Ibero-American News Digest
Weakened Fox Cuts Deal with Salinas
After being whomped in the July 6 mid-term elections, Mexican President Vicente Fox has turned for help to George Bush the elder's enormously corrupt buddy, former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1989-94), who put through the genocidal North American Free Trade Accord (NAFTA). The deal appears to be that Salinas lines up his PRI Party faction behind the next round of "reforms" demanded by the international financiers, in return for which the once-exiled former President sets himself up as a king-maker again in Mexican politics, in the jockeying for the 2006 Presidential elections, which is already underway. Fox's situation is so weak, that Mexicans speak of a "co-government" between Fox and Salinas.
Elba Ester Gordillo, well-known as a Salinas agent, was recently elected head of the PRI faction in the Chamber of Deputies, although not by a great margin (92 PRI-istas voted against her). The announcement by the Attorney General's office on July 21 that charges had been dropped against the PRI leaders investigated for money-laundering related to the 2000 election campaignthe scandal known as "Pemexgate"was widely viewed as a payoff for the Salinas-Fox deal.
Where once he feared to set foot in Mexico, Salinas now holds high-powered dinner parties, and basks in the media attention. "State persecution against me has ended. President Fox has been very respectful with me and my Administration," Salinas told the New York Times, in an interview published July 20. "Reforms have once again become prestigious." The Straussian historian Enrique Krauze hailed Salinas, telling the New York Times: "If there is one man in this country who has had everything that President Fox is lacking, that man is Salinas. He has tremendous drive and a strong understanding of how to exercise power," as he showed when he imposed "the most important modernizing reforms in recent history."
PRI's Nationalist Faction Down, But Not Out
Whether the despised former President Carlos Salinas can deliver the PRI behind the reforms demanded by international bankers, is still a question. "The PRI is going to continue in the defense of national interests," Sen. Manuel Bartlett declared emphatically in an interview published on July 23 in La Jornada. Elba Esther Gordilla and the others just elected "are obliged to respect our declaration of principles, which specify that the public companies must be preserved, as a public service, to guarantee the energy and oil of Mexicans." The privatization of Mexico's energy sector will not go through, he stated flatly. "PRI members are very clear on what our national interest is: preserving energy for Mexicans, and preserving sovereignty."
La Jornada asked Bartlett about a recent report from the World Bank, which reportedly admitted privatization has not always worked. The World Bank pressured governments around the world to privatize, and their policy has failed, the Senator answered. "They have done tremendous harm to entire populations, and, in our case, to the whole continent." Mexican leaders only have to look to Brazil and Argentina, where the privatized companies failed, and now the foreign companies are demanding the governments guarantee their fantastic profits. In the United States, Enron was proven to have robbed the American people. Reality is proving every day that we are right, Bartlett said, adding that, over the last two years, the world has moved from disaster to disaster because of this policy, yet our leaders blindly continue down this path.
Fox Tells Mexicans To Make Up a Job, Any Job
Following reports that unemployment in Mexico is now at the highest since he took office, President Vicente Fox asked his Secretaries of Labor and Economy to join him on his July 26 Saturday radio show, where he announced, with great pomp, that "we have left aside the idea of a neo-liberal economy, which rarely functioned in the past.... Starting now," he proclaimed, "our absolute priority is the strengthening of internal markets."
How? By thinking smallWorld Bank, genocidal-small. Fox made clear that his grand declaration that "I'm not a neo-liberal," is nothing but another scramble to appear to be doing something, as opposition to his non-government grows from all sides. The government has no plans to invest in actual job creation, he made clear, emphasizing the need to continue with a policy of strict "fiscal discipline." Rather, Fox said, his government will push small businesses, "Mom and Pop" operations, as the key to development. Mexico, said Fox, must "advance from being a country of workers, to a country of entrepreneurs."
Economics Secretary Fernando Canales explained that the government recommends "self-employment."
There is nothing new, in fact, in this strategy, as Fox has been championing the Bangladesh model of feudal-style "micro-businesses" since before he was elected.
Venezuela's Chavez Refuses To Recognize Recall Referendum
In his weekly Sunday television diatribe July 27, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez declared that he would "never" acknowledge the recall referendum approved last week by three of the four board members of the National Electoral Council. Three of the members are anti-Chavez, and one is pro-. The lack of unanimity of the Council was seized upon by Chavez to reject its approval of the referendum. Chavez has also refused to recognize over 2 million signatures, which were gathered last February by the opposition on a petition calling for a Presidential recall referendum to be held.
Just last May, Chavez and opposition leaders had signed an agreement, brokered by Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary General Cesar Gaviria, committing his regime to hold a referendum, should the opposition meet the legal requirements. Under the Constitution written by the Chavez-dominated National Assembly, a referendum on whether new elections should be held for President is permitted halfway through the term, should the requisite number of voters support the move. The referendum fight is heating up, because come Aug. 19, Chavez is halfway through his term.
Gaviria has thus far failed to comment on the declaration by Chavez and various of his Cabinet officials, that the government would "never" accept a referendum. The OAS's representative in Caracas, however, warned that, while it was logical that the government would oppose a recall vote against itself, "it mustn't occur to anyone to block" the referendum. An opposition leader said Chavez's statement was like "whistling in the dark past the cemetery," that is, sheer bravado. Seventy percent of Venezuelans will vote in the referendum, said the opposition figure, and Chavez will be ousted.
Chavez's stonewalling plays into the hands of provocateur-crazies like Alejandro Pena, head of a radical opposition force called Fuerza Solidaria and on the board of the so-called "Democratic Bloc," who argue that the opposition should drop its referendum strategy, and take to the streets instead, calling for a military coup. Echoing the right-wing Miami Cuban crowd with whom he is close, Pena describes Chavez as a mouthpiece for a resurgent Communist International, which is out to seize control of all South America, and argues "this government will not abandon power peacefully."
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher expressed his disappointment with Chavez's comments, saying the referendum is in accordance with the Constitution, and that it's not up to the Executive to refuse. "The procedures are decided, the commitments made, and we expect that it (the referendum) will proceed apace."
Brazilians Warn of 'Violent' Social Crisis
In the face of deepening economic upheaval, and the expanding mobilization of the Jacobin Landless Movement (MST), erstwhile allies of the Lula da Silva government in Brazil warn that its "lack of leadership" has brought the country to a breaking point. Eugenio Staub, the president of the Economic and Social Development Council (CDES) created by President Lula for the sole purpose of addressing Brazil's profound social problems, warned that the country "is experiencing a crisis which is similar only to that of 1965"a time of political instability and harsh austerity. Staub was one of the first businessmen to publicly support Lula's candidacy last year, so his comments carry significant weight.
In addition, Horacio Lafer Piva, president of the powerful Sao Paulo Industrialists' Federation, is warning that Brazil is going through an "unprecedented crisis," which erupted "rapidly and violently," and will badly affect the industrial sector through the first quarter of 2004. He urged the government to come up with "transitional" economic policies.
While the MST is stepping up its land invasions and threats of violence all around the country, causing even Lula to express concern over "tensions" in the countryside, Workers' Party (PT) President Jose Genoino defended the government's failure to act, on the grounds that the government "has no way to control popular movements" like the MST, whose "freedom of expression" won't harm Brazil's democracy. Luiz Dulci, the Secretary General to the Presidency, meanwhile has admitted that the Lula government "doesn't have the money" to carry out its promise of settling 60,000 families on land by the end of the year. This is the agrarian reform that was supposed to be a cornerstone of Lula's programthe announcement will undoubtedly fuel more MST activity.
Lula Treats Bold Infrastructure Projects as Only 'a Dream'
Brazil's National Economic and Social Development Bank (BNDES) has reportedly been pushed to one side in the government's planning for major infrastructure development projects. During a July 17 Cabinet meeting, BNDES president Carlos Lessa had given a detailed presentation on what projects the Bank thought should be implemented over the next four years, requiring financing of between $90-140 billion. Following that meeting, however, President Lula da Silva had described Lessa's plan as "a dream," and said something more "grounded in reality" was necessary, O Estado de Sao Paulo reported on July 24.
Lessa's presentation had focused on the energy sector, in particular, including a number of "megaprojects," such as the plan to link Brazil's hydrographic basins, to guarantee an energy supply equal in volume to that supplied by the giant Itaipu dam today.
BNDES has now reportedly been excluded from government discussion on infrastructure planning, which is supposed to map out "emergency" measures to address the economic crisis, as well as longer-term plans. Bank officials are continuing to participate in debate on two areas of the government's three-pronged strategyindustrial policy and export-oriented activitybut are excluded from the crucial area of infrastructure planning, now being overseen by the chief of economic planning at the Planning Ministry. And the Finance Ministry, run by orthodox monetarist Antonio Palocci, is overseeing the entire processwhich means, as O Estado points out, "that all projects considered to be 'exaggerated,' will be duly halted by the conservative hand of Antonio Palocci."
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