In September 2007, Hurricane Felix, a category 5 storm with 165 mph winds slammed into the eastern coast of Nicaragua.  The Quest for Peace and our Nicaraguan partner, the Institute of John the XXIII mobilized.  Within a month, the Quest has sent $80,000 in emergency recovery funds.

    Costa Rica is buzzing with ‘referendum fever.’  It is lit up almost as if there were a presidential election.  Because Costa Rica has relatively strong institutions, one of which is the Electoral Tribunal, it is possible to have some idea of which side of this life or death debate has had the most funding.  Of the $58,000,000. which has been spent on the campaign only about $4,000,000. has been spent by the people who oppose the referendum.  It is known that the U/S/ Embassy has poured generous quantities of money into the campaign for passing of the referendum.  (This is increasingly their notion of ‘foreign aid’)

On Tuesday, July 31 your ad, signed by hundreds of Americans and dozens of organizations, was published in "The Hill" congressional newspaper. Your voices and contributions sent a wake up call to Congress before they left for the August recess. Just as our pressure helped scuttle Fast Track in June, your voices helped head off passage of these broken agreements in the frantic last week before the August break!

The pending trade agreements with Peru, Panama, Colombia and Korea are just four more NAFTA-style, corporate pacts that will do nothing for American workers or our neighbors in these countries. Last November, U.S voters joined people from around the world in calling for a trade model based on economic justice rather than corporate greed. Last week, Congress heard from you again in the newspaper. Now we hope you will contact them as they return to their districts for the August recess.

On our recent visit to Nicaragua in June the Institute of John 23 was wrapping up the new water systems for the 15 communities.  Ketxu took us to Ojo de Agua, the last of the 15 rural water systems to be constructed in the PHD program, and the fourth potable water system built with funds from the Quest. The drilling of the well had been delayed for almost a year. First, we tried to negotiate a ‘three-fur,' i.e. use of the CARE drilling equipment to drill three wells for the price of two while the drill rig was in the neighborhood of Ojo de Agua. That failed.

ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE

The Alliance for Responsible Trade (ART) is a diverse coalition of U.S. based organizations working together to oppose the current corporate led trade model (CAFTA and FTAA) which is aggressively promoted by the United States and to propose fair and just trade alternatives.  We work in partnership with the Hemispheric Social Alliance, an alliance of networks and social movements through out the hemisphere working together to envision and enact new trade policies based on principals of economic cooperation, mutuality, commitment to the poor and the environment.