In this issue:

Alliance Formed to Block Energy Privatization in Mexico

Foreign Hand-over of Mexican Energy Stalls

Will Schwarzenegger Be Declared Persona Non Grata In Baja California?

Dominican Republic Strike Worsens Political and Economic Breakdown of that Nation

Bolivia Asks For Debt Forgiveness

Soros' "Harm Reduction" Advances in Buenos Aires

From Volume 2, Issue Number 46 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published Nov. 18, 2003

Ibero-American News Digest

Alliance Formed to Block Energy Privatization in Mexico

The presidium at the front of Mexico City's Camino Real Hotel ballroom too small to fit all the dignitaries present on Nov. 7, when PRI Senator Manuel Bartlett, PRD leader Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, and the PRI Governor of the state of Oaxaca, Jose Murat, announced the formation of an alliance to stop the energy "reforms" demanded by foreign financier interests. Many trade union leaders and PRI and PRD Congressmen attended, and organizers reported that ten Senators and 32 Federal Deputies had signed the statement supporting the alliance. A mobilization for a mass demonstration on Nov. 27 was announced, which, organizers said, should become "the most important in recent times."

Those present acknowledged that many among them have had deep and abiding conflicts with each other, but these must now be pushed aside "in the interest of the nation." This was most evident in the case of Manuel Bartlett and Cuauhtemoc Cardenas. (Bartlett was Secretary of Government in 1988, when an election day "computer failure" ensured the PRI's Carlos Salinas de Gortari defeated the PRD's Cardenas in his bid for the Presidency.) Bartlett, who has spearheaded a national campaign to defend Mexico's energy sector, was the more dramatic of the two, speaking of the urgency of "protecting the Fatherland," of a "brutal threat to the nation," and "the importance of our uniting to stop the country from being handed over." Cardenas, for his part, said "there is no forgiving, the past is still present," but that at this time, "the issue of electricity demands the alliance."

A document drafted by Gov. Jose Murat was read, denouncing the Fox government's "Goebbels'-like lies" that the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) is bankrupt, and argued that there is no technical reason to hand the CFE over to private, multi-national interests; the CFE's financial problems are due only to the government's over-taxation of the company. The Mexican State must continue to be "the promoter of development," and, therefore, it must keep control over strategic sectors such as electricity, and energy in general.

The increasing isolation of the Salinas-allied leadership of the PRI party machine, which promised President Fox it could deliver PRI support for Wall Street's privatization plan, was further demonstrated on Nov. 11, when a meeting was held at the national PRI headquarters itself, to release a document from the Colosio Foundation opposing electricity privatization, under whatever guise. Amongst the signers were two former Secretaries of Finance, and three former leaders of the PRI—including such familiar names as Mario Moya Palencia and Mario Ramon Beteta, PRI officials whose terms in office in the 1970s and 1980s were not marked by any great nationalism.

Foreign Hand-over of Mexican Energy Stalls

Halliburton, along with several other foreign oil companies, have pulled out of bidding for the exploration rights over the next block of Mexico's gas-rich Burgos basin in the north. The state oil company Pemex announced on Nov. 5 that it had cancelled bidding on its planned 20-year exploration concession for the Carindon-Pandura block, because of the number of companies which had pulled out. This was the largest and most profitable of the exploration licenses for the Burgos basin to be put up for auction yet, granting access to 36% of the giant gas reserves in the basin, which extends over parts of the states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, and Coahuila. There have been similar earlier pull-outs in bidding for other blocs.

The foreign oil companies have a problem: the contracts being offered by Pemex are unconstitutional, and could be overturned at any point in the future, unless Mexico is politically broken. PRI Sen. Manuel Bartlett, who has spearheaded the fight to defend the country's energy resources, warned foreign interests in a press conference last June 25, that, should they violate Mexico's laws by investing along the lines the Fox government is proposing, sooner or later, they would face criminal charges. Bartlett's warning was issued as he announced that he and PRI Congressman Salvador Rocha had filed a well-documented suit, seeking that the Mexican courts cancel 44 unconstitutional licenses granted in the electricity sector, and bring criminal charges against those parties found to be in violation of the law.

Will Schwarzenegger Be Declared Persona Non Grata In Baja California?

The PRD party bloc in the state legislature of Baja California Sur is proposing that California governor-elect Arnold "The Terminator" Schwarzenegger be declared persona non grata in their state, due to his xenophobic and racist campaign against Mexican immigrants. According to the head of the local PRD bloc, Elsa de la Paz Esqivel Amador, Schwarzenegger's racist campaign, "reminiscent of the KKK," violates migration treaties between Mexico and the United States.

De la Paz Esquivel was responsible for getting the Baja California Sur Congress to declare George Bush persona non grata, and to demand an international trial for war crimes against the U.S. President, when he made the decision to invade Iraq.

Dominican Republic Strike Worsens Political and Economic Breakdown of that Nation

A 24-hour national strike against miserable living conditions in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 11, resulted in the death of at least six people, and the wounding of another 60, when the government called out the military to impose "order," as protestors pelted security forces with stones, burned tires and cars, and, in several provinces, set fire to the offices of the government sanitation authorities and ruling party. Most of those killed were youths, in their early twenties.

The strike, organized by labor unions, demanded a halt to medicine and gas price hikes (inflation is expected to top 35% this year), an increase in wages, and that somebody do something about the power outages which leave large parts of the country without electricity for 12-20 hours a day. The government, expecting an IMF mission to arrive this week in the country, took a hard line, arresting close to 800 people on various excuses in the run-up to the strike, and ordering the military and police to do whatever is necessary to control protests — thus the killings.

The underlying issue, is the disintegration of the nation's financial and physical economy, the latter most visible in the breakdown of the national electricity capacity, resulting from its privatization. The national banking system de facto collapsed last May, when the country's second largest commercial bank, Banco Internacional (Baninter), went under. At that time, the IMF, World Bank, and Inter-American Development Bank came in with a two-year loan package, so the government could bail out the bank. The IMF suspended the accord, and thus the promised loans, however, when the government re-purchased two power companies from their Spanish owner, an expenditure not approved by the IMF. That left the government without the cash to pay subsidies to energy distributors, who in turn have not paid the generators.

The government is so desperate, that it announced in early November, that it would fundraise "donations" from businesses, to come up with the money to cover the deficit over the next six months. It had lined up $54 million from hoteliers, exporters, and the duty-free zone, so far.

The president of the Dominican-American Chamber of Commerce, Jorge Ivan Ramirez, told the Financial Times that businesses were chipping in, because "if the government does not manage the situation in a more disciplined and equitable manner, there will be a breakdown in social order and political legitimacy."

Bolivia Asks For Debt Forgiveness

The new Bolivian government of Carlos Mesa drew up a ten-point "anti-crisis" program to be presented to the summit of Ibero-American nations that began in Santa Cruz on Nov. 14. The President Pro Tem of the summit, Gonzalo Montenegro, said that Mesa government hopes that the gathering will approve the program, which includes a call for debt forgiveness, as well as plans to bolster the tourism and export sectors. The government also needs an immediate infusion of cash to deal with a fiscal deficit of eight million dollars. The Ibero-American leaders are said to be planning to call on the IMF and Inter-American Development Bank, to find ways to ease the foreign debt burden of member nations.

The summit includes the heads of state of Spain and Portugal.

Frightened by how precarious Bolivia's situation continues to be, and the great possibility for its crisis to spill over onto its neighbors, Ibero-American governments, particularly Argentina and Brazil, are mobilizing to come up with aid, and offering a number of bilateral cooperation agreements. Brazil has already forgiven Bolivia's $47.5 mn. debt, and has said that there will be no conditions attached to any aid offered. Mesa was scheduled to meet with his Argentine counterpart, Nestor Kirchner, November 15-16, to work out details of cooperation programs, and Argentine ambassador Horacio Macedo is emphasizing that Brazil and Argentina together will take major responsibility for getting Bolivia back on its feet.

George Soros's cocalero leader, Evo Morales, is meanwhile organizing the "Alternative Social Gathering" in Santa Cruz, in opposition to the Ibero-American summit, support for which is coming from Cuba's Fidel Castro and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. Brazil's Lula da Silva has been invited to join the group, but his attendance there is not confirmed. President Carlos Mesa does intend to attend the alternative conference.

Soros' "Harm Reduction" Advances in Buenos Aires

George Soros's "harm-reduction" policies—drug legalization —are being aggressively pursued by the City government of Buenos Aires, Argentina's capital. Buenos Aires, is now the "autonomous city of Buenos Aires," an enclave of Argentines who work closely with the continental narco-terrorist association, the Sao Paulo Forum. The drug legalizers are using the fact that Argentina now has the highest rate in Ibero-America, of people who become infected with HIV through drug use and shared needles, to demand drug legalization, in order to "reduce the harm" done to addicts. Buenos Aires Health Ministry AIDS Coordinator, Claudio Bloch, told La Nacion Nov. 7 that the high rate of HIV infection via drug use, "poses the necessity of developing policies of harm reduction in the city, which we are carrying out, orienting them toward promotion of lower-risk consumption" (free distribution of needles, safe sex, condom distribution, etc.). Bloch insisted that these kind of policies have had great success in Brazil and Australia.

These policies were the focus of the conference "Porto Alegre/Buenos Aires. Prevention of HIV-Aids in drug-users: Two Cities, One Policy," which began on Nov. 6 in Buenos Aires, and in which "specialists" from both cities discussed how to coordinate their efforts. Porto Alegre is famous as the Brazilian city in which the Jacobin World Social Forum was founded, run by the worst elements of the ruling Workers' Party (PT), which have imposed fascist decentralization, and encouraged legalized drugs and prostitution. Buenos Aires Mayor Anibal Ibarra, who sympathizes with the Sao Paulo Forum, opened the Buenos Aires conference, asserting that the priority must be to "prevent greater problems, before eradicating unlawful drug use." (See InDepth, for two articles providing the background on the Soros drug legalization offensive generally.)

All rights reserved © 2003 EIRNS