Ibero-American News Digest

Mexican Congressman: LaRouche Forecast the Bubble Would Burst

Jan. 14 (EIRNS)—Mexican Congressman Roberto Badillo pointed to Lyndon LaRouche as the "great American politician and thinker" who had forecast years ago that the financial bubble would burst, in an article in the current issue of Siempre! magazine, a publication that is widely read by Mexico's political leaders. In the article headlined "Mexico Facing the Crisis of 2008," Gen. (ret.) Roberto Badillo, now a Congressman from the PRI party, attacks neoliberalism and IMF policies for the crisis, saying that the system of "market deregulation" and "usurious lending in emerging countries" has collapsed. He then states:

"The above created a bubble which the great American politician and thinker Lyndon LaRouche described a number of years ago...." Badillo then quotes from LaRouche's Jan. 19, 2001 EIR article on "The Demise of an Importer of Last Resort":

"What is collapsing today, is not an economy, but a vast financial bubble, a bubble whose chief economic expression is the U.S. financial system's role as 'The Importer of Last Resort' for the world at large.... In effect, the world has been supporting, until about now, a vast U.S. dollar-denominated financial bubble, all largely for the purpose of propping up an inflated, intrinsically bankrupt U.S. economy's role as 'importer of last resort' for much of the world. What happens, when that financial bubble moves into its inevitable chain-reaction-collapse phase? That is what is happening now."

Badillo lists 16 measures that need to be taken, including shutting down tax havens, increasing transparency of financial transfers, regulating the activities of the rating agencies, and developed sector aid to Third World countries (in a combination of dollars, euros, yen, and yuan). His only reference to a general bankruptcy reorganization of the system and a New Bretton Woods system, as LaRouche has called for, comes at the end, where he says that the Mexican Congress should "agree on a series of measures to present solutions to the world economic crisis," and notes, without further specifying, that "only the Italian Senate has presented a similar proposal."

Paramilitary Group Emerges in Mexican Border City

Jan. 16 (EIRNS)—A paramilitary group claiming to be dedicated to killing drug traffickers announced its public emergence on Jan. 15, through a e-mails sent out in Ciudad Juárez, in the Mexican border state of Chihuahua, directly across from El Paso, Texas.

Ciudad Juárez is one of the cities most terrorized by the drug cartels, which regularly leave the decapitated corpses of their victims in the public plazas. A press release circulated by the so-called Citizen Commando for Juárez (CCJ) claims to represent "citizens tired of the impunity that for years has existed in this city," and vows it will now "attempt to do away with the criminals who have provoked terror against the residents of this border [region]."

This paramilitary activity follows the model of what occurred in Colombia some years ago, and is guaranteed to unleash further violence and destabilization. With the slogan "Fatherland and justice, one nation for all," the group vows to kill a criminal every 24 hours, warning that it is "better to kill a bad person, than allow that bad person to continue to contaminate our region." The group requests financial contributions from businessmen affected by the violence, and provides an e-mail address should anyone wish to identify criminals who should be killed.

Nor is the CCJ the only group of this type. In March 2008, the Citizen Front Against Corruption and Violence went public in Chihuahua, and shortly afterward, dead bodies of drug peddlers started to appear. This group targetted the state's attorney general, as well as municipal political leaders, charging that they were on the take from drug lords responsible for the violence and destabilization in Chihuahua.

In early January, according to journalist Raymundo Riva Palacio, a communiqué began circulating electronically from an "Armed Movement of the North," based in Sonora, which declared war on the Mexican government and political system. So far this group exists only on paper, but it promises to sabotage Mexico's political system.

LaRouche Proposal for High-Tech War on Drugs Welcomed in Mexico

Jan. 16 (EIRNS)—A LaRouche PAC press release, "LaRouche Calls for High-Tech War on Drugs, Centered on Economic Development," was published today in the leading Sonora-based daily Diario del Yaqui, just a day after it began circulating in the region.

The article was prominently placed, and included a photo Lyndon LaRouche. The release was also read on the afternoon radio news programs, which stressed LaRouche's point that the building of infrastructure projects such as the Northwest Hydraulic Project (PLHINO), is an integral part of the war on drugs.

LaRouche associate Alberto Vizcarra reports that the publication of the release was a "refreshing and hopeful intervention" for a population beaten down by the narcoterrorism that threatens to bring down the republic's institutions.

Vulture Funds Salivate Over More Loot from Argentina

Jan. 13 (EIRNS)—New York Federal Judge Thomas Griesa ruled on Jan. 9 that Argentina must repay up to $2.2 billion to vulture funds, which hold about $16 billion in bonds on which Argentina defaulted in 2001.

These professional speculators, who routinely buy up the depreciated debt paper of countries expected to default, in anticipation of getting paid the full value of those bonds later on, didn't participate in the 2005 restructuring of Argentina's defaulted debt. Instead, they've gone to the courts to get repaid, with some success.

"The noose is tightening," said a gleeful lawyer for eight bondholders in a class-action lawsuit. "We're getting stronger and they're getting weaker." Judge Griesa's ruling will allow the bondholders to attempt to seize Argentine government property, including some funds that were frozen under a court order, according to Bloomberg.