Contesting Trade in Central America: Market Reform and Resistance

Appendix A. Note on Interview Methodology

APPENDIx A Note on Interview Methodology This manuscript draws on interviews with 208 direct participants in and observers of the Central American economic reform debate. These interviews were conducted with participants from Nicaragua (2003, 2006, 2007, 2008), El Salvador (2004, 2005, 2010), and Costa Rica (2005, 2010). Most respondents were chosen based on their public roles in the CAFTA negotiation and ratification processes. Officials who presided over earlier phases of market reform were interviewed primarily for chapter 1, and additional figures in the mining debate, electoral campaigns, and post-CAFTA administrations were interviewed for chapters 5, 6, and 7. The interview pool was designed to focus on “civil society” as the most vital expression of active, organized, and engaged citizens. To trace processes shaped by other actors, and to situate civil society perspectives within a larger political context, this study included interviews with key government officials, business leaders, and other international actors. Table A.1 provides a breakdown of the interviews by country and sector. In order of numerical distribution, respondents are divided among civil society (101); Central American government officials (45, with 28 from the executive and 17 from the legislative branches); private sector leaders (32); U.S. government representatives (13); international organizations (IOs) (8, primarily multilateral banks); and international nongovernmental organizations (9). The civil society interviews included representatives of both nongovernmental organizations and social movements (76) and researchers from major think tanks and universities and consultants (25). Together, the Central American civil society representatives constituted almost half (49%) of those interviewed for this study. Given the enormous variation in civil society, the interview pool design for this sector was particularly complex. I began by constructing a database using three lists of civil society organizations that were involved in economic development discussions in Central American during the 2002–2003 period. The first list was composed of the affiliates of Iniciativa CID, a network formed in 2001 to coordinate participation in and research about trade negotiations. This list, most fully elaborated for El Salvador, provided information about the lead organizations and primary contacts in each of the Central American countries. Note on Interview Methodology 241 The second list was composed of organizers and organizations attending the IV Foro Mesoamericano por la Autodeterminación y Resistencia de los Pueblos gathering held in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in 2003 (Foro Mesoamericano 2004a). The Foro Mesoamericano was the main network organizing in opposition to corporate globalization in the Mesoamerican region. Document annexes provided names of lead contacts for the Foro Mesoamericano transition teams by country, as well as the names of participating organizations and their delegation size. The third was a list of organizations invited to send delegates to national-level workshops on Plan Puebla-Panamá, a regional infrastructure project whose advance was coordinated by the Inter-American Development Bank (Spalding 2004). These 2002 workshops, organized by the IDB and national PPP commissioners, brought together representatives of major development-oriented NGOs and social movements , unofficially privileging those organizations with a mainstream orientation. When interviews were targeted to address specific questions, interviewees were pulled from relevant subsections of the database. Interview participants were not selected at random, and their representativeness cannot be assumed. These contributors did, however, include a large number of leaders who participated actively in the market reform debate and who brought different perspectives to bear on this process. Initial respondents were occupants of official positions, participants in formal activities , or organization spokespeople. Those in the first pool of respondents often mentioned other actors and organizations, helping me identify those actors regarded as significant in their networks and producing an additional pool of potential respondents , typically from within the same sector. Twenty-eight participants (13% of the total) were interviewed between two and four times, often at length, for a total number of 242 interviews with 208 respondents. Table A.1. Interviews by country and sector No. of respondents Sector Nicaragua El Salvador Costa Rica Total Civil society 34 47 20 101 (49%) Government 21 13 11 45 (22%) Private sector 15 8 9 32 (15%) U.S. government 6 5 2 13 (6%) International organizations 5 1 2 8 (4%) International nongovernmental organizations 4 5 0 9 (4%) Total 85 79 44 208 (100%) Note: In total, 242 interviews were conducted. 242 ContestingTrade in Central America Interviews in El Salvador in 2004 focused on two subgroups of CAFTA critics. In an effort to examine the range of perspectives held by the...