LaRouche Visit to Brazil
Features São Paulo Honor

In a solemn ceremony June 12, U.S. Democratic Party Presidential pre-candidate Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. was awarded honorary citizenship for São Paulo, by the City Council of that city of more than 18 million people, the third-largest in the world.

Addressing an overflow crowd of several hundred who attended the ceremony, LaRouche said that in these perilous times, there is no way the United States will come out of this crisis, without the founding of a community of principle among the nations of the Americas. Brazil has a particular role to play in any such endeavor, as one of the few countries in the world which still retains some significant degree of sovereignty, LaRouche added, and said that he hoped, by coming to Brazil, to open such a dialogue with all the nations of the Americas. (See transcript of the ceremony's proceedings.)

LaRouche was invited to Brazil to receive this honor by Dr. Havanir Nimtz, the principal representative on the São Paulo City Council, of Brazil's Party for the Rebuilding of National Order (PRONA), founded by Dr. Enéas Carneiro, one of Brazil's preeminent cardiologists and a former Presidential candidate. LaRouche and his wife, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, accompanied by Dr. Enéas, visited a plenary session of the City Council on June 12, and were introduced to the body by Councilwoman Havanir. The ceremony awarding LaRouche citizenship of São Paulo, held in an auditorium in the City Council building, commenced with a military band playing the national anthem of Brazil, and an a capella rendition of the U.S. national anthem. After the official presentation, Dr. Havanir and Dr. Enéas each spoke about LaRouche's work and contributions, honoring his role as an American statesman who stands up for all humanity.

Change the Rules of the Game

If there is to be hope for the world, the United States has to be brought back to its senses, Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche said in her brief remarks during the ceremony. There are two Americas: that which continues the intellectual tradition of its Founding Fathers, or that of the Tories, still allied to the British Empire. The decision to grant honorary citizenship to my husband, she said, sends the most powerful possible message to the world, about which United States the world wants.

Lyndon LaRouche gave three public addresses during his week-long visit to Brazil, in addition to his speech to the City Council. In each, he warned that there is no solution within the existing international financial system: not one. Not for the United States. Not for Brazil. You must help replace the system, he told his Brazilian audiences, because both of our nations are heading straight towards a blow-out no different from what collapsed neighboring Argentina earlier this year. Perhaps next week, perhaps in some months, but it will occur soon. We have to change the rules. Can we not change the rules? Are we not human?

LaRouche's first public address, on "The Global Systemic Crisis and the End of 'Free Trade,' " was given at a three and a half-hour forum sponsored by the Alumni Association of the Superior War College (ADESG) and EIR, and held in the auditorium of the Latin American Parliament in São Paulo on June 11. Representatives of two of the principal power groupings debating what Brazil must do in this conjunctural crisis, offered their comments following LaRouche's opening remarks: former Superior War College director Gen. Oswaldo Muniz Oliva; and Cong. Marcos Cintra, who currently heads the Congressional committee which deals with the negotiations for the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA). An extended discussion then followed with the 120 representatives of the São Paulo business, agriculture, military, and university elite who attended. At the conclusion, the head of the ADESG in São Paulo, Adauto Rocchetto, thanked LaRouche warmly for speaking to them so directly, especially recognizing the fact that what he is saying, as an American citizen and an American politician, goes against what his government stands for and is doing around the world.

On June 13, LaRouche was the featured speaker at a business luncheon sponsored by the São Paulo Commercial Association, whose members were keenly interested in discussing new solutions for the global economic crisis, as Brazil's financial pyramid begins to crumble. (See text of LaRouche's address.) The following day, he was the keynote speaker at the Fifth "Brazil-Argentina: The Moment of Truth" Seminar, organized jointly by his associates in the Ibero-American Solidarity Movement (MSIA), and the Ibero-American Integration and Identity Movement (MINEII) founded by friends of Argentine Col. Mohamed Alí Seineldín. (See text of LaRouche's address.) The seminar, held at the auditorium of the ADESG in São Paulo, opened to a full house, with a public exchange of ideas between LaRouche and Colonel Seineldin, the latter by telephone from his military prison in Argentina.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche opened the second panel of that seminar, with a presentation on the strategic importance of the Eurasion Land-Bridge for the integration of Ibero-America. Dr. Vasco de Azevedo Neto, former federal Congressman and Presidential candidate, followed her, with a presentation on the necessity of completing the Great Waterway, the name he coined for the long overdue project to link the Orinoco, Amazon and La Plata river basins of South America.

During their visit, Helga Zepp-LaRouche was also invited by the São Paulo State Appellate Criminal Court to discuss the threat of the New Violence, and her proposal for international legal action banning the most violent video games. (See the text of her address.) She was introduced by the vice president of the Criminal Appeals Court, Dr. Renato Nalini, and addressed 80 people, among whom were 15 judges, the vice president of the Military Tribunal of São Paulo, and diverse representatives of civilian and military authorities, as well as lawyers and students.