October 12th 2002, "Dia de la Raza" – Colombus Day becomes day of action against recolonization via FTAA and Plan Puebla Panama

October 12th 2002 was celebrated across Spain as a national holiday commemorating the 510th anniversary of the landing of Christopher Columbus and the 'discovery' of Latin America. The events of 1492 were the harbinger of what was to be a difficult and contentious relationship between Latin America and the rest of the world. Across Central America October 12th was marked by protest and declared a day of action against the latest strand of colonialism; the Free Trade Area of the Americas and Plan Puebla Panama.

The October 12 protests in Central America coalesced around issues of Indigenous Rights and Neo–liberal economic development models – specifically the Privatization of basic services such as water and electricity, and the FTAA and PPP.

Demonstrators in the thousands blocked roads, ports, borders and bridges; others held educational events and cultural celebration rallies. The events in Central America were echoed by solidarity actions across the USA and Canada indicating the strength of feeling against the current mode of development in Central and Southern America.

Under the banner of 'In Defence of Our Lands,' people from diverse civil society groups across Mexico organized against the mega–projects of the PPP such as the Pan–American Highway, the Trans–Isthmus highway, and the proposed maquilla factories. Blocking the Trans Isthmus highway at Tehuantepec and Veracruz, Carlos Beas–Torres co–ordinator of indigenous peoples group UCIZONI declared, "Plan Puebla Panama means the construction of dams, highways and port expansion. In other words things that advance the expansion of transnational corporations in the region and this means the immediate expulsion of our communities from our lands."

The Pan–American Highway was also blocked at San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas and Jalapa de Marques, Oaxaca, for twenty four hours by local groups protesting the PPP mega projects. At Puebla the focus was upon actions to educate local people about the FTAA and the PPP.

In Nicaragua actions against the Inter–American Development Bank [IDB], the main financier behind the PPP, blocked the Pan–American Highway at Esteli. In Managua twenty two civil society organisations marched against the 'neo–colonialism of the IDB and the effects of structural adjustment programmes on Nicaraguan people. Criticism was also directed at the Nicaraguan government's moves towards privatization of basic public services such as water and electricity.

In Honduras, four thousand people from thirty organisations closed the borders with Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua. In Panama, indigenous activists are currently marching two hundred miles from Costa Rica to Panama City to protest the ecological destruction of their lands by mining.

Back in Mexico, Zapatista supporters in Chiapas blocked access to the region's main military base and rallied against the PPP, FTAA and privatization policies of the Mexican government. According to indigenous groups present, the aim of the PPP is to privatize traditional tribal lands so that trans–national corporations can exploit strategic resources such as petroleum, gas, minerals, biological resources, and hydro–electric energy from river dams. Demonstrators said these projects served the interests of the USA at the cost of increased suffering, poverty and marginalisation of the Indigenous population of Mexico.

In the USA and Canada these sentiments were echoed in widespread solidarity actions. Members of the South–West Network for Environmental and Social Justice occupied two bridges as northern and southern activists met at the Mexico–Texas border at El Paso/Ciudad Juarez.

Here in Montreal, a delegation from the Social Justice Committee met with representatives of the Mexican consulate to deliver a petition and voice objections to the PPP. Seventy people joined the protest outside the Mexican consulate and were accompanied by local bands and speakers in a show of solidarity with the communities of the region.

A growing network of global resistance to the PPP and FTAA showed it's strength and resolve on the 12th of October; on a day commemorating the past, the people of Central America have shown a determination to have a say in their future. If you would like to find out more about the activities of the Social Justice Committee and its work on PPP, please call the SJC coordinator for either the Central America or Mexico programs – 514–933–9517 – or email us: americas@s–j–c.net.

Prepared by Laura Butler, with thanks to Amy Gray at the Bank Information Centre, Washington, for source material.