Monday, March 20, 2006
Free Trade Agreement / Tratado de Libre Comercio:
After spending 9 months in Costa Rica were we witnessed protests and a ton of discourse for and against (but largely against) the TLC in Central America (DR-CAFTA in the US - Costa Rica is the only targeted country that hasn´t yet signed on, but I expect that will be changing soon). As a result of being in the middle of all this we (I?) sort of forgot to pay attention to all the other free trade agreements which are propagating around the region in an attempt by the US to increase it´s world markets. We just happened to arrive in Ecuador in the week leading up to the final negotiations for joining AFTA (the Andean Free Trade Agreement) or TLC (already signed by Peru & Columbia and which Bolivia, which is leaning much farther left these days, is not expected to sign). As a result there have been protests, blockades, and roadblocks all over the country while largely indigenous communities have been preventing internal shipment of goods, oil, and tourist in order to influence the very unpopular central government. We weren´t able to visit many of the sites we´d hoped to around Quito as a result - like the archaeological park of Cochisquí or the famous Otovalo craft market (which was actually cancelled last weekend - but we couldn´t have gotten there anyway, at least not without a lot of time, effort, and $).
We decided not to stick around in Quito until everything blew over (even though we´d wanted to see the Equinox Festival near Mitad del Mundo), because it looked like the way south was opening up (at least temporarily), and as we´ve only budgeted 2 weeks of our trip for Ecuador, we were afraid to say in any one place too long.
We made it to Baños yesterday - but the trip took an extra 2 hours (5 instead of 3, and no bathroom on the bus....) because we had to backtrack and find an alternate route after we encountered a road which had been opened was blockaded once again. Along our trip we saw many areas where the asphalt was scared where tires and other obstacles had been burned to make roadblocks.
Along the way we had other delays because of accidents - overturned vehicles blocking the road - the first was a beer truck & we were routed onto the other side of the freeway with the oncoming traffic (so sad, all that beer...). The next was a long distance bus (just like the one we were riding in - SCARY!). The traffic was blocked in both directions while we watched them right the bus, luggage falling out on the road... we didn´t see any injured people though, perhaps there weren´t any, or perhaps they´d already been evacuated.
-ellie
After spending 9 months in Costa Rica were we witnessed protests and a ton of discourse for and against (but largely against) the TLC in Central America (DR-CAFTA in the US - Costa Rica is the only targeted country that hasn´t yet signed on, but I expect that will be changing soon). As a result of being in the middle of all this we (I?) sort of forgot to pay attention to all the other free trade agreements which are propagating around the region in an attempt by the US to increase it´s world markets. We just happened to arrive in Ecuador in the week leading up to the final negotiations for joining AFTA (the Andean Free Trade Agreement) or TLC (already signed by Peru & Columbia and which Bolivia, which is leaning much farther left these days, is not expected to sign). As a result there have been protests, blockades, and roadblocks all over the country while largely indigenous communities have been preventing internal shipment of goods, oil, and tourist in order to influence the very unpopular central government. We weren´t able to visit many of the sites we´d hoped to around Quito as a result - like the archaeological park of Cochisquí or the famous Otovalo craft market (which was actually cancelled last weekend - but we couldn´t have gotten there anyway, at least not without a lot of time, effort, and $).
We decided not to stick around in Quito until everything blew over (even though we´d wanted to see the Equinox Festival near Mitad del Mundo), because it looked like the way south was opening up (at least temporarily), and as we´ve only budgeted 2 weeks of our trip for Ecuador, we were afraid to say in any one place too long.
We made it to Baños yesterday - but the trip took an extra 2 hours (5 instead of 3, and no bathroom on the bus....) because we had to backtrack and find an alternate route after we encountered a road which had been opened was blockaded once again. Along our trip we saw many areas where the asphalt was scared where tires and other obstacles had been burned to make roadblocks.
Along the way we had other delays because of accidents - overturned vehicles blocking the road - the first was a beer truck & we were routed onto the other side of the freeway with the oncoming traffic (so sad, all that beer...). The next was a long distance bus (just like the one we were riding in - SCARY!). The traffic was blocked in both directions while we watched them right the bus, luggage falling out on the road... we didn´t see any injured people though, perhaps there weren´t any, or perhaps they´d already been evacuated.
-ellie
Kepfram & Ellie, 9:06 PM
