Ibero-American News Digest
Brazil Congressman: Eurasian Land-Bridge the Target of War Party in Washington
On April 11, Brazilian Congressman Irapuan Teixeira, of the Party for Rebuilding of National Order (PRONA), headed by Congressman Eneas Carneiro, gave his fellow Deputies a short but devastating briefing on the "perpetual war" strategy behind the Bush Administration's Iraq war.
Teixeira's speech on the floor of the Chamber of Deputies continued what was begun by Dr. Eneas when he addressed the Chamber on March 27. In that speech, Dr. Eneas called upon Brazilian President Lula da Silva to help stop the U.S.-U.K. war in the Middle East, by deploying Brazil's sole feasible weapon in today's circumstances: to break with the International Monetary Fund system, and declare a debt moratorium, an historical act which would force the world to face the reality that the current world financial system is finished (see INDEPTH, EIW #14).
The Bush Administration has become the "captive of a group of neo-fascist ideologues coordinated by Vice President Dick Cheney," Teixeira told his fellow Congressmen. This is no simple war for the control of natural resources, "even it if is undeniable that the United States of America and its few allies, or better, only ally, could benefit from it in the short term," he said. "The offensive against Iraq and the accusations against the regime of Saddam Hussein were merely pretexts to set in motion a Clash of Civilizations, a state of perpetual war, which would begin against the Islamic peoples, and would extend like a trail of gunpowder along the routes of Eurasian integration."
Nor is this war some natural product of capitalism, nor is it designed to provoke an economic recovery, he said. Rather, it is a result of the transformation of the world economy into a "speculative financial casino" over the last three decades, a transformation brought about by the domination of the Anglo-Dutch liberal ideology. This has led to "the systemic crisis which is today sounding its final death-rattle," Teixeria stated, adding that "the primary objective of the imperial impulse" driving the war is to bring about "the destruction of the effort to establish a Eurasian Land-Bridge capable of triggering the urgent process of world economic recovery."
Teixera's speech drew upon the pamphlet published by the Brazilian branch of Lyndon LaRouche's Ibero-American Solidarity Movement (MSIA), titled Imperium Insanum. Teixeira did not mention LaRouche or the pamphlet, but he cited "journalist Lorenzo Carrasco," well-known as EIR's correspondent in Brazil, as a source for the documents demonstrating the war party's longstanding intentions. The Imperum Insanum pamphlet is providing Brazilians with U.S. Presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche's analysis of the situation. In less than a month, 26,000 copies have been distributed by networks in every corner of Brazil, and the demand for more copies is increasing.
Globalist OAS Meeting Cancelled
The Organization of American States' (OAS) long-planned Foreign Ministers-level Special Conference on Hemispheric Security, scheduled for May 6-8 in Mexico, has been officially postponed until October. In four days of meeting, April 7-10, the preparatory committee failed to reach a consensus on what the conference would conclude.
The OAS conference head been conceived by the utopians as the place where radical changes in the "architecture" of hemispheric security, to conform to the doctrine of limited sovereignty, could be rammed through under the cover of "fighting terrorism." When the Iraq war began, EIR warned, in an article called "Iraq Treatment Set for Ibero-America by Rumsfeld" (see INDEPTH, EIW #12) that "all bets were off" on whether any Ibero-Americans would continue to cooperate with the utopians' schemes to re-write hemispheric security accords. That evaluation has now proven correct in spades.
The Mexican Permanent Mission to the OAS announced the postponement April 11. "Differences, in approach and in substance, on the key definitions in the draft Political Declaration to be adopted by the Conference ... should be viewed as legitimate and worthy of absolute respect," the Mission said, and thus more time is needed before a consensus can be reached.
An Ibero-American diplomat involved in the preparatory meeting reported that the conference was cancelled after the U.S. said Secretary of State Colin Powell would not attend, because of Mexico's refusal to back the Iraq war. A U.S. military source, involved in the preparations for the conference, could not confirm that report, but said that if the U.S. had done this, it indicates that people have finally recognized that the discussions on how to fight terrorism are in "total disarray," and the parties too far apart to reach any agreement. Ibero-American governments are agreed only on one thing, this source reported: that "the U.S. is certainly off-base" in the way it is fighting terrorism, and that addressing security requires addressing poverty and disease, as much as terrorism.
'LaRouche Factor' in Gubernatorial Campaign in Nuevo Leon
Some interests clearly would like to eliminate the LaRouche factor from the race for Governor of Nuevo Leon, Mexico, where Benjamin Castro, well-known as the leader of Lyndon LaRouche's forces in Monterrey, is running for the office on the ticket of the Social Action Party (PAS).
Castro is getting significant television and radio coverage of his campaign, getting LaRouche's ideas out to a broad audience. In November 2002, LaRouche himself made a highly successful visit to Coahuila, the northern state that borders Nuevo Leon. In Coahuila, LaRouche, the U.S. Democratic Party Presidential pre-candidate, was received by the Governor of Coahuila, and held a series of successful meetings and seminars, including with youth.
But the Castro campaign is hitting a raw nerveleading to harassment and slanders in the press. Typical is the campaign against Castro by the media after his campaign appearance April 3, at the Monterrey Technological Institute, known as "the Tec," where he discussed the global economic and strategic crisis, and LaRouche's solutions.
When a student asked why his campaign platform attacked local popular culture dens called "antros;" Castro answered that it is "stupid" to spend four hours in a disco or "rave," when the world requires sublime leaders, such as Joan of Arc, willing to fight to build great projects ("raves" are all-night concert events where designer drugs and violence are frequently reported).
All well and good, with the students. But the media attacked Castro for not "respecting" the counterculture. It was soon apparent, however, that the media's gripe was LaRouche. On April 4, Milenio newspaper provocatively reported that Castro had called the students "stupid"reporting nothing else. Radio Formula's Antonio de Mendieta then called for banning Castro from the elections, because of his "insulting" remarks. Rosario Barahona, well-known as the hired pen of the Monterrey Group of business interests, attacked Castro in El Norte, demanding "respect" for the Tec students, and their "right" to relax in any way they wish.
De Mendieta also attacked LaRouche, whom he described as the founder of a "Jehovah's Witness-like cult." Radio slanders multiplied, one saying Mr. LaRouche headed a cult like the "Davidians." In another radio program, one founder of the PAS Party, a Sr. Cazares, who opposed Castro's nomination said Castro "required psychological treatment" and he wanted him removed as candidate. The slander of the LaRouche movement as a "cult" started with a group of counterculture journalists in the U.S. affiliated with the drug-promoting magazine High Times. Back in the 1980s, they railed against LaRouche, saying, "He wants to take your drugs away!"
As the election nears, harassment and threats have been increasing against Castro. Provocateurs have deployed to attempt to disrupt meetings; one opponent of LaRouche within the PAS Party itself attempted to beat him up (unsuccessfully); and false reports that Castro is about to announce his resignation have appeared in the press.
Lyndon LaRouche Comments on Cuba
See this week's LATEST FROM LAROUCHE for the transcript of Lyndon LaRouche's April 12 webcast address and dialogue with scores of LaRouche Youth Movement organizers gathered in Mexico City, and in Lima, Peru.
A Cuba Crisis in the Making?
"Collateral damage" from the Iraq war has hit the Caribbean. On April 11, the Castro regime executed three hijackers, and gave four others life sentences, after their April 2 attempt to hijack a domestic ferry to Florida, failed. Brought back to Havana, the leaders of the hijacking were charged with "very grave acts of terrorism," given summary trials and convicted on April 8, and executed by firing squad three days later. That drastic measure followed upon the round-up of 75-80 Cuban dissidents the week that President Bush launched the Iraq war. Those arrested have since been given summary trials, and sentenced to jail terms ranging from six to 28 years, on charges of collaborating with a foreign power against the Cuban government.
U.S. officials have made it clear Cuba is on the Chickenhawk hit list, and the state of mind in the Cuban government is one of preparing for war.
On April 7, James Casonwho heads the U.S. Interest Section in Cuba (since there are no diplomatic relations between Cuba and the U.S.) and who has used his post to host dissident meetings in his official residence, handing out radio equipment to dissidents, etc.gave a provocative speech at the University of Miami, on the "moral imperative" of the United States to bring about "a rapid and peaceful transition toward democracy" in Cuba. Adding a more ominous tone, Cason assert that the U.S. has "strategic interests" in Cuba, and "the continuous disintegration of the Cuban society generates instability in the region and creates the threat of massive migration into the United States."
U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic Hans Hertell, meanwhile, has declared that the removal of Saddam Hussein could serve as a "good example ... for regime change in Cuba," Spain's El Pais daily reported April 14. The war which the U.S. is waging against Iraq, Hertell said, is the "beginning of a 'liberating crusade' in the world, including Cubawhose purpose is to put into practice a democratic system."
Jorge Mas Santos, head of the Miami exile millionaires gang known as the Cuban-American National Foundation, called April 11 for "regime change" in Cuba, and demanded Washington "indict" the Castro brothers, Fidel and Raul. Democratic Senator Joe "Hitler" Lieberman, who is vying with George W. Bush for the campaign money of the Miami Cubans, said the executions of the hijackers prove we cannot go easy on Castro. "We must never waver and never yield until the people of Cuba taste liberty."
Meanwhile, Fidel Castro is giving speeches warning that the United States is throwing "provocations" at the regime, to prepare the way for a military attack. One such speech was delivered on national television on the night of April 11; if Cuba is occupied, "the resistance will last 100 years," Castro said.
Presidents of Brazil and Peru Agree On Cross-Continental Projects
The implementation of bilateral projects necessary to the physical integration of the South American continent, topped the agenda of the April 11 summit of Peru's President Alejandro Toledo and Brazil's Lula da Silva. The final communiqué issued after their meeting emphasizes that the two Presidents agree on the "vital importance" of implementing the continent-wide "Regional Integration Initiative of South America" (IIRSA), adopted at the first South American Summit in Brasilia in September 2000.
Particular attention will be paid to water transportation: completing the north and central branches of the cross-Amazon transportation axis, the Bolivia-Brazil-Peru axis, and the inter-oceanic axis, outlined in IIRSA. "The objective is to make the flow of commerce between the Pacific and the Atlantic a reality, generating opportunities for wealth and sustainable development for the populations along the cited axis and their wider areas of influence," the communiqué states.
President Toledo told Brazil's Valor magazine (April 14 issue) that he considers reaching a "strategic alliance" with Brazil to be one of the three most important goals of his Administration, and he brought ten Cabinet ministers with him for the meeting.
Equally interesting is the decision that the Ministers of Defense of both countries should meet, regarding Peru's getting access to intelligence from Brazil's newly activated Amazon-wide radar surveillance system, SIVAM, crucial for going after the drug trade.
Chavez Regime Organizes Another World Jacobin Meet
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez held a "World Meeting in Solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution," as part of four days of celebrations organized for the first anniversary of the April 11-13 coup and counter-coup a year ago. He used the occasion to set up a "Bolivarian Forum of the Americas," to spread continental revolution. Attending were Le Monde Diplomatique's Ignacio Ramonet, failed French Socialist Party candidate Jean-Pierre Chevenement, the notorious former First Lady of France, Danielle Mitterrand, and old faces of the terrorist core of Ibero-America's Sao Paulo Forum: Bolivia's Evo Morales, Shafik Handal of El Salvador's FMLN, Gloria Marin of the FARC, Danny Ortega of Nicaragua's Sandinistas, Marta Hanecker of Cuba, among others.
In one of several speeches during these days, Chavez said he had made the mistake of sheathing his sword once, and he would never do that again. In 1973, Chilean President Salvador Allende's mistake was to try for an unarmed revolution. Ours is armedand I'm not speaking metaphorically, he said. "I am speaking of combat arms: thousands of rifles, thousands of machine-guns, hundreds of tanks, fighter airplanes, etc."
Chavez said that Caracas will be the epicenter of a Bolivarian continentwide revolutionand the governments of the U.S., Colombia, and Costa Rica, which are protecting those who attempted to "coup" him, had better watch out. Revolution is the only route; Brazil's Lula must carry out a revolution, if he hopes to succeed. Chavez announced that he and cocalero leader Evo Morales had agreed to organize a continental meeting of Indians; that a Brazilian peasant leader had agreed to hold a continental meeting of peasants; and similarly, a women's meeting would be held.
Ignacio Ramonet, introduced as the "international intellectual" who defends the Bolivarian Revolution, inaugurated the main event with a speech holding up the Chavez regime as the model anti-neo-liberal government worldwide, and saying that Chavez and Cuba's Fidel Castro are in the sights of the U.S. government, after Iraq.
Menem Threatens To Carve Up His Own Country, Again
Former Argentine President Carlos Menem, once again candidate in the April 27 Presidential elections, has plans to carve up the country. He promises that, if elected, he would lower Federal and provincial expenditures by dividing the country up into three big regions, each of which would have its own Parliament. The existing provincial legislatures, which he argues are the biggest source of budget deficits, would be dissolvedthus hinting that the provinces might also disappear.
Various schemes for "regionalization" have been floated over the past year, but Menem is most identified with this idea. For example, he is heavily promoting a scheme for the development of Argentina's mining sectorby foreigners no doubtin which provinces would receive royalties for mining resources developed. They then wouldn't have to depend on the Federal government for funding, and could move toward becoming self-sufficent or autonomous. Similar plans have been discussed for oil-rich Patagonia.
Another Menem scheme is to destroy Argentina's Presidential system, which is modelled on that of the United States, and create a unicameral Congress by dissolving the Senate. Five representatives from each province would sit in the new Congress, regardless of that province's population density.
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