| In samenwerking met ING | Kees - 29.10.2002 10:24
Bechtel werkt in deze zaak (de privatisering van het water van Cochabamba in Bolivia, en nadat dat mislukte: het eisen van 25 miljoen dollar schadevergoeding) nauw samen met de Nederlandse bank ING. Zie voor meer info:  http://www.xs4all.nl/~arenaria/water/
| | Concerned Citizens Occupy Lobby of Bechtel Co | Noticias - 30.10.2002 02:27
Concerned Citizens Occupy Lobby of Bechtel Corp.
Citizens demand Bechtel drop Lawsuit against Bolivia, Solidarity Action with Groups Across Hemisphere to Oppose “Free Trade” Agreement
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – With concerned Bay Area residents demonstrating outside the world headquarters of Bechtel Corporation in San Francisco, numerous activists occupied the building’s lobby for three hours today, demanding that Bechtel withdraw its support for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and drop its $25 million
lawsuit against Bolivia, a suit stemming from the company’s botched water privatization scheme in Bolivia’s third largest city. A banner was also hung outside the building, proclaiming “Water for Life, Not for Profit: Bechtel Drop the Lawsuit/El Agua es nuestra ¡carajo!” while dramatic and colorful street theatre performances educated passers-by.
The action at Bechtel, one of the world’s largest construction companies, coincided with massive demonstrations in Quito, Ecuador as civil society groups try to shut down the gathering of world leaders scheduled to meet there from October 28 to November 1 to hammer out details of the FTAA text. The FTAA is a “free trade”
agreement that would expand the reach of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to 34 countries across South and North American and Caribbean (except Cuba) stretching from Alaska to Argentina at the same time as expanding the rights granted to corporations through NAFTA, making it the largest free trade zone in the world and the most far reaching trade and investment agreement ever signed. Despite Washington DC’s push to finalize the FTAA by 2005, Brazil’s new president was just elected on an anti-FTAA platform and a strong candidate in Ecuador’s upcoming runoff presidential election also objects to the FTAA, a clear sign that there is high-level di!
sagreement about who and which countries will benefit.
“The FTAA will tighten the control of corporations over our lives, leaving us with lousier jobs, with more poison in our air and water and less say so about the things that matter,” said David Solnit of Action for Local/Global Justice, one of the people who occupied the lobby. “If the FTAA passes, it would allow the Enrons of the world to write the rules for the global economy in their own interest,” he added.
Free trade agreements such as the FTAA and NAFTA undermine democracy by limiting governments’ capacity to regulate in the public interest and support environmental, human health and other values. Instead, the agreements subordinate the public interest to commercial interests.
One way these trade agreements threaten the public interest is by granting corporations the right to sue governments when they feel that their profits have been infringed upon. Under NAFTA’s Chapter 11, Methanex Corporation, a Canadian
firm, sued the state of California for $970 million because California banned the use of MTBE, a gasoline additive linked to cancer that contaminates the state’s water supply. Methanex did not deny that the chemical causes cancer, it just argued that California has to pay for the right to regulate it. The court recently ruled against Methanex, but only on a technicality, holding Methanex to a slightly higher standard because they only make the M in MTBE. Similar cases filed against other
governments under NAFTA have resulted in corporations reaping large awards and the right to market their harmful products.
Bechtel promotes the FTAA by advocating Fast Track and through its membership in and leadership developing policy for the Business Roundtable, an invitation-only association of American CEO’s who represent $3.7 trillion in revenues that actively supports the FTAA.
At today’s action, citizens demanded that Bechtel:
·abandon its role as a corporate advocate of the FTAA, and
·drop its $25 million lawsuit against Bolivia, one of the poorest countries
in the world.
Two of the activists occupying the lobby met with Bechtel’s public relations representatives, but the representatives made no promises regarding the demands.
Demonstrators at the action opposed the company’s $25 million lawsuit against Bolivia that epitomizes the serious flaws of the FTAA and NAFTA. In 1999, Bechtel Corporation’s subsidiary International Water took control over the water system in Cochabamba, Bolivia’s third largest city. Price hikes of 50% on average – and up to 300% for some of the poorest customers –forced many to choose between water or food and other necessities. After tens of thousands of Cochabamba residents took to the streets in April, 2000 demanding lower water rates, soldiers were called in, more
than one hundred people were seriously wounded and one 17 year old boy was killed.
The resistance forced Bechtel to pull out of Cochabamba, but since Bechtel incorporated International Water as a Dutch company, it is suing Bolivia under a Netherlands-Bolivia Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) for expropriation to the tune of $25 million dollars. Since the U.S. and Bolivia have not signed a BIT – the institutional forerunners of NAFTA’s investment clause – Bechtel established a subsidiary in the Netherlands, giving it the power to sue the Bolivian government.
The FTAA would facilitate corporate actions against governments by streamlining the lawsuit process and making such third-country maneuvering unnecessary.
“Last year as Bechtel launched its lawsuit against Bolivia, the company pulled in virtually unprecedented revenues of $14 billion while Bolivia registered a $3 billion annual debt. The $25 million is a tiny drop in the bucket for Bechtel, but could further devastate Bolivia,” Kevin Koenig of Amazon Watch said. “The FTAA would aid and abet corporate bullying by facilitating these kinds of scare-tactic attacks
on countries throughout the hemisphere.”
Demonstrators also denounced Bechtel’s forays into water privatization in Ecuador. Despite the Bolivia disaster, Bechtel – again through International Water – signed another water privatization deal in 2001 to control Guayaquil, Ecuador’s water supply for 30 years with the help of international institutions including the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank’s private sector insurance agency, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA). Serious labor issues
have already surfaced, and further problems may still arise as the project unfolds. Knowing that water privatization can be a tricky business, Bechtel sought an $18 million guarantee from MIGA to insure against civil unrest and expropriation.
The fourteen people arrested in Bechtel’s lobby were released later that evening.
At the last FTAA Ministerial meeting in Quebec City, Canada in April 2001, over 60,000 people gathered in the streets and over 200 solidarity protests took place throughout the U.S. and the hemisphere. Similarly, countless protests are currently happening across the globe in solidarity with the actions around the Quito Ministerial meeting. Bay Area events have included a Bay Area Social Forum yesterday that focussed on building and promoting positive alternatives to corporate-led globalization.
 Website: http://www.noticias.nl
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