[Katherine Hoyt is National Co-Coordinator of the Nicaragua Network in Washington, DC. She traveled to Costa Rica representing the Stop CAFTA Coalition. She can be reached at nicanet@afgj.org. ]
Costa Ricans voted on Oct. 7 in a referendum on whether their country should sign on to the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) and the forces of the “No” came within three percentage points of defeating the agreement overcoming in mere weeks what had been a 30 point lead for the “Yes” forces. It was U.S. intervention on Oct. 6, when all statements in Costa Rica for or against the agreement were banned, that may have turned the tide. White House spokesperson Dana Perino said that if Costa Ricans rejected CAFTA, the United States would not renegotiate the agreement. The White House urged Costa Ricans to recognize the benefits of the agreement. Even though all campaigning was supposed to have stopped on Thursday, Oct. 4th, Costa Rican newspapers and other media published the U.S. statements.
Stop CAFTA Coalition issues report on CAFTA’s impact
Representing the U.S.-based Stop CAFTA Coalition, Emily Gaggia, an activist with the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) in Seattle, and I traveled to San Jose, Costa Rica on Sept, 27 to release the Coalition’s second monitoring report on CAFTA at a press conference the next day. A larger group from the Coalition arrived in San Jose on Oct. 3 and observed the voting.
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Women protest CAFTA at massive rally in San Jose, Costa Rica, in Sept. 2007. Photo: Kathy Hoyt
The process of negotiating, ratifying, and implementing so-called “free” trade agreements like the DR-CAFTA is out of control, and the time has come to say “enough is enough!” Congress and all elected officials must demand a new approach and should be required to make their positions on trade clear and unambiguous so that people in the United States will know where they stand. With the Pledge for Trade Justice, we are demanding that our public officials start working toward a more just and equitable system. And there is an alternative. Let’s press this administration and future ones for just agreements that support sustainable development goals and equity for all.
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September 12, 2006
Washington DC, September 12, 2006: Members of Congress, solidarity organizations, leaders of the DC-area Salvadoran community, and student and faith-based groups held a press conference to announce the release of a report monitoring the effects of the US-Dominican Republic Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA). Representative Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) appeared and made a statement challenging the Bush administration’s current trade policy.
The 45-page monitoring report “DR-CAFTA in Year One” details the problems that have thus far been encountered during the implementation of CAFTA, as well as trends that are emerging related to textiles, agriculture, labor and other issues that were at the center of the CAFTA debate. According to the executive summary of the report: “The US Trade Representative has insisted on new concessions from Central American counterparts that go beyond items negotiated during CAFTA discussions”, while “the process of rolling implementation has had negative consequences for the region and for the United States.”
Many of the grassroots groups are members of the Stop CAFTA Coalition and the Alliance for Responsible Trade, which were active in 2004 and 2005 in raising awareness about the effects of “free” trade during the debate over CAFTA in the US Congress. Said Katherine Hoyt of the Nicaragua Network, “There has been no improvement of the human rights situation in Central America under CAFTA. Indeed, there is evidence that CAFTA and other neo-liberal reforms are increasing social conflicts and, in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, the state is responding with increased violence.”
Click here for the full report.
