Plan Puebla-Panamá (PPP) Resource List

The * symbol represents a site we find particularly useful.

Mesoamerican Forums

* Foros de Resistencia y Propuesta al PPP / Forums of Resistance a Proposal to the PPP (http://www.mesoamericaresiste.org/resistencia/foros.html)

Results from Regional (Tehuantepec Isthmus), National and Mesoamerican Forums.

 

V Foro Mesoamericano de los Pueblos / People’s Mesoamerican Forum (http://www.foromesoamericano.org/)

El Salvador: Spanish. Website for this July 2004 Forum. Includes program and declarations from the previous Mesoamerican forums. Unfortunately, it does not include the declaration from this forum. Go to http://chiapas.mediosindependientes.org/display.php3?article_id=108766 for the declaration from the V Forum in Spanish.

III Semana de Diversidad Biológica y Cultural / III Week of Biological and Cultural Diversity (http://foroshonduras.org.hn/biod.htm)
Honduras: Spanish. Website for this July 2003 Forum. Includes information from various previous forums.

Diversidad Biológica - Diversidad Cultural / Biological Diversity – Cultural Diversity  (http://www.laneta.apc.org/biodiversidad/)
Mexico: Spanish. News and analysis. Information from various forums (last updated May 2003). Information from the Forum for Biological and Cultural Diversity that took place in Chiapas in June 2001 (left side of page).

Foro Xelajú, en Guatemala 2001 (http://usuarios.lycos.es/xelaju/xela.htm)
Guatemala: in Spanish. The website for this Mesoamerican meeting. Includes final declaration, presentations, notes from working groups.

U.S. Sites

* ACERCA (Action for Community and Ecology in the Rainforests of Central America)
(http://www.asej.org/ACERCA/ppp/ppp.php)
Mostly English, some Spanish. This website is a great place to start. It has a booklet on the PPP as well as the declarations from regional conferences on PPP in English and Spanish. It also has a NoPPP action packet and articles on the PPP. Learn about and join the No PPP Network (Network opposed to the Plan Puebla Panama), which covers the U.S. and Canada. ACERCA has disbanded.  This website is no longer updated.

* Americas Program (http://www.americaspolicy.org)
Mostly English, some Spanish. Select "PPP Spotlight" for excellent background information and articles on the PPP. Maintained by the Interhemispheric Resource Center. PPP section last updated September 2003. Also see http://www.americaspolicy.org/reports/2004/0406ppp.html for article “The Plan Puebla Panama Revived: Looking Back to See What’s Ahead” from June 2004 by Miguel Pickard of CIEPAC. The site has other useful articles on the region.

* Inter-Action: Inter-American Development Bank Civil Society Initiative (http://www.interaction.org/idb/ppp.html)
English, minimal Spanish. Initiative of InterAction, the American Council for Voluntary International Cooperation. The goal of the Inter-American Development Bank-Civil Society Initiative is to promote institutional reform of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) by increasing civil society participation in its lending process. Useful detailed updates provided on the PPP, and trade issues, gathered through communication with the IDB and organizations in the region.

International Rivers Network (IRN) (http://www.irn.org)
English, some Spanish. IRN supports local communities working to protect their rivers and watersheds. They work to halt destructive river development projects, and to encourage equitable and sustainable methods of meeting needs for water, energy and flood management. Go to Latin America section. Includes the Citizens Guide on the World Commission on Dams (http://www.irn.org/wcd/wcdguide.pdf, also in Spanish http://www.irn.org/wcd/wcdguide-s.pdf), and declarations from communities affected by proposed dam projects.

Resource Center of the Americas (http://americas.org)

English, minimal Spanish. Good news source, organized by country and subject. Also has a globalization news section.

 

Organizations, Networks and Resources in Mesoamerica

Cáritas Panamá (http://www.caritaspanama.org)
Panama: Spanish. Organization of the Panamanian Episcopal Conference (CEP) (Conferencia Episcopal Panameña). Regularly updated information on the Coordinadora Campesina Contra los Embalses (CCCE) (Peasant Coordination Against the Artificial Ponds/Dams). This is a struggle against the mega project modernizing the Panama Canal.

CEI - International Studies Center / Centro de Estudios Internacionales (http://www.ceinicaragua.org.ni)

Nicaragua: Spanish, some documents in English. This is an organization working for peace and economic justice. There are numerous analytical documents, on themes such as globalization, economic integration and free trade.

 

Center for the Defense of the Consumer / Centro para la Defensa del Consumidor (CDC) (http://www.cdc.org.sv)

El Salvador. Spanish. This is an organization that promotes respect for and defends the rights of consumers, especially those with few resources. There are various publications in the site.

Chiapas Independent Media Centers / Centros de Medios Independientes Chiapas (http://chiapas.mediosindependientes.org/)
Mexico: English and Spanish, with a quick translator tool on the site. The search engine allows you to search by type of source, subject, language and words or phrase. There are no direct links to PPP information, but you can find information via the search function. This site includes denunciations of repression and conflict in southern Mexico and the results of various regional forums. You can quickly upload information onto the site: text, photos, and videos.

CIECOM Southern Observatory – CIECOM Observatorio del Sur  (http://www.ceicomobservatoriodelsur.org/)

El Salvador: Spanish. Creates and disseminates regular, up to date and understandable information on the economic integration and world trade processes. The center seeks to open reflective spaces for the analysis of these themes, generally monopolized by the governments and little known by the social organizations and the social movement. Includes information on the PPP, FTAA, and the external debt.

* CIEPAC- The Center for Economic and Political Research for Community Action (http://www.ciepac.org)
Mexico: English and Spanish. CIEPAC, a Chiapas based non-profit, incorporates the collaboration of professionals in sociology, communications, psychology, and economics. Members of CIEPAC carry out research and analysis on the economic, political, social, and military situation in Chiapas in its national and international context. These bulletins, "Chiapas al Día," are distributed by electronic mail in English and Spanish. Many past bulletins have been on the PPP and related issues. The website also includes numerous documents written on issues affecting the region, including the PPP and a list of their publications which can be ordered. This includes an excellent book on the PPP. Has a search function. Although you can not look for a phrase, you can change how the results are organized. Or you can press "Que es el PPP" and get links to key documents (including from the Mexican government), declarations and organizations, primarily in Spanish.

COPINH – Civil Council of Honduran Popular and Indigenous Organizations / Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras (http://rds.org.hn/copinh)

Honduras: English and Spanish. This website gives an overview of this organization, its mission, history and accomplishments.

 

COMPA – Convergence of Movements of the Peoples of the Americas / Convergencia de Movimientos de los Pueblos de las Américas (http://www.sitiocompa.org/compa/index.php)

Spanish, some English. COMPA is a broad-based, autonomous, diverse, and democratic movement which spans the Americas. Through COMPA, women and men from different organized sectors struggle together to construct alternatives to neoliberal globalization, towards a new society.

News from many organizations.

 

Encuentro Popular (http://www.encuentropopular.org)

Costa Rica: Spanish. A network or meeting space for Costa Rican organizations. News. Under “ejes de acción” there are sections on PPP, Mesoamerican forums, FTAA, NAFTA, WTO, CAFTA and Militarization.

Green Tropics / Trópico Verde (http://www.tropicoverde.org)
Guatemala: Spanish, minimal English. An organization based in Guatemala dedicated to defending the environment focusing on such things as forests and mangroves. Includes various documents on the PPP, covering topics such as the potential environmental impact of the PPP, the strategy behind the PPP, the Mundo Maya Project that promotes tourism, and dams. The most recent article is on how the PPP mega-projects threaten the mangroves.

Grupo Solidario de Acción y Propuesta de Petén / Peten Action and Proposal Solidarity Group
(http://revista-theomai.unq.edu.ar/numero5/artileanavalenzuela.htm)
Guatemala: Spanish. Good article from Revista Theomai, 2002, by Ileana Valenzuela of Associación de Comunidades Forestales de Petén (Association of Forest Communities in Petén) on the PPP and the counter response in the Petén, Guatemala which led to the formation of the Grupo Solidario de Acción y Propuesta de Petén.

 

Mesa Globa / Global Table (http://mesaglobal.net)

Guatemala: Spanish. This is a social political movement (with many members) that struggles against neo-liberal globalization in Guatemala. There are documents from some regional meetings. Includes some of their newsletters, with analysis.

* Mesoamerica Resiste (http://www.mesoamericaresiste.org)
Mexico: Spanish. Website of Union de Comunidades Indígenas de la Zona norte del Istmo - UCIZONI (Union of Indigenous Communities in the Northern Zone of the Isthmus), and Group de Trabajo Colective del Istmo- GTCI (Isthmus Collective Working Group). Network of Mixe, Zapoteca, Zoque, Chinanteca, Barreña, Mixteca and Mestiza communities in the Tehuantepec isthmus region of Oaxaca. Leading player in the citizen's movement in resistance to the PPP. News updates and analysis. Excellent page with the results of local, national and Mesoamerican regional gatherings. Publications page includes award winning videos. Extensive directory with contact information of Mesoamerican groups working on the PPP at http://www.mesoamericaresiste.org/primeras/segundas/directorio.html.

RMALC – Mexican Free Trade Action Network / Red Mexicana de  Acción Frente al Libre Comercio: Plan Puebla Panamá (http://www.rmalc.org.mx/ppp/index.php)
Mexico: Spanish. Leading Mexican nonprofit working on trade, development, the environment, human rights and related issues including PPP. This section of the website is not recently updated. It includes analysis of the PPP, as well as the Mexican government’s basic PPP documents. Includes the declarations from some of the Mesoamerican Forums.

Rural Research: Everything on Puebla Panama Plan and Latin Resistence / Investigación Rural: Todo sobre el Plan Puebla Panama y la Resistencia Latina
(http://www.geocities.com/investigaccion_rural/ppp.htm)
Mexico: Spanish. This website a little difficult to follow. There is some good analysis, documents and news. The site includes the Mexican government's May 2002 PPP plan for Mexico.

Inter Governmental Sites

CABEI – Central American Bank for Economic Integration / BCIE – Banco Centroamericano de Integración Económica (http://www.bcie.org)
Honduras: Spanish, English to come. Large funder of PPP projects in Central America. New website under construction with little information.

SICA – General Secretariat of the System for Central American Integration / Secretaría General del Sistema de Integración Centroamericano (http://www.sgsica.org)
El Salvador: Spanish. SICA’s role is to, among other things, implement and coordinate the mandates coming out of the Central American Presidential Summits and the decisions of the Council of Foreign Ministers. The site includes a news section (at the bottom of the page select “micronoticias”) with almost daily news on integration from Central America. Includes current and back issues of bimonthly bulletin. Includes the results of Presidential Summits, regional treaties, protocols, and agreements, as well as each country’s constitution. Under Instituciones and then Secretarias Tecnicas, has links and information on such bodies as CCAD- Comision Centroamericana de Ambiente y Desarrollo, SITCA- Secretaria de Integracion Turistica Centroamericana, and SISCA- Secretaria de la Integracion Social Centroamericana.

* IDB – Inter-American Development Bank / BID – Banco Interamericano de desarrollo: Plan Puebla- Panamá (http://www.iadb.org/ppp)
U.S.: English and Spanish. Portion of the Inter-American Development Bank - primary promoter of the PPP - website devoted to promoting the PPP. Includes documents explaining projects, and regularly adds documents often produced for or as a result of specific meetings. Organized by basic documents, monthly reports (which don’t come out regularly), initiative, country and institution/ author. You can organize the documents by title, author, date or sub-sector. Also has e-mail addresses for each country’s commissioners and the IDB PPP coordinators.

Mexican Government PPP Website / Gobierno Mexicano Sitio PPP http://ppp.sre.gob.mx/

Mexico: primarily Spanish. Documents from meetings, information on the implementation of the PPP in Mexico, statistics on Mesoamerica.

SIECA – Secretariat for Central American Economic Integration / Secretaría de Integración Económica Centroamericana (http://www.sieca.org.gt)
Guatemala: primarily Spanish. Select "Sistema integrado de Información." SIECA primarily assists the Council of Ministers of Economic Integration, facilitating and preparing the themes and technical documentation as well as logistics for their meetings. This website covers different aspects of integration: intellectual property, trade, foreign affairs, customs, free trade, transportation and the labor market. Under "bases de datos" you can find recent articles from the Central American press on integration that can be searched by date, country, source, theme and key words. One can also find, in English and Spanish, statistics on Central American trade. There is also a calendar of upcoming meetings and seminars.

Maps of Mesoamerica

Interaction- detailed Mesoamerican map (http://www.interaction.org/library/detail.php?id=1946)

CIEPAC – various maps of Mesoamerica (http://www.ciepac.org/maps/categoryindex.htm)

Mexican Tehuantepec Isthmus: various maps

(http://www.laneta.apc.org/oaxaca/final/indexmeg.html, http://www.laneta.apc.org/oaxaca/megaproyecto/mapaschicos/Mcuadro2/mapasc2.html, http://www.laneta.apc.org/oaxaca/megaproyecto/mapaschicos/Mcuadro1/mapa06.html)

 

Maintained by the DataCenter. Updated February 2005. Please send corrections to cdavis((at))datacenter.org