BY FRANCISCO PICADO AND SEBASTIAN O'GRADY
MANAGUA, Nicaragua - Even in those Latin American
countries where the economy is expanding, said Cuban
leader Jorge Lezcano, "poverty is growing and every day
the difference between rich and poor and between those
who have everything and those who have nothing is
greater."
Lezcano, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba, was speaking before 300 delegates at the opening session of the Fifth Meeting of the Peoples of the Americas and the Caribbean, held here July 15-18. The gathering drew representatives of political parties, community groups, student associations, labor unions, environmental groups, and women's organizations, among others.
"Infant mortality is rising in all of Latin America," Lezcano noted. "Malnutrition is increasing and 20 percent of the population has no access to potable water."
"We need a common front against neoliberalism," Lezcano said, referring to capitalist government policies that have opened up semicolonial economies to freer imperialist investment while attacking the wages and jobs of working people. As one step to fight the ravages of the worldwide capitalist economic crisis, Lezcano proposed "retaking the banner for the cancellation of the foreign debt, because it is immoral and unpayable."
Lezcano said the foreign debt owed by the governments of Latin America to imperialist banks had grown by more than $100 billion since the first meeting of this regional conference in 1988. The total Latin American debt now stands at $533 billion, more than double what it was in 1980.
The conference this year was considerably smaller than the one held last year in Havana, which was attended by 1,200 people. Delegates and observers were registered from 26 countries, the largest delegations coming from Ecuador and El Salvador. Many participants were international political activists who currently live in Nicaragua.
Left-wing political parties and a wide variety of community and social organizations were present. Also attending were officials from several trade unions such as the banana workers in Honduras, farm workers in Nicaragua, telecommunications workers in El Salvador, public employees in Panama, and landless peasants in Brazil.
Many delegates described government attacks on social security, health care, and democratic rights in the countries in which they live. Jorge Gambino, from the Argentine Communist Party, discussed the "tequila affect," the economic shock waves that hit Argentina and other Latin American nations following the near collapse of the Mexican peso last December.
A number of participants pointed to Cuba as an example for the fight against the effects of this social crisis. "Cuba shows there is an alternative model to the neoliberal policies," the economic resolution stated.
The conference demanded the repeal of the Cuban Democracy Act and condemned the Helms-Burton bill being discussed in the U.S. Congress - measures tightening Washington's embargo on the island. Delegates called for more actions and protest messages demanding the lifting of the U.S. embargo and for backing international actions in solidarity with Cuba around the October 10 anniversary of the start of the Cuban War of Independence in 1868. A resolution submitted by a U.S. delegate urged participation in the August 1-7 international youth festival in Havana.
A delegate from the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front of El Salvador told the Militant that it was sending a delegation of 50 to the youth festival. Roger Grijalba, international relations director for the Sandinista Youth of Nicaragua, said 25 Nicaraguans will be attending.
Throughout the four-day long conference, participants exchanged experiences and ideas on how to combat the crisis. The Puerto Rican delegation, which included long- time independence fighters such as Rafael Cancel Miranda, actively promoted the fight to free Puerto Rican political prisoners in U.S. jails.
Some delegations pointed to upcoming elections as the main way to move forward. One of the main backers of this view was the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), which held a special workshop where its delegates asserted the organization would win Nicaragua's 1996 presidential elections in "alliance with other groups." At the final session the FSLN won inclusion of a statement of support for its election campaign.
FSLN leader Daniel Ortega spoke at the closing session. "With the fall of the countries of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, something that favors humanity fell," Ortega stated. "And this leaves us in a worse position."
Referring to the situation in Nicaragua, Ortega complained that "it is difficult for the police, because they have to repress the workers and they call them criminals and traitors." Ortega concluded by pledging to "continue to struggle from this small grain of sand to transform the world."
A group of several dozen Nicaraguan peasants attended the closing session of the conference. They are occupying land belonging to the University of Central America and arrived in Managua to demand title to the land.
The plenary rejected a proposal by the Costa Rican delegation, which submitted a paragraph omitting mention of the fight against imperialism. Instead, delegates adopted a paragraph declaring that these continental conferences will continue to be an open, unified forum against the "neoliberal" policies of U.S. imperialism.
The conference voted overwhelmingly to hold next year's conference in Mexico, to be hosted by the Party of the Democratic Revolution and the Workers Party of that country.