November 23, 2005 Commondreams.org
	Summit of the Americas, Argentina: Tomb of the FTAA -- Three weeks ago, Latin America scored a major victory over US economic and political domination in the Summit of the Americas in Argentina. Latin America may not be on the minds of most US citizens, but the seismic shift in relationship with the US is a major issue across the hemisphere.
November 07, 2005 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
	Failed Summit Casts Shadow On Global Trade Talks -- A failed summit of leaders of the Western Hemisphere dealt a blow to global trade liberalization and strengthened the influence of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a critic of the U.S. ....
November 06, 2005 Chicago Tribune
	Dissent stalls goals of trade talks -- The Summit of the Americas ended Saturday night in Argentina, hours behind schedule, overshadowed by hostile street protests and characterized by a glaring split over free trade incorporated into the final declaration.
November 04, 2005 Hemispheric Social Alliance
	Final Declaration of the III People’s of the Americas Summit in Mar del Plata -- Today, in response to attempts to revive the negotiations and to attach the US military objectives - in this III People’s Summit, we commitment to doubling our resistance, strengthen our unity in diversity and to convene a new and even larger continental mobilization to bury the FTAA forever and at the same time to build a new alternative America that is just, free and rooted in solidarity.
November 02, 2005 New York Times
	Bush Faces Tough Time in South America -- "Bush is a torturer, a violator of human rights and a murderer, who does not respect United Nations resolutions, international treaties or the sovereignty of peoples, as in the case of Iraq," said Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who is one of the protest organizers. "He is not welcome in Argentina, and he should be repudiated."
October 30, 2005 Associated Press
	In Latin America, Bush will find a relationship gone south -- "We think his policies are totally contrary to what we want for Latin America and are promoting genocide, domination of workers and their communities and the plundering of natural resources," said Argentine labor leader Juan Gonzalez, who is heading the "People's Summit" coinciding with Bush's visit Thursday through Saturday.
September 12, 2005 Toronto Star
	The fleeting charm of free trade -- The signs are scattered and tentative. But it's beginning to look as if American-style free trade is going out of style. ... But the appeal of bilateral and regional trade pacts ˜ like the one Canada signed with the U.S. in 1988 and the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1993 ˜ is definitely fading.
August 04, 2005 CommonDreams.org
	Next Stop Post-CAFTA: Summit of the Americas -- Latin American social movements are preparing the largest mobilization of the year at the Summit, under the banner of "Bush out of our territory!" With themes of "No to the FTAA, free trade, debt, militarization and poverty" and "Yes to People's Integration: Another America is Possible," trade unions, women's groups, Indigenous peoples, anti-debt activists, farmers, church members, and others will organize a parallel People's Summit in Mar del Plata from November 1st - 5th. Crucial to the success of the People's Summit will be the participation of US social movement activists with whom Latin Americans can build long-lasting bridges of solidarity and strategy against militarism, free trade, and debt, as well as envision an alternative integration based on people's human needs, not corporate greed.
July 05, 2005 Reuters
	Chavez says Americas trade plan 'should be buried' -- U.S. efforts to create a free trade zone in the Americas have failed and "should be buried," Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday. The left-wing leader, a fierce critic of the policies of the United States, Venezuela's main oil client, has lobbied against the U.S.-proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas. He has portrayed Washington's plan as an attempt to impose U.S. economic and political dominance over weaker Latin American economies.
May 15, 2005 Global Exchange
	A Decade’s Struggle Ends in Victory -- The proposed FTAA was launched on the footsteps of NAFTA ten years ago. But the world has changed significantly since 1994. But Latin America has changed significantly from ten years ago. There is now a wealth of experience with the impact of the ‘free trade’ model; the wave of progressive governments in Latin America is growing; and the social movements of the hemisphere have gotten organized and united like never before. At the same time, new challenges and pro-corporate assaults have recently arisen, particularly the degeneration of the FTAA into bilaterals with Central America and the Andean nations.
April 20, 2005 Associated Press
	Brazil's Silva says free trade zone "off the agenda" for South America's largest economy -- SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) - Clinching a deal for a 34-nation free trade zone that would stretch from Alaska to Argentina is "off the agenda" for Brazil, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Wednesday.
January 31, 2005 The Nation
	A Fight We Can Win -- The results of the last election of 2004 could foretell the first serious defeat for the Bush Administration's agenda in the new Congress. That's bad news for the White House, which is aware of the close divide in Congress over trade issues but which desperately wants to get CAFTA approved this year. The Administration signed CAFTA last May, but had to delay the required consideration by Congress because it did not want a trade debate to blow up before the election.
January 25, 2005 International Relations Center
	Bush Administration Must Reassess Relations with Latin America -- In her January 18 confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sec. of State-designate Condoleezza Rice asserted that the Western Hemisphere is “extremely critical” to the United States. “With our close neighbors in Latin America we are working to realize the vision of a fully democratic hemisphere bound by common values and free trade.” While it’s heartening to see that Latin America has made it onto the map of the Bush administration’s foreign policy, there is little reason to expect policy toward the region to change or deepen in the next four years. More likely, with all eyes on the Middle East , the region will remain an arena for ad hoc crisis intervention, with Cuba and Colombia as opposite focal points.
November 22, 2004 Miami Herald
	FTAA One Year Later: Stalled Trade Negotiations -- A year after a hectic hemispheric trade summit in Miami -- crowned by a political compromise to keep the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas on track -- regional trade negotiations have gone nowhere and key countries are straining to revamp the process.
September 27, 2004 Miami Herald
	FTAA talks at impasse over farm trade issues -- Only three months before a formal deadline expires for completing talks for a Free Trade Area of the Americas, negotiators are struggling over how to revive the endeavor. The nine trade negotiating committees in the FTAA have not met all year, and the Trade Negotiating Committee consisting of deputy trade ministers suspended talks in February after failing to draw up a framework for negotiating a common set of rights and obligations under the FTAA.
July 29, 2004 Reuters
	Guatemala Farm Rape Clouds Free Trade Debate -- GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - The rape of a teen-age girl on a Guatemalan coffee farm is raising doubts about the Central American country's ability to clean up its labor record and win U.S congressional support for a free trade agreement...Amnesty International says the rape was a warning to dissuade union members from pushing for compensation from the farm owners and U.S. Rep. Sander Levin, a Democrat from Michigan, called the anti-union atmosphere in Guatemala unacceptable.
June 15, 2004 MSNBC
	Latin America's Stunted Growth -- Latin America is headed toward an unhappy anniversary: 25 years of failed attempts at economic growth. The world has no comparable period of failure anywhere else in at least the last century, including the Great Depression.
June 03, 2004 Miami Herald
	Panel faults police during FTAA -- A draft report by the Miami-Dade Independent Review Panel was highly critical of police response to protests during last year's Free Trade Area of the Americas conference in Miami.
June 01, 2004 Race, Poverty, and the Environment
	Strategies from the South -- If global justice advocates are to achieve our goal of stopping the FTAA, we must strengthen our alliances across the continent. We must work together with our partners in Latin America, and share information and organizing strategies. We must integrate the movements against corporate globalization with domestic struggles for economic justice and community empowerment. We must envision, develop, and promote alternatives with the same fervor that we oppose the current model. And as U.S. citizens, we must defend democracy in those countries, such as Venezuela, where our own government seeks to destabilize it—precisely because of their governments’ social and economic justice policies.
April 28, 2004 Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
	Venezuelan activist attacks globalization -- Last weekend, a political hurricane blew through Minnesota, and left behind a message of resistance and revolution. On April 17, Jesus 'Chucho" Garcia, a human rights activist from Venezuela, delivered a speech at the Sabathani Community Center in South Minneapolis tracing the history of devastation caused by globalization.
April 20, 2004 New York Times
	Europe and South America Near Trade Accord -- South America's biggest economies moved a step closer on Monday to sealing a long-sought trade deal with the European Union, a shift that could complicate efforts to forge a free trade area stretching from Alaska to Argentina by the end of the year.
April 02, 2004 Miami Herald
	FTAA '05 deadline in jeopardy -- Efforts to revive the stalled negotiations for a Free Trade Area of the Americas failed for the third time in two months Thursday, jeopardizing the year-end deadline for completing an agreement for a 34-nation trading bloc... In a sign of deepening discord, regional trade officials ended informal talks in Buenos Aires without agreeing on a date for the next round of negotiations.
March 10, 2004 Associated Press
	Hemisphere-wide free trade talks hit snag, formal negotiations delayed -- The Bush administration's goal of creating a hemisphere-wide free trade area by 2005 was set back Wednesday as deadlocked officials were forced to postpone a formal negotiating session for a month... It marked the second time this year the FTAA negotiations have failed to make progress. An earlier meeting in Puebla among all 34 nations ended in deadlock on Feb. 6 after the countries were unable to resolve disputes over U.S. farm subsidies.
February 06, 2004 Associated Press
	Talks on a free trade accord of the Americas end without reaching agreement -- Deputy ministers from 34 nations in the Americas failed to reach agreement Friday on a framework for the Free Trade Area of the Americas, unable to overcome differences on the contentious issue of U.S. farm subsidies. ...After four days of meetings in this colonial city 65 miles southeast of Mexico's capital, some South American countries accused the United States of failing to yield on all-important farming subsidies...."The negotiations have reached an impasse ... we have not agreed on any text," said Argentine negotiator Martin Redrado.
February 04, 2004 Hemispheric Social Alliance
	Puebla is the new Cancún: Popular Pressure Triumphs -- Social pressure throughout the continent succeeded in preventing some governments from making the kinds of concessions that their people reject. The Puebla TNC ends with a reaffirmation that the contradictions that derailed the WTO in Cancún are the same as those that are derailing the FTAA. ...These differences prevented agreement on the most basic level of commitments for all countries. Negotiators tried everything – private meetings, procedural changes, withdrawing points that met strong opposition – but nothing worked. The meeting ends with only vague agreements on the least important issues, with the important exception of investment, where there is consensus only on including transparency rules.
January 29, 2004 Reuters
	Anti-FTAA activists plan protests to kill pact -- HAVANA (Reuters) - Anti-free trade activists called on Thursday for hemisphere-wide protests against the U.S.-backed Free Trade Area of the Americas and U.S. President Bush. Andean Indians, landless Brazilians and Canadian postal workers were among more than 1,000 peasant, labor union and student activists from 32 countries who drew up a plan of action to "defeat the FTAA" at a four-day meeting in Cuba. ...The first protest is set for March 20 to coincide with world demonstrations against the U.S. invasion of Iraq called by an anti-globalization meeting in Bombay last week. Other protests are planned for April 24, to mark the 60th anniversary of the IMF and the World Bank, and Aug 29, on the eve of the Republican National Convention in New York, when activists plan to demonstrate against Bush outside U.S. embassies in their countries.
January 15, 2004 The Nation
	NAFTA at 10 -- Ten years ago, the North American Free Trade Agreement was sold to the people of the United States, Mexico and Canada as a simple treaty eliminating tariffs on goods crossing the three countries' borders. But NAFTA is much more: It is the constitution of an emerging continental economy that recognizes one citizen--the business corporation.
January 14, 2004 Los Angeles Times
	The Americas' New Left Challenges Bush -- Nearly half of Latin America's 524 million people are poor, and they increasingly elect leftist leaders willing to stand up to the United States. Led by Venezuela and Brazil, the summit rejected a U.S. bid to reaffirm a year-end deadline for negotiating a free- trade zone from Alaska to Argentina -- the hemisphere's most ambitious project of the last decade. ... One Latin American official said privately that Bush was on shaky moral ground in wanting to punish entire countries for corruption after scandals in recent years over corporate wrongdoing in the United States.
January 06, 2004 New York Times
	Second Thoughts on Free Trade -- We are concerned that the United States may be entering a new economic era in which American workers will face direct global competition at almost every job level — from the machinist to the software engineer to the Wall Street analyst. Any worker whose job does not require daily face-to-face interaction is now in jeopardy of being replaced by a lower-paid, equally skilled worker thousands of miles away. American jobs are being lost not to competition from foreign companies, but to multinational corporations, often with American roots, that are cutting costs by shifting operations to low-wage countries.
January 06, 2004 New York Times
	The Broken Promise of Nafta -- In the long run, while particular special-interest groups may benefit from such an unfair trade treaty, America's national interests — in having stable and prosperous neighbors — are not well served. Already, the manner in which the United States is bullying the weaker countries of Central and South America into accepting its terms is generating enormous resentment. If these trade agreements do no better for them than Nafta has done for Mexico, then both peace and prosperity in the hemisphere will be at risk.

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