MEDIA REACTION ON CAFTA, AUGUST 19, 2005

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 001743 SIPDIS DEPT. FOR WHA/PD; IIP/G/WHA DIPASQUALE; AND IIP/T/ES DEPT. FOR EB/TPP DCLUNE, WHA/EPSC AND WHA/CEN DEPT. PASS USTR E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OIIP KPAO ETRD HO USTR SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON CAFTA, AUGUST 19, 2005 ¶1. On 8/19, the Tegucigalpa-based liberal daily "La Tribuna" published an op-ed by Juan Ramon Martinez entitled "CAFTA and Future Vision." "Since Hurricane Mitch Honduras has become more dependent on external countries and doesn't trust in its own strengths." "The recently signed treaty has to be, according to local idealists of dependency, happiness for a useless and mentally colonized country like ours that doesn't want to understand that the country's future is in our hands." "CAFTA is an opportunity for things to get better here in Honduras. But it is only the opportunity in which we have to have national courage, use our entrepreneurs' imagination and take advantage of our responsible and imaginative workforce. CAFTA won't be an opportunity if we still believe we are handicapped and still believe that our useless government will bring us different results than we have experienced so far." "Finally, we need to create a new internal business relationship model. We have to stop fighting each other [boss and employee] and stop abusing and exploiting the workforce to increase profits. We have to understand that increasing workers' shopping capacity will become the source of growth for the internal market. This could allow us to take advantage of CAFTA-DR's opportunities." Williard