Source:
Auditoria Cidadã da Dívida
Wed Nov 19 2008
In November 12-14 was held in Brasilia the International Seminar "Debt Audit in Latin America", with the aim of spreading the formal audit conducted by the Ecuadorean government and other initiatives that are going on. The event included representatives of Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Peru, Bolivia, Belgium and the international networks CLAI, Latindadd, Jubilee South Americas and CADTM. In the final document, participants called on all governments and social movements in Latin America to join this effort.
Latin America is experiencing a time of progress on the path of liberation of their peoples. We emphasize the initiative of the Ecuadorean government to develop the Integral Audit of the Internal and External Debt (CAIC), whose final report will be presented publicly in Quito by President Rafael Correa on November 20, 2008. This audit is the sovereign political will of the people of Ecuador to know the truth about the debt and to be in a position to decide what to do in relation to this process that sacrifices the rights of the majority of its population.
Political significance of debt audits
The capitalist crisis, as evidenced by the various financial, economic, environmental, social and food crises, has claimed its cost to the poor. For this reason, the actual crisis represents a time to impose society interference and domination of the financial institutions of those countries that are indebted.
The audit is a tool that reveals the truth about the process of borrowing and that helps showing the falsity of the capitalist system and corruption that characterizes it. It shows the violation of sovereignty, taxation, and unfair terms, revealing as all the processes of recycling and renegotiation of debt instruments were plundered, implying an increase of debt.
Contrary to what the government and the media say, the public debt did not finish, and still is, increasingly, the center of national problems, and is the backdrop for the neoliberal reforms, like those of the funds pensions.
The political significance of the audit is to make public the co-responsibility of indebtedness on the part of lenders countries and governments of the South, showing that the debt was paid and that we are, in fact, the creditors. The audit reveals the asymmetries between the countries, deepened by the relationship of debt, so that it can also prevent such imbalances being perpetuated, and help develop an educational process that allows people to be confident that the debt is fraudulent and illegitimate.
The debt audit is one of the tools to regain sovereignty. By becoming an official one with civil society participation, as in the Ecuadorean case, it means the victory of social organizations. The fight does not end with the audit, but it is important to address the debt, against liberal reform of the state, and must relate to the broader struggle for human rights and the structural transformation of society. Based on the audits governments can propose the cancellation of the illegitimate debt.
Strategies for action
Within this framework, the discussion of the seminar suggests the following proposals:
- Disseminate widely the official audit conducted by Ecuadorean government (CAIC) in all countries of Latin America, creating a positive view of the process, also disclose the achievements in the Constitution and fight to include in the constitutions of other countries rules to avoid illegal and illegitimate debt;
- Disclose other debt audit initiatives (Paraguay, Argentina, Peru) and the Citizen Debt Audit (Brazil)
- Disclose the position of Norway in recognition of the co-responsibility in illegal loans to 5 countries - Ecuador, Egypt, Jamaica, Peru and Sierra Leone - and unilaterally cancel the debt.
- Create more opportunities for study and debate on debt in all sectors and social organizations, unions, churches, universities, promoting demonstrations, activities, partnerships, seek sympathizers;
- Develop strategies to gain access to the press and creating information networks themselves, internet, popular publications;
- That each organization connects their struggles with the specific problems of debt;
- To conduct a training for the audit work through the socialization of the methodology used in the audit of Ecuador;
- Systematize the experience of the Debt Audit, based on the practice of Ecuador, to build a methodology of the debt audit, illustrating with specific cases audited and criminalize the recurrent cases.
- Create a manual to guide the recruitment of credits, based on the discoveries of the CAIC and other audits, so it can be used by institutions for the exercise of social control in the whole process of indebtedness.
- Walk towards the establishment of a forum composed by the entities that seek to conduct debt audits; make a planning movement, providing the necessary resources;
- Promote citizen advocacy to state commissions, regional and national parliaments in favour of formal audits;
- Take stock of the struggles and deepen the debate on debt in Latin America in the next World Social Forum in Belem, Brazil;
- Construct a set of social indicators relating to the Debt on human rights, social exclusion and other social issues affected by public debt;
- Work for the Ecuadorean government proposes that the governments of other countries have conducted audits for arguments in favour of the non-payment of illegitimate debt.
- That members of the CAIC, when made public its report, find a way to put its expertise at the disposal of countries, creating opportunities for encounters between people working in social movements and governments in the region;
- Require the authorities that follow the indebtedness process to assume their responsibilities;
- Advance the process of prosecution of the debt;
- To extend solidarity with Ecuador and Paraguay in their lawsuits against predatory contracts with Brazilian companies such as Odebrecht and Electrobras (Itaypú case); undertake audits on these cases, and require sanctions, just solutions and remedies;
- Connect the struggle for the audits with the construction of a new regional and international financial architecture;
- Deepen the work related to the current crisis, denouncing the use of public resources to save the big banks speculators at the expense of increasing poverty and the exclusion of our people.
- Require that countries and lenders to pay its debt to the countries' debtors'
- Seek greater commitment from networks and institutions. Conducting event planning joint actions.
With these tasks and objectives, the institutions and participants of the International Seminar want and expect to have the approval of most political forces in the Latin American countries to implement audits of the external and internal debts in order to expedite their release from the domination and pillage that they represent.
Brasilia, Noviembre 14th, 2008
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