From Volume 8, Issue 22 of EIR Online, Published June 2, 2009

Ibero-American News Digest

Brits Jack Up Separatist Movement in Ibero-America

May 29 (EIRNS)—A British-run and -inspired fascist apparatus is gearing up throughout Ibero-America, with the intention of breaking up nation-states, against the backdrop of the current global financial meltdown. As the British did in the 19th Century, the entities that make up this apparatus preach the virtues of limited government, free markets, and "private institutions separate from the State," because these cohere "with the natural order." They seek states that "are limited in territory and population"; governments which have limited functions of security, justice, and public works, "but nothing else," as the declaration of the so-called Confilar (International Confederation for Regional Autonomies) asserts.

At the center of the network is the Mont Pelerin Society-steered fascist think tank and NGO network: the Cato Institute, the American Enterprise Institute, the Atlas Foundation, and the Friedrich Neumann Foundation, among them—with money from the National Democratic Institute (NDI) thrown in to grease the wheels.

A recent addition to this network is a group called UnoAmerica, headed by Alejandro Peña Esclusa, the Venezuelan LaRouche movement deserter who was recruited to Spanish fascist Blas Piñar's side. UnoAmerica is concentrating on promoting separatism in Bolivia at the moment, but it has a continental perspective, and is generously financed. Peña is currently on a continental tour accompanied by Jorge Mones Ruíz, an Former Argentine military officer associated with Capt. Gustavo Breide Obeid's wing of the New Fascist International, uncovered by EIR in 2003.

A May 27 article in Analitica.com by Gustavo Coronel, a McLean, Virginia-based Venezuelan Mont Pelerin activist, waxes ecstatic about UnoAmerica, saying no one should worry about all the leftist Presidents in Ibero-America, because a movement on behalf of democracy is flourishing throughout the continent, having established itself in several key cities: Rosario and Cordoba in Argentina; Santa Cruz in Bolivia; Guayaquil and Cuenca in Ecuador; Bogota and Medellin in Colombia; and Marcaibo and Valencia in Venezuela. "These are powerful political and social currents which are vigorously resisting the swine flu of populism," Coronel writes. "All these cities, except those located in truly democratic countries, demand autonomy precisely because the central governments are despotic, and asphyxiate their true commercial, political and social activity."

PRI Sonora Candidate Addresses Pro-PLHINO Meeting

May 27 (EIRNS)—With a little more than a month to go before the July elections in Mexico, the PRI party's candidate for governor of the border state of Sonora, Alfonso Elias Serrano, addressed a meeting yesterday of 350 supporters of the proposed Northwest Hydraulic Plan (PLHINO), organized by the 21st Century Pro-PLHINO Committee in Ciudad Obregon. He explained why he, as governor, will fight to see that the PLHINO is finally built.

With his optimistic promotion of the PLHINO, the tri-state water project championed for years by Lyndon LaRouche, Elias has generated enormous enthusiasm and support among the citizens of this important agricultural state. The discussion at the Pro-PLHINO meeting generated media coverage on the advantages which constructing the project will bring.

Elias told his audience that with the building of the PLHINO, he foresees running a government that will overcome challenges, build great projects, and implement real economic development in the state. This great water project will employ 70,000 professionals, generate more than 200,000 jobs, open up 450,000 hectares of land for agricultural production, and include the building of six hydroelectric plants in three states—Nayarit, Sinaloa, and Sonora—he explained.

"We can't possibly think of ignoring projects that will unleash the development of our state," he said. "We can't paralyze these great projects. [Their value] isn't measured in pesos and centavos, but rather in the social well-being of our people." Elias recalled that as a Senator, he proposed that the Northwest Hydraulic Plan be placed on the national agenda, adding that now, as a candidate, he has redoubled his commitment to building this project, whose benefits extended well beyond providing water to the Yaqui and Mayo valleys. Elias vowed to lead the fight to improve living conditions of the people of Sonora, and the only way to do that, he said, is to invest in great projects like the PLHINO.

The meeting was opened by a presentation by the Schiller Institute's children's chorus, and was addressed also by long-term LaRouche associate Alberto Vizcarra, Secretary General of the 21st Century Pro-PLHINO Committee; Adalberto Rosas, from the Pro-PLHINO's board; and Óscar Gastelúm and Ramón Valenzuela, speaking in the name of agricultural producers.

'Narco Retail' Legalization Law Runs into Trouble in Mexico

May 28 (EIRNS)—Second, saner thoughts appear to be stalling implementation of the so-called "narco retail" law legalizing "personal consumption" of seven different flavors of narcotics (from opium to LSD, and everything in between), passed by both chambers of Congress in the last week of April under the pretext of beefing up treatment programs. Although made somewhat worse by Congress, the bill that passed was essentially what the Calderón Administration had submitted for approval. The only thing left to put this travesty into effect, was the signature of the President, and its publication in the official gazette.

One month later, the law has yet to be signed. Assurances from champions of the bill from within the governing PAN party on May 26, that the President will ratify the law and it won't be vetoed, made legalization advocates within other parties even more nervous that "something is up."

The next day, Public Security Secretary Genaro García Luna, denounced the invasion of the country by "narco-retail," in a speech before the Canacintra manufacturers' association. Cocaine consumption doubled in the country between 2002 and 2006, he said. Whereas seven years ago dope "retail" sales were largely carried out in the bars, discotheques, nightclubs, and hotels, now distributors are using their own homes as sales centers. People have to understand the danger which "narco-retail" represents for society, and help create a "counter-culture" which rewards people who identify distributors, in order to redouble efforts against these crimes, he said.

Brazil Prepares To Produce H1N1 Vaccine

May 28 (EIRNS)—Brazil's Butantan Institute is ready to begin work on producing 1 million vaccines against the A(H1N1) virus, as soon it receives the virus strain from the World Health Organization, Isaias Raw, head of the Institute's Foundation, announced on May 25.

The Institute, a world-class biomedical research facility of the Health Ministry of the state of São Paulo, produces 80% of the vaccines used in Brazil. It is already working on a vaccine against dengue, which would be ready by 2010, Raw said.

After participating in the flu vaccine strategy session between WHO officials and pharmaceutical company manufacturers on May 19, Raw had denounced the international pharmaceutical cartel as "worse than the oil producers." He charged that the multinationals, which hold a "monopoly" on vaccine production, refused to reveal their plans for vaccine production at the meeting, and formed a lobby against any drop in vaccine prices, so that no agreement was reached on either prices or how to get vaccines to poor countries. Only the members of the Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network (led by India and Brazil) made commitments to build up vaccine stockpiles for the United Nations to disburse to countries that cannot produce them, nor afford to buy them.

All rights reserved © 2009 EIRNS