From Volume 37, Issue 17 of EIR Online, Published Apr. 30, 2010

Ibero-American News Digest

Haiti: Obama Continues To Earn His Mustache

April 19 (EIRNS)—Today's discussion at the Wall Street think tank, the Inter-American Dialogue, on the "U.S. Military Response to Haiti's Earthquake," was both impotent and immoral—by omission and neglect. The Hitler mustache on Obama seems kind, in view of what he is doing, and is refusing to do, in Haiti.

Two months ago, Lyndon LaRouche demanded that Obama offer Haiti the deployment of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to provide logistics for the mass relocation of a million-plus homeless Haitians to safe ground and sanitary conditions, before the rainy season were to hit, as the only way to avoid a new round of mass death. When this was proposed to Obama, he rejected it. The rains have now begun, and the hurricane season looms.

The Dialogue meeting was cast as a wrap-up of the operation in Haiti, by Lt. Gen. P.K. Keen, head of the Joint Task Force Haiti for Operation Unified Response since Jan. 12. Keen is turning his command over to another general as the U.S. military mission winds down. As far as Obama is concerned, the U.S. has finished its work there; only about 2,200 troops remain in Haiti, along with a mere four aircraft and no U.S. naval ships, down from a peak deployment of 22,000 troops, 58 aircraft, and 15 ships. And the remaining troops are scheduled to leave by June 1—just in time to leave Haitians to die without anyone having to watch, when the hurricane season hits. Only a few troops will stay, per normal deployment in the region, along with a meager force of about 500 National Guardsmen from Louisiana, who are scheduled to leave by September—which is not even the end of the rainy season, to say nothing of the 25 years of development work that needs to be done in the destroyed nation.

At the Dialogue meeting, Keen discussed the weak options being pursued to help the homeless Haitians—telling them to go back to their homes, or go back to their neighborhoods, or go to a few of the camps we do have—even if the conditions would not, as one of Keen's assistants said, be acceptable to any American. And he highlighted the ongoing relocation of 9,000 people to a safer site, the big "victory" that is being trumpeted, although, as someone who was recently in Haiti noted: "A few weeks ago, they said 400,000 people were in danger; now they change the number to 9,000, so they can say 'we succeeded.' "

Soros Lackey Demands Mexico and Colombia Push Drug Legalization

April 23 (EIRNS)—Jorge Castañeda, the Mexican foreign minister in the 2000-06 Vicente Fox Administration, and longtime lackey of British agent George Soros, has called for the Presidents of Colombia and Mexico to promote drug legalization, and to "convince" the United States that it's a good idea.

Castañeda, who works closely with the pro-legalization U.S. Drug Policy Alliance's Ethan Nadelmann, has pushed drug legalization for a long time. But as drug-related violence increases in Mexico, the Soros lobby is intensifying its legalization offensive, using the lying argument that legal drug consumption will curb the violence and take the profit out of the drug trade.

Speaking April 21 at the U.S.-Europe-Ibero-America Forum in Madrid, sponsored by, among other entities, Wall Street's Inter-American Dialogue think tank, Castañeda remarked that "I can't conceive of a solution [to the drug problem] that doesn't include [decriminalization]. I'm of the opinion that it's time for Presidents like Uribe [of Colombia], Calderón [Mexico], and others, who have great moral authority, to promote legalization." Uribe is about to leave office, and Calderón has only two years left in his term, Castañeda added. Both, therefore, are well situated to promote decriminalization, because "this implies no political harm for them."

Sleazebag Castañeda also noted that, at a time when the U.S. government is working "more closely than ever" with Mexico in the war on drugs, several U.S. states and counties are backing decriminalization, "or legalization of marijuana and/or heroin."

He noted that when these two heads of state say that "nothing can be done without the U.S., they're right; but then what they have to do is convince the U.S." of the necessity of legalizing drug consumption." Castañeda is of course aware of the fact that President Uribe is strongly opposed to drug legalization, but that he is about to leave office at the end of his term.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Sent on Iran Mission

April 23 (EIRNS)—Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim will be in Turkey for meetings on April 24; in Moscow on April 25; and in Tehran on April 26-27, where he will meet with his counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Amorim's trip was announced by President Lula da Silva, in a press conference following his meeting with Lebanese President Michel Suleiman in Brasilia on April 22. Lula said he was not sending any special message to Ahmadinejad through Amorim, but since Lula is scheduled to visit Tehran in mid-May, Amorim went ahead to work out a negotiated solution to the Iran crisis.

Lebanon will chair the UN Security Council in May, and pesky reporters wanted to know from Lula whether President Suleiman would permit the introduction of the sanctions resolution against Iran. That Lula would not answer, but he was adamant that Brazil would not go along with a campaign to deny Iran the right to use peaceful nuclear energy:

"We defend the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. We want for Iran, what we want for Brazil.... Brazil defends the thesis that Iran has the right to produce nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, be it for producing electricity, be it to produce medicines.... Brazil will never defend the idea that Iran cannot use nuclear energy for a peaceful purpose. Everyone has the right to use it for peaceful purposes."

When pressed as to what guarantee he had that Iran really doesn't have a military program, Lula countered, the same type of guarantee we have that China, India, Pakistan, the U.S., and Russia are for peace: treaties and agreements. There must be a negotiated solution to the difference of opinion between Iran, the UNSC, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

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