Working Hard for the Money

The Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) may not "ensure adequate remedy for workers' rights abuses, protect women workers from discrimination, or improve domestic labor law enforcement," as Human Rights Watch claims, but it does have an international PR campaign. Weber Shandwick is working with El Salvador's Investment Promotion Board "to drum up U.S. corporate support for [El Salvador] and push for Congressional support" of CAFTA. El Salvador's deputy human rights ombudsman warned: "CAFTA protects the fundamental rights of businesses but not the labor rights of the citizens." An observer of last month's Salvadoran elections notes that, although the pro-CAFTA ARENA party won the presidency, "many Salvadorans with whom I spoke said that the fear" of U.S. economic reprisals "was a driving force behind [ARENA's] wide margin of victory."