FINAL DECLARATION Central American and Caribbean Jubilee Meeting
Posted on June 21 2000 |
"Those who oppress the poor to increase their earnings, or that give to the rich will certainly become poor" (Proverbs, 22, 16.)
Campaigns, coalitions and organizations from Haiti, Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Cuba, Panama, and Nicaragua met at the Central American and Caribbean Meeting held June 20, and 21, 2000. The meeting was inspired by the message of Jubilee, and the goal of constructing a "New Beginning" as described in the Bible in Leviticus 25.
During our deliberations we lived the spirit of fraternity, solidarity and ethical community that announced the coming of a "New Beginning". As well, we have agreed that the annulment of foreign debt is a fundamental step in our advancement in the realization of Jubilee.
The Biblical Jubilee teaches and exhorts all people and governments to the restitution of everything that has been taken illegitimately. As a first step on the road to restitution, we demand the annulment of the debt, for it is illegitimate, immoral and unpayable. No one can doubt the relationship between illegitimate debt and poverty, environmental deterioration, and violence.
The social cost of such an illegitimate debt is too high, and those responsible for it - the ruling elites of the world - are not willing to pay for it. Many governments in the South respond more to the interests of the private, multilateral banks and the G7, than to the interests of their own excluded population.
We condemn the irresponsibility with which governments in the South acquire new loans and financial commitments, knowing that their payment is impossible, and thus, transfer the load to future governments and later generations. This surrenders the sovereignty and independence of our People.
No government of the North or South can demand from the people privations incompatible with human dignity to pay a supposed debt. A debt that is really non-existent as it is illegitimate. There is no moral nor ethical obligation to pay what is unjust, illegitimate and thus, illegal. The Jubilee summons us to the transformation of such unjust economic and political structures.
Those who today control enormous power and wealth, are the ones called upon to pay the social debt - so much in its historical dimension as in its ecological dimension. The unsustainable pressure on our natural resources is a direct result of the increasing exploitation on behalf of the market, and is accentuated by the services paid to the so-called 'foreign debt' as well as Structural Adjustment Plans (SAPs).
The neo-liberal pattern of underdevelopment continues to destroy the basis for sustainabiltiy of the people of the South, causing poverty and misery for millions of men and women who depend on these natural resources.
We know that the challenge is enormous, however, we also know that we are not alone in this struggle. The challenge is worldwide because we face a dominant, unjust model that propagates dependence and poverty. That is why we are a part of this Jubilee South organization. Jubilee South organizes campaigns and movements across Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia, and Africa, fighting united so that the North recognises its debt with the South, starting with the annulment of the so called "foreign debt".
Therefore we have decided:
To begin a campaign so that the entire Jubilee 2000 Movement assumes our commitment to "Jubilee: Beyond Debt, Beyond 2000".
To summon the formation of a "Popular Tribunal Against Debt" at a national level, as well as to be part of an international action in a parallel course, at the level of the International Court of Justice. Also, this tribunal will scrutinize all operations of indebtedness and will recommend sanctions in the case of proven creditors' and debtors' corruption, including the recruiting of illegitimate debts attained without consultation.
To create, or to strengthen civil society's legislative bodies that investigate government recruiting of loans and negotiations with multilateral and commercial banking.
To undertake regional, national and international actions such as mobilizations before the G-7 Summit in July in Japan, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund Assemblies in September in Prague, the United Nations Peoples' Assembly in New York, the Women's March 2000, and the Demand (Cry) of the Excluded in October - among others.
To include the issue of Indigenous rights and the defence of the Earth with determination, including the full materialization of the "Regime of Autonomy", in the Jubilee Campaign "Beyond Debt, Beyond 2000".
To initiate actions in each of our countries, by means of popular consultation - among other instruments - to identify and to quantify ecological and social debts.
To include the rescue of our Cultural Identity and our Historical Memory in the Jubilee Campaign.
The New Beginning is built today with actions that are part of an alternative and integral vision of the future of the South. Jubilee summons us to live the grace of God, to enjoy the experience of freedom, to share the resources of the Earth, to transform our society and to create fairer states. The vision of Jubilee integrates a perspective of gender justice that allows for the construction of a new social relationship as the basis for a new international relationship, based on justice and justness.
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