On Monday, July 26, 2004, in Quito, Ecuador, as part of the Americas Social Forum, a workshop was held on "Integral Audits as a Tool in the Struggle against Illegitimate Debt" during which it was made evident that Citizen Audits are a central step toward recognition of the illegitimate character of the financial debts claimed of South countries. As such, the Audits are basic tools for awareness building among the peoples of the Americas in order to strengthen mobilization against continued payment of the debt and in favor of its restitution and reparation. With respect to the mass media, which never tires of repeating that the debt must be paid and that we would be irresponsible or remiss if we don't pay, the Audits can provide a firm response: "WE ARE NOT DEBTORS, WE ARE THE CREDITORS". The conclusions of those Audits already undertaken enable us to affirm this. Several military governments in Latin America, rather than carry out progressive fiscal reforms and collect taxes from the rich, opted to take out external loans, often with flexible interest rates, without ever consulting the people. In this way, the unilateral and illegal rise in the interest rates, provoked by the creditors towards the end of the '70s, led to a situation in which most countries of the region have now repaid those debts several times over. Citizen Audits will also demonstrate the unconstitutionality of the loan contracts, given that many of them never received parliamentary approval, many of the clauses were outright illegal, and that there was tremendous corruption in the granting and receiving of those loans. The realization of Audits, with broad-based participation and control by organized civil society, can document and prove these crimes. Debt Audits demonstrate first of all that the financial debts are illegitimate and illegal, and secondly, that we are the creditors of a social and ecological debt provoked by the countries of the North as a result of more than 500 years of plunder of our natural resources and environmental depredation. They also owe us for having imposed, through the policies and practices of the International Financial Institutions, the implementation of development models that are harmful to the environment. Furthermore, the debt is used as an instrument of extortion so that our accomplice governments submit themselves to these impositions. Finally, Debt Audits can also demonstrate the way in which ever greater portions of our national budgets are used to service the debt, at the same time in which millions of persons suffer hunger, unemployment and extreme misery. This constitutes indeed the greatest illegality of the debt: the systematic violation of fundamental economic, social, and cultural human rights. We therefore agree to promote, through the different movements, groups, and networks, the realization of Citizen Audits in all Latin American and Caribbean countries, so that our peoples can better understand the illegitimate character of the debts that are claimed of our countries and popular mobilization can be strengthened. This is fundamental in order to insure that Citizen Audits can also be transformed into official, legal investigations that are truly capable of securing repudiation and annulment of the debts that we do not owe and repayment of what is rightfully due to the peoples of the South. Further Information: JUBILEE SOUTH/AMERICAS - jubileosur@wamani.apc.org - www.jubileesouth.org.sp Piedras 730, (1070) Buenos Aires, Argentina - Telefax (5411) 4307-1867