South American Politics and Fair Trade
It is facinating watching things unfold down here after being in the States and having little information about current affairs in other parts of the world for so long. When I was in Venezuela back in 1996, Chavez was just beginning to campaign and it was difficult to tell what would happen. He seemed extreme, but that seemed like a good thing. Venezuela needed help desperately. Of course now we know much more about his politics and there is a lot I don´t agree with, but there are many things I think are great.
Among the things I like are his efforts to get South American countries to work together against free trade with the rest of the world. The more time I spend down here, the more I appreciate the discussions on this topic that he has started. I was most excited in Bolivia, where Evo Morales is now president. An indigenous guy with a background in coca farming, he has been working closely with Chavez and recently nationalized Bolivia´s gas industry. This was a huge deal for Bolivians, many of whom have fought for this for years. Evo has also lowered his own salary, which forced down the salaries of many other government employees (because nobody can make more than the president). It is amazing to see a politician down here keeping some of their campaign promises, although it seems like this is much more of a possibility in Bolivia where the public will hold you accountable. I don´t think I have any been anywhere so politicized.
My experience in Bolivia contrasts with my experience in Peru, which had its presidential election on June 4th. Like most elections down here recently, one candidate was united with Chavez and the other with Bush (more or less). In the Peruvian case, these two sides represented really different political ideas. Ollanta, the candidate alligned with Chavez, spoke against the TLC (Peru´s free trade agreement with the US) and talked about decreasing the prevalence of foreign-owned businesses in Peru. Garcia, who has now won the presidency, has already served one presidential term during which there was unprecedented corruption and has a relatively status quo platform, maintaining that Peru needs to cooperate with the US. However, he sucessfully painted Ollanta as a militant extremist. Regardless, the race was really close- roughly 45% Ollanta to 52% Garcia- and that is with mandatory elections. People down here might be realizing slowly that free trade with the US is a new form of colonization.
However, I´m not sure how many farmers are figuring this out. Of course this isn´t that surprsing given how disempowered they usually are. I spent my last week in Peru in Montero, a small town in Piura state, staying on an organic coffee and sugar farm that is part of an Equal Exchange cooperative. It was a beautiful spot and the family that I stayed with was incredible. It was great learning about how their co-op works, but a little surprising too. I had always assumed that fair trade means a higher profit for farmers, but in this case it just means that farmers are given a stable price- one that doesn´t go up and down with the international market. That is something- but just not as great as I thought. I also expected these farmers to be interacting with the Peruvian market at least a little, but no. They are focused entirely on exporting.
I´ve now been in Ecuador about a week and it has been great- amazing weather and beautiful green hills everywhere. The most astonishing ag-related observation is the number of greenhouses- they are everywhere and some are located in super unlikely places such as extremely steep hillsides. I´ve been told that the majority are cut-flowers for exportation. I´ve also heard some very sad stories of lukemia deaths linked to pesticide run-off from flower and tomato farms. Hopefully the fair trade and organic movements can continue growing and influence farming practices down here.
I am convinced that we (affluent folks in the US and Canada) are the best situated to make this change occur by voting with our dollar every time with shop.
Among the things I like are his efforts to get South American countries to work together against free trade with the rest of the world. The more time I spend down here, the more I appreciate the discussions on this topic that he has started. I was most excited in Bolivia, where Evo Morales is now president. An indigenous guy with a background in coca farming, he has been working closely with Chavez and recently nationalized Bolivia´s gas industry. This was a huge deal for Bolivians, many of whom have fought for this for years. Evo has also lowered his own salary, which forced down the salaries of many other government employees (because nobody can make more than the president). It is amazing to see a politician down here keeping some of their campaign promises, although it seems like this is much more of a possibility in Bolivia where the public will hold you accountable. I don´t think I have any been anywhere so politicized.
My experience in Bolivia contrasts with my experience in Peru, which had its presidential election on June 4th. Like most elections down here recently, one candidate was united with Chavez and the other with Bush (more or less). In the Peruvian case, these two sides represented really different political ideas. Ollanta, the candidate alligned with Chavez, spoke against the TLC (Peru´s free trade agreement with the US) and talked about decreasing the prevalence of foreign-owned businesses in Peru. Garcia, who has now won the presidency, has already served one presidential term during which there was unprecedented corruption and has a relatively status quo platform, maintaining that Peru needs to cooperate with the US. However, he sucessfully painted Ollanta as a militant extremist. Regardless, the race was really close- roughly 45% Ollanta to 52% Garcia- and that is with mandatory elections. People down here might be realizing slowly that free trade with the US is a new form of colonization.
However, I´m not sure how many farmers are figuring this out. Of course this isn´t that surprsing given how disempowered they usually are. I spent my last week in Peru in Montero, a small town in Piura state, staying on an organic coffee and sugar farm that is part of an Equal Exchange cooperative. It was a beautiful spot and the family that I stayed with was incredible. It was great learning about how their co-op works, but a little surprising too. I had always assumed that fair trade means a higher profit for farmers, but in this case it just means that farmers are given a stable price- one that doesn´t go up and down with the international market. That is something- but just not as great as I thought. I also expected these farmers to be interacting with the Peruvian market at least a little, but no. They are focused entirely on exporting.
I´ve now been in Ecuador about a week and it has been great- amazing weather and beautiful green hills everywhere. The most astonishing ag-related observation is the number of greenhouses- they are everywhere and some are located in super unlikely places such as extremely steep hillsides. I´ve been told that the majority are cut-flowers for exportation. I´ve also heard some very sad stories of lukemia deaths linked to pesticide run-off from flower and tomato farms. Hopefully the fair trade and organic movements can continue growing and influence farming practices down here.
I am convinced that we (affluent folks in the US and Canada) are the best situated to make this change occur by voting with our dollar every time with shop.
posted by Hannah Cavendish-Palmer at 6:59 PM
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