The meeting, which took place after a decade of work by this network and after a year of the Honduran coup d´etat, dealt with issues such as the close link between the new debt conditions for the region, the advance of free trade agreements signed or under negotiation with the US and the European Union, and the damaging effects of the environmental, social, historic, cultural and climate debts.

In addition to carrying out permanent analysis and raising awareness on the historic causes of the debt of the countries of the South as a domination mechanism, the Regional Assembly decided to “continue rejecting all forms of the so-called “relief” of the debt, that imply new conditions, debts and commitments based on the expropriation of our natural resources by the Northern countries and their International Financial Institutions”.

In addition, this network of organizations present in ten countries of Latin America and the Caribbean ratified the promotion to participatory debt audits, welcoming the ones carried out in Ecuador, Brazil and by Paraguay and Brazil in the case of the Itaipú mega-dam.

With reference to this, Sandra Quintelo, representative of Jubilee South- Americas, said in an interview with Real World Radio that the first step to understand this is to understand that the public debt is not only an economic situation, but that it hides a domination mechanism. The fact that societies recognize themselves as creditors is an essential part of the process.

“The ones who are paying this debt are workers, because when the public budget is cut to pay the debt, education, health, agrarian reform policies and many others are also cut.”, said Sandra.

The activists gathered in Managua also ratified their rejection to the illegitimate government of Porfirio Lobo in Honduras. They also reject the military occupation in Haiti after the earthquake suffered in January, and the economic blockade to Cuba that has been exerted for the past five decades.

“We support the struggle of the Cuban people against the blockade, a struggle that inspires us to keep fighting for the right to have dreams and live in a dignified way”, said the Brazilian activist.

Photo: www.movimientos.org