Join the Hispanic Coalition Against Cafta

JOIN THE HISPANIC COALITION AGAINST CAFTA!

Pledge to Save Jobs, Fight for Workers' Rights, and Safeguard Our Environment

After a decade of growing NAFTA trade deficits and jobs losses, there is now a push to expand NAFTA throughout the Americas through the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). The proposed CAFTA will extend NAFTA-style "free" trade to Central America, where it is likely to have similar outcomes as NAFTA. CAFTA would devastate Central America's rural sector and impoverish communities, pushing families to immigrate to the U.S. while at the same time putting downward pressure on job security and wages for U.S. Latino workers.

It is for these reasons that we have come together as Hispanic leaders, activists, and organizations in a historic coalition to oppose the proposed CAFTA.

Make the pledge to support our common cause because you agree that CAFTA will only deliver:

... MORE BROKEN PROMISES. We know that CAFTA is being sold with the same old promises we heard during the NAFTA vote--promises of environmental cleanup, higher wages, more jobs for workers south of the Rio Grande, protections for U.S. labor, and a decrease in the U.S. trade deficit. However, none of those promises were kept after NAFTA passed. Now that we know that NAFTA did not deliver as promised, and many of us supported that trade pact, we are strongly opposing CAFTA.

... HARDER TIMES FOR WORKING MEN & WOMEN. According to studies by League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and labor organizations, under NAFTA, nearly a million U.S. jobs have been lost in the United States and the damage to small farmers and businesses in Mexico has been even worse. In Mexico, 1.5 million farmers have been thrown off of their land as a result of NAFTA trade, while the minimum wage there has lost nearly a fifth of its value. CAFTA, modeled on NAFTA, would extend these failures to Central America.

... A DIRTIER ENVIRONMENT FOR OUR CHILDREN. As NAFTA did, CAFTA would weaken the ability of individual states and nations to maintain environmental standards that protect clean air and clean water. Instead of pushing governments towards higher levels of environmental protection, CAFTA would force nations towards weaker and weaker standards, dragging them down to the "least common denominator".

... MORE DEATHS AT THE BORDER. Since NAFTA, undocumented migration from Mexico has doubled. Over 1,600 Mexican migrants have died trying to reach the United States since 1998. CAFTA would extend the devastation to Central America's rural sector and impoverish communities, pushing families to immigrate to the U.S. "Free" trade is not free for people who are not given the same rights as corporations to move