Free trade is detrimental to developing Latin American nations, Father Gerardo Poter said during a discussion entitled, “The People vs. Globalization” Thursday night.

About 40 students and Evanston residents attended the lecture at the University Christian Ministry house where Poter and community leaders Paula Estela Bustamante and Cecilia Rodriguez performed a mock debate concerning the Central American Free Trade Agreement and the effects of global competition on Latin America’s weakest economies.

The event was intended to highlight the debate over globalization, and was sponsored by UCM, the Alice Millar Chapel, Public Affairs Residential College, Northwestern Community Development Corps, the political science department , Rotaract and GLOBE,

Poter, a Dominican priest from Germany, worked in a rural village outside of San Salvador, El Salvador for 22 years. Rodriguez, a pastor and teacher, and Bustamante, a teaching consultant, worked with Poter for some of those years. The three used this experience to highlight the repercussions of new competition on local farmers.

“For us, in our country, a central part of our economy is agriculture,” said Rodriguez. “Our agricultural brothers will not be able to stand the competition with other countries.”

Rodriguez stressed that local farmers cannot compete against cheaper produce subsidized by the U.S.

But Poter argued that all Salvadorans must compete and that a government-protected economy would let lazy workers enjoy the same benefits as other workers.

“How can we compete with this condition?” Bustamante countered. “It is not a question of laziness. You cannot compete because for each product of El Salvador that enters the U.S., there are many more products from the U.S. go to El Salvador.”

At the end of the debate, audience members had the opportunity to share their opinions. Most of the audience members said free trade was unfair to less-developed countries.

After fostering a discussion in the room, Poter revealed that the debate had been an act and that he actually supported the closure of developing economies to competition from such countries as the U.S. and Japan.

“With this theater, it is an open act because we can always investigate to see whether we are right or wrong,” Poter said. He encouraged students to question the information presented to them by the media.

“Students will be transformed by this talk,” said the Rev. Julie Windsor Mitchell, UCM’s director, who helped organize the event. “Every time I take students overseas, they are transformed by their experience.”

Weinberg senior Marta Flory, a member of UCM, said more students need to be informed about the issues. “Globalization is an internationally important issue,” she said. “It’s critical that we get the perspective of others that are affected and involved in this.”

Reach Ketul Patel at [email protected].