Plan Puebla Panama - a Template for Domination, Injustice and Hemispheric Plunder

"It is sad to have to leave the country because there is not a just system within which people can find work." Archbishop Oscar Romero, 3 September 1978

The global economy, with its huge disparities between rich and poor nations, replicates itself as a system within nations and even within divisions of nations such as states, departments and cities. In that richest of cities, New York City, in that richest of nations, the United States, one can experience the environment of wealth beyond measure and abject poverty, from midtown Manhattan to the Bronx. Within the United States, there are significant parts of the population that live in poverty, neglected in a nation whose consumption is unrivalled in human history.

El Salvador, linked as it is to US capital, the US dollar, and US culture, has developed in a similar fashion. The obvious gaps in wealth between sectors of the population are enormous today, and have been enormous throughout the nation’s history. Development occurs to concentrate further the wealth in the richest sectors of the population, and leave the 50% who live in poverty to struggle for their lives. The proliferation of fast food restaurants, highways, traffic, hiper malls, strip malls, and coffee bars are nurtured by the $3.7 billion dollars a year in remittances flowing south from the 3 million Salvadorans living and working in the US, and by the corporate investment trying to capture as many of those dollars as possible. This development does not reach the poor, except to make it more difficult for them to survive, as they have to compete with the flash and dazzle of this culture as they try to sell their wares in the informal economy. Nor does it build structures that will strengthen the internal economies of Salvadoran communities. This fast money development has created an economy of dependence, predation, exclusion and expulsion. It is development imposed from above, from the right, from the dominant culture that uses its capital to exploit the natural and human resources of the nation and the region. Although many are allowed to ride the wave of dollars created by the sweat equity of expatriots, half of the nation lives in poverty, and dreams of the flight north to employment..

This system is designed by the grand masters of capital quite explicitly to maintain corporate and cultural dominance of the nations of Central America. The plans to consolidate this control center on huge transportation, communications, and exploitation infrastructure development that will continue the template of development that will guarantee profits for generations. Our challenge is, first, to stop the plan that will destroy so much land and human resource as it is accomplished, and., second, to build a new model based on community investment, people to people investment that will recycle through communities and create jobs and wealth from within, in an organic and non-exploitative way. It is a daunting task, but there are many engaged in it. This brief article examines the top-down, dominant templates for development now underway in the Americas, and an effort also now underway to generate wealth from below, from within communities with people to people energy.

On January 24, 2008, President Tony Saca of El Salvador and President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras met in El Amatillo, a town on the border between their two countries, to perform that time honored political ritual of shoveling the first shovel of dirt, or placing the first stone or brick, on a public works project. Politcians never look comfortable in their suits, as they arm themselves with a shiny ceremonial tool, pretending to actually work.

Presidents Zelaya and Saca shovelling in the hot sun at the border in El Amatillo

(photo from PPP website) 

Zelaya and Saca were happy, however, to perform this ceremonial task, throwing the first shovels of dirt for the construction of a bridge that will facilitate traffic to connect their countries, because Japan was footing the entire bill, $11.5 million, for this Friendship Bridge (Puente de la Amistad). Japan also provided the design and technical support for the construction, which is scheduled to be done in 22 months.

Saca placed the project in perspective when he stated, "This project is furthermore the last piece of work to get done for the functioning of the dry canal, which is part of the regional project within the framework of Plan Pueblo Panama. (PPP)" (PPP website) Plan Puebla Panama is a plan that was officially enacted in March of 2004, in Managua, by representatives of the governments of Nicaragua, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama and El Salvador.

It is a comprehensive development plan for the region that includes highways, railroads, ports, telecommunications networks, energy distribution, disaster mitigation, dams and water management. It is designed to connect to the infrastructure proposed in the Canada, Mexico and United States agreement known as the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), or Alianza por la Seguridad y Prosperidad de America del Norte (ASPAN). In the US, a key element of the plan is a rail-highway-pipeline corridor along Interstate 35 from Laredo, Texas to Canada, at a crossing just north of Duluth, Minnesota. To the south, PPP will connect and interact with the projects of the Iniciative for the Integration of the Infrastructure of South America (IIRSA). The vision of these development plans is to connect the Americas in a smooth and contiguous fashion from its southern tip to Alaska, for the movement of goods and capital.

In El Salvador, the port at La Union, Cutuco, is being upgraded to handle big container ships, which will offload their freight and then have it moved across the isthmus 371 kilometers to the Caribbean port at Cortés, Honduras, by either rail or truck, crossing the border at El Amatillo. How convenient this connection will be for Japanese shipping to the eastern United States and Europe! But there will be more, as a rail-highway link is also planned from Acajutla, another Pacific port on the Salvadoran coast, across the isthmus to Puerto Barrios, Guatemala. A 318 kilometer highway is nearing completion along the northern tier of El Salvador, which will connect the cross-isthmus routes with another highway leading north, to Guatemala, then Mexico and the US.

On February 23, I attended a workship at the Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad (CIS) in El Salvador: "Infrastructure Megaprojects as Instruments for Regional Hegemonic Control". Raul Moreno, of the Sinti Techan Network (sinti techan means "corn people" in Náhuatl - see their website here: http://sintitechan.googlepages.com/home) gave the presentation, based on research he had done for a conference in Chaletenenango, El Salvador in November of 2007. Raul outlined the entire panorama of megaprojects and their implications for El Salvador and Central America.

Central America has one key asset for the world’s economic power centers in Europe, North America and Asia; its geography – it is a transit route for goods and services moving east to west. For the United States, it is also a gateway to South America. Therefore, these economic powers are eager to build ports, dry canal rail routes, and a highway network to carry their goods back and forth between the centers of economic power.

Here is a map shown by Raul Moreno in his presentation.  It indicates the web of development that is underway in the PPP.  There are 1829.7 km of roads planned, and an initial investment of $320 million.  

The other resources available include minerals, water, oil (in Mexico), biological diversity and the ability to exploit the markets of the region. For example, in El Salvador, the Canadian mining company Pacific Rim wants to develop a gold mine along the northern tier, in Chaletenango. The opposition has been strong in El Salvador, as the population, well aware of the current water crisis, is not going to welcome a corporation that would use a cyanide extraction method that would surely contaminate the region and threaten the ability of people to live on their land.

Raul pointed out the eight new dams planned for El Salvador on the Rio Lempa and Torola Rivers, on the route of the northern tier highway. He noted that control of the water resource is a key element in both PPP and ASPAN. The highways will have a water pipeline component built-in. The northamerican routes will be designed to facilitate the movement of water out of Canada, then to the east coast of the United States, where it could be shipped by tanker anywhere in the world. In El Salvador, water is a scarce commodity, and the economic control of the aquifers of the north will be an invaluable asset.

Raul was very clear, also, in pointing out the ongoing exploitation of the region’s biodiversity. Along the Caribbean through Central America, lies the Meso-American Biological Corridor. Its plants, animals and micro-organisms are already being extracted and controlled due to the legal mechanisms created by the Free Trade Agreements CAFTA and NAFTA.

The funding for these projects comes from the World Bank, the Interamerican Development Bank, and from consortia formed by the private corporations who are profitting from the development. The corporations who are cashing in include AES, Coastal, Constellation, Duke Energy, Enron, Union Fenosa, PPL. 85% of the funding is for roads, railways and ports.

The implementation of the Free Trade Agreements is a precondition for the investment underway through Plan Puebla Panama. These regressive treaties create a legal and banking framework that enables this network of exploitation. They are the can opener that opens markets, and provide an enforcement mechanism against any government that challenges the activities of the corporations.  

The poverty of Central America, in the midst of the resources available to create this web of development, is staggering. The dislocation, pollution and lack of employment persist as PPP goes forward. Its investment in the region will not help the poor, and is, in fact designed to trap them as they are expelled into migration, trying in desperation to follow the capital north, where there may be a job. In Mexico, there are nodes of maquilla entrapment planned well south of Texas, an artifical border to be crossed or avoided on the trip overland.  

What type of investment would really change this system of poverty and migration that is enveloping Central America, and especially El Salvador? On February 29, I attended a workshop sponsored by the CIS and Salvadoran Enterprises for Women (SEW). The mission of SEW is to empower women through small business development. As women are gathering, working together and looking at potential businesses and plan for their roles in the marketplace, they gain abilities and confidence. They are a nonprofit organization that raises funds from private donors, religious groups, and special events. Check out their website at www.sewinc.org.

Over 30 women representing 10 sponsored projects by SEW were present. SEW provides loans for women to start small, community-based businesses such as poultry raising, textile production using the natural dye indigo, prepared food sales, embroidery, community bakeries and natural medicines. The money for startup is from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand. The goal is to create a self sustaining small business that will provide income for the participating women, jobs for the community, and the benefits of having cheaper eggs, chicken, clothes, medicines in the community. Many of the same women had attended the lecture by Raul Moreno.

They are all aware of the challenges they face. They are taxed at the same, flat 13% as the large corporations. They are squeezed by the spiralling prices that all Salvadorans face. Beans, flour, gasoline, and milk are all soaring in price. Transport of their goods to a market is often a challenge. The crime, or "delinquency" hits them hard. Additionally, many of them are dependent on growing the food they eat, and therefore face a further struggle as fertilizer and seed prices rise to levels that make it barely worthwhile to try to grow crops.

Maria Elena Barahona, of San Rafael Cedros, is operating a home business making "comida tipica" such as chicken soup using native chickens, or a platter of chorizo, tortillas, avacado and cheese, and she and her husband also plant about five acres in beans, corn, peppers, cucumbers, tomatos. She noted, "Fertilizer is $65 a bag, tomato seeds are $65 a thousand, corn seed $25, bean $20. We cultivate but sales are difficult because the market prices are decreasing. Sales are less than costs. We look for work and get told we don’t have enough education. We learned here with SEW how to make a business, and united as a group, we can go forward step by step."

Estaban Isabel Calderon, of Palo Grande, Suchitoto, had this perspective, "According to the stated policies and propagands of the government, this is a country of opportunity. But in practice, they offer nothing for the people."

On March 3, I drove with CIS community organizer Mayra Romero, delegations organizer Cristy Alaya and SEW board member Anne Marie Gardiner to a barrio of the La Libertad city San Jose Villanueva. CIS and SEW were working with a group of women there to set up two small businesses, one that produces natural medicines, called "Milagro de Moro", and the other a portable kitchen operation that makes and sells home cooked food. As we drove into town, we passed suburban developments with names like "La Hacienda" and "Miramar". These were upscale, gated suburban subdivisions with very little relationship to the surrounding community, except to steal their water supply. The $800 monthly mortgage payments on these houses flee the community to the big banks that are financing the projects. We pounded down the dusty stone roads to the barrio where they women lived. The natural medicines included various preparations for cough, kidney problems (a common ailment in the countryside) and fungicides. SEW is working with the women to develop markets, get products to market and buy the basic tools they need to get started.

Milagro de Moro team member Rosa Emilia Mejia Parrilla greets SEW member Anne Marie Gardiner in San Jose Villanueva, El Salvador.  CIS Promoter Mayra Romero looks on.  

CIS facilitates the training and organization of the women’s groups through the use of a group of promoters, who work within communities where they live and identify needs, and help people connect to government programs or international solidarity groups to build internal, self-sustaining economic development. The promoters are committed and knowledgeable Salvadorans who understand both the challenges imposed on the communities from above and the resources available to allow people to build from below. To learn more about the CIS programs that build from within and below for healthy, self-sustaining community development, check out their website, www.cis-elsalvador.org

There are other projects like SEW underway in El Salvador, working to keep up with the needs of the population to survive. Nevertheless, over a thousand a day flee the country to try to make a better life, a survivable life, elsewhere. What if the hundreds of millions of dollars were directed from below, instead of from the heights of multinational capital. As Raul Moreno of Sinti Techan states, "Let us organize from below, from within communities, and from the left." Similarly, development capital, if it were designed to actually create structures that would lift people out of poverty, would operate on the same principles. Plan Puebla Panama is not designed to lift anyone out of poverty, and will further extract the wealth of the region and the human energy of the region, and transfer it to the owners of this world. It is underway - will we muster the commitment to stop it, convert its already completed portions to just human purposes, and build on the ashes of what must be discarded? -Joe DeRaymond