Ibero-American News Digest

Mexico Struggles To Keep Up with Spread of A/H1N1 Flu

Oct. 9 (EIRNS)—In statements to the news media Oct. 8, Mexican Health Secretary José Angel Cordova offered alarming details on the spread of the A/H1N1 virus, and the deficit in health-care infrastructure that is hindering the country's ability to deal with the pandemic. Never was it more urgent to launch a crash program to mobilize resources and secure international cooperation.

Cordova's remarks contrasted sharply with those of President Felipe Calderon, who stated on Oct. 7 that Mexico's greatest health challenge is not the A/H1N1 virus, but rather illnesses seen most frequently in the advanced sector—diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity. Despite the fact that a large number of Mexicans are starving, President Calderón recommended that people "change their eating habits, "and think about wellness and exercise!

Here's the stark reality: The campaign to vaccinate people against the seasonal flu this past week was chaotic; there was not enough vaccine, and distribution was disorganized. On top of that, about 500 new diagnosed cases of the A/H1N1 flu are appearing daily, and on some days 600, in contrast to 350-400 in April/May.

Mexico has been negotiating with foreign pharmaceutical labs to purchase 30 million doses of A/H1N1 vaccine, and hoped to receive a first batch by the end of this month. But due to global demand, now only 5 million have been promised by the end of December, and 5 million for each of the following three months. That's not enough.

The country isn't considered poor enough to receive vaccine from developed countries. Cordova said efforts are underway to secure more vaccine from the United States. In the meantime, he warned, there may not be enough hospital beds, doctors, or respirators to meet demand, as the infection rate accelerates. Already, bed capacity at the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases and the National Institute of Medical and Nutritional Science is "saturated," he said.

Mexican Press Picks Up on 'Obamastache' and LaRouche Plan

Oct. 9 (EIRNS)—Various Mexican press had a field day with the intervention by the LaRouche Youth Movement (LYM) in Mexico against President Barack Obama's Hitlerian health-care reform policies, on the very day the Nobel Committee announced the U.S. President had been awarded its Peace Prize.

LYM organizers intervened today at the UN-sponsored Second World Forum on Renewable Energy, held in Leon, Guanajuato, with a large Obama mustache poster and the latest "LaRouche Plan" leaflet. The story filed by national daily El Universal, along with its prominent photo of the Obama mustache poster, under the headline: "Youths Protest Against Nobel for Obama," was picked up by various regional papers, while the newswire of Proceso magazine and Correo de Guanajuato, a daily which circulates throughout Mexico's central valley, ran their own stories.

The El Universal story quoted LYM organizer Carlos Jonas Velasco: " 'Obama has promoted Nazi policies to keep reducing the population, and he has supported George W. Bush and all those who support green policies, with the idea of going towards absolutely backward sources of energy." LYM organizer Ingrid Torres is also quoted, explaining that "Al Gore, Prince Philip, and former Prime Minister Tony Blair have said that their goal is to reduce the world population to one third of the current population, i.e., 2 billion human beings."

Correo de Guanajuato wrote of the LYM: "They propose to go to Mars and industrialize the Moon; they don't believe scientists nor in global warming"; nor in adopting Hitlerite anti-industrial green policies and Obama's health reforms. Correo ran the photo of the Obamastache poster, with organizers holding a big banner under it, reading "He Also Liked Green Policies."

The article stated: "During the closing ceremony of the Global Forum on Renewable Energy, six members of the LaRouche Youth Movement demonstrated, to state that it is urgent to change the current economic model, and that the goal of the ideology that promotes the drive for renewable energy, is to avoid the industrialization of countries and entire continents, like Africa....

"When the first speaker, Ged Davis, copresident of the Global Energy Assessment Council, opened the floor for participants who wished to express concerns or observations, Carlos Jonas Velasco, who seemed to head the group, asked to speak and characterized Obama's health-care policy as genocidal, accusing him of giving priority to financial bailouts in the middle of an international financial crisis.

"They tried unsuccessfully to take the microphone from him, and he didn't release it until he had stated that the economist Lyndon LaRouche is calling for a national credit system, under which necessary infrastructure projects could be carried out so that each nation could provide its population with what they need....

"However, as the [Guanajuato] governor was announcing that the Forum had concluded, the 'LaRouche' youth stood up and began to sing, as a chorus, a composition which says that the ideology that promotes the drive for renewable energy 'doesn't have anything to do with pollution, but with the agenda of depopulation.'

"...One of the LaRouche youth, Laura Flores, stated that 'there is no scientific evidence at all' that demonstrates a relationship between carbon dioxide and a rise in temperature. She challenged the efficiency of alternative energy sources which, she said, do not produce enough energy for necessary hospitals, schools and industries.

"'We see that the intention is the same as that of free trade ... with the financial bailouts, which is to impoverish the population and put a brake on technology,' said the youth.

"Another youth, Ingrid Torres, stated that the financial oligarchy punishes countries that want to become developed and use advanced technologies. 'They want the population to accept its own suicide with a green ideology—which has no scientific basis—as a pretext to avoid the industrialization of entire continents such as Africa, in order to continue the policy of looting their raw materials, while providing them technologies which promote renewable energy, which is not sufficient to industrialize a country.'

"A green ideology which, she said, also lets them divert attention 'away from the worst collapse of the world economy, making climate change their main concern, and not malnutrition and hunger,' she said.

"Carlos Jonas commented that the UN, instead of talking about global warming and promoting carbon swaps, should not permit the financial sector to loot entire nations," Correo concluded.