Ibero-American News Digest
A South American-Arab Summit in the Works?
The Brazilian government has proposed that South America and the Arab nations hold a summit in 2004, to bring the two regions closer together politically, and expand trade relations, Foreign Minister Celso Amorim announced on June 22, from Sharm El-Sheik, in Egypt, where he was attending a World Trade Organization meeting. Amorim said he was delivering letters from President Lula da Silva proposing the meeting, to the heads of state of Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt, with whom Amorim would be meeting as he visited each of those countries June 24-26.
Amorim said Brazil wanted to begin the debate on the proposal, to see if there were interest on the side of the Arab nations. "Our objective is to get closer to the rest of the countries of the South, and the Middle Eastern region cannot be excluded, he said. Which Arab countries would be invited to participate is not decided yet, but Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are definitely on the list, in addition to the three countries he is visiting.
Brazil's Minister of Development, Industry, and Foreign Trade, Luiz Fernando Furlan, visited Kuwait and Saudi Arabia on June 23 and 24.
LaRouche-Associated Candidate's Attack on Cheney Prompts Counterattack
The national edition of Mexico's Milenio newspaper ran a brief column in its June 22 issue, devoted to attacking longtime LaRouche associate Benjamin Castro, who is running for Governor of the state of Nuevo Leon on the PAS slate; in addition to Castro himself, the paper attacked his ties to U.S. Democratic Presidential pre-candidate Lyndon LaRouche; and both men for their campaign against Dick Cheney's Chickenhawks.
Establishment columnist Jorge Villegas made the mistakewhen slandering Castro as a member of a "cult of LaRouche sickos who run EIR magazine, "which sees conspiracy behind every governmentof actually reporting enough of Castro's opening charge in the June 16 gubernatorial candidates' debate, to get the attention of most thinking Mexicans. Castro had charged that "the principal problem for Nuevo Leon and Mexico, is the war-mongering current within the U.S. government, headed by Dick Cheney. Villegas was so upset that this was said publicly, that he quoted a Castro press release which emphasized that, "PAS candidate Benjamin Castro identified the battle between U.S. Presidential candidate LaRouche and Cheney, as one of the central questions affecting the security of Nuevo Leon and all of Mexico.
Blair's Third Way, or FDR's Way?
British Prime Minister Tony Blair wants to rope Brazil's Lula da Silva and Argentina's Nestor Kirchner into his "third way farce of neo-liberalism, and hopes he can count on Chilean President Ricardo Lagos to help. The three South American Presidents have been invited to attend a July 14 "Progressive Governance summit in London, hosted by Blair. The Financial Times on June 18 gushed that together, Lula da Silva, Ricardo Lagos, and Nestor Kirchner were now the "triumvirate of South America's new left. The Times particularly singled out Socialist Lagos's role, as key because of his "special political relationship with Kirchner and Lula.
Not said, is that alarm bells have been struck on Wall Street and in London, over the discussion in Brazil and Argentina, of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Presidency, as a reference for how to face today's depression.
London School of Economics director Anthony Giddens, in an interview with Argentina's June 23 Clarin, took full credit for having urged Blair to invite Kirchner to the July 14 conference. Echoing IMF Managing Director Horst Koehler, he praised Kirchner for showing himself to be part of "what I call the responsible left, as Lula in Brazil is doing, after replacing his earlier rhetoric with a social-democratic speech. As part of this new policy, Giddens said Kirchner should not reject globalization, but work for "balance. Echoing IMF demands, he insisted the labor market should be restructured and structural reforms implemented to strengthen the "democratic transition.
State Department Pushes Supra-National Military Force Along with Free Trade
Central American nations must restructure and shrink their national military and security structures, as part of the Central American Free Trade Accord (CAFTA) with the United States, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Daniel Fisk announced to a Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) conference on June 18. CAFTA is being negotiated now, with the goal of finalizing the agreement by the end of this year.
Fisk's speech was as notable for its imperial tone, as for its content. "It is imperative that the Central American democracies accept that "non-state actors are the main threat today, and therefore they must "formalize a regional security relationship that reinforces the economic framework of CAFTA, Fisk pronounced. He didn't call for the creation of a regional military force to replace national military forces, but one could conclude this is on the agenda. "An agreement to restructure the region's security institutions and coordinate their efforts, would be "a natural complement to any such regional security relationship, he said. This would entail "redefining the roles and missions of Central America's militaries; countries must stop "wasting resources on obsolete conventional formations; military spending must be lowered. Central American leaders must recognize that transnational threats "require that their security forces work together, sharing the responsibilities of protecting the region.
He also threatened that excessive stockpiles of small arms, light weapons, and outmoded weapons systems "of little, if any, use against current threats ... represent a threat to the peoples of Central America, as well as to the Western Hemisphere as a whole.
Cardinal Calls on Nation's Leaders To Act for the 'Good of Mexico'
In a homily during a mass for politicians, given in honor of their patron saint Thomas More, on June 18, Cardinal Norberto Rivera of Mexico City called upon Mexican political to put aside party and personal interests, on behalf of "the good of Mexico. National reconciliation must be sought among the three great currents which make up Mexico: the indigenous, the liberal, and the Catholic, he said, asking the intercession of St. Thomas More for this task.
The Cardinal's call comes in the midst of a campaign by the Project Democracy apparatus, to trigger religious war in Mexico, yet again. The Mexico Posible partyled by National Endowment for Democracy's favorite, the pro-drug Sergio Arguayo, who is committed to the break-up of the Mexican nationfiled suit against three Catholic Bishops, charging that they violated Mexico's Constitutional ban on political activity by clerics. The clerics used their homilies to call upon parishioners to abstain from voting in the July 2 elections, for any party which supports homosexual marriages, abortion, and other typical "single issue programs.
The environment of religious conflict is being fed by a press campaign on the alleged unresolvable differences between the secular "modernizers and the Catholic clergy. Typical was an article by Lorenzo Meyer, run in Reforma on June 12, which asserts that the conflict between church and state, which led to "open and brutal civil war in Mexico several times in the past, is back on the agenda. The problem, Meyer asserts, is the renewed "political activism of the Catholic Church, the leading example of which, he says, is the insistence by the Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iniguez of Guadalajara, that the state had murdered his predecessor, Cardinal Jesus Posadas Ocampo, 10 years ago. In fact, Cardinal Sandoval has never charged that the state murdered Posadas, but he rejects as absurd the official coverup that the Cardinal was killed by accident in crossfire of a shoot-out between two drug gangs.
Toledo Government Faces CollapseAgain
The Peruvian Cabinet resigned en masse on June 23, to allow President Alejandro Toledo to reshuffle his governing coalition, in yet another attempt to save his government from collapsing altogether. With his popularity rating down to 11%, the lowest of any of the Ibero-American Presidents, political and business circles are beginning to openly discuss the advantages or disadvantages of an "Argentine" solution, in which the President resigns, and Congress names his successor.
The Cabinet quit, after the Economic Commission of Congressin which Toledo's own Peru Posible party holds the majorityrefused to consider a new fiscal package submitted by his Finance Minister, Javier Silva Ruete, to raise cash, through tax hikes and salary and pension cuts, to pay for wage increases just promised to public-school teachers, a key factor in cooling out the broader national strike which threatened to paralyze the country.
International financier interests are demanding he appoint "a tough, independent premier, capable of running the show." Toledo admitted, after the Cabinet resigned, that his government had reached "a breaking point," and it would have to "look into the mirror on its actions over the last 23 months." Toledo cancelled his participation in the June 27 summit of the Andean Community of Nations, as he had yet to announce the makeup of his new Cabinet.
Fujimori Denounces Toledo Government for Revival of Sendero Luminoso
In an audio statement released to RadioProgramas of Peru on June 16 from his exile in Japan, former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori charged that the Toledo government is directly responsible for the resurgence of Sendero Luminoso during its 23 months in office. Two major Sendero actionsa car bombing in the center of Lima in 2002, and the most recent seizure, on June 9, of 71 hostages at a Camisea gas-related projectwere allowed to take place, while 150 terrorist actions occurred in the course of the past year. The situation is more dangerous, Fujimori pointed out, given the strategy of the Colombia's FARC, of extending its narcoterrorist activities into neighboring countries.
In this context, Fujimori questioned the decision of the Truth Commission to give television air time to "repentant terrorists, and the Commission's effort to reinvent Sendero and the fellow terrorist MRTA as political parties" (See INDEPTH EIW #25.)
Fujimori accused the Toledo government of: Freeing 400 terrorists in one year; declaring life sentences unconstitutional; annulling the trials of the terrorist leaders, to open new trials against them; abandoning military bases in areas where there is a Sendero presence, and cutting back the military budget, and firing seasoned military professionals.
Fujimori directly accused President Toledo of ignoring reports on Sendero activities provided by his own intelligence agencies, and implied that the resurgence of Sendero was the result sought.
FARC Renews Bid for International Recognition
The FARC, South America's leading narcoterrorist force, issued an open letter to the Presidents of Ibero-America's 19-member Rio Group on June 15, calling on them to renounce their May 23 appeal to the United Nations to mediate peace talks between the FARC and Uribe government in Colombia, and demanding a summit meeting between the Presidents and FARC spokesman Raul Reyes. Reyes, who participated in over three years of failed peace talks with the previous Andres Pastrana government, who became notorious for the deal he struck with New York Stock Exchange head Richard Grasso, is now a wanted fugitive by both Colombia and the United States.
The FARC brazenly demands that the Rio Presidents agree to hold a forum, similar to the Rio Group's summit in Cuzco, Peru last May, so that Reyes can explain the FARC's aspirations, and desire for a political victory. The FARC urges the Presidents to retract their support for President Alvaro Uribe, whose won the Rio Group's backing on May 23 for his effort to crush the FARC.
Military Tensions Could Rise in Argentina
Argentine President Nestor Kirchner has provoked concern among the Armed Forces, with a policy that is leaning toward allowing military officers accused of human rights violations inside Argentina, even including those previously tried, to be tried again abroad. The policy, if adopted, would also allow officers to be tried, who had previously been protected by the "End Point" and "Due Obedience" laws passed in the 1980s, so the country could put behind it the wounds from the 1970s war against terrorism. Both the Foreign Ministry and the Justice Ministry, the latter run by Transparency International sympathizer and Opus Dei member Gustavo Beliz, are most active in the anti-military line-up, and the ranks are nervous about recent arrests of active-duty officers, and the likely implication of former Army chief, Gen. Ricardo Brinzoni, in the 1976 massacre of a group of young guerrillas in the province of Chaco, which is being reopened. The fact that Kirchner has met with the pro-terrorist Mothers of Plaza de Mayo didn't improve the situation.
Kirchner claims he is proceeding cautiously, but there is already some government motion suggesting an attempt to annul Decree 1581/01, which prohibits extradition of citizens to third countries, to be tried for crimes committed inside Argentina. Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa said in a recent interview that an article from the 1853 Constitution, which is still valid, allows for trying citizens in third countries, for crimes committed internally. "If citizens want advances in universal justice, extraterritoriality should overthrow the decree [No. 1581/01], so judges may rule freely...," he said, adding that the government had lobbied heavily for Transparency International agent, Luis Moreno Ocampo, to be appointed to the International Criminal Court as a judge.
The role of Transparency International, run by top Anglo-American and World Bank operatives, with the active support of the House of Windsor's Prince Philip, in fomenting this potential new crisis, is notable.
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