[Ip-health] AP: Guatemla Votes to Ratify Free Trade Pact

[Mike Palmedo]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/apbiz_story.asp?category=1310&slug=Guatemala%20Free%20Trade

Guatemala votes to ratify free trade pact

By SERGIO DE LEON
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

GUATEMALA CITY -- Shrugging off rowdy protests in the streets,
Guatemala's Congress voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to ratify a
Central American free trade agreement with the United States.

The 126-12 vote had been delayed by days of street protests that had
kept lawmakers from reaching their chambers for some sessions.

El Salvador and Honduras had earlier approved the agreement, which is
still pending before the U.S. Congress.

Hundreds of police ringed the area around the legislature in downtown
Guatemala City, with water cannons and truncheons to hold back 600 union
members, farmers and students who were demanding a national referendum
on the deal, which they said would hurt the nation's poor.

The protests finally subsided on Thursday after police warned that they
would arrest and prosecute the leaders of the demonstrations for causing
a public disturbance.

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The office of the government human rights prosecutor said that police
clubs broke the leg of at least one protester on Thursday.

At least six people were injured during protests on Tuesday, when police
used tear gas as well as water cannon to keep demonstrators from
crossing their lines.

The United States signed the free-trade agreement, known as CAFTA, last
May with Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.
The Dominican Republic signed later.

President Bush has said the accord would open new markets for U.S. goods
and services while encouraging economic and democratic reforms in
Central America.

However some business and labor groups in the United States have opposed
it, fearing competition from low-wage Central American countries.
Opponents here fear that they could lose out to cheaper imported goods
and powerful foreign rivals.