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Leading industrialists, bankers and trade ministers from across the Americas, as well as globalization foes gathered in the Mexican
tourist resort of Cancun on Sunday for an economic conference, and protests against it.
We might be able to find an interview for an update?
Monday, February 26 6:14 AM SGT
World Economic Forum, anti-globalization protesters gather in Mexico
CANCUN, Mexico, Feb 25 (AFP) -
Leading industrialists, bankers and trade ministers from across the Americas, as well as globalization foes gathered in the Mexican
tourist resort of Cancun on Sunday for an economic conference, and protests against it.
Participants in the World Economic Forum say the two-day meeting will concentrate on the gap between rich and poor nations,
while protest organizers plan to stage what they say should be attention-grabbing events.
The protesters hope their demonstrations will be devoid of the violence that marked similar protests in Seattle, in November 1999,
in Prague, last year, and in Davos a month ago.
The forum will be inaugurated Sunday night by Mexican President Vicente Fox, together with former Costa Rica President Jose
Maria Figuera.
The 470 invited participants also include World Bank Vice President for Latin America David de Feranti and Nestle Vice
President Carlos Represas.
The mainly-leftist protesters, for their part, said they expected contingents from various Latin American and European countries.
In addition to a series of protests, the anti-globalization militants will hold their own forum that will discuss alternatives to current
global economic systems and for "a world where we all fit in."
Mexico, where 40 percent of the 100 million population live in poverty, "is an example of the social disaster caused by the policies
defended by the (World Economic) Forum, that favors the few and excludes the great majority," said Hector Cueva, of the
Continental Social Alliance.
Organizers of the main event said they too seek a better society. "The question of the social exclusion of groups who have
remained outside of globalization, is something that worries us," Figueres told AFP.
"After Davos, we decided to meet with those who oppose globalization because we have common ground with them; we want a
better distribution of income," he said.
The organizers of the forum invited anti-globalization militants to abandon their planned protests and to "work jointly against
exclusion."
Figueres said 25 non-governmental organizations had accepted to participate in the Cancun gathering.
He urged those who chose to stage protests to do so in a manner that is "peaceful and respectful of the law," and not to allow the
movement to be infiltrated by trouble-makers.
Organizers of the anti-globalization events, said they adopted a new, less violent strategy than in previous protests.
One of the organizers, Beat Dietschy, 42, said the main problem of last month's protesters in Davos, Switzerland, was the failure
to create a less violent image of the anti-globalization movement.
"The media concentrated on the disturbances and no journalist followed up on the analysis discussions we had," said Dietchy, of
the Swiss Christian Movement.
Mexican police said they knew that some of the militants responsible for violence at previous events were traveling to the
Caribbean resort, and that some were already in Mexico.
Officials said 1,600 anti-riot police were on stand-by to guarantee the safety of participants in the forum.
The World Economic Forum was founded three decades ago in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos as a platform for debate of
the main challenges that affect the global society.
It has hosted landmark meetings, notably between the leaders of the two Koreas, and the heads of East and West Germany
before the fall of the Berlin Wall.