Central America Women Warn of FTA with US
Women from seven Central American countries are meeting in Guatemala Friday to discuss the negative effects of neoliberal policies and a free trade agreement with the US on the economic, social development of that sector.

The second Central American Meeting, to close June 25, aims at creating an alternative project to the patriarchal, racist system and neoliberal globalization, Sandra Moran, one of its organizers told Prensa Latina.

Rural female leaders warned the implementation of a trade agreement with the US will result in new obstacles for integral development and access to jobs.

"We fear our traditions, crops, and fabrics will disappear with such an agreement and the avalanche of transgenic products," stated Susana Vazquez, from the National Coordinating Office of Farmers´ Organization.

That agreement will affect all popular sectors, but mostly women, several organizations agreed.

"Women have been many times considered as second-rate citizens, have had less opportunities, and been denied access to resources," according to a study by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

The increasing wave of violence women have been facing over the last few years is also top of the meeting´s agenda. Only in Guatemala, over 2,500 women have been reported dead in the last six years, it was revealed.