On July 29, hundreds of people marched to the US embassy to protest the neoliberal policies of President Oscar Berger and the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which was passed by US Congress in June. Protesters called for higher wages, improvements to the education system and a halt to rises in the cost of living. A June poll by the Costa Rica State University Mathematics School indicated that 69.6% of the population sees CAFTA as more favourable to US interests than Gutemalans'. Those polled identified poverty, environmental damage and massive losses for farmers as potential outcomes of the agreement.
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, August 3, 2005.
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