Enlaces News #7 (May 2004)

CAFTA Signed But Not Ratified: Central American Immigrants Continue to Press for Better Regional Integration Policies

The Central American Free Trade Agreement was officially signed by representatives from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the U.S. on May 28th 2004 but organizations representing central Americans living in Boston, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York, have been laying the ground work to advocate against the agreement’s ratification for several months in anticipation that negotiations would reach this final phase.

The CAFTA negotiations began in January 2003 and concluded a break-neck nine negotiating rounds in December. During the negotiations and after the accord was made public in late January of 2004, Central American immigrant organizations have organized a number of workshops and discussions educate constituents about the agreement’s potential repercussions. Central American immigrants represent the largest investors in their countries of origin and have a lot at stake in regional development. Their largest concern is that CAFTA will have a negative impact on small national economies that continue to be heavily dependent on subsistence agriculture and cause rural poverty to increase as happened in the case of NAFTA in Mexico. Immigrant community leaders fear that CAFTA will serve as catalyst for greater out-migration from Central American countries.

On May 5, 2004, Enlaces América convened a one-day conference with immigrant leaders in Washington, DC »»p. 4 to discuss recent CAFTA developments. These Central American immigrant-led organizations have approached the CAFTA issue using a variety of tactics including holding community education workshops related to trade agreements, alliance building, letter campaigns, and policy maker education. Some groups even have had opportunities to make their case directly to government officials from their countries of origin.

Central American Immigrant Leaders on CAFTA
Centro Presente in Boston has taken a strong leadership on promoting fair and sustainable trade policies. Centro Presente offers a wide array of services to the Latino immigrant community including legal assistance, after-school care, arts programs, citizenship training and English as a Second Language classes. Founded and run by Latino Immigrants, Centro Presente has organized a series of staff training events aimed at making all Centro Presente staff literate and knowledgeable about trade agreements and their potential environmental and economic impacts. Centro Presente’s director, Elena Letona, has become recognized as a regional expert on trade agreements and has participated in numerous events and press conferences to comment on immigrant groups’ interest in these issues.

The Black Central Americans Organization, known by its acronym in Spanish as ONECA is a network of community-based groups throughout the East Coast who represent and support “Garífuna” (African-origin) Central American immigrants. Garífuna communities are found on the Atlantic coasts of Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Belize. Both in the US and in their countries of origin, Garífuna communities are often marginalized. Poverty levels in Garífuna communities in Central America are among the worst in the region. Recently, ONECA works on a range of broad issues and has been working to protect a traditional fishery from pollution and related environmental degradation from a new tourism development in Honduras. ONECA is using this experience as a tool to educate its members on the issues related to trade, community land-use regulation, and environmental protection. Driven by a strong bi-national focus, ONECA has also become an active participant in the informal network of organizations working on CAFTA. It has held informational seminars for its members on CAFTA and has participated in several meetings with legislators from New York to educate them on the concerns of the immigrant community.

The Guatemalan Unity Information Agency (GUIA) located in Miami Florida, faces an additional set of challenges in raising questions about trade agreements because Miami is being positioned by trade negotiators and government officials as a key port of entry and export in the larger scheme of regional trade agreements. Miami may also become the host city to the Free Trade area of the Americas. GUIA has played an important role in organizing educational sessions in the Central American community in Florida and has also engaged in dialogue on CAFTA with other organizations, including local chambers of commerce.

CRECEN, a community-based agency that provides legal assistance and citizenship training to Latin American immigrants, co-sponsored a series of events during the 8th round of CAFTA negotiations in Houston, aimed at increasing understanding and awareness among Central American immigrants about trade policy. CRECEN organized a well-attended series of evening education seminars during the two weeks prior to the Houston negotiating round. During the negotiations, Enlaces and CRECEN co-hosted a community education forum where a diverse set of panelists including a Costa Rican trade negotiator, representatives of Guatemalan University professionals, and representatives of Salvadoran and Guatemalan immigrant organizations led an informed debate about the potential impacts of CAFTA with a group of about 100 community members.

Together these community groups raise serious concerns about the lack of transparency and meaningful opportunities for participation in the CAFTA negotiations and the impact of trade liberalization that began to take hold throughout the 1990’s. The groups emphasize that they don’t oppose trade and integration agreements on ideological grounds. Rather, they would like to see a fresh approach to integration that prioritizes human and community well being. ¦