In this issue:

Brazilian Congressman: LaRouche Is Right; Time To Break with IMF, Stop the War

Brazilian President: Only War Needed Is That Against Hunger and Misery

Chirac Invites Brazil and Mexico to Summit Parallel to G-8 Summit

Mexico Assumes Security Council Presidency April 1; Stands Firm on Iraq

Brazilians Warn War Against Iraq Will Feed Terrorism and Nuclear Arms Race

Argentina Fears U.S. Attacks on Tri-Border Region

Narcoterrorists Mobilize Off Opposition to Iraq War in Ibero-America

Brazil: A Second Anti-Narcotics Judge Is Assassinated, Colombian-Style

Folha: Brazil Must Aid Colombia in Fight vs. Narcoterrorism

American Rescue Plane Crashes in Colombia

From Volume 2, Issue Number 13 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published Mar. 31, 2003

Ibero-American News Digest

Brazilian Congressman: LaRouche Is Right; Time To Break with IMF, Stop the War

In his first speech before the Chamber of Deputies since he was sworn in on Feb. 1, Dr. Eneas Carneiro, elected with the greatest number of votes of any Congressmen in Brazilian history, called upon the President of the Republic to go beyond merely opposing the war, and to take the only action by which Brazil might change the current course of world affairs: to break with the IMF, and ally with China, Russia, India, France, and Germany in the construction of a new economic system, as the only effective way of stopping the Iraq war.

"The reasons which brought the United States to carry out an armed invasion of a free and sovereign country, at least in theory, have little to do with any concern for the destiny of humanity, by eliminating possible foci of international terrorism," Dr. Eneas stated. "To properly understand the process, it is necessary to go back to the agreement signed in 1944, in Bretton Woods...."

He elaborated, citing Lyndon LaRouche's work in identifying the underlying economic processes driving the outbreak of war:

"Fabulous fortunes, on the order of 1 to 2 trillion dollars, circulate daily from one point of the planet to another, by means of computer pulses. Of these, barely some 2% to 3% correspond to commercial transactions. The rest are pure speculation, with no correspondence with the physical world, as has been pointed out by the renowned American economist and thinker Mr. LaRouche, in the weekly Executive Intelligence Review, a publication in which he studies, dissects, and explains the crisis of the international financial system as heading towards an abyss which, if not stopped, will without doubt take humanity into a new dark age...."

Marches for peace will not end this war. "There is only one way to oppose that true genocide. And that is by a definitive rupture with the putrid model that is imposed on us by the international financial system, of which the IMF, the World Bank, the IADB, the World Trade Organization and company are tentacles."

Dr. Eneas called on the President of the Republic of Brazil, Lula da Silva, to "take advantage of the historical opportunity that is being offered to us by the owners of the world themselves," and "order that, by unilateral rupture, no more interest payments will be made on the Public Debt, the which reached 114 billion reals in 2002."

Such a measure will bring problems, but Brazil could turn to France, Germany, China, Russia, and India—along with various other countries—for trade partners, "should retaliations from the American Empire occur. In addition, our brothers of Latin America and Asia will be ready, without doubt, to establish partnerships with us, aiming as well to liberate themselves from the octopus that sucks their blood," he elaborated.

I urge you Mr. President, he said, in the name of my party, the PRONA, and the more than 1,570,000 electors who elected me to Congress, to find the courage to "issue the cry of economic independence, almost 181 years after political independence. Take a step forward. Do not fear. Your Excellency will be followed by all the Brazilians who lifted you into your current position, in the expectation that Your Excellency would free them from the fetters of secular slavery."

Brazilian President: Only War Needed Is That Against Hunger and Misery

"The only legitimate war that a government in this world can and should develop, is the war against hunger, against misery, and the exclusion that offends the dignity of God's children," Brazilian President Lula da Silva wrote in a letter to Pope John Paul II, in which he described the Brazilian government's "Zero Hunger" program. The letter was delivered to the Pope on March 27 by Agricultural Development Minister Miguel Rosetto.

Foreign Minister Celso Amorim is to deliver a second letter from the Brazilian President, more directly dealing with the Iraq war, when he meets Pope John Paul II on March 31. In that letter, Amorim reported March 25, the President praised the Pope's efforts for peace, and "recognized the importance of the Pope John Paul II's leadership." The world needs "great spiritual leadership," such as that represented by the Pope, and because of this, John Paul II's positions have political importance, Amorim said. It is important that countries seek a "rallying point" around the leadership of the Pope, in defense of an international order based on multilateralism.

Chirac Invites Brazil and Mexico to Summit Parallel to G-8 Summit

Brazil and Mexico are among the nations French President Jacques Chirac is inviting to attend a summit, to be held parallel to the next meeting of the Group of Eight, in Switzerland June 1-3, the Swiss newspaper Le Matin reported over the weekend of March 22-23. Brazilian President Lula da Silva, and the heads of state of China, India, Egypt, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Switzerland, are among the leaders whom the French have invited, along with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. The summit should have close to 21 countries represented, says Le Matin, and would serve, in Chirac's view, to break apart the idea that world decisions are made solely by the G-8 (the U.S., Britain, Canada, Japan, Italy, France, Germany, plus Russia). The agenda for the meeting is still open, but the Iraq war, and the global economic crisis are likely to be discussed, says O Estado's correspondent.

This is going to provoke real rage among the Chickenhawks, Lyndon LaRouche commented, when briefed. The French invitation to Brazil is bad enough, but inviting Mexico is a real slap in the face, he said.

Mexico Assumes Security Council Presidency April 1; Stands Firm on Iraq

Mexico will assume the presidency of the United Nations Security Council on April 1, as pressure intensifies on the Vicente Fox government to fall in line behind the U.S. war in Iraq. In a State Department briefing March 26, spokesman Richard Boucher denied reports that the Bush Administration is demanding Mexico dump its Ambassador to the United Nations, Adolfo Zinser Aguilar, but this did not stop the rumors to that effect. A nasty Financial Times article on March 27 complained that Zinser had helped coordinate the other small, undecided members of the UN Security Council, in the battle to stop the Iraq war.

The top Mexico expert of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Delal Baer, told the Financial Times that Mexico may wish to take leadership, but it had better avoid "unnecessary conflict with the United States," better than it has so far. Baer warned, in particular, that "Mexico will have to be careful to avoid any appearance of aligning with France," the FT said.

Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez has confirmed that Zinser will stay at his post, however, and on March 25, the Foreign Ministry announced that Mexico will not break relations with Iraq, as the U.S. demands, but would follow its traditional policy known as the Estrada Doctrine, which stipulates that Mexico maintains relations with states, not with persons. A Foreign Ministry official added that Mexico has "no bilateral dispute with Iraq," and besides, "we decide with whom we maintain relations."

Brazilians Warn War Against Iraq Will Feed Terrorism and Nuclear Arms Race

Terrorism will increase, and the nuclear arms race will be revived by the Bush Administration's war against Iraq, Sebastiao Nery wrote in Brazil's Tribuna da Imprensa on March 23. "The Armed Forces of every country which does not have the atomic bomb will be convinced that, from now on, when the U.S. pirates, under the 'Bush Doctrine,' declare the right to invade any country they wish.... Every nation, if it wants to be independent, will be obliged to build its own bomb," he wrote. Brazilian Science and Technology Minister Roberto Amaral, Congressman Eneas, and the majority of the best officers of all three branches of the Armed Forces were right: "The only way for Brazil to defend the Amazon and its waters ... [is] with our own atomic bomb."

Tribuna da Imprensa editor Helio Fernandes warned also, on March 27, that the thesis, that only countries which have a nuclear arsenal will be able to confront the "preventive war" doctrine of the U.S., is gaining ground. The consequence of the Iraq war will be "an unprecedented arms race," he lamented. The UN has been pushed aside, and the U.S. has become an unreliable ally, so there are no mediators capable of leading strictly diplomatic negotiations between nations on the edge of conflict. Effectively, "globalization ... is buried," too, with this war, he noted.

Argentina Fears U.S. Attacks on Tri-Border Region

Argentina fears the U.S. would attack the region bordering Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil—the "triple border"—in retaliation for those nations' stance against the U.S. war on Iraq. It was the recent speech by Gen. James Hill, head of the Southern Command, identifying the tri-border region—he called it "ungoverned"—as a base for Islamic terrorism (See article in INDEPTH), that sparked Argentine fears, according to Brazil's Tribuna da Imprensa March 25. One report circulating in Argentina also warns that the U.S. may try to establish a military base or install some kind of "control agency" in the region.

Belying his own assurances that "there is no tension" between the U.S. and Argentina, in a March 25 video-conference, acting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Curt Struble ordered the Duhalde government to comply with several U.S. demands regarding the tri-border region, leaving implicit the threat of U.S. action, should the demands not be met. Argentina must act aggressively against money-laundering and contraband, which provide financial resources for international, and specifically Middle Eastern, terrorists, Struble said, adding that "outside terrorists" can easily take advantage of the tri-border region, with its large Muslim population, and its role as a transmission point for arms contraband. To make his point, he referred to the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Argentina, and the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish social center in Buenos Aires, which Israel says Iran orchestrated, deploying terrorists from the tri-border area.

Newspapers and analysts from the area uniformly agree, however, that "there are more intelligence agents in the tri-border region" of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina, than Islamic fundamentalists, as the region is crawling with agents from those three nations' intelligence services, deployed as part of the effort to clamp down on money-laundering, drugs, and weapons contraband.

Narcoterrorists Mobilize Off Opposition to Iraq War in Ibero-America

Thirty thousand to 100,000 people—led by "piqueteros" (Jacobin shocktroops), the terrorist group Mothers and Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, joined by trade unionists, etc.—marched on March 24 in Buenos Aires on the 27th anniversary of the 1976 military coup, chanting against the Iraq war, and carrying banners reading, "Bush, fascist, you are the terrorist." These were the largest demonstrations since President Fernando De la Rua was driven out in December 2001. The same day, some 2,500 cocaleros marched in La Paz, Bolivia, chanting slogans against the Iraq war, and against eradication of coca. Their leader, Evo Morales, announced the cocaleros were "bored" with merely holding vigils, and the next day, 600 of them attacked two government offices in the coca region of the Chapare.

In Guayaquil, Ecuador, a grenade was thrown at the British consulate the same day, while a band of 30 youths handing out leaflets backing Iraq, and calling for "death to the U.S. assassin troops" in the name of a supposed "Revolutionary Student and Popular Movement" (MEPR), rampaged in Rio de Janeiro, throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at the U.S. consulate, police cars, bank offices, and McDonalds.

Brazil: A Second Anti-Narcotics Judge Is Assassinated, Colombian-Style

A second Brazilian anti-narcotics judge was assassinated, Colombian-style, on March 24, by a two-man hit-squad on a motorcycle. Judge Alexandre Martins de Castro Filho was shot as he was leaving a club in Victoria, Espiritu Santo state, just 10 days after the assassination in Sao Paulo state of Judge Jose Antonio Machado Dias. Both judges were waging high-profile battles against organized crime and drug-trafficking.

This second murder is a direct challenge to President Lula da Silva, who vowed after Machado Dias' murder that he would use all the resources of the state to combat the drug gangs that inhabit Brazil's favelas (shanty-towns), and increasingly flaunt their power. In televised remarks made after receiving news of Castro Filho's murder, Lula warned, "We are going to win the war against organized crime and drug-trafficking." Justice Minister Marcio Thomaz Bastos immediately left for Espiritu Santo to oversee the investigation of the killing.

There is growing fear that Brazil is going the way of Colombia, including with possible links of Colombian narcoterrorists to the Brazilian drug gangs. An op ed column in Folha de Sao Paulo March 24 warned that something must be done fast, before the Brazilian problem "takes on the dimension of what is happening in Colombia, which is on the brink of civil war."

Folha: Brazil Must Aid Colombia in Fight vs. Narcoterrorism

As Brazil reels from the drug-mob murders of two judges in 10 days, one of the nation's leading newspapers called for Brazil to aid Colombia in its war on narcoterrorism. An editorial in Folha de Sao Paulo March 25 argued that "the security and political stability of South America," requires that the Brazilian government increase its cooperation with the Colombian government. Two critical steps are urged:

1) that Brazil provide Colombia with intelligence gathered through its newly operational Amazon Surveillance System (SIVAM) radar system, which is capable of monitoring as deep as 200 kilometers into the Colombian side of the border. As this area is largely unpopulated jungle, such intelligence would be critical. The Brazilian government had promised to provide this intelligence, but according to Folha, this has yet to happen; and

2) that Brazil declare the FARC a terrorist force.

"Organized crime ignores the borders between the two countries," as "drugs, arms, and terrorist know-how flow with facility between the two countries," the paper wrote. The FARC is linked to the drug-and-arms trade in Brazil's large cities. Cooperation between the governments, therefore, must be strengthened.

American Rescue Plane Crashes in Colombia

A small U.S. government plane, searching the dense Colombian jungles for three kidnapped American defense contractors being held by the FARC, crashed March 25, burning up on impact. The U.S. embassy reported that three Americans were on board. According to Colombian authorities who reached the site of the crash, in the southern province of Caqueta, there were no survivors. The plane was part of an ongoing search-and-rescue effort being conducted jointly by the U.S. and Colombian governments, an effort that includes U.S. promises of reward money for information leading to the hostages' rescue, as well as the deployment of thousands of Colombian troops and Black Hawk helicopters.

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