LatAm Notables against CAFTA-DR

Mexico, Oct 5 2007 (Prensa Latina) — Renowned Latin American figures have expressed their solidarity with the Costa Rican people, who are expected to go to the polls Sunday to decide in a referendum whether their country signs a free trade agreement with the US.

Mexican journalist Carlos Fazio rejected what he termed a "referendum of fear," as he signed a Manifesto of Latin American Intellectuals against CAFTA released in Mexico Friday to denounce this attempt of agreement with the United States by Costa Rican authorities.

"Resistance against CAFTA in Costa Rica shows and represents the struggles of the last few years in several Latin American countries besieged by neoliberalism and "free" market.

Meanwhile in La Paz, Bolivian filmmaker Jorge Sanjines, a founder of the New Latin American Cinema, supported the Patriotic Movement of Costa Rica, which opposes the free trade agreement with the US and identified with a manifesto of the Mexican Chapter of the Network of Intellectuals and Artists in Defense of Mankind, created October 2003, in support of Costa Rica.

Chilean writer and journalist Manuel Cabieses also expressed his solidarity with the Costa Rican people, as "we, Chileans, know very well about the destructive effects of FTA on economic development and understand the fight of the Costa Rican people against this accord." The free trade agreement with the US has put us back into colonial times. We rely on foreign industrial products and trinkets and are exporters of raw materials without added value, noted Cabieses, who is the editor of Punto Final magazine.

He signed the document "Latin American Intellectuals against CAFTA," released by the Mexican Chapter of Network of Intellectuals and Artists in Defense of Mankind.

In Nicaragua, renowned singer-songwriter Carlos Mejia Godoy advised Costa Ricans to vote against CAFTA-DR in the referendum on Sunday.

"I think all those who want real liberation of our peoples must oppose this threat," he stressed, as he joined other Latin American figures in signing the manifesto which warns Costa Ricans of the disastrous consequences of the trade pact with Washington.