From Volume 37, Issue 27 of EIR Online, Published July 16, 2010

Ibero-American News Digest

Haiti Condemned to Die, Six Months After the Earthquake

July 12 (EIRNS)—On the six-month anniversary of Haiti's Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake, which killed an estimated 300,000 people, this nation and its people have been condemned to death. While a crisis-ridden "international community" has produced only a tiny fraction of the $5.3 billion pledged on May 31, to aid in Haiti's reconstruction, it is especially U.S. President Barack "Nerobama" who has Haitian blood on his hands.

Thanks to him, nothing that Lyndon LaRouche proposed in the immediate aftermath of the deadly quake—emergency relocation of 2 million people to higher ground; deployment of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; and creation of a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to assist in the rebuilding—has been done. And, absent LaRouche's proposal that the U.S. sign a 25-year agreement with the Haitian government, to be its primary partner in reconstruction, while fully respecting its sovereignty, Democrat Sen. John Kerry's (Mass.) Foreign Relations Committee has taken to railing against President René Préval for a "failure of leadership," "corruption," and "undemocratic" actions in planning for upcoming Presidential elections.

Meanwhile, on the ground:

* There is no centralized national program to remove 25 million cubic yards of debris—enough to fill five Louisiana Superdomes—filling every street in the capital (and every other affected city), making it impossible to start rebuilding. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers devised and began to implement an aggressive debris-management program right after the quake, but it was later halted. Now, thousands of impoverished Haitians equipped only with pails and shovels in "cash for work" programs, are deployed to remove rubble at a rate that could take 20 years.

* The debris is a huge health hazard. Haitian-American engineer Reginald DesRoches points out that daily downpours in the rainy season leach toxic chemicals and carcinogens into the storm water system and ultimately into the drinking water. Debris dumped into the sea has turned the blue water brown.

* At least 1.5 million people remain homeless, distributed among 1,300 "temporary" and very precarious camps. Only 28,000 have been moved into new homes. A few camps have been provided with latrines and improved health-care options, but the vast majority are turning into permanent slums, and will become death camps once the rainy season begins in earnest. In a report issued this month, Doctors Without Borders (Medecins sans Frontieres/MSF) warns that the one waste dump in the city is overflowing, and that latrines that should be emptied daily are not; torrential rains will wash sewage through the camps, auguring a health catastrophe. "No alternative" for the one waste dump has been decided on, MSF reports.

* MSF also reports that while there has been improvement in the provision of health care, due largely to international efforts, its sustainability care is questionable. Everything "is dependent on external funding and the reconstruction of lasting facilities," MSF states. As a result of the quake, 60% of Haiti's health facilities were destroyed, and 10% of its medical staff killed.

* In agriculture, rather than focus on helping Haiti achieve food self-sufficiency—food sovereignty—USAID is promoting programs whose focus is "industrial farming," a policy favored by the Monsanto food cartel. While the Préval government had begged for agricultural equipment, fertilizer, and seeds to increase food production and employ more people, some genocidalists in Washington want Haiti to produce cash crops for export or engage in such projects as growing the jatropha plant, that can be used in biofuel production.

Great Water Management Projects Key to Mexican Survival

July 12 (EIRNS)—The continuing devastation in the northern Mexican states of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas, more than 10 days after Hurricane Alex hit that region—of a piece with flood damage on the U.S. side of the border—highlights the deadly results of the failure to build the long-planned, large-scale water management projects required for Mexico's survival.

Returning from his visit to Coahuila in November 2002, Lyndon LaRouche commissioned a study of a program for joint U.S.-Mexico development of the Great American Desert, in which these three states are located. The study, published by EIR in its May 9, 2003 issue, under the title, "Vernadsky and the Biogeochemical Development of North America's Desert," establishes the crucial strategic shift in Mexico's economy as a whole, which would be effected by the construction of three water management plans, the tri-national North American Water and Power Alliance (NAWAPA), and the Northwest and Northern Gulf Hydraulic Plans in Mexico along (respectively known as the PLHINO and the PLHIGON).

Alex, a Category 2 hurricane, was only the first of the Atlantic Ocean 2010 season, which is forecast to be one of the heaviest in the last 10 years. Yet, due to Mexico's lack of water management and other infrastructure, 21 people were killed, electricity and water knocked out for days, and the homes of more than 100,000 people wiped out. Authorities warn of possible epidemic outbreaks, such as dengue, in shelters where people are still piled up. Outlying rural areas are still cut off from aid, and a state of emergency is in effect in nearly 90 cities and towns, including in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, the industrial city of Mexico, where damage included the collapse of its two expressways.

Nine other Mexican states are on alert for flooding from heavy rainfall, leading the Mexican government to request extra helicopters from the United States, as it is already struggling to ferry food and water to those affected by Hurricane Alex.

U.S.-Ecuador Cooperation Against Drugs Yields Results

July 7 (EIRNS)—Ecuadorian and U.S. officials announced the seizure of "narco-submarine" on a river tributary close to the Colombian-Ecuador border. The submarine, capable of carrying 12 tons of cocaine and a six-man crew, was much bigger and more sophisticated than anything previously seen. It was about 100 feet long, with a navigation and air-conditioning system making it capable of trans-oceanic drug trafficking, its eventual destination believed to be Mexico.

This was the second "narcosub" seized in Ecuador, one capable of carrying four tons of cocaine having been captured last May.

This latest seizure was the result of cooperation between the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Ecuadorian police. In announcing the seizure from his end, DEA Andean regional director Jay Bergman stated: "Traffickers historically employed slow moving fishing boats, sailboats, pleasure craft, and subsequently, go-fasts. Eventually, when speed no longer won the day, traffickers, to avoid detection, turned to parasitic devices on the bottom of ship hulls, towed array devices and ultimately low profile vessels and semi-submersible boats. The advent of the narco-submarine presents new detection challenges for maritime interdiction forces. The submarines nautical range, payload capacity and quantum leap in stealth have raised the stakes for the counter-drug forces and the national security community alike."

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