Summit of
Americas' Final Declaration Still At Stake
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Colombia In Next Latin American Trip
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Chavez Names
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Summit of
Americas' Final Declaration Still At Stake
PORT OF SPAIN - With at least four heads of
state critical of the draft declaration of
the Fifth Summit of the Americas, it is
still unclear whether all 34 participant
countries will sign the document and whether
its text will remain unchanged.
Among the strongest critics of the draft
declaration are Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez, Bolivian President Evo Morales,
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, and
Honduran President Manuel Zelaya.
The four countries are members of the
Bolivarian Alternative for the People of Our
America, an international cooperation
organization proposed by Chavez as an
alternative to the U.S.-sponsored Free Trade
Area of the Americas (FTAA).
Shortly before the summit, the four heads of
state criticized the draft, the result of
one and a half years of negotiations, that
it does not address the necessary measures
to curb the effects of the global financial
crisis on the developing countries in the
Americas -- a crisis which they blame on the
United States.
The most common explanation for the absence
of specific clauses dealing with the crisis
is that the draft was mostly negotiated
before the crisis deepened in September and
October last year.
The draft focuses on promoting human
prosperity, energy security, environmental
sustainability, public security and
democratic governance.
On Saturday, Morales added in a press
conference another criticism to the draft's
text: "If the issue of biofuel is not
reviewed, the government of Bolivia will not
sign this document. Introducing biofuel
policies means to privilege the machines
over human life. What will we pick, human
life or U.S. machines?"
Morales did not elaborate on the reasons for
his opposition to pro-biofuel policies, but
critics of sugarcane ethanol, the most
common type of biofull, argue the expansion
of crops of sugarcane will reduce the land
available for the production of food.
The three-day summit opened in Port of Spain
on Friday.
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