In view of the decision by the governments of Brazil and Argentina
to repay all of the debt claimed of them by the International
Monetary Fund, the organizations and campaigns of Jubilee South in
these two countries make the following declaration:

1- We denounce that while our governments’ are quick to comply with
the claims made by the IMF, they continue to postpone repayment of
the large historical, social and ecological debt that is owed to our
peoples, to the thousands of farmers who anxiously await the so
frequently mentioned agrarian reform, to the original peoples
expelled from their lands, to the boys and girls who die every day
from hunger in the two countries that are the largest food producers
of Latin America, to the workers who suffer the instability of their
jobs and their salaries, to the millions of Argentines and Brazilians
who subsist in poverty. When will this enormous debt with our peoples
be paid off? WhileArgentina repays, in one fell swoop, the 9.8
billion dollars claimed by the IMF, thousands of savers, mostly
pensioners, are still suffering the banking restrictions imposed in
December, 2001, with no access to their life savings. While in Brazil
15.5 billion dollars are made available to pay the Fund, the policies
of structural adjustment and budget cuts for essential social
expenditures and investments continue unabated.

2- We reject the fact that our countries used their important
capacity to coordinate policy and actions in order to repay debts
that are illegitimate, immoral, and odious, and which furthermore
have already been repaid, and that in so doing, they have also
contributed to the deepening of the impunity enjoyed by the organism
against which these same governments, echoing the demands of their
peoples, have leveled well-founded critiques of its co-
responsibility in the crises that developed in our countries. In
Argentina, the Fund granted loans in the midst of the crisis,
violating its own Charter; it first lent to made possible the
enormous capital flight occurred in 2001, and later to compensate the
banks involved. Since that terrible December 19th, 2001, in the midst
of the most severe social crisis in our history, the IMF has been
paid more than 8.3 billion dollars net. Together, our two countries
had considerable strength in order to question the debt repayment
claimed by the Fund, instead of treating it as the most privileged
among all supposed creditors, be they external or internal. Instead,
this decision rewards the IMF, setting it free of guilt and
responsibility, while at the same time it deepens the non-compliance
by our governments of their obligations towards the millions of
fellow citizens who suffer the everyday violation of their economic
and social rights through impoverishment and indigence.

3- We wish to alert to the fact that it is the International
Monetary Fund itself that is propitiating this policy of de-
indebtedness which, on the other hand, is being promoted as bringing
greater autonomy and sovereignty to our countries. Since the early
days of the Bush Administration, a staunch opponent of the big
emergency loans that were in style at the end of the nineties and
that left the Fund with an dangerously large outstanding debt
portfolio sharply concentrated in just four countries, the IMF has
attributed ever greater priority to recovering its solvency - and
therefore its power to act - by rigorously collecting, if possible in
advance, all its large outstanding debts. In mid July, 2005, the Fund
itself put forward the demand to Argentina that it pay-off its debt
with Central Bank reserves. In this way, the decision taken by the
governments of Brazil and Argentina, complementing the debt repayment
carried out by Russia at the end of 2004, contributes to closing the
circle of deindebtment motorized by the IMF. The last of the big Fund
debtors, Turkey, is paying punctually and is on its way to paying-off
its debt as well. It is thus easy to understand why the
congratulations of Rodrigo Rato, IMF Managing Director, were quick to
arrive. ”We are pleased with Brazil’s decision” he said first, adding
categorically that; “the excellent track-record of policy management
by the Brazilian authorities has provided the basis for the
consolidation of market confidence, and Argentina should follow the
example”. Two days later, Argentina did so.

4- We question the argument that our countries will gain greater
freedom in the design of their economic policies, especially when
those same governments continue to accumulate new debts whether on
the financial markets or other official bodies such as the World Bank
and the Interamerican Development Bank. The IMF’s seal of approval is
still a requirement for these transactions. In addition, as long as
the two countries continue their affiliation with the IMF, they will
remain subject to its policies of supervision and control. It is also
at least curious, that two governments that have for the last two
years boasted publicly as to the independence of their decisions in
the face of the conditionalities imposed by the Fund, are now
highlighting as the most important consequence of their decision, the
recovery of that same independence. When should we have believed them?
Then or now?

5- We also reject, because it is at least deceitful, the assertion
that this decision implies a reduction in the level of interest
payment, because our countries, at the same time they pay the IMF
with a 4 to 6% annual interest rate, take loans in the international
market at interest rates nearing or higher that 10% and even
fluctuating rates. In fact, if the point is to save, it would be more
sensible to repay the debts that bear much higher interest rates than
the ones charged by the IMF. Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize
Laureate in Economics, made this point quite forcefully when visiting
the region a few months ago.

6- These presidential decisions affect the sovereignty and democratic
processes of our countries, by acting in a unilateral and non-
consultative manner, disregarding the constitutional responsibilities
of our Parliaments as well as the participation and control of the
citizens. In Argentina’s case, this decision again ignores the
Federal Court sentence handed down in the Alejandro Olmos Lawsuit; a
ruling that substantiated the fraudulent nature of the external debt
and referred it to the National Congress so that it could carry-out
ifs constitutional responsibilities to manage the debt and identify
and sanction those responsible for its criminal accumulation. In
Brazil, the constitutional duty of Parliament to carry out a Debt
Audit has been violated. Likewise, popular opinion on these issues,
which has been expressed on many occasions, has been ignored. In
September, 2000, a Popular Plebiscite on the External Debt was
carried out in Brazil, where more than 5,700,000 Brazilians voted in
favor of ending the agreement with the IMF and NOT continuing to pay
the debt without a prior Audit. In Argentina, in November of 2003,
the 2.300.000 persons who participated in the Popular Consultation on
the FTAA, the Debt, and Militarization, also manifested themselves
overwhelmingly for the NON payment of the External Debt.

7- We thus demand of both of our governments that they carry out
an integral Debt Audit , together with their respective Parliaments
and ample citizen participation and control, before continuing to
repay what is claimed from us. The purpose of this Audit should be to
determine in a transparent and well-grounded manner, who really owes
who. During the recent III Summit of the Peoples in Mar del Plata, as
also during the II Jubilee South Global Assembly which took place in
Havana in September, thousands of participants from all over the
continent reaffirmed that one of the pillars for the construction of
alternatives of Life and Sovereignty is the recognitionthat we, the
Peoples, are the true creditors. An integral Debt Audit, covering not
only the financial debts but also the enormous social, historic, and
ecological debts that are owed to the peoples of Brazil and
Argentina, would clearly and forcefully demonstrate which are the
debt that should be repaid urgently and with priority, including the
very payments made to the International Monetary Fund with it has the
obligation to reinstate and provide reparations.

8- We also call on the movements and organizations of our countries,
to our fellow citizens in general, to join in these demands,
stimulating popular debate and mobilization and collaborating in the
investigation, denunciation and organization needed in order to build
just alternatives.

YES TO LIFE, NO TO DEBT! WE DON’T PAY, BECAUSE WE DON’T OWE! WE ARE
THE CREDITORS!

Argentina – Brazil, December 19/20, 2005

Diálogo 2000 – Argentina Red Jubileo Sur Brasil

Red Jubileo Sur Brasil-Coordinación de la Auditoría Ciudadana

Red Brasil sobre las Instituciones Financieras Multilaterales

Programa de Incidencia sobre Deuda Externa Ilegítima (Fed. Luterana
Mundial)

FIRST ENDORSEMENT

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Premio Nobel de la Paz – Fundación Servicio
Paz y Justicia

Nora Cortiñas, Madre de Plaza de Mayo, Línea Fundadora- Argentina

Beverly Keene, Coordinadora Jubileo Sur/Américas

João Pedro Stedile, Dirigente MST/Via Campesina - Brasil

Nalu Faria, Sempreviva Organização Feminista- Brasil

Rvdo. Ángel Furlan, Iglesia Evangélica Luterana Unida

Sandra Quintela, Economista- Brasil

Rvdo. Juan Pedro Schaad, Iglesia Evangélica del Río de la Plata

María Lucia Fattorelli y Rodrigo Ávila, UNAFISCO- Brasil

Hna. María Bassa, Endepa y Confederación Argentina de Religiosos y
Religiosas

Rina Bertaccini y Juan Roque, Movimiento por la Paz, la Soberanía y
la Solidaridad- Argentina

Reinaldo Gonçalves - Economista Univ. Fed. Río do Janeiro - Brasil

Grito dos Excluídos Continental

Brasil Sustentável

Fórum Brasileiro de ONGs e Movimentos Sociais para o Meio Ambiente e
esenvolvimento (FBOMS)

Julio Gambina, Presidente de Attac-Argentina

Dr. Alejandro Olmos Gaona- Argentina

José Seoane y Clara Algranati, Osal-Clacso -Argentina

Coordenação Nacional de Lutas - CONLUTAS -Brasil

Federação Democrática dos Metalúrgicos de Minas Gerais – FSDMG -
Brasil

Instituto Brasileiro de Desenvolvimento (IBRADES)-

Sindicato dos trabalhadores do Judiciário Federal de São Paulo
(SINTRAJUD) -Brasil

Nestor Rolando Jeifetz , MOI Movimiento de Ocupantes e Inquilinos
(CTA)- Argentina

Acción por la Biodiversidad- Argentina

Nestor Rolando Jeifetz, MOI (Movimiento de Ocupantes e Inquilinos-
CTA)- Argentina

Junta Directiva Nacional de CONFAR- Argentina

Emilio Taddei (CLACSO)- Argentina

Hilda Guerrero- Puerto Rico

Raúl Montijo- Puerto Rico

Wanda Colón Cortés- Puerto Rico

Marcha Mundial das Mulheres - Brasil

Marcos Arruda – Economista- Brasil

Pacs - Instituto Politicas Alternativas do Cone Sul- Brasil

Paulo Passarinho – Economista- Brasil

Sindicato dos Economistas do RJ- Brasil