• President Fidel Castro attends the opening sessions of the
                   hemispheric encounter against this annexationist project • Delegates
                   from 248 organizations • Seven main issues under debate

                   BY MIREYA CASTAÑEDA (Granma International staff writer)

                   "IN order to defeat the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA),
                   above all we need to rely on an understanding of its hegemonic and
                   anti-populist nature," confirmed Cuban economist Osvaldo Martínez
                   during the opening session of the Hemispheric Encounter to Combat
                   the FTAA – November 13 – in Havana’s International Conference
                   Center.

                   Martínez, a member of the encounter’s organizing
                   committee, made an opening speech on the content
                   and implications of this U.S.-sponsored project.

                   The opening and evening sessions of the first working
                   day were attended by President Fidel Castro and other
                   Cuban figures, and chaired by Chilean Marcella
                   Escribano, resident in Canada, a social activist and one
                   of the organizers of the Quebec 2nd Peoples’ Summit.

                   Members of various organizations also sat at the presidential table,
                   including Norma Cano, secretary general of the Central Union of
                   Panamanian Workers; Bishop Medardo Gómez, from the Lutheran
                   Church of Central America; Nora Castañeda, president of the
                   Venezuelan NGO Conference; and Pedro Oliveira, president of the
                   Association of Caribbean Economists.

                   That range of people indicates the wide spectrum of organizations
                   and academic institutions, indigenous leaders, campesinos, religious
                   leaders, students and trade unionists who accepted the invitation to
                   attend.

                   After welcoming the participants, Leonel González, from the Central
                   Organization of Cuban Trade Unions (CTC) secretariat, announced
                   that 679 delegates from 248 organizations and continental
                   institutions in 34 countries had traveled to Cuba, as well as a small
                   group of social organizations from Europe, in "a gesture of solidarity
                   with our nations’ struggle," (during a recess we also greeted
                   Reverend Lucius Walker from Pastors for Peace).

                   Before the plenary debates began Marcela
                   Escribano confirmed that the encounter
                   "faces the challenge of reaching consensus,
                   a convergence of our struggles for peace,
                   against war and against the FTAA," the
                   objective of the discussions, as well as
                   allowing people to recount concrete
                   experiences from the anti-globalization
                   movement.

                   In his analysis of the content and implications of the FTAA, Osvaldo
                   Martínez, president of the Cuban Parliament’s Economic Commission,
                   warned that after the events of September 11 and the "absurd war
                   that purports to fight terrorism with huge doses of terror," FTAA
                   apologists are claiming that it now needs to be approved more than
                   ever, in such a way that opposing the FTAA could result in being
                   accused of supporting terrorism, he stressed.

                   He reiterated that the FTAA is being presented as a simple technical
                   free trade agreement, when in reality it is a project seriously
                   compromising the region’s future.

                   Martínez explained that the United States is pressuring for it to be
                   approved, so much so that it is one of the few issues that has
                   merited attention from Congress in recent times, alongside the war,
                   "and the House of Representatives has already approved a fast-track
                   so as to boost the FTAA."

                   The likewise director of the World Economy Research Center also
                   reflected that this urgency is a result of various factors, including the
                   social and economic crisis in the United States and the current global
                   recession (after the crisis that caused the fall of the Japanese
                   "miracle," the Mexican crash, that of the Asian Tigers and Russia
                   during the ’90s).

                   During his analysis he also confirmed that the crisis did not begin on
                   September 11, but "already existed, those events accelerated it but
                   were not the cause." This is why, he continued, there is such a hurry
                   to approve the FTAA, "to take advantage of the regional space that
                   would form an exclusive trade area for U.S. capital and, among other
                   issues, to plunder even further the natural resources of Latin America
                   and the Caribbean, and exploit a cheaper workforce."

                   The economist spoke of the consequences for workers (greater
                   unemployment), campesinos (an influx of subsidized agricultural
                   products from the United States), youth (unemployment and no
                   access to private education), and even the destruction and
                   disappearance of small and medium industries. "The FTAA is the best
                   deal for the transnationals."

                   Other aspects he focused on were the so-called right to free
                   investment and the dollarization of economies, while stressing that
                   access to the U.S. market will become more illusory than ever,
                   because "a more overt and vulturistic protectionism is lurking on the
                   horizon."

                   Martínez concluded by stating that the FTAA is the culmination of the
                   acceptance of U.S. annexation by means of a colonial pact and that
                   its defeat lies in understanding its hegemonic and anti-populist nature.
                   "Saying NO to the FTAA signifies a formidable effort to explain this
                   alien project that has not even been discussed by the region’s
                   parliaments," which is why he believes the encounter should create
                   an alternative for regional integration.

                   The debates during the evening session (at the close of this edition)
                   dealt with two issues on the agenda: FTAA: Trade and Integration
                   and the FTAA and Investment.

                   Upcoming sessions are to focus on the FTAA and its relation to
                   poverty, social inequality, unemployment and environmental
                   deterioration; cultural identity; racial and gender discrimination; and
                   the rights of indigenous groups and rural workers.

                   The delegates will also have an opportunity to hear of experiences in
                   the struggle being waged by the Continental Social Alliance, the Porto
                   Alegre World Social Forum, and the fight against the North American
                   Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

                   Debates on alternatives to the FTAA and a plan of action to be
                   adopted will be the focus during the closing days of the encounter,
                   which concludes with a Final Declaration on Friday, November 16.