CAFTA Heightens Poverty
in Guatemala
A year and a half after
signing the Central
American Free Trade
Agreement, poverty has
worsened in Guatemala
and there is greater
concentration of wealth
in the few, farm leader
Helmer Velasquez
denounced on Thursday.
The leader of the
coordinated NGOs and
cooperatives warned that
far from the advertised
advantages of CAFTA-DR,
the popular sectors have
become depressed,
employment has not
increased and there are
no serious predictions
of improvement for 2008.
The cost of food has
risen and grains, seen
as fuel today, threaten
to remove the daily food
from family tables, said
Velasquez.
He recalled that the
increase of exports to
the United States
continue focused on
sugar, fruits and
minerals, increasing the
income of the national
oligarchy and the
transnationals, which
plunder the country's
natural resources.
Others who benefited are
the large importers, who
increase their profits,
but do not pay taxes,
due to CAFTA.
At the threshold of a
new government, with a
social democrat
tendency, Velasquez
believes the authorities
should consider the
Mexican crisis with
corn, beans and dairy
products, caused by
NAFTA.
In that respect, he
championed intensifying
grain production,
concentrating
investments in the
poorest areas and
increasing credits to
foster rural
development.
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