Honduras near ’failed state’ status due to free trade agreement, says labor and Latino leaders

[Judi Lynn]

Honduras near ’failed state’ status due to free trade agreement, says labor and Latino leaders
posted 21-October-2014

Latin Post | 21 October 2014 Honduras near ’failed state’ status due to free trade agreement, says labor and latino leaders
By Michael Oleaga ([e-mail])

Representatives from national Latino and labor organizations described the situation one of the Central American countries as "unbearable," and natives continue to migrate north into Mexico and the United States.

Communication Workers of America (CWA) President Larry Cohen, American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) Executive Vice President Tefere Gebre and National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) Executive Director Pablo Alvarado were among a group of individuals visiting Honduras Oct. 12-15 to meet with Honduras on how the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) benefited the country. Alvarado, Cohen and Gebre agreed Honduras has not seen improvements from the agreement, which was implemented 10 years ago.

The CAFTA-DR agreement has been regarded as the first free trade agreement between the U.S. and the smaller developing economies of Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. According to the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), the agreement would create "new economic opportunities by eliminating tariffs, opening markets, reducing barriers to services, and promoting transparency."

Cohen acknowledged the representatives of the national labor and Latino organization met with Honduras’ elected officials, workers and union leaders and even deportees deported from Mexico and the U.S. Alvarado noted the Mexican government has become "more aggressive" on deportation policy than the U.S. with two to three buses per day arriving to Honduras filled with women and children. Cohen said CAFTA-DR has had a negative impact on Honduran farmers and resulted in displaced workers, "total break down of public services" and "forced migration" of youth, while the U.S. spends billions to deport "hundreds" back to the Central American country in shackles.

According to the CWA president, Hondurans, ranging from peasant farmer, factory worker, unemployed, searching for a job, unionist, elected official or an immigration leader, the "total breakdown of this trade regime" is evident and the lack of any progress that cannot be measured. "No one had anything good to say about CAFTA," Cohen said.

More:
http://www.bilaterals.org/?honduras-near-failed-state-status#sthash.pj44NRpL.dpuf

[freshwest]

1. We need to see more names of the leaders of those LA nations who signed onto these crappy things.

I suspect they are the same kind of oligarchs that came in with colonialism. They have done the dirty work on the ground there.

My Anglo Ex-husband spent a summer with his family far down into Mexico in the sixties to meet his sister's husband, a wealthy land owner. The young man was a student at a university in the USA. I met him and his brother and they seemed to be very modern, etc.

But my Ex having gone to Mexico, was freaked by what was accepted back at home by the same people. This was long before the trade agreements, but after UFC. He described the visit to the family who were very nice to him, as something out of another time and place.

They had the big hacienda with servants, large fields with cattle, corn fields and pasture, and sent water from their swimming pool to irrigate. They had walls around the property with men with guns ready to shoot poor natives who dared to steal corn.

He was shocked but was pretty young and didn't know what to say. It gave him a view of life before the border he'd never seen before and he thought it was absolutely horrible.

Since then I've talked to others who lived down there. I suspect the people who would do that in the sixties were the same kind who would have done that centuries ago.

They have not changed their feudalistic views that they are entitled to exploit those with more native blood. The power structure once called aristocracy became the corporations that rule the country. They have fought back all of the reforms that were enacted over decades in the last century to reform.

Same groups, different names for the same thing. These entrenched groups don't get any press but they have influence. I don't see that going away and I don't see how it's going to be overcome.

But the unions have done an excellent job of taking the facts to the American public, now to see if it will translate into votes to keep our country from going the same way.

[djean111]

2. Coming soon to us.

Investor states will replace sovereign states.
And I am afraid some here at DU will defend crap like the TPP - just because of who authored and/or pushes for it.