No to the FTAA
People's Summit, Mar del Plata, Argentina, November 2005. Photo: Ismael Francisco/Cubadebate.
On November 4th and 5th, the Fourth Summit of the Americas was held in the city of Mar del Plata, on Argentina's Atlantic coast, while the People's Summit took place concurrently. The intention of US President George Bush was to put a stop to the regional integration process that was beginning to develop within Mercosur and that would shape regional politics for decades to come.
On November 5, 2005, in the Versailles Room of the Hermitage Hotel in Mar del Plata, the four presidents of the Mercosur countries – Argentina's Néstor Kirchner, Brazil's Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Uruguay's Tabaré Vázquez and Paraguay's Nicanor Duarte Frutos – plus Hugo Chávez, the first president of Venezuela, thwarted the North American proposal to form a free trade area across the continent, the FTAA, and Washington was defeated in one of its most ambitious projects to align the region behind its interests.
Two documentaries revisit the importance of that Summit, both made 10 years after the Mar del Plata Summit:
ALCARAJO, by Martín Granovsky, directed by Luciano Leyrado and produced by Ivan Granovsky for CLACSO.tv.
10 years after the rejection of the FTAA, produced by Fisyp Argentina with the support of the Rosa-Luxemburg Stiftung.
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