CENTRAL AMERICA:
Little Enthusiasm Over
Anti-Poverty Campaign
By Diego Cevallos*
MEXICO CITY, (IPS)
- The enthusiasm among
social groups in Mexico
and Central America for
the Global Call to
Action against Poverty (GCAP)is
not reflected by the
general public, which
has displayed scant
interest in this week's
event.
In "Mesoamerica", made
up of Mexico and the
countries of Central
America, there will be
street demonstrations,
academic and student
forums, and a variety of
cultural activities.
However, large crowds
are not expected to
gather, as they
regularly do for
political rallies and
strikes or other
activities organised by
trade unions.
The limited impact of
the GCAP campaign is due
to "political and
institutional conditions
and the attitude of some
of the media," the
coordinator for
Guatemala of the United
Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) Human
Development Report,
Karin Slowing, told IPS.
Most of the region’s
principal media have so
far devoted little or no
space to the GCAP
campaign, and
governments and
political leaders have
ignored the subject.
Last year, similarly
apathetic reactions were
encountered all over
Latin America.
"We haven’t managed to
convince the public, and
particularly the young
people, to appropriate
the initiative for
themselves, but we are
not discouraged and we
will carry on,"
Mariaoliva González,
spokeswoman in Mexico
for the Global Youth
Action Network (GYAN),
told IPS.
GYAN has called on young
people to wrap the
Independence Monument,
in the capital, in white
cloth on Wednesday.
The Mesoamerican region,
which governments
identify as nine states
in the southeast of
Mexico plus Belize,
Costa Rica, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Honduras,
Nicaragua and Panama,
covers one million
square kilometres and is
home to 70 million
people, a large
proportion of whom are
poor.
"Proposals like GCAP
don’t work because
they’re too general;
they lack clear
political content and
don’t really get to
people," Humberto
Zapata, a recent
graduate in political
science from the
National Autonomous
University of Mexico,
told IPS.
In spite of the region’s
lacklustre response,
this year the GCAP
initiative is expected
to mobilise close to 50
million people and be
entered into the
Guinness Book of World
Records. The date of the
various activities will
coincide with Oct. 17,
International Day for
the Eradication of
Poverty.
GCAP originated at the
World Social Forum in
2005, held in the
southern Brazilian city
of Porto Alegre. As of
last year, U.N. agencies
are also participating
and promoting it.
Envisaged to continue
until 2015, GCAP aims to
call attention to the
fulfilment of the eight
U.N. Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs),
defined in 2000 in
reference to 1990
levels, with a target
deadline of 2015.
The goals include
halving the proportion
of people who are hungry
and live in extreme
poverty, as well as
achieving improvements
in health, education,
the environment,
development and gender
equality.
In Mesoamerica, a number
of organisations are
making efforts to give
GCAP local colour and
content, with the aim of
expanding its appeal.
For instance, the GCAP
coalition in El
Salvador, which is made
up of around 30 social
groups, is demanding
"tough action against
tax evasion by big
business, and against
corruption."
The group will submit a
draft law on the
question this week, and
afterwards will hold a
rally in Alameda Juan
Pablo II, one of the
busiest arteries in San
Salvador. They will call
for "tax reforms to
guarantee action against
tax evasion, and for the
state to allocate funds
to those who are living
in poverty," its
spokespersons said.
Jeannette Alvarado, head
of the Maquilishuatl
Foundation (FUMA), which
forms part of GCAP, told
IPS that El Salvador has
enough economic
resources to go around,
but that "they are
concentrated in too few
hands, and tax evasion
contributes to
maintaining poverty
levels as they are."
FUMA asserts that
corruption and tax
evasion caused losses of
two billion dollars in
2006, while the
government budget for
investment in health and
education this year is
just over 831 million
dollars.
In Nicaragua, the second
poorest country in Latin
America after Haiti,
activities on the
International Day for
the Eradication of
Poverty will be
organised by the
Coordinadora Civil, an
umbrella group for more
than 300
non-governmental
associations.
Georgina Muñoz Pavón, a
spokeswoman for the
Coordinadora, told IPS
that on Oct. 16 and 17
several academic and
cultural meetings will
be held in Managua. One
outcome is to be a
proclamation addressed
to members of the
government, private
companies and financial
groups, which will be
distributed in the
streets by volunteers.
The document will call
on them to act in
solidarity with the poor
in Nicaragua, where over
45 percent of the
country’s 5.1 million
people live on less than
two dollars a day,
according to official
figures, although
unofficial sources put
the proportion much
higher.
"The plan is to continue
to strengthen the idea
that only by acting
together can we defeat
poverty," said Muñoz.
In Guatemala, where over
half the population is
poor, there will be a
march in the capital
city, ending up at the
seat of government,
where representatives of
families living in
extreme poverty will
present their personal
testimonies, French
activist Paul Marechal,
of the Fourth World
Movement, told IPS.
"The high point of the
day will be the people’s
testimonies, because
they are the experts on
poverty," Marechal
emphasised.
On Oct. 17, a workshop
will be held with people
living in extreme
poverty, under the theme
"Where people are
condemned to live in
want, human rights are
violated."
Cultural activities and
exhibitions will also be
held in other locations
in Guatemala, like
Escuintla,
Quetzaltenango and
Solola in the south,
Puerto Barrios in the
north and Chimaltenango
in the centre.
In Mexico, the GCAP
initiative will include
workshops at schools and
in some private offices.
There will also be
concerts and other
cultural events. Most of
the activities will be
held in the capital.
* With additional
reporting by Inés
Benñitez in Guatemala,
Raúl Gutiérrez in El
Salvador and José Adán
Silva in Nicaragua.
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