MEDIA REACTION ON FTAA AND ALBA, NOVEMBER 28, 2005

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 002400 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 FTAA AND ALBA, NOVEMBER 28, 2005 ¶1. On 11/27 the Tegucigalpa-based liberal daily "La Tribuna" published an op-ed by Rigoberto Gomez Madrid, PhD in social sciences, entitled "FTAA versus ALBA: An Ideological Polarization?" "Mr. Eduardo Galeano, who received a PhD `honoris causa' from the National Pedagogic University, declared that the young who don't believe in democracy or are indifferent towards elections are right about the `circus act' that politicians have put on. He also said that `the most unforgivable sin is to act against the hope of the people' to achieve a dignified quality of life." "One of the initiatives made by the groups in power in the western hemisphere is the FTAA and Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA),in which countries seek economic integration under different economic-political issues than the ones in the last Summit of the Americas. The Summit ended with different stands between the Southern Cone that promotes ALBA and the block of countries led by the U.S. that promotes FTAA. FTAA is not designed to provide equal economic opportunity for all participant countries. The Southern Cone is demanding equal conditions for all the countries." "In summary, we can say that in Latin America a will for social change still exists. In Honduras' case, social change has been an issue since the Callejas administration but the change is very far from being real, which generates a noticeable discontent about the current Honduran political model. Maybe Churchill was right when he said that `democracy is a bad form of government; unfortunately, the rest are much worse." Ford