From Volume 7, Issue 3 of EIR Online, Published Jan. 15, 2008

Ibero-American News Digest

Chávez Fronts for Brit Drive To Legalize FARC, Shatter Colombia

Jan. 11 (EIRNS)—Following a script provided by British imperial gamemasters, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez today called upon governments to grant formal "belligerent" status to Colombia's FARC and ELN narcoterrorists, as the first step towards "regime change" in Colombia.

Any such move, granting de facto diplomatic recognition to the FARC and ELN, would set in motion the breakup of Colombia, and trigger generalized war across South America, including in Venezuela. EIR warned in its Jan. 11 issue that London interests were out to provoke just that, as part of the British drive to provoke global mayhem and war, as the financial disintegration deepens (see "The Americas: New Opium War to Balkanize Continent").

The FARC has not only perpetrated repeated crimes against humanity, but it are the largest cocaine cartel in South America, peons in a global drug trade still run, top-down, from the City of London.

Chávez, roundly defeated in his Dec. 5 referendum on constitutional reforms, and then left hanging on Dec. 31 by the initial collapse of his FARC hostage release operation, reshuffled his cabinet on Jan. 3, and promised that his government would not be "dragged by extremist currents."

After the FARC released to Venezuelan hands the two hostages they had promised on Jan. 10, Chávez dropped any semblance of sanity, and adopted the full British Jacobin program for the Americas. Speaking to the National Assembly the next day, Chávez declared that the FARC and ELN are not terrorists, but "true armies, which occupy areas of Colombia," Bolivarian insurgent forces "respected" in Venezuela. He made reestablishment of normal dialogue with the Colombian government contingent on its recognizing the FARC and ELN as insurgent forces, rather than the terrorist groups they are. And he offered Venezuela's entire 2,219 km border with Colombia as "humanitarian territory," open for FARC and ELN "humanitarian" actions.

The FARC issued its own communiqué, reiterating its demand that the government hand over control of two Colombian municipalities—the equivalent of U.S. counties—located only 30 miles from one of Colombia's biggest cities (Cali), before any "dialogue" with the government could take place.

Colombia: The FARC Are Cruel Mercenaries of the Drug Trade

Jan. 11 (EIRNS)—The Colombian government today issued a communiqué restating its position that the FARC is a narcoterrorist outfit, assaulting the nation, and refusing to grant them "belligerent" status, because they are terrorists "financed by a business lethal to humanity: the drug trade." The statement names the FARC, ELN, and paramilitaries as "violent groups," noting that the paramilitaries are in the process of being dismantled by government forces.

These groups kidnap, place indiscriminate bombs and anti-personal mines, recruit and murder children, and assassinate elderly persons and pregnant women, the government reminded the world. Having long ago given up their old ideas of Marxist revolution to become mercenaries, accumulating money from "cruelty" and illicit drugs, the FARC continues to hold 750 citizens kidnapped over the last ten years, and torturing law enforcement, military, and political figures they hold.

One of the two hostages just released by the FARC with such great fanfare, told Colombia's Radio Caracol that the FARC keeps the majority of its hostages chained day and night, even while eating, bathing, and sleeping, constantly moving them from one "people's jail" to another in jungle camps.

Chile Targetted for Chaos, British-style 'Indigenous' Warfare

Jan. 8 (EIRNS)—The same British Empire faction that has already instigated indigenous warfare in several Ibero-American nations, now has its sights set on Chile. These financier interests are using the Jan. 7 attack on a foreign businessman in Santiago by a gunman, purportedly associated with radical Mapuche Indian activists, to set the stage for chaos and destabilize the government of President Michelle Bachelet.

On Jan. 7, an unidentified gunman in the capital of Santiago shot at the car of Mario Marchese Mecklenbur, general manager of the Trayenko hydroelectric project in southern Chile, owned by the Norwegian firm SN Power. The company's main operations are in the Araucania region of Chile's Patagonia, which the Mapuche claim as their ancestral lands, a fact which has led to sometimes violent Mapuche protest in the region. Last week's killing of a 22-year-old Mapuche college student, who was shot by police in Araucania during a demonstration, unleashed another round of violent actions.

As it is now evolving, the situation bears all the earmarks of a classic British operation which plays both sides. In the Santiago shooting, media such as El Mercurio, associated with the late dictator Augusto Pinochet, are screaming about the existence of "violent Mapuche cells" invading Santiago, pointing out that prior to escaping, the gunman threw out leaflets with the name of a radical Mapuche group, the Malleco Araucan Coordinator (CAM).

The Bachelet government stated that there is no evidence that the Mapuches were involved, or that new terrorist groups were emerging, while a spokesman for the CAM denied that the group had anything to do with this incident. But the situation is ripe for manipulation. The Mapuche live in conditions of extreme poverty on reservations in the South that are virtually militarized by police forces, and Bachelet's promises to redress their grievances have yet to produce concrete improvements. According to Mexican daily El Universal, radio stations in southern Chile are reporting statements by Mapuche leader Victor Marilao, warning that "the Mapuche people are arming themselves for the battle to defend our territory against the repressive State. This will continue, and the way things are going, there will be nothing peaceful about it."

Argentina's Nuclear Technology for African Desalination

Jan. 9 (EIRNS)—Hector Otheguy, the president of Argentina's premier nuclear technology company INVAP, owned by the Rio Negro provincial government, reports that the company's plans for 2008 include a contract with the Libyan government, to modernize that country's Russian-built nuclear reactor which has been in operation there for a number of years.

In an interview published Jan. 7 in Noticias & Protagonistas, Otheguy underscored that the contract, which was bid through the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), is especially important. It could open the door for eventually introducing use of Argentina's small prototype CAREM reactor—soon to become commercially available—in order to desalinate sea water and provide potable water for Libya.

"These countries of Northern Africa have a very serious problem, which is the shortage of water," Otheguy said. The potential exists for Libya to become a "very interesting partner" for Argentina in this area, he said, and could lead to other more complex projects, possibly with other countries of the region.

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