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From: Anahuak Home <redanahuak@...>
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 23:16:41 -0600
To: HealingNorthSouth <hns@egroups.com>
Subject: Plan Puebla Panama English / Local Needs or Corporate Greed?

PLAN PUEBLA PANAMA

Local Needs or Corporate Greed?

By Mexico Solidarity Network
http://www.mexicosolidarity.org/plan_puebla_panama.html

Plan Puebla Panama has been touted as the development centerpiece of Mexican
President Vicente Foxs administration. According to plan supporters, PPP
would bring development to Southern Mexico and Central America by opening
the region to foreign corporate investment. In the most general terms, PPP
consists of an elaborate plan of hundreds of projects and investments
throughout the American isthmus. But whats the deal? Whats this all about?

WHERE IS IT GOING TO BE? The American Isthmus, the narrowest part of the
Americas, includes nine southern Mexican states (Puebla, Veracruz, Oaxaca,
Chiapas, Guerrero, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatn and Quintana Roo) and seven
Central American countries (Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras,
Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panam). This area is characterized by the quantity
and diversity of its natural resources (iron, titanium, petroleum, high
quality soil, water, etc.) and its high level of biodiversity, representing
10% of the worlds flora in a relatively small land mass. Moreover, this area
occupies an important geo-strategic position, linking North and South
America, and connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Its position is key
for a strategic commercial route, linking 21st century commodity production
in Pacific Rim with markets in eastern North America and Europe.

WHAT WOULD PLAN PUEBLA PANAMA LOOK LIKE? PPP would transform the region into
a transportation corridor and processing center for commodities that are
produced in South America and the Pacific Rim, and consumed in North America
and Western Europe in other words, development for corporate interests, not
local needs. In order to become the intestines of this complex global
corporate system, PPP would develop a complex set of infrastructures in the
American Isthmus: Construction of a wide-ranging system linking the
different parts of the isthmus through highways, deep-water ports, airports
and railways. This would result in massive displacement for the local
(largely indigenous) populations. Implementation of a new energy network for
the transport of electricity, gas and petroleum, allowing exploitation of
the regions energy resources and raw materials (uranium, minerals, water,
etc.). The exploitation of these resources is for export and foreign
commerce, thus benefiting primarily large multinational companies.
Installation of a government-subsidized system of maquiladoras for export
production. Their main purpose is the final assembly of consumer products
using imported commodities from the Pacific Rim. The conditions in these
sweatshops would likely duplicate the horrible conditions in the north of
Mexico Sales of dumping grounds for industrial waste, large dams, and
industrial-scale plantations (eucalyptus, African palm, shrimp farms and
more). None of these products would be for local consumption.

SO WHO BENEFITS AND WHO LOSES? PPP is presented officially as a plan for
economic development and integration. In reality, PPP would create a
strategic economic zone for the globalized capitalist system. It represents
a giant step in the process of expanding NAFTA to the rest of the hemisphere
by solidifying conditions for the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas
in Central America. The plan tries to satisfy the commercial, industrial,
and infrastructure needs of corporate-centered globalization.

Winners: Multi-national corporations would be the primary beneficiaries of
PPP, which is based on the production-for-export model. Corporations would
have easy access to abundant natural resources and cheap labor, with no
trade restrictions, low taxes, and no environmental standards. International
Financial Institutions like the Inter-American Development Bank, the World
Bank and the International Monetary Fund will provide the start-up capital.

Losers: PPP would produce sweatshops and environmental disaster. Small
farmers and indigenous communities will face lower prices for their crops
and displacement from traditional lands, forcing them to join the industrial
workforce and search for jobs in maquiladoras or migrate to the cities or
the US in search of employment. This proletarianization of the workforce
leads to a race to the bottom as more and more people compete for limited
industrial employment.

WHAT CAN PEOPLE DO? As corporations win new legal protections to ease the
flow of goods, services and money across international borders, working
people have less democracy, less control of their lives and lower standards
of living. Join a campaign for globalization from below through the
international campaign against Plan Puebla Panama. A US-based coalition to
oppose PPP and support community-based development in the American Isthmus
is in the process of formation. In close consultation with sister
organizations in the Isthmus, the coalition is developing action and
education strategies. For more information, contact: Mexico Solidarity
Network, e-mail: msn@... or phone: 773-583-7728

MSN MAIN CONTACT:
Mesoamerica Resiste

PPP info. links
English:
Labor Notes PPP Article
National Radio Project
Bank Information Center PPP page
Political Declaration of the III Mesoamerican Forum
Spanish:
PPP Analysis from Coordinadora de los Altos de Chiapas
Declaration of Tapachula
Analysis of PPP from RMALC (Mexican Free Trade Network)
Declaration of Civil Society from Managua Forum on PPP

For more information,
contact the Network at msn@...,
or contact our offices. 4834 N. Springfield
Chicago, IL 60625
773-583-7728
2017 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415/621-8100
1247 E St., SE
Washington, DC 20003
202-544-9355

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