HAVANA - Nearly 1,000 opponents of a U.S.-backed, hemisphere-wide trade accord have called on activists across the region to promote plebiscites in their individual countries on the Free Trade Area for the Americas.
Delegates to the anti-free trade conference meeting in Havana said people across the Western Hemisphere should have a say in whether their nations join the agreement U.S. President George W. Bush hopes to have in place by 2005.
"Our America is not for sale," read a statement delegates approved before ending their four-day gathering Thursday night. The statement complained of "the calamities that neoliberalism has caused to fall on our people."
President Fidel Castro, who fiercely opposes the FTAA, told delegates Wednesday that the proposed trade agreement was an attempt by the United States to economically "annex" their countries.
Evo Morales, leader of Bolivia's coca farmers, Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Argentine Nobel Peace laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel were also at the gathering.
Morales, leader of Bolivia's coca farmers, earlier in the week called on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and Presidents-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Lucio Gutierrez of Ecuador to reject the FTAA.
The transition team for Silva has said that the future Brazilian president will not back the proposed agreement without concessions from Washington.
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