Ibero-American News Digest

Peru's Humala Endorsed by Franco-ites, Colombia's FARC

Fernan Altuve Febres, a long-term infiltrator of the broad movement around former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori. as the representative in Peru of the new Fascist International of Spain's Blas Pinar, came unglued on Peruvian television Jan. 16, after Martha Chavez, head of the Fujimorista "Alliance for the Future" campaign, expelled Altuve from its midst.

Altuve's fascist roots were exposed last year in the widely circulated book Return of the Beast: The International Neofascism Behind the Humalas, published by EIR in Peru (see EIR online, July 9, 2004, #14). EIR's exposé provided critical ammunition to Chavez and others, to finally purge the fascist.

Finding himself on the outs, Altuve went on Channel 4 to complain, but lost his notorious cool with a vulgar denunciation of Martha Chavez for having "seized control" of the Alliance for the Future, blocked Altuve from access to Fujimori, and for expelling him from the Alliance. In the course of his ravings, Altuve revealed his longstanding and close friendship with Ollanta Humala, the leading figure in the Synarchist project to turn Peru over to the drug-running Nazi-Communists. Altuve endorsed Humala's candidacy for the Presidency in the April 9 elections. Altuve also warmly embraced Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.

Ollanta Humala is not only drawing support from right-wing fascists like Altuve, but also from the terrorist "left." Two days after Altuve spoke, the spokesman for the Colombian FARC narco-terrorists, Raul Reyes, called on Peruvians to elect Humala as their President. Reyes described Humala as closest to the poor among the panoply of candidates, and therefore most worthy of the Presidency. Like Altuve, the FARC's Reyes also defended Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.

EIR readers will recall Reyes as the second half of the notorious "Grasso Abrazo"—the embrace between himself and then-New York Stock Exchange President Richard Grasso in 1999.

Pinochet Stripped of Immunity for Nazi-Run Torture Center

For the fourth time, a Santiago appeals court has stripped former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet of his immunity as a former head of state, this time in the case of kidnapping and torture of political prisoners at the notorious Villa Grimaldi detention center. The decision, announced Jan. 20, means Pinochet can be interrogated by a judge, indicted and detained. Run by former Nazi SS officer and pedophile Paul Schaefer, Villa Grimaldi was the worst of the many torture centers that operated during the Pinochet dictatorship. President-elect Michelle Bachelet and her mother were briefly detained and tortured there in 1975, before being forced into exile.

Economic Paradigm-Shift in Ibero-America Reaches into Chile

Newly elected Chilean Senator Guido Girardi, who is close to President-elect Michelle Bachelet, has provoked an uproar with his charge that "white-collar criminals" run the privatized pension system. Girardi, whose Party for Democracy (PPD) belongs to the ruling Concertacion coalition, sent the executives of the private pension funds, the AFPs, into a tailspin with this accusation, and 50 of them immediately filed a defamation suit against him, and are demanding he be sent to jail for three years for smearing them!

In her proposed governing platform, Bachelet advocates reforming the private pension system, underscoring that it has failed to protect the "public welfare." How far she is willing to go in this reform remains to be fought out. Girardi, who is an adviser to Bachelet in this area, is charging that the whole system is abusive and unjust, and only benefits the owners of the funds and executives who manage them. PPD president Victor Barrueto warned that the legal suit against Girardi is a crass attempt to silence "those who have more honestly represented the opinion of the vast majority of Chileans in their criticism of this system." Girardi has stated that he will not stop speaking out on this issue, and will mobilize citizens to fight for decent pensions, as this is a matter of "national interest."

The new Chilean President-elect's friendship and discussions with Argentina's Nestor Kirchner will provide an additional impetus to the battle to break Chile out of the free-trade model which it has clung to since it was imposed by torture and murder under the financiers' Gen. Augusto Pinochet regime. See InDepth this issue for an overview of the potential offered by the Chilean election results, in the context of the "paradigm shift" occurring in South America and in the world in economic thinking, on the necessity of reviving the role of the state in economic decision-making.

Wall Street Assured Mexican Reserves Will Cover Debts

Mexican Finance Minister Francisco Gil Diaz announced Jan. 12 that the country's international reserves had reached an historic level of $68.7 billion, surpassing the public foreign debt of $68.5 billion. A few days later, a spokesman of the Dallas Federal Reserve told a conference that Mexico's oil-generated reserves are sufficient to keep financial markets from any panic stemming from this summer's Presidential election. Said spokesman Richard Fisher, "The [Mexican] Treasury has enough reserves to cover all of its foreign obligations over the next two years, which constitutes strong insurance against capital flight and mitigates against ... the risk of a run on the currency should the rhetoric or passions of a Presidential election year evolve in a way that might otherwise undermine market confidence."

Venezuela: Infrastructure Breakdown Paralyzes Caracas

Venezuela's Chavez government declared an emergency in early January, after the bridge that joins the highway between La Guaira port and international airport to Caracas, the nation's capital, broke down and the highway was shut down. The 50-year-old bridge, built—as was most of the nation's infrastructure—under the military ruler Gen. Marcos Perez Jimenez, was already decaying ten years ago, but the process accelerated with the mudslides caused by the rainy weather; one of the pillars that was being fixed collapsed, and the road mantle cracked.

This highway is the gate to Caracas, the nation's capital, separated from the Caribbean coast by a mountain chain which the highway crosses by way of tunnels and the bridge. This means the only way to get to Caracas now is by going around the mountains, through the nearby city of Valencia, or using the old "Spanish Road" built 450 years ago from La Guaira to Caracas. In the meantime, the government is rushing to build an emergency two-kilometer road to circle the bridge, which is expected to be ready in a month, and a new highway that will be in operation next year.

Meanwhile, people who live in La Guaira region and work in Caracas and vice versa are going through hardships that the government is ameliorating with subsidies for transportation and housing.

Spain To Defy U.S. Ban on Sale of Military Aircraft to Venezuela

Responding to the Bush Administration's refusal to allow Spain to sell 12 military planes to Venezuela that contain U.S.-patented technology, on the grounds that this "would destabilize the region," the Spanish government said it "did not share" the U.S. concerns. If necessary, Spain will fulfill the contract by offering the same planes, but with more costly European technology in place of the U.S. parts.

Venezuelan Ambassador to Washington Bernardo Alvarez has formally requested an explanation from the Bush Administration, and told a Venezuelan television station that the decision was entirely political in nature, and unacceptable.