by Tim Russo - Independent Media Center

Hundreds of people worked together to pull down the police fence en route to the convention center where the WTO was meeting in Cancun. Metro Junior Caroline Fontoura was there in solidarity.

Early last month, Metro junior Caroline Fontoura was in Cancun, Mexico, but not for an early spring break vacation. She was there to stop the World Trade Organization (a group she said is trying to keep the poor in its place) even if she couldn't walk.

“The WTO and the initiatives being pushed by the United States and the European Union areabsolutely infuriating,” Fontoura said. “What’s amazing about the WTO is that they make their initiatives sound completely altruistic. They say that they want to help poor people and that they want to create job opportunities, but what they’re really doing is taking away job opportunities from the poor.”

Having sprained her ankle two days before, her original purpose in the protests was "re-directed." She volunteered at the Independent Media Center where she registered reporters (video, photography, internet reporting), cleaned up a little, or did security and attended council meetings. Originally born in Mexico City, moving to the United States at an early age, Fontoura is also fluent in Portuguese and Spanish and helped to translate an article for Spanish-speakers.
While she wasn't able to participate in many of the marches as she wished, she felt what she was doing was important.

“There’s an extreme need for staying in one place," she said, "because if you’re flying to another country, you don’t just want to sit in a building, you want to be taking part in the marches.”

Arriving in Cancun on Sunday, Sept. 7 on a bus from Mexico City with about 30 Mexican workers, she was amazed by what she saw. About 10 other buses full of the same number of people were arriving at the main site in Cancun, which was positioned a distance away from the perimeter of the hotel complex where the WTO talks were going on. She also described a large tarp-covered area with sinks, food and tubs full of bags of water for people to drink.

Fontoura was one of about 10,000 activists from all over the world, but one of only a relative few that she knew of from Denver. Among the protesters were those from European countries, Latin American countries, Australia and South Korea, the country of farmer and protest leader Lee Kyoung-Hae, who stabbed himself and died in a hospital later.

Fontoura said Kyoung-Hae was not mentally ill as labeled by many, and that while what he did was shocking, he was just in his cause.

"I was just completely taken aback by the dedication of this man to his cause. I was very conflicted. I didn't know what to think," she said. "I think it's a valid form of protest; I don't necessarily agree with martyrdom. I personally think we can do more being alive and taking actions. Nonetheless, I respect his action."

This was the first large demonstration she'd ever been to and she was amazed by the number of different people and the feeling that sense of community gave her.

“Being in an environment with thousands of other activists is one of the most invigorating and motivating experiences," she said. “At that moment, I knew I wasn’t alone and I knew that a global network of resistance was being created and maintained.”

The people of Cancun initially did not support the protesters. According to Fontoura, protesters were referred to as globolifobicos, which translates to “globalization-phobics” in English, because of what the people were being told in the media. She said by the end of the protests on Sunday, Sept. 15, when the talks broke down, many of the people supported them.
“Riding in the taxis in Cancun and hearing the propaganda that they were listening to on the radios was so incredible,” she said. “The people in Cancun were instilled with so much fear. But by the end, families came to the park where some of the events were held.”

She said she was particularly moved by a story of a man who was barricaded into a square for hours by about 10 police officers. He was explaining to the police that he came from another country to stand up against the WTO because the WTO was there against them. At one point the man became so emotional, he started crying and the police eventually started crying with him.

“When (my friend) told me that, I just got chills all over my body,” she said. “That’s what needs to be done: grassroots connection and education. And the thing is that a lot of these people don’t even know that the WTO exists. It’s in (the WTO’s) benefit to maintain ignorance.”
As far as why she participated in the protests, she said it first starts with what the WTO is doing and how it is damaging to the people of Mexico.

“If there’s a corporation that has the ability to buy and own several pieces of land within one town, let’s say, there’s no way that a small farmer can compete with this large corporation, because they don’t have the initial money to create whatever goods they need," she said.
She also felt it was important to participate because the WTO conference was taking place where a group of Mexican farmers, the Zapatistas, uprose on Jan. 1, 1994 when the North American Free Trade Agreement was implemented.

“It’s just so completely pertinent being there," she said. "This is the product of what NAFTA is or what NAFTA has done. What has happened to the indigenous peoples of Mexico is a product of what NAFTA has created.”

Fontoura said it was the actions of the fellow protesters that moved her the most.

“One of the most amazing visuals I think of when I think of the time I spent in Cancun was seeing hundreds of people pulling on these ropes to bring down the barricades," she said. "And then the press expecting violence to erupt between the police and the protesters and instead of violence erupting, we had a sit-in.”

Overall the experience left her with hope.

“I came back with an even stronger conviction to educate myself, so as to hopefully be able to educate other people. And that conviction was fortified a hundred times on this trip.

“I felt like by the end, a family was created. I know a lot of these people I’ll see again at other protests and events. That’s why I think global networking is really important.”

She said this was just the beginning.

“I feel like I’m definitely going to be an activist for the rest of my life,” she said. “And I feel like there’s still so much more I need to learn and that I need to build within myself, like a confidence in the knowledge that I do have. And I think that’s something that comes with time and with experience.”

She plans on attending the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas protests in Miami Nov. 20-22, an initiative signed in 1998 and supported by the WTO.

"I think it's really important to continue to have a presence in these actions worldwide and I continue to do so."