We, the participants of European organisations present at the Enlazando Alternativas network meeting held on September 7th and 8th, 2013 in Brussels, express our full support and solidarity with the National Agrarian and Popular Strike in Colombia and our solidarity with the social, peasant farmer, student and trade union organisations and with the population in general. We also denounce the grave repression and criminalisation of those who are protesting peacefully against the neoliberal economic policies that hit the Colombian population hard on a daily basis.
For years, Enlazando Alternativas members have been denouncing the serious consequences of the free trade agreements (FTAs) and investment protection treaties in the countries where they have been applied, as shown by the current situation in Mexico. Mexico has applied trade liberalisation policies for over 15 years now and signed onto these kinds of agreements with the EU, the United States and Canada. The situation in Mexico is characterised by high levels of inequality, unemployment, job insecurity, loss of food sovereignty and displacement of communities by extractive projects, among others, as a result of these policies. All these factors contribute and foster the extremely violent situation currently affecting the people.
Only one year after the US-Colombia FTA coming into affect, various sectors affected by it – such as peasant farmers who produce potatoes, milk, corn and coffee; sugarcane cutters; the transportation sector, health workers – and the population in general are now rebelling and denouncing the negative consequences of these liberalisation policies. The massive increase in the importation of products, generated by this kind of agreement, causes local economies to collapse. The means of survival and the people’s well being, as well as the possibility of attaining food sovereignty, are being seriously destroyed.
This model of economic integration is being promoted for the benefit of transnational corporations and the local elite. The operations of major agribusiness corporations, like Cargill, Monsanto, Syngenta and Indupalma, as well as those dedicated to natural resource extraction, whose exploitative conditions disrespect human rights, are leading to the devastation of territories and the expulsion of communities.
In this context, we urge parliamentarians from the EU member states not to ratify the EU-Colombia and Peru Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and to demand that their governments suspend the temporary application of the agreement.
Signatories:
Campana de afectados por REPSOL
CNCD-11.11.11
Col·lectiu RETS: Respostes a les Empreses Transnacionals
Ecologistas en Acción
FranceAmerica Latine (FAL)
Grupo Raíces (Grúpa Fréamhacha), Ireland
Ingeniería Sin Fronteras
Latin American Solidarity Centre -LASC, Ireland
Observatorio de la Deuda en la Globalización – ODG
Observatorio de Multinacionales en América Latina – OMAL
Oficina Internacional de Derechos Humanos–Acción Colombia, Oidhaco ( red europea de 35 organizaciones)
El Partido de la Refundación Comunista (Italia)
Transnational Institute (TNI)
War on Want – UK
