Greens of the Americas meet in the Amazon
By Mike Feinstein
Green Party of California

(Based on reports by Julia Willebrand, GP-US delegate to the Federación de Partidos Verdes de las Americas and Catherine Grèze, European Federation of Green Parties)

Across the globe, Green parties have associated themselves into large federations: the African Federation of Green Parties, the Asia-Pacific Green Network, the European Federation of Green Parties and the Federation of Green Parties of the Americas (Federación de Partidos Verdes de las Americas or FPVA). The Green Party of the United States is a member of the FPVA.

The FPVA has been meeting annually since its founding in 1997, with recent conferences in Curitiba, Brazil (2004); Managua, Nicaragua (2003); and the Dominican Republic (2002). This year on Oct. 12-15, the FPVA came to Iquitos, Peru, located in the Amazon region and accessible only by plane or boat, making it perhaps the most isolated large city in the world.

Alex Gonzales, president, Alternativa Verde de Peru, and Flor de Maria Hurtado, international secretary, organized the meeting with assistance from many young Greens from Iquitos and nearby Amazonian villages.

FPVA member parties in attendance were the Partido Verde do Brasil, Chile, Partido Verde Ecologista de México, Movimiento Verde Ecologista, Partido Alternativa Verde de Peru, and the Green Party of the United States (GP-US). The European Green Party and the newly formed Partido Verde de Venezuela sent observers.

On Oct. 12, prior to the FPVA business meeting, member and observer parties were invited to present their Green visions at a public forum attended by 200 people. City officials and a broad array of NGO representatives, including even the Chamber of Commerce, were present.

Nicaraguan and Venezuelan Greens gave scientific presentations on climate change. Mexicans described their restructured party formation and showed a video of the large provincial assemblies held subsequent to the restructuring. Chileans and Europeans described their respective parties' Green political vision. 

On behalf of U.S. Greens, Julia Willebrand's presentation focused on GP-US opposition to the destructive work of transnational corporations. Despite the necessity of translation, her talk was received with great enthusiasm and was interrupted by applause several times. She concluded with a call for the audience to join the Dec. 3 worldwide demand that the U.S. sign the Kyoto Protocol. The young people in the audience responded by committing to organizing a demonstration in Iquitos that day.

On Oct. 13, the FPVA business meeting began with reports on the Green political situation in each country: 

Peru

The Partido Alternativa Verde de Peru originally grew from the nation's environmental movement in the late 1990s and from opposition to the dictatorship of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori. During this time, the movement fought against the installation of a toxic waste plant in the Pantanal Region. In 1997-98 they gradually structured themselves into a political party.

In 2001, Peruvian Greens joined a center-left coalition in support of opposition leader Alejandro Toledo, who became the nation's first president of indigenous origin. However, today Peruvian Greens share the disappointment of the nation in the corruption of the Toledo administration and his failure to keep campaign promises. For Greens, these include Toledo's promise to provide Green candidates with competitive positions on electoral lists in general elections. 

In 2003, Greens took advantage of this frustration to mobilize and elected Hurtado and four others as regional council members (regidores provinciales) and also to gain more than 7,000 valid petition signatures, becoming an officially registered party.

A leader in defense of Amazon jungles and indigenous and native communities, Hurtado was, in Feb. 2005, confronted by the Peruvian mafia and physically threatened with death by gunmen. Responding to an international call by Gonzalez, Green parties from around the world sent statements to the Peruvian government requesting guaranty for her life. French Green Alain Lipietz, chair of the Mercosur delegation in the European Parliament, met with the Peruvian ambassador to the European Union as well. Ultimately, the Peruvian Ministry of the Interior granted her protection.

In Peru's 2006 regional elections, the Greens in Iquitos (Voz Verde) will stand on their own, while in other regions (Lima, Cuzco, North) discussions are open for coalitions with both the Social Democrats and Christian Democrats. Rainforest logging, linked to indigenous rights, will be major issues for the party in the 2006 regional elections.

Brazil

Although they fielded a successful 2004 election cycle in which 775 Green local council people and 55 Green mayors were elected, the Partido Verde do Brasil is experiencing problems. They helped bring Brazilian President Lula and the Partido do Trabajadores (PT) to power. But according to Brazilian Green delegate Marco Antonio Mroz, Lula's subsequent policies relative to the Amazon rainforest, nuclear power and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have been a disaster, as well as his economic policy of supporting industry, whatever the environmental consequences. As a result, the Green Party has broken with Lula, not so much on the issue of corruption, but on political differences. Reported Mroz, "The country is paralyzed; no laws have been voted on for the past three months. He [Lula] has killed all our dreams."

Despite having eight members of the federal House of Representatives (Câmara dos Diputados) and 14 regional deputies, without a coalition partner in the PT and with no other compatible coalition partners on the horizon, it appears the Greens will have to run an independent campaign in 2006. Unfortunately, by law, public financing and television access is granted only to parties that win 5 percent of the total number of seats in the 513-member Câmara. That means the Greens could triple their number of congressmembers and still lose their public financing.

Nicaragua

Founded in Nov. 2003, the Movimiento Verde Ecologista expects to participate in elections for the first time in 2006, as part of an electoral coalition seeking to build a third way between the Sandinistas and the right wing. They support a popular dissident Sandinista for president named Herty Lewites, who has broken with the FSLN (Frente Sandinista de Liberación or Sandinista National Liberation Front). In addition to the Greens, the coalition consists of three ex-Sandinista groups, MRC, Izquierda Democratica, Movimiento del Rescate al Sandinismo, and the Movimiento Indigena IKILAN.

This alliance, negotiated in part by Nicaraguan Green Party President Edward Salazar Cruz, is interesting because it posits a third way in the country and also because it aligns an indigenous movement that used to be on the side armed by the CIA in the civil war with Greens who operate on the principle of nonviolence. 

México

Mexican Greens have been confronted with challenging electoral choices. In the last few electoral cycles they've sought to help break up the 80-plus-year institutional monopoly of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Institutional Revolutionary Party or PRI) in the 2000 elections, and also tried to get enough votes to win seats in Mexico's system of proportional representation while staying true to a Green agenda.

In 2000, with Green support, Vicente Fox of the conservative Partido Ación Nacional (National Action Party or PAN) was elected president under the banner of Allianza por Cambio (Alliance for Change). However, Greens left the coalition when Fox, once in office, did not keep commitments on environmental issues, including giving a Green the position of environmental minister.

In the 2003 mid-term elections, Mexican Greens pursued a different strategy, with 70 percent of Green candidates running independent campaigns and 30 percent running in coalition with the PRI when there was the risk of the PAN winning. The Greens won 17 congressional seats in the Cámara de Diputados (House of Deputies) that year and five seats in the Senate. The next presidential elections will take place in 2006. One of the Green diputados, Bernardo de la Garza, at 6 percent in the polls, will likely be the party's candidate.

The party structure has recently been democratized by means of large assemblies held in many states. The strategy for the 2006 general elections will then be voted on by the party council, elected by these assemblies. The party's internal strategic debate is now between a faction wanting to run independently everywhere (Bernardo de la Garza's group) and those wanting an electoral alliance. The latter choice would guarantee continued representation in the Cámara, because a coalition would likely get a high enough percentage of votes to guarantee seats in Mexico's system of proportional representation and because Greens could be decisive in determining who will be the next president.

Chile

After trying for 10 years to take part in elections on their own and not reaching the necessary 5 percent threshold to gain seats in the national legislature, Greens in Chile have opted for a new strategy. In 2006 they will support Michele Bachelet, the Socialist candidate for president, with whom they have reached a programmatic agreement that includes a temporary moratorium on nuclear power, 10 percent of the energy to be in renewables, GMO labeling (GMOs are already on the market), and the creation of a Ministry of Environment. Longtime Chilean Green organizer Mañuel Baquedano is in the coordination team of the presidential campaign, and current polls for Bachelet are very favorable. 

The Greens' hope, as part of a coalition for the presidential race, is to build credibility and experience for local elections in 2008 and national elections in 2010.

2005 FPVA decisions

1. The FPVA issues a call to the U.N. to establish a protocol to stop the destruction of the world's rainforests and create a Kyoto-like protocol to sustain a priceless asset, the Amazon rainforest.

2. The FPVA issues a call for a delegation of elected Greens to meet in the Amazon with the objective of publicizing the extreme consequences of global warming and the contribution to the warming of the destruction of the Amazonian rainforest. 

3. In 2006, general elections will take place in four Latin American countries, Mexico, Nicaragua, Brazil and Chile, where Greens will run coalition campaigns. The FPVA asks for the backing and support of Greens from the rest of the world as it attempts to garner jointly as many as 5 million votes during the elections.

4. At its 2004 meeting in Curitiba, the FPVA affirmed its wish that the next Global Green meeting be held in Africa. The FPVA is pleased by the choice of Kenya by the Global Green Coordination for the next Global Green Congress in 2007. The FPVA will begin fundraising to provide financial support for the Congress and wishes to have an active representative on the preparation steering committee.

5. Gabriele Rojas and Mañuel Diaz, leaders of a Venezuelan environmental NGO, have gained recognition for a new political party, El Partido Verde de Venezuela, that is based on Green principles and values. The FPVA voted to grant them observer status.

6. The Partido Verde Dominicana (Green Party of the Dominican Republic or PVD) was unable to attend the meeting, with party President Miguel Angel Pimental sending regrets. However, during a meeting in New York on Sept. 26, 2005, leaders of the Partido de la Unidad Democratica (UD) and the PVD provided documents relative to a merger and formation of a new PVD/UD party. Willebrand provided the federation with copies of this material, and after a lengthy discussion the federation decided to offer observer status to the newly forming Partido Verde de la Unidad Democratica (PVUD).

The next FPVA meeting is scheduled for Dec. 2006, at a location to be determined.

Contact the FPVA at www.fpva.org.mx 

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