From Volume 37, Issue 42 of EIR Online, Published Oct. 29, 2010

Ibero-American News Digest

LaRouche: Mobilize U.S. Military to Prevent Genocide in Haiti

Oct. 25 (EIRNS)—Responding to reports that the cholera epidemic which broke out in the northwestern part of Haiti in mid-October had appeared in the capital of Port-au-Prince, Lyndon LaRouche stated today that, "it is still not too late to save hundreds of thousands of lives in Haiti." The Obama Administration, he said, "must immediately offer to return the U.S. military to Haiti, to coordinate emergency provision of clean water supplies, and then carry out the mission of mass relocation out of the disease-breeding hellholes to which at least 1.5 million Haitians have been consigned by our negligence. There is little doubt that the Haitian government would accept such an offer to save their nation."

LaRouche was referring to the hideous "temporary" camps in which 1.5 million displaced have been living for ten months since the Jan. 12 earthquake. Bereft of the most basic sanitation services, clean drinking water, and medical care, these camps are unfit for human beings, but perfect sites for rapid transmission of the deadly 01 strain of cholera now spreading in the country.

It is confirmed that the outbreak originated in the contaminated waters of the Artibonite River, in the northwestern Artibonite District which is the epicenter of the epidemic. To date, 3,115 are reported infected and 253 dead. But Dr. Jon Andrus, Deputy Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), told a press briefing in Washington, D.C. today, that the official number of cholera cases being reported in Haiti "underrepresents the true numbers." This is because many people who are infected are asymptomatic, and can carry the bacteria and transmit it to others for up to two weeks. Cholera, he added, is "well established" in the country, and "it's clear to us that this won't go away for several years."

Three days after the Oct. 20 outbreak in the Artibonite, five cases were diagnosed in the capital. Immediately, some foreign NGOs and medical authorities argued that these couldn't possibly represent a new location of infection, because the victims had contracted the disease in the Artibonite and then traveled to the capital. Dr. Ariel Henry, chief of staff of Haiti's Health Ministry, countered these reports that Port-au-Prince will somehow escape being hit. "I have no doubt that [cholera] will arrive in Port-au-Prince, because people are moving a lot. It will arrive during this next week, probably," he predicted. PAHO's Dr. Michel Thieren also warned against reading too much into the "slight improvement in the fatality rate" over the past 36 hours. "The epidemic has not spread yet, but it is still increasing roughly at the same rate in the Artibonite area."

On Oct. 23, LaRouche recalled that, "I warned that this Administration's policy towards Haiti would lead precisely towards this sort of outbreak, and it has now done that.... While we move to invoke the 25th Amendment to get [Obama] out, we should simultaneously demand the offer of a military deployment that will save lives. With the Haitians facing a disease that can kill within hours once it strikes, our humanity demands no less."

British-run Darién Gap a Haven for FARC Narcoterrorists

Oct. 20 (EIRNS)—It may turn out that the 60 miles of swampy "impenetrable" jungle, in a region with the third-highest average annual rainfall on the planet (about 9,000 mm, or 350 in.), is the least of the problems to be "tamed" in the Darién Gap.

As the just-published LPAC-TV video, "Taming the Darién Gap," explains, the Darién National Park on the Panamanian side of the border with Colombia is used "by the narcoterrorist cocaine cartel, the FARC, to hide out, traffic drugs, and commit their vicious murders and kidnappings freely."

On Oct. 4, the Colombia military and police launched "Operation Darién," in which they attacked a FARC camp in Jurado, Chocó, on the Pacific coast of Colombia about 1 kilometer from the Panama border. Using Super Tucano planes and 15 helicopters, followed by 180 commandos moving in to seize the area, the attack killed three top leaders of the FARC's 57th Front which operates in the area, who went by the noms de guerre, "Ignacio," "Silver," and "Nader."

"Ignacio" was a 25-year veteran of the FARC, responsible for its drug-trafficking activities in the area, according to Colombian authorities, "sending more than 36 tons of cocaine from the Darién region to Central America and the United States." The cocaine, with a street value of over $1 billion, was used to purchase weapons for the FARC cartel's activities throughout the country. "Silver" was in charge of the financial side of the operations.

The FARC operated freely on both sides of the border, in what opponents of the Darién Gap infrastructure project always lyingly characterize as "impenetrable" jungle. In fact, the Panamanian side of the border with Colombia is 90% taken over by the Darién National Park, created in 1980, and enshrined as a "Biosphere Reserve" in 1982 by the British Monarchy's World Wildlife Fund, among others.

The FARC's 57th Front was very active in exactly this park area. "Ignacio" was on Panama's "Most Wanted" list, with a $300,000 reward on his head.

In 1986, the WWF-allied United Nations Environment Program officially stated that the greatest "threat" to its Darién National Park was that, "Funds have been released by the U.S. Congress for completion of the Pan-American Highway through the site."

Argentina Reopens Its Uranium-Enrichment Plant in Rio Negro

Oct. 25 (EIRNS)—Today, Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner presided over the ceremony to officially reopen the Pilcaniyeu uranium-enrichment plant located in the Patagonian province of Rio Negro. During her speech, she emphasized that she was returning to Argentines, rights which "never should have been given up ... the right to control strategic nuclear resources which had been abandoned in the 1990s."

The plant originally began operating in 1983, under the supervision of the Rio Negro state nuclear technology company INVAP, in coordination with the National Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEA). It was shut down by the Bush-allied Carlos Menem government in the 1990s, acting at the behest of British-run political factions in Washington, to punish Argentina for being so "uppity" as to develop this advanced technology.

At that time, Argentina was the only country in Ibero-America possessing this capability. Current President Fernández de Kirchner, and her predecessor and husband, Néstor Kirchner, have made the revival of the nuclear industry a top priority, to ensure the country has a reliable energy supply.

In reopening the plant, President Fernández said that this event is a milestone which defines "an absolutely different country which places an emphasis on science and technology." It is a source "of great pride for all Argentines," she said.

Initially, the Pilcaniyeu plant will produce 20%-enriched uranium only to fuel its research reactors, but will increase production to eventually fuel Argentina's fourth, 1,500 MW reactor, Atucha III, to be built over the next three to four yeas.

Environmental groups in the area have been mobilized since last May, charging that the plant will contaminate the air and water of the surrounding region, which they want to preserve as a "non-nuclear municipality."

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