Some 800 delegates have already confirmed their presence at the Third Hemispheric Conference of the Struggle Against the Free Trade Area of the Americas, FTAA, which will take place between January 26th and 30th in the capital of this Caribbean island. All of the countries of the Americas will be present, with the greatest participation by Mexico, the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Venezuela, together with people from the Caribbean and France, Italy, Germany, and other nations. During a meeting of the organizing committee of the Third Hemispheric Conference Against the FTAA, Osvaldo Martínez, president of the Economic Commission of the Cuban Parliament, signaled that the principal purpose of the event is "to re-adapt the campaign of the struggle against this US economic invention, an annexionist project which the United States government has been forced to change as a result of the resistance of some governments and the social movements which in the last few years have gained strength in the region. From this conference should emerge a stronger coalition among the social movements which come together in the Hemispheric Social Alliance and the Hemispheric Campaign Against the FTAA in this decisive phase of the struggle." Martínez said that the original goal was to implement the FTAA in January of 2005; that is why this battle, in which the White House has suffered a kind of partial defeat, is so important. As such, he explained that with the creation of a network of bilateral free trade agreements, the original idea has been left behind of one single organization, with one homogenous discipline for the whole hemisphere, minus Cuba. The prominent Cuban economist emphasized, in addition, that at this moment an FTAA at different speeds is being proposed, and that is the recognition that they couldn´t impose the Free Trade Agreement on the region by force. The conference in Havana is organized into plenary sessions, panels, and special talks by well-known people from different spheres and specializations from Cuba and the rest of Latin America, in addition to thematic and sectoral workshops.