Ibero-American News Digest

The Empire Deploys 'Basque' Terrorists To Sow Chaos

Jan. 2 (EIRNS)—As part of the asymmetric warfare that it is orchestrating internationally, the British Empire plans to use its "Basque" ETA terrorists in Spain and Ibero-America. The newly founded Continental Bolivarian Movement (MCB), sponsored by London's Venezuelan asset Hugo Chávez, has already incorporated ETA into its arsenal of narcoterrorist groups that can be deployed continentally to sow terror and chaos in the name of "fighting U.S. imperialism."

In Spain, Interior Minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba recently placed the country on a "Level 2" alert, based on the "probable risk" that the British-spawned ETA plans to carry out major terrorist attacks sometime soon. According to the Basque Radio Euskadi, an internal ETA document captured by security forces reveals plans for two "spectacular" actions—one directed against a government ministry or the headquarters of the Civil Guard, Spain's police, and the other, the kidnapping of a high-level government official.

ETA specifies that the optimal time for such events is during the next six months when Spain holds the presidency of the European Union, and will host several high-level events in Madrid, including the EU-Latin America summit next May, followed by U.S. President Barack Obama's visit.

This is a trans-Atlantic operation. In Ibero-America, ETA was present at the MCB's Dec. 7-9 founding meeting in Caracas, where the narcoterrorist FARC's top leader Alfonso Cano spoke via video and was invited to join the executive committee. His speech was dedicated entirely to attacking the United States, and peddling British agent George Soros's line that the U.S.-backed war on drugs "is a failed strategy."

Listening to Cano's rant was Inaki Gil de San Vicente, whom Colombian intelligence sources have identified as the liaison between the FARC and ETA. San Vicente has been photographed with FARC leaders more than once, and was introduced as a "revolutionary and member of the independent Basque left." In his speech, he lavished praise on Chávez and asked him not to extradite ETA members to Spain. Spain's ABC daily describes Venezuela as "one of the few sanctuaries still left for the ETA" in the world.

Dirty Vatican Asset Aids FARC Cartel

Dec. 30, 2009 (EIRNS)—After Colombia's narcoterrorist FARC kidnapped and brutally assassinated Caquetá Gov. Luis Francisco Cuellar on Dec. 22, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe vowed to sent in the military to free the 24 hostages still held by the FARC assassins, and to spare no effort in defeating them.

But on Dec. 24, only two days after Cuellar's murder, retired Catholic Cardinal Darío Castrillón, representing a dirty faction of the Vatican, emerged to announce that he was seeking a meeting with the head of the FARC, Alfonso Cano, to discuss "peace," adding that Uribe had authorized him to do so. He suggested that such a meeting might take place in Europe, hinting that Uribe himself might even travel to meet with Cano.

It is highly unlikely that Uribe would ever consider such a meeting. In an interview with the National Police radio network today, he repeated that both the FARC and the ELN (National Liberation Army) are "admitted drug-traffickers," who engage in all sorts of machinations "to appear as the opposite" of what they are. The Colombian President also reiterated earlier remarks that the police and military together should rescue the hostages. Nothing the FARC says can be believed, he said; lies and deception are all they know.

British Provocations in the South Atlantic

Dec. 31 (EIRNS)—In an attempt to rile things up in South America's Southern Cone, the Royal Navy and Air Force joined the Scottish Highlander regiment on Dec. 19-21 to carry out war games on the Malvinas Islands, which the British call the Falklands.

Britain went to war against Argentina in April of 1982 to punish that country for having dared to reclaim the islands, which the Empire illegally seized in 1833, and has held ever since. The war games, in which British forces repelled a "foreign invader," constituted an imperial "in your face" message to the Argentine government that the islands belong to the Empire—now and always.

In yet another provocation, when the Lisbon Treaty went into effect on Dec. 1, heralding the destruction of Europe's nation-states, it declared the Malvinas, South Georgia, and the South Sandwich Islands, over which Argentina claims sovereignty, to be "associated territories" of the European Union.

Shortly before this, British oil companies announced oil and natural gas discoveries in the North Falkland Basin, containing an estimated 60 billion barrels of oil. Not only are the three companies preparing to begin exploration in the region, but the Falkland Oil and Gas, Ltd. has made overtures to the Chilean state oil firm, ENAP, to become its partner in the venture.

Given that it was Chile's London-controlled fascist dictator Augusto Pinochet, who openly supported Britain in the 1982 Malvinas War, this is an incredible affront to Argentina. Moreover, the multibillionaire right-wing Presidential candidate Sebastián Piñera, who reportedly has a good chance of winning in the Jan. 17 electoral runoff, has stated publicly that he "might" allow ENAP to aid the British in developing the Malvinas oil and natural gas deposits.

Former Hostage Backs Uribe Plan To Rescue FARC Captives

Dec. 31 (EIRNS)—Former Colombian Presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who was held hostage by the FARC drug cartel for six years, prior to her July 2008 rescue by government forces, has publicly backed President Alvaro Uribe's decision to militarily rescue the 24 hostages still held by the narcoterrorists.

Betancourt, who hasn't commented publicly to date on the hostage situation, backed Uribe, in Dec. 31 remarks to Radio Caracol. The prisoner exchange the FARC offers is a "fantasy," she said, and a military rescue will happen long before anyone sees any "humanitarian" hostage-release by the FARC.

"As a hostage, one wants a military rescue, or death ... so, in that light, I have to confess that I agree with the government," she said. Moreover, the FARC has been hit hard militarily, and "we must remember that the Army has surrounded their camps, increasing the possibility of a rescue."

Uribe characterized Betancourt's statements as "very courageous." But a blogger for the daily El Tiempo, owned by the slavishly pro-British and pro-drug Santos family, immediately told the former hostage to shut up, charging that her "imprudent" language might hurt the delicate negotiations that Sen. Piedad Córdoba, an ally of Venezuela's buffoonish Hugo Chávez, is currently carrying out with the FARC.

LaRouche's Analysis Out on Panamanian Radio

Dec. 30 (EIRNS)—EIR correspondent Carlos Wesley was on Panamanian radio and television, presenting Lyndon LaRouche's evaluation of the defeat of British genocide at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, along with LaRouche's fight to defeat the Nazi-modelled Obama "health-care reform" bill.

On Dec. 29, Wesley was on the "Diálogo" show of Radio Omega, an FM station which is widely listened to by Panama's political class. The following day, he was interviewed by well-known host Mario Rognoni for "Parámetro Informativo," which is broadcast on both radio and television.