"Vital said that CAFTA will present a big problem for the small farmers who can't compete with the large companies that receive subsidies from the U.S. government. The small farms will eventually disappear..."

"The U.S. Congress approved the treaty July 27, 2005 and three countries from Central America have ratified the treaty, including Guatemala, which ratified CAFTA on March 10 of this year with a vote of 126 to 12. The treaty will go into effect January of 2006."

"The Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) was ratified by the United States' House of Representatives on July 27th, 2005. The trade agreement will take effect on the first of January, 2006 in the United States and the Central American countries that have ratified it thus far -El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras."

"The actual effects have yet to be seen, and many feel the economies may be impacted negatively. To learn more about the economic implications, I interviewed Licenciado Eduardo Ordoñez, an economics professor at San Carlos University in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala."

"CAFTA has just this year been ratified in both Guatemala and the U.S., and will come into effect in January of 2006. Therefore it is difficult to know exactly what the effects will be; many people foresee different outcomes. To acquire a legal perspective of the probable effects of CAFTA..."

"Unknown to many, Guatemala is a multicultural society. Not only are there a variety of indigenous Mayan cultures (21 in all) and people of mixed indigenous and Spanish blood, but there are also people from Arab, Chinese, Jewish, and German backgrounds, among many others."