FOUNDING STATEMENT

Dear Compañeras y Compañeros,

We jointly offer our solidarity in opposing the Plan Puebla Panama (PPP) and in constructing democratic and just alternatives for Mexico and Central America. We continue to look to partner organizations in Mexico and Central America for guidance in defining future roles for the undersigned organizations to take in the struggle against the PPP.

We collectively see the PPP, Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and the Central American Free Trade Agreements (CAFTA) as a package of corporate globalization projects for Latin America that are destructive to community-based initiatives for economic, social and environmental justice.

At an October 1, 2001 meeting in Washington D.C. Mexico Solidarity Network, CISPES, Campaign for Labor Rights, Nicaragua Network, ACERCA, EPICA, NISGUA, Global Exchange, Center for Health Environment and Justice, Committee for Indigenous Solidarity (DC), and Rights Action, later joined by IDEX and the Social Justice Committee of Montreal, identified the following possible strategies to support the struggle against the Plan Puebla Panama:

• A broad-based education campaign on PPP targeted at US constituencies
• The development of popular education material in English and Spanish.
• Mobilization of US constituencies to lobby congressional representatives
on related PPP issues.
• Research on International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and corporations involved
in PPP investment or policy decisions.
• Development of campaigns focused on International Financial Institutions or corporations
• Development of sister city or sister parish relationships amongst grassroots, labor, environmental and indigenous organizations that support community-based
economic initiatives and/or defend targeted communities in Central America
and Mexico.

Additionally, Participants identified several areas of emphasis for US-based solidarity work:

• Identify and support important previous and ongoing PPP work.
• Promote mutual information and education exchange (between North and
South)
• Support voices of organizations representing targeted communities
struggling to establish economic social and cultural autonomy and
self-determination.
• Draw links between the globalizing policies of the promoters of PPP and
their potential effects on targeted communities in US and Mexico and Central
America.
• Support the capacity building efforts of Central American and
Mexican-based community organizations.
• Strengthen North-South, North-North and, if possible, South-South
organizational relationships.
Furthermore, on November 24, 2001 in Xelaju, Guatemala, over 800 participants representing 300 social and environmental organizations from all over the world declared (in part):

“…For the men and women present at the Xelaju Forum, the PPP is a ready-made geopolitical project to build, in Mesoamerica, an area of services and infrastructure, designed according to the logic of trans-national corporations, national oligarchy groups and international financial institutions. The central axes of this project are, a services infrastructure for the export of goods, and the exploitation of our natural resources, our bio-diversity and the labour of our peoples. The PPP does not respond in any way to the social logic of the Mesoamerican people and their communities…
In addition to that, the conception and building of the PPP has been anti-democratic, to the point at which the Central American governments approved a design prepared by the Mexican government, acting as an intermediary for the US government. Whichever way it is analyzed, it is a project that goes against the sovereignty of our countries and the self-determination of peoples. On another level, it is a project that does not take into consideration the rights of workers or migrant workers, and it generates repressive policies towards them…
In the 2001 Xelaju Forum, we agreed that the social process that rejects free trade and imposed globalization requires the development of a larger number of social alliances among popular and social organizations and NGOs. to advance specific actions about concrete themes.

Therefore, the organizations and peoples present at Xelaju 2001 agree:
1. To reject totally the Plan Puebla Panama.
2. To increase our efforts to systematize the experiences and alternatives, of community and regional development which are equitable, with justice and sustainability; as opposed to the authoritarian and anti-democratic projects, results of globalization and the PPP.
3. To produce an information campaign for the people and local authorities, about the PPP and its effects. We also reject the FTAA because it goes against the independent development of our peoples.
4. To promote the establishment of a network of Mesoamerican peoples and organizations to oppose globalization and the PPP.
5. To develop a plan of coordinated mobilization, at the local, national, and regional levels, in relation to our demands.
6. To convoke the organizations and peoples of the Mesoamerican region to prepare and participate in the Third International Forum, that will take place in Nicaragua in 2002.
7. The participants in the 2001 Xelaju Forum condemn all forms of militarization in the Mesoamerican region, and we express our categorical rejection of the Plan Colombia and we favour an advance of the peace process in that country.
8. The Xelaju Forum ratifies its support of the Hemispheric Social Alliance and the World Social Forum, and we feel part of them.
9. The 2001 Xelaju Forum expresses its solidarity with the struggle of all the peoples against the imposition of globalization.”

We support and offer the above suggestions as possible ways in which organizations can join the international struggle against the PPP and for democratic alternatives. Again, we look to southern partners for guidance in defining roles for groups to take in the struggle against the PPP. In this network we look forward to sharing information, experiences , opportunity to support each others initiatives and collaborate respectfully as we struggle to build a better world.

Compañeras y Compañeros,

Saludos solidarios de la Red de Solidaridad con México, el Comité de Solidaridad con el Pueblo Salvadoreño (CISPES), la Campaña por los Derechos Laborales, la Red de Nicaragua, Acción para las Comunidad y la Ecología de Centro América (ACERCA), Rights Action, EPICA, NISGUA, Global Exchange, el Centro por la Salud el Medioambiente y la Justicia (CHEJ), el Comité de Solidaridad Indígena (Washington DC), y el Comité por la Justicia Social y IDEX. Unidamente ofrecemos nuestra solidaridad en la oposición al Plan Puebla Panamá y en la construcción de alternativas democráticas y justas en México y América Central. Consideramos la reunión histórica a llevarse a cabo en Xela como nuestra guía para definir el papel y la función futura que desempeñaran los grupos de Estados Unidos y Canadá en la lucha contra el PPP.

La coalición con base en Estados Unidos y Canadá se formó el 1 de Octubre del 2001, cuando 25 organizaciones se reunieron en Washington DC para coordinar esfuerzos solidarios con las organizaciones de Centro América y de México
que representan comunidades en contra del PPP y que apoyan las iniciativas de dichas comunidades en su búsqueda por la justicia económica, social y ambiental.

La reunión trato varios aspectos relacionados al PPP, incluyendo:

• Breves presentaciones sobre los posibles efectos del PPP en los pequeños campesinos, pueblos indígenas y el medio ambiente.
• Una sesión de estrategia para analizar las contribuciones que una coalición basada en Estados Unidos y Canadá podría aportar para luchar en contra del PPP
• Identificación de seis áreas iniciales principales que guiarían el trabajo de la coalición.

Identificamos las siguientes posibles estrategias:

• Una campaña educativa a nivel general sobre el PPP dirigida a audiencias críticas del pueblo estadounidense y canadiense.
• Desarrollo de material educativo popular en inglés y en español.
• Movilización de los sectores concientizados de la sociedad estadounidense y canadiense para cabildear a los representantes de sus respectivos gobiernos sobre temas relacionados con el PPP.
• Investigación de las Instituciones Financieras Internacionales (IFIs) y de las corporaciones implicadas en la inversión o en las políticas de decisión sobre el PPP.
• Desarrollo de campañas centradas en las IFIs o en las corporaciones involucradas.
• Desarrollo de una relación de ciudad hermana o parroquia hermana entre organizaciones de base, sindicales, ecologistas e indígenas que apoyen las iniciativas económicas de comunidades de base y/o defiendan a comunidades directamente afectadas por el PPP en América Central, México, Canadá y los Estados Unidos.

Los participantes identificaron varias áreas principales para desarrollar un
trabajo de solidaridad desde los Estados Unidos y el Canadá:

• Identificar y apoyar el importante trabajo previo y actual que se esta realizando sobre la lucha contra el PPP.
• Promover información mutua e intercambio educativo (entre Norte y Sur)
• Apoyo a las voces de las organizaciones que representan comunidades
afectadas directamente por las consecuencias del PPP y que están luchando
por una autonomía y autodeterminación económica, social y cultural.
• Entender las conexiones entre las intenciones globalizadoras de los promotores del PPP y sus efectos potenciales sobre las comunidades
directamente afectadas en México, América Central, Canadá y los Estados Unidos.
• Apoyar los esfuerzos de capacitación de los grupos de base en América Central y México.
• Reforzar las relaciones organizativas Norte-Sur, Norte-Norte y si es posible, Sur- Sur.

Ofrecemos estas sugerencias como posibles maneras por medio de las cuales las organizaciones basadas en los Estados Unidos y el Canadá puedan unirse a la lucha en contra del PPP y a la lucha por alternativas democráticas. Quisiéramos repetir, que miramos hacia el encuentro de Xela como nuestra guía para definir los papeles futuros que las organizaciones estadounidenses y canadienses pudiesen desempeñar. Esperamos con gran expectativa el poder trabajar juntos respetuosa y colaborativamente a medida que luchamos por un mundo mejor.