[www-pt] EU TRADUZO - BID e Plano Puebla Panamá

[Olivia Cappi]

>Por favor traduzir. É um texto bem interessante sobre o BID e o PPP. Após a 
>tradução o texto será publicado na página.
>
>Saúde
>
>Felipe
>
>*********
>
>THE INTERAMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK AND THE PLAN PUEBLA PANAMA
>
>
>The Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) will meet in Milano, March 24-26, 
>2003.  Among many socially and environmentally destructive projects on the 
>IDB’s agenda, the Plan Puebla Panama (PPP) is perhaps one of the most 
>devastating.
>
>What is the Plan Puebla Panama?
>
>The Plan Puebla Panama (PPP) is a mega project that seeks to open up the 
>southern half of Mexico and Central America to private foreign investment 
>and to
>establish a firm foundation for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
>
>Essentially the PPP will create development corridors from the 9 southern 
>Mexican states (starting with Puebla and including Chiapas), through all of 
>the seven Central American Republics ending in Panama. The PPP will create 
>an elaborate infrastructure of ports, highways, airports, and railways 
>aimed to connect the development of the petroleum, energy, sweatshop, and 
>agricultural industries. While the PPP's proponents assert that its main 
>objective is to improve the quality of life for area inhabitants, critics 
>of the Plan see it as
>an attempt to exploit the abundant, cheap labor force and precious natural 
>resources in order to attract foreign investment eager to reap the benefits 
>of an area stricken with poverty and rich in biodiversity.
>
>What are the Impacts of the Plan Puebla Panama?
>
>Sweatshops
>Maquiladoras, factories in which low paid workers assemble import component 
>parts for re-export, will be strategically placed throughout the region.  
>In maquiladoras health and safety requirements and labor rights, such as 
>the freedom of workers to organise, are laxly enforced or not at all.  Nor 
>do maquiladoras comply with other requirements, such as using locally-made 
>goods as inputs, or transferring technology to the host country. 
>Maquiladoras de-link production from the host country's needs, and respond 
>exclusively to the needs of the MNCs that set them up.
>
>As a likely result, there will be mass migration to areas concentrated with 
>maquiladoras where transnational corporations historically pay unlivable 
>wages. Furthermore, international trade law and unilateral corporate 
>agreements include loopholes that exempt transnational corporations from 
>national labour and environmental laws. The lack of environmental and 
>labour regulations coupled with unlivable wages, will guarantee that 
>transnational corporations reap the benefit while the social and cultural 
>fabric of small communities is dismantled.
>
>Highway Construction
>One of the primary components of the PPP is highway construction. Two major 
>corridors are to be built, running roughly from the Texas-Mexico border, 
>around the Gulf of Mexico, to the Yucatán peninsula, with spurs leading 
>into Belize, Guatemala and into Honduras. The other is a Pacific coast 
>route that will run from Mexico City into Guatemala, and through Central 
>America into Panama.  Approximately 84% of the money invested in the PPP is 
>intended for highway construction.
>
>Dam Construction
>A total of 25 dams are planned for the region that will generate the energy 
>needed for greater industrialization of Central America and to supply the 
>US energy market. This aspect harbours the greatest threat for indigenous 
>people in the area, due to the flooding of thousands of acres of presently 
>inhabited land and the destruction of archeological sites, old-growth 
>forests and indigenous communities and cities.
>
>Environmental Degradation
>The exploitation of primary materials (minerals, timber, petroleum,
>biodiversity, and water) is another strong component of the PPP.  Many 
>organizations have warned that the PPP will lead to further environmental 
>degradation due to the planned deforestation, overexploitation of natural 
>resources, inefficient laws, and extreme poverty.
>
>Exploitation of Biodiversity
>The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor (MBC), a central component of the PPP 
>and a pet project of the World Bank, links various biologically rich and 
>diverse patches of territory throughout the PPP region. Although defended 
>on ecological arguments regarding the need to ensure gene pools and protect 
>territory for diverse animals and plants, the corridors will be opened up 
>for exploitation by pharmaceutical and seed companies, seeking to patent 
>new biological matter, as well as privatise ecosystems such as water.
>
>One of the major bioengineering and seed companies in the world, Pulsar, 
>already has signed agreements with Conservation International to work 
>jointly in the Lacandón jungle in Chiapas. CI is a supposed environmental 
>NGO, whose 27-member board of directors harbors CEOs from giant 
>corporations such as Navigation Technologies Corporation, Eagle River Inc. 
>(a telecom holding), Hyatt Development Corporation, First Philippine 
>Holding Corporation (gas and electricity conglomerate), USA Networks, among 
>others.
>
>Indigenous Communities
>As a result of the many infrastructure projects of the PPP, many campesino 
>and indigenous communities will be displaced from traditional and customary 
>land.  The PPP area has around a hundred distinct ethnic groups, the 
>majority of which have not heard of the projects.
>
>Who Will Benefit from the Plan Puebla Panama?
>
>The PPP seeks to create basic infrastructure, or improve that which exists, 
>in an effort to entice large corporations into investing in the area. The 
>improvements in infrastructure would essentially boost corporate profits; 
>for example, road improvements would greatly ease the movement of goods in 
>and out of the region. This would be in addition to the usual government 
>giveaways to corporations: free land on which to build factories, free 
>utilities and tax holidays for decades, government-financed training of the 
>workforce, and other perks. Yet the costs for these projects would be 
>borne, to a large degree, by the people of the countries involved, either 
>through direct taxpayer payments, or through loans taken out by 
>participating countries that will eventually be repaid through taxpayer 
>contributions.
>
>As US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said with startling frankness
>about the related FTAA, “Our objective with the FTAA is to assure for 
>American corporations control of a territory that runs from the North Pole 
>to the Antarctica, free access, without any hindrance or difficulty for our 
>products, services, technology and capital through the hemisphere.”*
>
>How Much Will the PPP Cost and Who is Supporting It?
>
>The PPP is currently budgeted at US$10 billion, but some sources place the 
>figure at US$25 billion.
>
>Principal lenders are the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB), the World 
>Bank, the European Union, the Andean Development Corporation (CAF), the 
>Central American Integration Bank (BCIE), and development agencies of the 
>US, Japan, Spain and other countries. Some countries will use taxpayer 
>funds to create or improve PPP infrastructure. Private companies have also 
>begun to underwrite certain infrastructure costs, but with the intent of 
>getting in on the action early in order to corner the market. One example 
>is found within the energy interconnection component. This plan will link 
>the energy grids of Mexico and Central America, and is slated to cost 
>US$405 million. The Spanish energy company ENDESA is putting in US$45.8 
>million and in so doing becomes a co-owner of the network.
>
>Who Is Challenging the Plan Puebla Panama?
>
>Since the announcement of the PPP, hundreds of organizations and 
>communities have formed campaigns of resistance.  In the past year and a 
>half there have been three regional encounters on the PPP that have brought 
>people together from Mexico, Central America and other parts of the world. 
>These events have been held in Chiapas, Mexico (March 2001), Guatemala 
>(November 2001), and Nicaragua (July 2002). A fourth such encounter is 
>scheduled for Honduras in March 2003. Attendance at the events has grown 
>from over 300 participants in Chiapas to over 1,200 in Nicaragua, 
>representing over 400 organizations.  In addition, many communities are 
>designing their own alternative development plans
>to challenge the PPP.
>
>
>
>
>
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