Ibero-American News Digest
LaRouche Is the Talk of the Town in Neuquen, Argentina
During a 36-hour visit to Neuquen on Aug. 7-8, LaRouche representative Carlos Wesley found that Lyndon LaRouche is almost a household word in that city of 200,000, the capital of the Patagonian province of the same name. Upon arrival, Wesley had time to drink a glass of water, before giving the first of six interviewsfive on radio, one on televisiondemanded during his visit. One of the interviews was to a chain with 34 radio stations throughout the province. In all, the issue on people's minds, was LaRouche's strategy to stop the economic breakdown, so Argentina can rebuild.
During his visit, Channel 7 TV broadcast a 20-minute interview with LaRouche, taped earlier that day. As Wesley walked the streets of Neuquen the next day with the local LaRouche activist, they were stopped every few blocks by people telling them that "your man was good last night on television," etc.
Rumsfeld Hypes 'Significant Terrorist Threat' in Central and South America
Is U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld planning an invasion south of the U.S. border, too? In a brief Aug. 20 stopover at the Soto Cano Air Base in Honduras, where he addressed the U.S. Joint Task Force Bravo, Rumsfeld went on about how Central and South America have some of the same "troublesome characteristics""ungoverned areas" and unprotected bordersas the Persian Gulf and Central Asia, characteristics that have allowed terrorist groups to "thrive" in recent years. At the November 2002 meeting of South American Defense Ministers in Santiago, Chile, Rumsfeld had argued that such "ungoverned areas" would be likely targets for invasion by supranational forces, and identified the slums (favelas) of Rio de Janeiro, and the tri-border region of Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil, as potential targets.
The struggle against terrorism "is truly global," Rumsfeld told his military audience, warning that "in this region, we know there are terrorists, there are hostage-takers, there are drug traffickers. Sometimes it's the same people doing all three things. And it poses a very serious threat."
One reason for Rumsfeld's brief visit to Honduras was to express gratitude at the fact that this impoverished country has sent 370 soldiers to Iraq, as part of a "Latin American security contingent" made up of soldiers from Central American members of the "coalition of the willing." The Honduran soldiers will be paid, however, a mere U.S.$150 a month, plus additional money for personal expenses, and life insurance, with the Honduran government footing the bill.
Head of Joint Chiefs Compares Venezuela to Syria
General Richard Myers, head of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned Venezuela that it had better cooperate with the U.S. war on terrorism, in an Aug. 12 press conference at the conclusion of a quick visit to Colombia. Myers reported that he had discussed the role of Colombia's neighbors in fighting terrorism when he met with President Alvaro Uribe.
"The analogy there is much like Iraq. In Iraq, we have asked the countries that surround Iraq to be very helpful in the coalition's objectives inside Iraq, and it is not helpful when they allow either arms or other fighters to enter Iraq from outside Iraq. The same thing is true in Colombia," he said. Asked specifically about Venezuela, he was vague. It is "not helpful when countries do not fully support the anti-terrorist fight," and there is "more to learn with respect to Venezuela." He then added: "I do not want to go any further at this point, but just to go back to the Iraq ideology, it is not helpful there when countries like Syria allow foreign fighters to come into Iraq to kill coalition members. That is not a helpful thing. Anybody that gives any comfort or aid to terrorists is on the wrong side of the fight and we have to continue to develop that intelligence and continue to work with the governments in the region to ensure that does not happen."
Zapatistas Launch New Initiative
After over a year of silence, Mexico's Zapatista terrorists organized a three-day festival to celebrate their declaration of "autonomy" over more than 30 towns in the southern state of Chiapas. The "celebration" began in the town of Oventic on Aug. 7, and was attended by no fewer than 20,000 Zapatistas, representatives of indigenous groups, Mexicans from outside the state, and foreigners, according to some media. Subcommander "Marcos" announced in July that the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN)which has functioned since its surfacing in 1994 as a central component of the global Jacobin terrorist movementwould be forming "good governance committees" to run the 30 municipalities under their control in the state of Chiapas. The "good governance committees," in turn, will answer to an "autonomous regional palace," which is to function as the central government over them all. That body, in particular, is to establish exclusive central control over the large amounts of foreign NGO monies coming into those areas.
The "good governance committees" are to control access to the region, permit no taxes to be collected for the Federal or state governments, allow no Federal or state aid, education, or health programs to operate, and handle all foreign monies coming into "their" territory.
Global Jacobin Movement Targets Cancun WTO Meeting
At the end of their three-day separatist celebration in Chiapas Aug. 7-9, the EZLN announced that it will mobilize a protest against the next World Trade Organization meeting, to be held in mid-September in Cancun, Mexico, and will coordinate with other groups. Other parts of the "Seattle" anti-globalization movement are also organizing protests for Cancun, and in cities around the world, claiming they will put 5 million people onto the streets on Sept. 13.
This is the same combination of forces of which Lyndon LaRouche warned in an Aug. 24, 2001 campaign statement, in which he charged that they were planning a terrorist assault on Washington, D.C. in the middle of September of that year. LaRouche warned, that the hard core of the organizers of the terrorist operations in the so-called "Seattle" movement "represent the fourth generation of a series which began its existence as an organized international movement of terrorism, during the middle to late 1960s, the anti-nuclear terrorist rampage of the late 1970s, and the terrorist wave of the mid-1980s. As typified by the case of Toni Negri, and the role of the Basque terrorist organization ETA, there is no break in the continuity of the hard-core leadership of these terrorist forces over the period from its exploitation of the anti-Vietnam War setting of the late 1960s, to the present day."
Terrorism did strike Washington, D.C. on Sept. 11, 2001, although delivered by another instrument.
Hugo Chavez Cavorts in Argentina
Venezuela's lunatic President Hugo Chavez arrived in Buenos Aires on Aug. 16, for a five-day visit dominated by meetings with various left-wing Synarchist/terrorist forces. He invited Hebe de Bonafinithe head of the Argentine Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who declared her happiness following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks because "for once, blood has been avenged" upon the rich capitalists"to join him on his "Hello, President" show, broadcast from Buenos Aires. The following day, Chavez inaugurated the "Bolivarian Lectures" at the "Popular University" set up by the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo; his speech was dominated by the theme of giving birth "to a New Time," to "a new Latin America," etc.
He spoke (and sang Uruguayan protest songs) before students, a group of cooperatives, labor, the national Congress, and in the public plazas. An anonymous source at Argentina's Foreign Ministry commented to the Argentine daily, La Nacion that "Chavez sees a spoon, and he thinks it's microphone, and starts speaking."
He also met Aug. 19 with Argentine President Nestor Kirchner, with whom he signed a $1-billion commercial accord, under which Argentina is to sell meat, wine, rice, beans, medicines, and services to Venezuela, in exchange for oil. Chavez offered big discounts on the oil price, and low-interest financing, but the final terms of the deal have not been confirmed.
Chavez Selling State Oil Company Out to Multis
While Hugo Chavez talks up anti-globalization, the oil multinationals are taking over Venezuela's oil. The Venezuelan President is pushing the creation of a "Latin American oil company," uniting the state oil companies of Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, and Peru, which he proposes be called "Petroamerica," or "Petrosud." While he talks a blue streak against free trade and neoliberalism, his regime has stripped Venezuela's state oil company, PDVSA, to the point of collapse, and the multinationals are picking up the pieces.
The biggest blow to PDVSA came with the firing of half its workforce, 18,000 people, following the general strike of December 2002-February 2003. The company is now selling oil only through traders (including Marc Rich's Glencore), because its own commercialization department was taken down. PDVSA is producing between 2.6 and 3.3 million barrels per day (the higher figure being the government's) but that is not sustainable, because the government cut investment in 2003 to U.S.$2 billion, one-third of previous years' investments; only 40 oil-drilling rigs are reported to be in service since the end of 2002, while 80-100 are required to sustain a potential of 3 million barrels per day.
London's Financial Times reported Aug. 6 that to head off collapse, "Venezuela is seeking to step up the participation of multinationals to boost output." Already, foreign oil companies account for a third of Venezuelan production, compared with 12% when Chavez was elected in 1998. On Aug. 11, the FT also reported that Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago were to sign an oil agreement which would allow the shared exploitation of the oil and gas deposits on their maritime border. While Chavez portrays this deal as a step towards his "Petroamerica" plan, the FT points out that it is the international oil companies which "are very keen that all the problems" between the two countries on exploitation of those reserves be resolved quickly, because "the offshore project most likely to receive a boost" by the agreement, is that of the Deltana Platform, "which holds an estimated 38 trillion cubic feet of natural gas under Venezuelan waters, plus 31 trillion cubic feet on the Trinidadian side."
FARC Escalates 'Diplomacy'and Terror
Colombia's narcoterrorist FARC "celebrated" the first anniversary of President Alvaro Uribe's taking office on Aug. 7, by exploding three car bombs around the country in three days; one attack nearly downed the President's helicopter. The assaults came as UN Secretary General Kofi Annan replied positively to a letter from FARC chieftain Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda, asking for an opportunity to "present our viewpoint regarding the problems of the country ... and what might be the solutions." Annan answered that he was willing to hear the FARC's supposed arguments, as part of a peace mediation initiative.
At the same time, the FARC's Raul Reyesthe soulmate and friend of New York Stock Exchange chairman Richard Grassogranted an interview to Agence France Presse and to the Ecuadoran newspaper El Comercio, in which the terrorist declared to Kofi Annan that he is "ready to go to New York, to explain either personally, or during a UN session, the FARC's political position." Reyes' appearance for the interview was carefully calculated, both to disprove rumors that he is seriously ill, and to dangle once again the prospect of a prisoner exchange, which President Uribe has refused to consider without a ceasefire as the precondition.
Reyes referred to the more than 1,000 hostagesmany of them prominent political figureswhom the FARC continues to hold, saying that the majority of them, "but not all," were well. Timed with this was the release by the widely read Cromos magazine of its exclusive interview with some 30 of the hostages, an interview which the FARC had organized. One of those interviewed, Sen. Jorge Gechen, has been held captive and incommunicado since 2002; he appealed to the Uribe government to accede to the FARC's demands for a prisoner exchange.
So far, Uribe is holding firm. After the incident with his helicopter, the President told the press that Colombia was not facing a crisis or a war, but "terrorism," pure and simple. He added, "As long as there is a guerrilla whose arrogance is derived from the gun, the car-bomb, and from drug money, there is no dialogue possible."
Ecuador's Ruling Coalition Shattered by Sticking to IMF Program
Mass demonstrations against Equador's government are being organized, following the unilateral decision on Aug. 6 by President Lucio Gutierrezone of the much-ballyhooed trio of "leftist" South American Presidents, with Brazil's Lula da Silva and Venezuela's Hugo Chavezto end his alliance with the indigenist Pachakutik Party, after five of the 11 Pachakutik Congressmen voted against the economic package agreed upon with the IMF. Three Pachakutik ministers were kicked out of the Gutierrez cabinet (the Foreign, Agriculture, and Tourism Ministers), and 300 party members were ousted from their government posts.
The Pachakutik Party, the political arm of Ecuador's powerful CONAIE indigenous movement, branded Gutierrez a "traitor" to the people who elected him. Indian leaderswho were key to Gutierrez's own 2001 military coup attemptare organizing a "great people's assembly," to plan mass actions against the government.
This latest, predictable, crisis in Ecuador will increase the pressure on the equally fragile governments of neighboring countries, particularly Peru and Bolivia, whose governments also remain in power only due to the absence of any alternative.
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