Peru on the verge of indefinite strike against the FTA
Lima, July 3 (Prensa Latina) - Today Peruvians are threatening an imminent agrarian strike in protest of the country's congressional ratification of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States, which they consider detrimental to national interests.
Various sectors in Lima, as well as the southern district of Cuzco and other regions of the country, will join peasants tomorrow in an official rejection of the agreement with Washington, which is predicted to affect the immense majority of Peruvian agricultural workers.
"Unfortunately, we have to stop working to flood the streets and say NO to the FTA. We have decided to take part in this type of political influence," stated Miguel Farfan, secretary general of the Tupac Amaru Agrarian Federation of Cuzco.
The strike was announced in the middle of last week by Antolin Huascar, president of the National Coordinating Committee of the anti-FTA fight/National Agrarian Confederation, after leading protests through the capital that reached Congressional Headquarters.
In addition to our protests he continued, we are bringing the case to the Constitutional Tribunal asking that they declare the FTA ratification illegal. This could occur in 60 days, according to legal experts.
Congressman and ex-presidential candidate Javier Diez Canseco also joined the proposal to have the text of the trade agreement declared unconstitutional.
"The path towards the Constitutional Tribunal is still open," said Diez Canseco. He also mentioned other means of opposing the agreement, which included large-scale protests, a call for re-negotiation, and asking that the approval process be revised.
"The struggle will continue until we regain our dignity, because with the FTA, we have lost our sovereignty, which makes Toledo and his ministers of agriculture (Manuel Manrique) and exterior commerce (Alfredo Ferrero) traitors," noted Huascar.
The text, which is called "The Agreement to Promote Peru-US Trade", signed in Washington DC on April 12th , relied on legislative reports from the Committee of Foreign Commerce and the Committee of Exterior Relations.
The FTA negotiations between Peru and the United States concluded bilaterally on December 7, 2005 after 13 rounds of negotiation that began in May 2004, and included Ecuador and Colombia.
Meanwhile, on January 6th, 2006, US president George W. Bush notified congress of his intent to sign the Agreement with Peru.