I n  L a t i n  A m e r i c a

Time Not Ripe for Green Parties

B y  D i e g o   C e v a l l o s

Joining forces with the conservative candidate in Mexico's presidential race was the most fortunate decision in the history of the country's only environmental party.

MEXICO CITY - As an ally of victorious presidential candidate Vicente Fox, the only ''green'' political party in Mexico won a slice of power, but most of Latin America's environmentally based parties are far from matching such a feat.

Green parties in the region operate in the political periphery and their record reads like a list of failures, winning them criticisms from non-governmental environmental groups.

Far from the media spotlight, they meet periodically under the aegis of the Federation of Green Parties of the Americas, created in 1997, and claim they are the only organisations prepared and ready to solve the region's environmental problems.

The Federation's next conference is slated for September in Peru and the organisers say parties from 15 countries will attend. But the evidence shows that many of them do not yet hold official party status.

Research by Tierramérica revealed that Mexico and Brazil are two of the few Latin American countries where green parties have parliamentary representation or hold office in municipal or regional governments.

Mexico has the 'Partido Verde Ecologista' (Ecologist Green Party), which allied itself with the conservative National Action Party (PAN), supporting Vicente Fox in the July 2 presidential elections.

The 'Partido Verde do Brasil' (Green Party of Brazil), meanwhile, despite its marginal presence, has the support of some famous personalities, such as singer Gilberto Gil. Like Mexico's Verde Ecologista, it was founded in 1986.

The Chilean Green Party, created in 1988, nearly disappeared after failing to win the minimum votes necessary to continue in national elections, though it later regrouped and joined the Humanist Party.

In Peru, the 'Alternativa Verde' (Green Alternative), founded in 1997, has not yet obtained electoral status because its members have not been able to collect the required number of signatures from the electorate.

Uruguay has two environmentally-leaning parties, the 'Etoecologista' (Etho-Ecologist) party, created in 1988, and the 'Partido del Sol' (Party of the Sun), in 1994. Neither has won formal political representation in elections.

Many activists and groups that carry the ecologist flag in Latin America have opted to join forces with other established parties or to keep a low profile, like Colombia's 'Acción Ecológica' (Ecological Action).

In Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Paraguay, green political parties simply do not exist.

'''The environmental political organisations seek to constitute a humanity that is able to coexist in harmony with nature, based on the principles of love, justice and liberty,'' according to the Federation of Green Parties of the Americas.

Their objective is ''the creation of an ecological society that integrates the various economic, social, political and cultural spheres,'' say the Federation's documents.

Unlike their European counterparts, green parties in Latin America have not been able to get very far off the ground.

Some, like Mexico's Verde Ecologista, founder of the Federation of Green Parties of the Americas, lack environmental knowledge or are based on individual interests, according to the international environmental organisation Greenpeace.

The Mexican party, thanks to the decision to join Fox's Alliance for Change, now holds 15 seats in the Chamber of Deputies (out of 500), and five in the Senate (of 128), compared to just seven and four, respectively, in the outgoing legislature.

Jorge González, party president, is confident that Verde Ecologista support for Fox will open a ''natural'' space in the government to take office in December, which for the first time in 71 years will not be in the hands of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

González hopes to be named environmental secretary (minister), but Greenpeace cautions that his designation to the post would be a mistake. The international organisation says González and his party's members lack expertise in environmental issues.

The leader of the Mexican green party, who some party members accuse of opportunism and nepotism, did poorly in answering a questionnaire on environmental issues published in July by 'Milenio' newspaper.

The green party was founded on the central pillar of ''love'' and has consistently been out of the loop in the debates non-governmental environmental groups fight to put on the public agenda.

But now it has won a space in power and its leaders promise that from the parliamentary political trenches they will advocate for a better environment, based on the strength of love, ''the driving force of Mexico's Green Ecologist Party.''

In South America, meanwhile, the Green Party of Brazil has just one representative in the national Congress of 513 deputies and 81 senators. In 1998, the party ran a candidate for the presidency, winning 0.31 percent of the valid votes cast.

The Green Party ''is still a project, a party in the making,'' says Domingos Fernandes, one of the group's leaders.

But political scientist Jairo Nicolau states that the Green Party of Brazil is ''nearly non-existent'' and ''very fragile,'' winning party status only "'thanks to the generosity of the country's electoral laws.''

Wielding some influence in cities like Rio de Janeiro, where its activists hold office in the municipal environmental secretariat, but lacking much political weight, Brazil's Green Party has not been able to penetrate the higher spheres of governmental political activity.

In other countries the situation of environmental parties is even dimmer. The Green Party in Chile was founded more than a decade ago as ''the first eco-pacifist party in Latin America''.

One year later, it lost its place on the electoral roles because neither of its two candidates was elected and the party received less than five percent of the votes cast.

To avoid disappearing altogether, it joined the Chilean Humanist Party, which has also failed to win parliamentary representation.

In Peru, the Green Alternative attempted last year to win admission into the National Registry of Political Organisations, but was only able to gather 125,000 of the 500,000 signatures the country's laws require for party status.

Because they were ready to enter the political sphere in whatever way possible, the Peruvian greens allied themselves with the Solidarity Movement, which has formal party status. Its presidential candidate, Luis Castañeda, agreed to add the environmentalists' principles and objectives to his electoral platform.

'''It was a frustrating experience. We ended with the conviction that the traditional politicians, whether they are leaders of parties or of movements, not only lack environmental awareness, but they are willing to betray it if necessary,'' said Green Alternative president, Alex González.

Green Alternative contributed 76,000 dollars and several vehicles to the Solidarity Movement's campaign for the presidential elections last April, González said.

In exchange, ''they promised to give us spots on the ballots for parliamentary candidates, but when we complained because they did not include ecological issues in the campaign, they said they had no obligation to us,'' the green party leader stated.

Green Alternative and other environmental parties will discuss their future during the September conference in Peru. The groups planning to attend come from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Nicaragua and the host country, as well as from other regions, including Canada, France, Morocco, Nigeria and the United States.

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