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Peruvians Go on Strike as Prez Garcia Abuses FTA Implementation Powers to Facilitate Amazon Destruction by Oil and Mining Interests
For two years, Global Justice for Animals and the Environment waged a lonely battle to stop the passage of the Peru Free Trade Agreement. What would have been a difficult battle under the best of circumstances was made an impossible fight when we were abandoned or outright betrayed by many of our “allies” at major humane and environmental groups.
After environmental bells and whistles were added to the Peru Free Trade Agreement in its revised form in the Spring of 2007, Friends of the Earth, the Center for International Environmental Law, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Sierra Club essentially gave it a pass.
Even worse, Humane Society International and the Humane Society of the United States testified before Congress in support of the agreement and filed a statement in support of it with the Trade and Environment Policy Advisory Council even before these meager changes were added. After the changes, they had the gall to tout the improvements, despite the fact that if the rest of the green and humane communities had fallen in line when the Humane Society did, there would have been no impetus to make those changes.
Perhaps they were hoping to be rewarded with another six-figure grant by the Bush Administration’s US Agency for International Development, as they were by US AID when they were the only green or humane group to support the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement.
As of June of 2008, it’s become abundantly clear that bigger doesn’t mean smarter. The eco-humane giants were wrong, and we were right. President Garcia is abusing the special privileges given to him to facilitate implementation of the Peru FTA to unilaterally implement unrelated anti-environmental laws--
Read more about it at Public Citizen highly informative blog, Eyes on Trade.
NAFTA Peru Expansion Didn't Solve Peruvian Forestry Problems
Here’s a follow-up article, with information on the strike:
Peruvians Strike Against Familiar Bedfellows Autocracy and FTAs
Thankfully, not every big group supported the Peru FTA—organizations like PETA, Farm Sanctuary, Greenpeace, ForestEthics, and Amazon Watch deserve our thanks for taking a stand against this terrible trade deal.
- Urge your Senators and Representatives to support the Fair Trade for All Act of 2007, which would repeal the Peru Free Trade Agreement, in light of President Garcia’s misuse of the agreement to undermine democracy and environmental protections. Urge them to oppose free trade agreements with Panama, Colombia, and South Korea to avoid further environmental har,. You can find their names and contact information here. - Urge the animal and enviro groups who failed to oppose the Peru FTA to not make the same mistake with Panama and to fiercely oppose this free trade agreement Carl Pope, Executive Director, The Sierra Club, 85 Second Street, 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105 Daniel B. Magraw, Jr., Center for International Environmental Law, 1350 Connecticut Avenue, NW Suite #1100 Washington, DC 20036 Phone: (202) 785-8700 Rodger Schlickeisen, President, Defenders of Wildlife, 1130 17th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036 Wayne Pacelle, CEO, Humane Society of the United States, 2100 L Street, NW, Washington, DC 20037 (202) 452-1100 wpacelle@hsus.org |
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Global Justice for Animals and the Environment is a project of: Wetlands Activism Collective Phone: (718) 218-4523 Fax: (501) 633-34761 activism @ wetlands-preserve.org |