Latin America Marks 16 Years Since the Defeat of the FTAA

This November 5 marks 16 years since the defeat of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) at the Mar del Plata Summit, which represented a setback for the United States and its geopolitical ambitions in the region.

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Former Bolivian President Evo Morales, who is visiting Argentina for the presentation of the book “Evo: Operation Rescue. A geopolitical plot in 365 days," will participate this Friday in an event to commemorate the anniversary of the defeat of the FTAA.

The event will take place at the General Güemes Municipal Park, in Avellaneda, Buenos Aires, and is organized by the Argentine Central Workers' Union. 

Former Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, who the day before attended the launching of the book on the operation to get Evo out of Bolivia alive, after the coup d'état of November 2019, is also expected to participate. 

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro recalled the anniversary on Thursday. In a message disseminated on Twitter, the Bolivarian leader expressed that “the Great Homeland remembers the Giants Chávez, Lula, Tabaré and Kirchner, 16 years ago, when at the Summit of the Americas they defeated the FTAA, a U.S. attempt to recolonize the peoples of America. We will continue to defend dignity and self-determination,” he said.

So did Correa, who recalled that much time has passed since that historic phrase from former President Hugo Chávez: “FTAA, to hell with it."

Correa pointed out that the current challenges are many and that there is a right-wing plan aimed at destroying the leaders of the center-left in the region, in complicity with the justice system and the communication monopolies.

In this regard, Correa warned about the onslaught against heads of state and former presidents in the continent, which in his opinion is a new version of the Condor Plan and has as its two main allies the mass media and judicial persecution.

Other personalities have recalled those days, when progressive Latin American leaders refused to sign a treaty that foresaw commercial impositions of interest to the United States and elite economic groups. Its expressed purposes were to deepen dependence on foreign capital, capital flight, the unequal distribution of wealth and other harmful socioeconomic consequences.

Following that decision, popular and leftist movements in Venezuela, Bolivia, Paraguay, Ecuador, Nicaragua and El Salvador, among others, experienced a political boost. Caracas joined the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), and the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) was created. Shortly after, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) was also born.