In 1994, right after the United States launched the initiative on the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), different groups of the civil society have followed this process through a critical attitude, presenting evidences and arguments on why its application is not convenient. This experience, that calls for the exercise of civil rights regarding economic decisions, has been fruitful as it is heading now towards resistance as well as the quest for alternatives for a different integration. The first and main preoccupation was the secret nature of the negotiations. If this instrument deals with legal and constitutional aspects, among others, the fact that definitions were decided behind the backs of parliaments, public institutions, and the people/citizens is inadmissible. The final document was made public in 2001, as a result of a systematic endeavor of informative and pressure work. This is a strategic achievement, though we will not benefit from it if parliaments and the people do not know about it, do not take position or undertake action about the Agreement. Many of these tasks are still pending. The participation of civil society has had special visibility at the hemispheric summits of Santiago de Chile (2000) and Quebec (2001), as well as the World Social Forum (Porto Alegre 2002). These massive mobilizations are based on analysis and consensus, which are less well known, but crucial if we are to take a stand in the face of this treaty, which implies a form of integration founded on the continuation and exacerbation of injustice and inequality. The FTAA establishes the rights and interests of transnational companies above those of countries and citizens, affecting national sovereignty and human rights. Different analyses demonstrate foreseeable losses in the areas of food safety, health, environment, labor and gender rights, among others—tinged with implications that need to be examined with each national, productive, and social context. Seven years after the implementation of the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Mexico emerges as a key referent. Balances show that this project has paid high social, productive and environmental costs without obtaining the desired macroeconomic results. In light of these and some other evidence, civil society is coming together in total opposition to the FTAA. It is not adequate, real, or viable to obtain presumed commercial opportunities or to introduce social clauses if one country's hegemony, the dominance of transnational companies, and the establishment of total market, control the direction of this process. This is the perspective of the Continental Campaign against the FTAA that took place in Quito this past May, at which delegations of multiple actors: peasants, students, workers, intellectuals, indigenous people, and businesspeople participated. At the same time, it underlines the urgency of advancing towards another kind of integration: one that will articulate countries in equitable conditions, promote a new development model, stimulate production oriented toward people's necessities, fight against gender discrimination, strengthen diversity and the exercise of individual and collective rights, be based on common history; an integration that will go beyond market limitations and its inequities. Ecuador will host a new episode of the FTAA negotiations as the hemispheric ministerial meeting will take place there in October. The voice of continental civil society will appear stronger and unanimously opposed to this plan, and hopefully Ecuadorian society will be more aware and committed to this crucial topic that affects our immediate future. * Latin American Network of Women Transforming the Economy.