The Mesoamerican Movement for Popular Integration Against the Plan Puebla Panama (PPP)
Between the 16th and 18th of July 2002 in the city of Managua, Nicaragua more than 1000 delegates from over 350 organizations in Mesoamerica and others met and analyzed the effects of the megaplans of the PPP, FTAA, and other free-trade agreements. The Forum also explored the results of neoliberal-corporate-globalization and structural adjustment programs imposed by the International Financial Institutions led by the World Bank, the Interamerican Development Bank, and the International Monetary Fund.

We identified that the primary challenge facing popular organizations in their work to propose and formulate alternatives is the domination of the capitalist system in its political, economic, social and cultural forms. As such, we totally reject it, including the payment of the external debt.

Furthermore, we detected the increase of militarization in all of Latin America by the government of the United States. In response, we denounce and demand an end to this and the immediate departure of U.S. troops from our lands.

The different working tables concluded with a total rejection of the Plan Puebla Panama, the FTAA, and free-trade agreements, since they have nothing to do with the sustainable development of our peoples, compromise biodiversity, deepen poverty, and generate greater debt. As a consequence, we state that the nature of the PPP is not negotiable under any circumstances and we promote non-participation in the consulting process promoted by organizations involved in its formulation and application.

Additionally, we recognize the resolutions made at the campesino, maquila and hydroelectric dam's forums that have been held in Mesoamerica and we adopt and integrate these resolutions as part of the agreements of this III Foro Mesoamericano.
Among the most important political agreements the following are highlights:

Food security is an urgent need for our peoples, as such so is the intense struggle to stop the advancement of transgenic seeds to safeguard the biological resources of the Mesoamerican Corridor. We struggle for an economic model that does not depend on agroexport as the principal means to sustain ourselves, but rather the development of economies where campesinos are the principle actors and beneficiaries.

Local and popular development, the strengthening of regional and municipal autonomy, and the rights of indigenous peoples to their territorial lands were other central themes of the event. For the participants, the construction of local popular power is a necessity for the strengthening of democracy in our countries.

Neoliberalism has denied us the possibility of having work, and when employment does appear it violates our fundamental human rights, especially in the case of women exploited by maquilas. The education, health, and culture we are left with are limited to the development of the basic abilities needed to serve the existing system. Information is restricted so that we do not know our rights with the goal of converting us into passive consumers. We emphasize the violation of the most fundamental rights suffered by migrants, young people, women, children, and the elderly.

We want to make visible the experiences of our struggle and work to build an alternative economic model based on the popular economy and on the experience of sectors such as campesinos, indigenous and Garifuna peoples, workers, and business cooperatives.

It was expressed in different ways the support for popular organized resistance that, in different countries, communities are conducting to put an end to the privatization of basic services contemplated in megaplans and free-trade agreements. The workers of Costa Rica deserve special mention for their memorable protests, which stopped the privatization of the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity. Additionally, we recognized the uprising in San Salvador de Atenco defeating a plan to construct an airport on ancestral lands. In the same way, the forum expressed its support for the occupation of 50 farms in Guatemala for the sacred right to land. Furthermore, the forum expressed its support for the Zapatista resistance and its legitimate demand for autonomy. Also, we condemn the U.S. sanctions against the Cuban people.

We call for mobilizations on October 12 to demonstrate our complete rejection of the PPP and the FTAA making these mobilizations coincide with distinct forms of struggle on this day of Mesoamerican resistance.
With all this in mind, we reaffirm our categorical opposition to the PPP and restate our aspiration to construct a social and popular economy, without policies imposed by financial organizations that subordinate our peoples and convert us into slaves of free trade.

We reiterate our readiness to resist using all forms of social mobilization within our reach, always carrying in front of us our flags of dignity and national sovereignty; all within a framework to integrate solidarity placing our people as the principle protagonists.