Hundreds of indigenous people from southwestern Mexico are heading for Cancun to protest the upcoming meeting of the 146-nation World Trade Organisation (WTO), which they say favours the rich over the poor.
”We’re heading for Cancun so the owners of world power can hear our voice of protest,” indigenous leader Jose Martinez told several Mexican radio stations.
He said 350 people on Monday boarded buses at villages in southwestern Chiapas state, stronghold of the Zapatista National Liberation Army that rose up in 1994 to defend the interests of millions of marginalised indigenous people.
”In the name of Zapatismo, we’re telling the WTO, the multinationals, the International Monetary Fund and the United States that they are harming the farmers and poor people of the world,” Martinez said.
Halfway around the world, a similar protest took place in Bangkok on Tuesday. More than 1 000 Thai farmers and activists took to the streets to rail against the WTO and new agriculture deals proposed by the US and Europe to be debated in Cancun.
World trade ministers were set to launch a fresh bid on Wednesday to rescue WTO trade liberalisation talks, but officials have warned that there may be little significant headway made at the September 10 to 14 meeting.
The WTO has come under growing pressure to tackle festering problems in the global agricultural sector, in particular generous subsidies in the West, which hurt the competitivity of products, like cotton, sugar or coffee, from developing countries.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told US President George Bush by phone on Monday: ”Without meaningful progress on agricultural negotiations, it will not be possible to advance in other areas.” — Sapa-AFP