Mass demonstration against the FTAA
 in Miami

WASHINGTON.—It is estimated that more than 30,000 people are to march in Miami in protest against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) negotiations, PL reports.

In the run up to the meeting, hundreds of demonstrators organized an initial protest outside the venue of the FTAA ministerial summit in Miami, surrounded by police in show of force in marked contrast with the peaceful atmosphere of the rally.

Meanwhile, police agents from various parts of the country arrived in Miami to reinforce the mass presence of the forces of repression in the city, leaving its center surrounded like a fortress.

In the meeting of treasury or finance ministers meeting in that Florida city from today, the United States will no longer press its FTAA project in its entirety, which covers the free transit of capital, tenders of the same kind for state purchases, subjection to courts beyond national borders but totally excluding subsidies on products or merchandise.

Given the irreconcilable contradictions between the United States and certain Latin American countries, the former has decided to make the process of establishing the FTAA more flexible in order to avoid talk of failure. Thus each nation can enter into negotiations with another, or in groups on areas of interest to them.

As the U.S. negotiators cannot impose en bloc the issues that only suit them,

they have had recourse to this variant, which would not compromise countries to the same degree, although they have strongly intensified their offensive in search of bilateral negotiations.

Thus highly controversial issues such as agricultural subsidies, patent protections and copyrights, and investment can be avoided.

Nonetheless, the Miami meeting is being heavily boycotted by sectors opposed to this neo-annexationist monster, joined by numerous Latin American and Caribbean emigrants resident in the state of Florida.