From Volume 7, Issue 11 of EIR Online, Published Mar. 11, 2008

Ibero-American News Digest

Rio Group Defuses War Danger, Avoids Condemning FARC

March 7 (EIRNS)—Central and South American Presidents, meeting at the Rio Group summit in the Dominican Republic today, defused—for the moment—the British-orchestrated war danger that was set to go off in the region. Discussion at the summit was heated and tense at times, revolving around Colombia's March 1 incursion into Ecuador to kill FARC kingpin Raúl Reyes. Ecuador's President Rafael Correa walked out at one point while Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was speaking, and Venezuela's Hugo Chávez made his standard provocative remarks about Uribe, charging him with launching a version of George Bush's "pre-emptive" warfare against Ecuador.

But at the end of the day, possibly as a result of Brazil's intervention, the Presidents all decided to embrace, shake hands, and smile for the photographer.

The group cobbled together a final communique which is clearly a compromise, cooling out the immediate danger of war, but failing to address the fundamental issue that Lyndon LaRouche has identified, i.e., that the Colombian narcoterrorist FARC is a "fascist drug-pushing operation," whose criminal activities cannot be tolerated by any government. The communique states that all nations were "concerned" that Ecuador's territorial sovereignty was violated on March 1, reports that Colombia has apologized for that action, and asserts all members' commitment to peace, respect for international law, and non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.

But the wording on the issue of narcoterrorism is very carefully crafted. It states that members agreed to "combat threats to the security of all States, stemming from the actions of irregular groups or criminal organizations, particularly those linked to drug-trafficking activities." It then adds that, "Colombia considers these criminal organizations to be terrorists."

President Uribe gave a hard-hitting and statesmanlike speech, to defend his assertion that the FARC is a narcoterrorist gang of criminals which has committed heinous crimes against the Colombian population. What he didn't touch, however, is the crucial issue of Wall Street's central promotion of the FARC, as evidenced by the "Grasso Abrazo" and the scandalous events surrounding it (see this week's InDepth).

The killing of Reyes was no "massacre," as Ecuadorian President Correa had called it, Uribe said. Reyes wasn't some kind of "archangel," but "one of the deadliest terrorists in the history of humanity!" He was operating in Ecuador—even holding press conferences there—ordering attacks on Colombia. There were 121 legal cases against him for murder, terrorism, rebellion, kidnapping, etc. This was no advocate of peace.

As for sovereignty, Uribe said, Colombia has asked Ecuador's pardon for entering its territory. But, he added, sovereignty has to be looked at more broadly. There has been much commentary on Colombia's violation of Ecuador's sovereignty, he said, but what about the violation of the Colombian people's sovereignty by the FARC? And, Uribe asked, isn't the FARC's entry into Ecuador's territory also a violation of that nation's sovereignty?

Buenos Aires Mayor Is Mussolini Bloomberg's New 'Soul Mate'

March 5 (EIRNS)—Multi-millionaire Mauricio Macri has joined California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as a "soul mate" of New York's fascist mayor, Michael Bloomberg. In November of 2007, after the then mayor-elect of Buenos Aires, Macri, met with Bloomberg in New York, he gushed about how much the two agreed on everything, especially on "reducing costs." As one of his first acts in office, in December of 2007, Macri fired 2,000 city workers, and threatens to fire 20,000 more.

One political activist described Macri's policy for Buenos Aires to this news service as a form of "ethnic cleansing," designed to remove all undesirable elements, such as street vendors, protesters, the poor, and dark-skinned. The mayor says he wants Buenos Aires—Argentina's capital—to undergo "cultural change," or gentrification, where wealthy businessmen and the elites don't have to be disturbed by looking at the poor, homeless, or unemployed. This same source said this was reminiscent of the old British imperialist policy for Argentina, which tried to make Buenos Aires the center of British-dominated finance and trade, to the detriment of the rest of the country.

Macri's fascist outlook is seen in his determination to remove the "cartoneros" from the city—those who, at the height of Argentina's horrific economic crisis in 2001-02, were seen digging through the city's dumpsters and garbage, in search of food or other items they could sell or recycle. According to one source, restaurants in the upscale Puerto Madero section of the city put broken glass in the garbage they dispose of, to discourage the cartoneros from digging through it. Macri has also halted the service of the special "white train," which brought the cartoneros into the city.

The Buenos Aires mayor is also apparently preparing his own version of Bloomberg's "congestion tax." Under the guise of reorganizing the city's public transportation system, he said he wants to "encourage drivers not to enter Buenos Aires' densest zones, so as to create a cleaner environment." EIR hasn't yet learned whether he intends to charge drivers for entering the city. We do know that he wants to prohibit anyone outside of the city proper, from using city hospitals!

Bloomberg has invited Macri to participate in two meetings to take place this year in New York City with other big-city mayors, where they will address their common problems.

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