Ibero-American News Digest

Lessons of Colombia: Great Projects Win Elections!

BOGOTÁ, Nov. 5 (EIRNS)—The Oct. 28 mayoral elections here proved that the Presidential candidate who steps forward to campaign for building rail corridors to connect Colombia with the "World Land-Bridge," will win the elections in 2010, Maximiliano Londono, president of the LaRouche Association of Colombia, reports.

Everyone acknowledges that the deciding factor in the victory of Samuel Moreno as mayor of Bogotá, the second most important political post in the country, was Moreno's commitment to build a subway in the nation's capital. Moreno received nearly a million votes, whomping his opponent, who insisted Colombia couldn't afford anything like a subway.

President Alvaro Uribe heard the voters' message. After having campaigned openly against Moreno, hysterically repeating for months that no money could be found to build a subway, on Nov. 3, the President conceded that the national government could, and would help finance the subway's construction.

Mayor-elect Moreno welcomed the announcement, as an admission that Colombians can think big: "The national government is saying, from the mouth of the President himself, and just as we have said, that there is no reason to fear great projects."

During the campaign, the LaRouche Youth Movement in Colombia mobilized Bogotá's citizens, including dozens of youth activists from Moreno's campaign, to demand not only a subway, but for Colombia to join the great project that will define the next 50 years: the global network of railroads running across Eurasia, across the Bering Strait, and down to the tip of South America—the World Land-Bridge.

Mexico's Northwestern States Vote for Water Project

Nov. 8 (EIRNS)—The state congress of Sonora, Mexico, this week unanimously passed a resolution urging the Federal Congress to fund construction of the Northwest Hydraulic Plan (PLHINO), the great three-state water management project planned since the 1970s, which can restore this region to its historic role as the granary for the country.

The devastating floods in the southern states of Tabasco and Chiapas underscore how urgently the PLHINO is needed (see InDepth for "On the Tragedy of Tabasco: Infrastructure Is the Solution To the Economic Collapse").

The president of the coalition of community and producer groups making up the 21st Century Pro-PLHINO Committee, LaRouche associate Alberto Vizcarra Ozuna, testified before a Congressional hearing in Sonora on Nov. 1, that the PLHINO is urgently needed, to counter Mexico's national food crisis, by opening up 600,000 hectares for farming in Sinaloa and Sonora.

Vizcarra and other members of the Pro-PLHINO Committee also testified before the water and agricultural committees of the Federal Congress in October, on the urgency of approving funding for a feasibility study to update the PLHINO, in next year's budget. A decision on the budget is coming up fast, and senators, deputies, and producers from the three PLHINO states—Sonora, Nayarit, and Sinaloa—are fighting to get it approved.

The Nayarit state Congress already passed a similar resolution to that just approved by Sonora, and when it passed its resolution, the Sonoran Congress also mandated its Water Committee to organize the Congress of Sinoloa to do the same.

National and state figures were expected to attend a conference in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora on Nov. 9, on the project. Speakers at the conference, titled "Regional Forum: Let Us Build the Bridge to the Future, the PLHINO of the Twenty-first Century: Water, Energy and Food for Mexico," included two from the LaRouche movement, and a Mexican engineer who has studied these projects for decades.

Cheneyacs Drag Argentina Into War Plan Against Iran

Nov. 8 (EIRNS)—Dick Cheney's plan to drag Argentina into his war plan against Iran moved forward on Nov. 7, when Interpol's general assembly, meeting in Morocco, voted 78-14 to grant "red" status to arrest warrants issued by an Argentine judge in December 2006, related to the 1994 bombing of the Jewish Social Welfare Center (AMIA) in Buenos Aires. There were 26 abstentions.

The warrants are for five Iranians and one Lebanese citizen, accused of masterminding the bombing, and allegedly deploying Hezbollah to do it, operating from the tri-border region of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. But experts who've investigated this case for years say it is so rife with contradictory evidence, that it would be better characterized as "false flag" terrorism. Some have suggested that Israel's own intelligence service, the Mossad, was involved.

Iran charged that both the Israeli and U.S. governments had exerted fierce pressure on Argentina, a statement echoed by U.S. intelligence and diplomatic sources who told the Washington D.C. correspondent of the daily Clarín that the vote would have gone quite differently had it not been for the heavy-handed lobbying by the Bush Administration among Interpol's member-nations. Iran's delegate to Interpol noted that the whole issue "could have been handled quite differently."

Among the abstaining countries was Brazil, whose delegate said it chose this option in order to keep the issue of the tri-border region "off the table." Cheneyac mouthpieces have long claimed that this region is a breeding-ground for Hezbollah terrorism and "Islamofascism," despite the fact that no evidence has ever been found to support that allegation.

Venezuelan Turmoil Over Chávez Constitutional Reform

Nov. 6 (EIRNS)—The stage is set for a political upheaval in Venezuela. The Constitutional Reform proposed by President Hugo Chávez has reignited the opposition's quest to overthrow his government, and a showdown is looming before the Dec. 2 referendum, called to approve or reject the reforms. Student demonstrations opposing the referendum turned violent this week, and more were scheduled for Nov. 10.

The reform that Chávez has promoted since early this year drastically changes what is called "The Geometry of Power." It creates the "commune" as "the social cell of the territory," made up of the communities which would constitute "the basic and indivisible territorial core of the Socialist Venezuelan State." It gives the President, instead of municipalities or governors, across-the-board powers to create economic programs and manage Federal funds.

The opposition has offered no sane alternative, as nothing it proposes reflects any concern for the general welfare of a population victimized by financial upheaval. Now, former Defense Minister Gen. Raul Baduel has jumped onto the stage, calling for a vote against Chávez's reforms, which has caused a rupture within the "chavista" camp. Baduel was the key officer responsible for bringing Chávez back to power during the 2002 coup.

With his attempted power grab, Chávez is giving Cheney and his regional allies the pretext they need to create chaos in the region, and to sabotage the anti-IMF and pro-integration moves, such as the Bank of the South, and the recently inaugurated pipeline between Colombia and Venezuela, which have been aggressively backed and funded by the Chávez government.

The opposition has no solid base, but can feed off the political and financial turmoil created in the country as a result of Chávez's own policies. Observers in Caracas have told EIR that there is tremendous popular unrest due to acute scarcity of such basic goods as milk and meat, and price increases. Producers of milk and ground corn—a staple in Venezuela—have sharply curtailed investment this year, purportedly because of the "uncertain" future of private property expressed in Chávez's reform.

Chile: We have a 'Moral Duty' To Consider Nuclear Energy

Nov. 3 (EIRNS)—Having just returned from a tour of France and Russia, where he visited those nations' nuclear facilities, Sen. Ricardo Nuñez told reporters he is more convinced than ever that the country must consider nuclear energy as an option.

Speaking as the head of the Mining and Energy Commission, Nuñez told La Segunda that "we are responsible for both the present and the future. If at some point Chile is plunged into darkness, its industries shut down, and prices shoot up, we will have to take responsibility for not having developed energy sources that allow us to live better."

Chile currently relies on oil, hydroelectric, and natural gas for its energy sources, and is in the midst of a dire energy crisis. Nuñez said that biofuels and other forms of "renewable energy" are only temporary solutions. Questions remain to be answered about nuclear, he said, but "if we make the decision to build at least one or two reactors in the North, we'll be thinking also about future generations as well."