For 71 years Mexico was ruled by the Party of the Institutionalised Revolution (PRI). The elections in 2000 changed this, but the new ruling party, the conservative Party of National Action (PAN), that had promised lots of changes went on with the same neoliberal economic politics, in some areas even worse. One example for this is the PPP that was imposed from above, without any consultation of the people affected by it. The plan was actually an idea of the former government, the new president Fox just gave it a new name.

• the plan displays a totally disrespectful attitude to the neighbouring states: it was created by the Mexican government assuming control of other states. An example of this is its name: Puebla is a state in Mexico, Panama is a state in Central America; in the title of the plan there equalised as if both of them were states in Mexico.
• The plan stretches over a strategically located zone, the narrowest part of the American Continent. The US are obviously interested in this area as their industrial areas are on the Atlantic coast, while the biggest market is in the Pacific; the cheapest way to send merchandise is by sea, but the Panama Canal is too small, waiting time is too long. So the US are looking for new routes, be it railway tracks or motorways or new canals.
• There's also a military aspect to the PPP
• Natural resources: Between Puebla and Panama is the largest area of biodiversity in the world, i.e. of strategic resources of the future, 80% of the Mexican production and reserves of Petrol are in the south/southeast of Mexico as well as 55% of hydroelectric energy, nearly all of the gas, fine quality wood, 80% of Mexico's fresh water reserves.

The area has thus tremendous wealth, but is inhabited by indigenous peasants, the poorest population in the country. Corporations are interested in the area but they have to get rid of the population first.

The PPP has conditions that force people to give up their land: 62 dams are planned to flood the territory and thus drive people from the most fertile land. To encourage the peasants to sell their land, there are also maquiladoras (sweatshops) planned along the coast which at the same time is the exploitation of the last resource of the indigenous population: cheap labour. (There are 22 million cheap Mexican, 38 million cheap Central American workers in the area.) This will create serious social problems the kind of which are visible along the Northern border which is full of sweatshops: no labour rights, especially for women and children, prostitution, alcoholism, almost social decomposition.

Plan Colombia

Colombia has 40 million inhabitants, its government, however, was elected by only 10% and thus has the support of 4 million people. It is totally obedient to the US.

The Plan Colombia is in reality a plan anti Colombia, anti Central America:

• Colombia is strategically located
• It is rich in mines, natural resources and cultures
• There are strong social movements in Colombia and there has been a civil war going on for decades
• It has a totally underdevelopped agriculture which lead to a big scale production of poppies, marihuana, coca.

The US invented the Plan Colombia and imposed it on the country, i.e. the plan is totally undemocratic, repressive, imperialistically imposed, with no consultation whatsoever of the people concerned.

Its budget is 7,5 billion US dollars, 90% of which are for military use. (The plan is based on four components, political, economic, social, military.) The remaining 10% which are meant to go to the social component are going towards mega projects supporting big landowners.

Effects of the plan Colombia are fumigation, legal reforms, privatization of businesses and public services, water, land and natural resources. Massacres have also increased: every day there are between 11 and 18 people killed, and the number of displaced people have increased from 2,5 to 3,5 million. Bombings and machine gunnings are daily, social policies are inexistant. People protesting against social injustice are being criminalised: a new law prohibits social protest and the prison population which is already at 42000 will further increase.

The justification given to the Plan Colombia is the fight against drug traffic, narcoguerilla which is a way to link drugs and guerilla while the peace talks are going on.

Plan Dignidad

In 1988 the law 1008 got introduced which was imposed by the embassy of the USA and which criminalises the coca leaf like cocaine. This is as absurd as it would be to say corn in its natural state is chicha or wheat is whiskey.

(The tropical region of Bolivia is inhabited by people who migrated there from other areas, such as displaced minors from various places, farmers, people who fled after natural disasters.)

The law 1008 showed to be a total failure after 10 years: there was no substitute for coca as a crop, millions of dollars went into corruption, nothing to the farmers.

After this failure plan Dignity was created:

1998-2002 the government bugdeted 952 million dollars for this plan, 180 million of which for the eradication of coca, 700 million for alternative cultivation. The aim of the plan is to transform the Chapare, to attract foreign capital and to drive people from their land.

The text of the plan says that the "stigma of narcotraffic inhibits the free flow of capital and goods to Bolivia" which means its objective is to create Bolivia as a safe haven for global investors.

5000 families of the tropical area are going to be relocated to impose this plan, heavy militarisation is going to support this: at this moment there are 8000 troops and police stationed there.

The plan is a fight against the population, not against drugs. Even if the government says that it is designed for the tropics they apply it in the Yungas, too.

Between 1995 and 2000 there have been over 4000 arrests of men, women and youths, over 2500 got injured, some got shot with bullets, 49 got killed.

Also since the militarisation in 1988 38 houses got burnt.

45 people are being processed by the law at the moment, threatened with 30 years of jail. The aim of the legal proceedings are to destroy the resistance.The people of the Chapare and the Yungas are defending the coca leaf and their land. This self defense is necessary: Even if the government says that they give them five alternative plants the alternative they really give them are the dead, the wounded and the prisoners.

You can't talk about the Plan Colombia or Plan Dignity, it's really the regional Andean initiative made up of subplans designed to take over the region and natural resources.

FTAA

The FTAA was launched by then US president Bush sn. in 1990 as an "initative for the Americas" for "all American countries with democratically elected governments", and the first summit of the Americas took place in Miami in 1994.

The summit consists of a three-fold committee - the OAS, the Interamerican Development Bank, CEPAL (economic committee for Latin America) - and various meetings take place, the last of which was in Quebec. There are nine working groups, among others on investment or intellectual property. It is based on the norms laid down in NAFTA.

NAFTA is an important, innovative agreement on trade even more so as the negotiations in the WTO slowed down. It is based on a new approach: everything is included, water, health etc. and not only products. Some new institutions were created to survey that all rules are applied. And chapter 11 on investment created the conditions for enterpreneurs to sue states. (There is a famous case in Canada: the Canadian law doesn't allow the use of a additive to petrol that's produced by the TNC Ethyl corp. and that's dangerous for health. Ethyl sued the Canadian government for loss of profits and won a lot of money and the government had to eliminate the law.)

FTAA and the summit of the Americas are based on NAFTA's terms:

• elimination of trade barriers
• it submits everything to capitalist logic
• the application of neoliberal policies go on and this logic is going to be extended to all of the Americas, not only in the economic sphere, but also influencing government policies.

There are 4 points of the summit: promotion of democracy, education, ALCA, elimination of poverty and the fight against narcotraffic.

ALCA thus is part of a far bigger plan to homogenise the Americas: itself and other projects allow to put forward new inititatives with the aim to eliminate progressive social movements, get access to natural resources through militarisation.