Salvadorans resist trade reforms
Salvadorans resist trade reforms, water privatization
CISPES
2006-09-15
Wednesday, September 13 2006 (CISPES) - The Salvadoran Market Vendors Movement (Movimiento de Vendedores de CD-DVD y Otros Productos de Marcas) held peaceful protests yesterday morning to denounce police confiscation and repression. Over the last three weeks, the National Civilian Police (PNC) have stepped up confiscations of the street vendors’ products and roundups of vendors, despite agreements to suspend these actions until a viable solution to the crisis in the informal sector was reached.
The PNC claims that vendors are involved in child pornography and extortion, an allegation that the Movement categorically denies.
The work of market vendors were criminalized last December when the right wing in the Legislative Assembly, pressured by the U.S. Trade Representative, pushed through dozens of reforms to bring El Salvador into compliance with the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).
“We defend the work and food of 60,000 people that are able to live from this activity. The Government defends the interests of a couple of transnational corporations,” said Martin Montoya, leader of the Movement, at yesterday’s downtown street protest. “The government’s negotiation is a farce; they don’t want to talk about real solutions,” he added.
The Salvadoran government has attempted to divide the movement by sponsoring a parallel Association of Vendors. This Association also took to the streets yesterday afternoon, but their protest ended in the burning of a bus. The Movement denounced this today as a tactic to de-legitimize its peaceful protest.
In Washington D.C., CISPES Executive Director Burke Stansbury praised the Salvadoran vendors’ struggle during a press conference about CAFTA implementation on Tuesday. “Thousands of poor people are being denied their right to make a living in the informal sector because of the implementation of CAFTA. This is one of the reasons that we opposed the ratification of the agreement and continue to challenge its implementation.”
The full monitoring report “DR-CAFTA in Year One” is available at http://www.cispes.org/cafta/CAFTA_M...
