Ibero-American News Digest
Mexico's Castaneda Leaps to Huntington's Defense
George Soros's fair-haired boy in Mexico, Presidential hopeful Jorge Castaneda, has now endorsed Samuel Huntington's virulently racist diatribe against Hispanics published in the April/May Foreign Policy magazine (see EIW #10 In-Depth). Former Foreign Minister Castaneda argued in the March 22 Newsweek, that Huntington's preview of his upcoming book "reveals a serious concern for his country, along with a deep affection for it. I understand this affection and have the same love for my country." While one can nitpick over the "ambiguous" particulars in Huntington's book, writes Castaneda, "the fundamental trend he describes is partly true, and therefore partly valid: Mexican immigrants are not being assimilated into the American melting pot."
Huntington's most serious flaw, says Castaneda, is that he identifies the problem but "offers no solution, thereby allowing his argument to be manipulated by racist or nativist advocates, which Huntington is not."
Defending Huntington's call for a race war against Hispanics, is not exactly a campaign booster in Mexico, where Huntington's diatribe has been widely denounced, but the primary support for Castaneda's Presidential bid lies outside the country, precisely from the likes of Huntington, Soros, Dick Cheney, et al.
Assassination Attempt Likened to 1994 Colosio Murder
In an op-ed in the March 20 El Universal, Jose Murat, the Governor of the Mexican state Oaxaca, compared the March 18 assassination attempt against himself, to the 1994 murder of PRI Presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio. Colosio's murder was intended to destabilize Mexico and force the radical institutional change sought by Anglo-Americanpredominantly Britishgamemasters.
Murat, also from the PRI Party, and a fierce opponent of privatization and IMF-dictated "reforms," reiterated his commitment to the political views which have made him a target of synarchist financial forces. "I will continue adding my voice in defense of our national patrimony, especially energy [resources], today threatened by transnational economic power. I will continue to express my opinion in defense of the popular economy, and against imposing the VAT tax, or any other tax, on food, medicine or culture." Murat said he would combat poverty and marginalization, "such that taxes not only serve to benefit big financial capital" but also the economy on which small families and common people depend.
In his press conference, right after the March 18 attack, Murat stressed that he had been the victim of a "political attack," which was real, and that "two or three national organizations" or "local mafias" may have been behind this. Several state governors have denounced the attack, and expressed the fear of heightened instability in the upcoming elections. The National Peasant Confederation (CNC) issued a statement denouncing the attack, and expressing complete solidarity with Murat. It called on Federal and state authorities to act quickly to deal with the lack of security existing nationwide.
Uribe Responds to EIR on Synarchist 'Strategy of Tension'
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez spoke at the National Press Club on the Colombia-U.S. partnership in fighting terrorism, on March 25; EIR's Anton Chaitkin asked the following question:
"Colombia is caught between left- and right-wing terrorists, who are pulling Colombia apart. I want to ask about the Madrid bombings, relative to Colombia. There is no evidence that al-Qaeda did those bombings. Rather, papers such as the Scotsman point to the exact M.O. of the synarchist "Strategy of Tension" Italian train bombings of 1974 and 1980. These were fascists, trying for coups and posing as leftists. Lyndon LaRouche warned, in EIR last August, of plans for terrorism by those synarchists in Spain, Italy, andheavilyin Latin America. These are violent old fascists, led by Blas Piñar, with big networks in Latin America. On Jan. 15, Piñar hosted a presentation about Colombia by former Colombian Sen. Pablo Victoria. How do you view this problem, since they want to destroy our nations?"
President Uribe answered that he does not recognize any difference between right and left terrorism, as Colombia has suffered, greatly suffered, from terrorism whatever its origin. A state needs strong leadership; it needs military capabilities; and at the same time, pluralist democracy, to combat it.
Asked by another reporter about his government's support for the Bush regime's Iraq policy, when the war now seems a fiasco, Uribe responded that there is no alliance of regime with regime, but between two nations, to fight terrorism. "Colombia is not interested in any other war." He said the Plan Colombia against terrorism was started with Clinton and continues with Bush.
Argentine President Walks into Synarchist Trap
President Nestor Kirchner is lending himself to a human-rights offensive launched by left-wing synarchists over what happened in Argentina during the 1970s terror-vs.-counter-terror war and military coup. This could have very dangerous consequences. By allowing left synarchists to define policy on this issue, rather than exposing the truth that the 1970s "dirty war" was orchestrated on both the right and the left by synarchists to turn the country into a killing field, Kirchner is playing into the game of those out to divide Argentines along false ideological grounds, at the point that the country must unify to defend itself against the IMF and its creditors.
U.S. Presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche, an expert in these matters, warned that Kirchner is making a mistake. This is not the battle to be fought now, LaRouche warned.
Widespread tension has arisen within the Armed Forces, and within his own Peronist Party, from Kirchner's handling of the 28th anniversary of the March 24, 1976 military coup. Shortly before the anniversary, Kirchner toured the site of the former Navy Mechanics School (ESMA) in Buenos Aires, at which many presumed terrorists were tortured and killed during the 1970s, warmly endorsing the plans to build a "Memorial Museum" on that site, modelled on the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. During a tour of ESMA on March 19, Kirchner told reporters, "if I were convinced before, I can now reaffirm that this was our Holocaust."
Two generalsthe head of Army intelligence and the Army's Chief of Personneland one colonel (head of Engineering Command) asked to be retired rather than witness the ceremony held at the Army College on March 24; it is rumored that two more generals may be about to request retirement, and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Roberto Bendini's position is not at all secure. Two Naval vice admirals have also requested retirement.
These events have also caused deep divisions within Peronism. Last week, terrorist Hebe de Bonafini of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, who has applauded the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S., warned that should any governors show up at the March 24 rally commemorating the 1976 coup, she and her human rights hordes would not appear. Kirchner remained silent about de Bonafini's challenge, which the governors saw as a snub to them. On March 24, on the eve of the Peronists' annual convention, five Peronist governors issued a full-page ad entitled "Never Again," in which they attack de Bonafini, and argue that they too were victims of the military dictatorship. Two of the five governors are from the key provinces of Buenos Aires and Cordoba.
Stiglitz To Present Self as Hero of Argentine Resistance
A number of prominent Argentines, including President Nestor Kirchner's wife, Sen. Cristina Kirchner; the head of the Argentine cabinet Alberto Fernandez; and Finance Minister Roberto Lavagna, have been invited up to the United States, to appear at an upcoming event, sponsored by Joseph Stiglitz's "Argentine Observatory," which was recently set up at the former World Bank chief economist's home base at the New School in New York City. Stiglitz's "Observatory" will be closely monitoring developments over the next six months, leading into September, when the fight with the International Monetary Fund over setting new fiscal targets and primary budget surpluses for 2005/2006, will come to a head.
Stiglitz has courted both Kirchner and his wifethey've met with him several timesand he is played up by some inside Argentina as a hero.
In fact, the George Soros-funded economist is a fraud, arguing only for "reform" of globalization and the IMF system. And where was Stiglitz when Lyndon LaRouche was the only public figure to take up the defense of Argentina, in its March 9 showdown with the IMF?
Brazil's Finance Minister Attacks Argentina
Speaking March 19 at the Bank of England, Antonio Palocci, the Economics Minister responsible for the Lula government's disastrous economic policies, said: "On our continent, it is very common for governments to take loans, and then spend their time insulting the Fund. This practice of blaming others, leads to the breakdown of our governments. If I spend a couple of years saying I can't spend more because of the Fund's demands, the citizens will get fed up, and send me packing." Palocci added that governments have to take responsibility for the "tough policies" they adopt, and stop blaming others for their problems.
It escaped no one's attention that the only country the Brazilian Finance Minister could have been referring to was Argentina. His remarks came just three days after the historic meeting between Presidents Lula and Kirchner in Rio de Janeiro, where Palocci tried to block the final communique, because he considered it too strongly worded, and critical of the IMF (see EIW #12).
Palocci is under attack from several quarters in Brazil, including from leadership of the ruling Workers' Party (PT), the Congress, businessmen's associations, and the CUT and Forza Sindical trade union confederations. On March 14, Congressman Valdemar Costa Neto, president of the Liberal Party (PL), which is part of Lula's ruling coalition, and is the party of Vice President Jose Alencar, demanded Palocci's resignation, charging that he is incompetent to serve as Economics Minister. No country that has negative growth and the debt burden that Brazil has, can afford to continue with the economic policy Palocci defends, Costa said.
Brazil, China Discuss Joint Projects, from Space to Infrastructure
Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim held numerous meetings with high-level Chinese officials responsible for trade, economics, and foreign relations, during his March 22-23 visit to Beijing. The primary purpose of his trip was to prepare President Lula da Silva's May visit to China. Sixteen Brazilian businessmen, involved in everything from oil and mining, to inefficient alcohol fuels, accompanied Lula.
Bilateral trade between the two countries was nearly $8 billion last year, with a huge potential for expansion. Brazilian exports to China increased by 80% in 2003, a leap driven by sales of minerals by Brazil's once-state-owned Vale do Rio Dulce Company (CVRD), and soy, the latter trade dominated by the Cargill cartel.
Among the tremendous projects under discussion are expansion of the Chinese-Brazilian Land-Resources Satellite (CBERS); the possibility of joint exploration for uranium in Brazil; Chinese participation in repairing and expanding Brazil's rotten railway system; Brazilian bidding upon the construction of new nuclear plants in China; a joint venture to grow soybeans in Brazil for shipment to China; the construction of a $1.5 billion steel plant in northern Brazil by CVRD and China's Baosteel Group Co.; the construction of a $2 billion aluminum refinery in Brazil by CVRD and the China Minmetals Group; and the formation of a joint oil exploration venture between Petrobras (still state-owned) and the China National Petroleum Corp.
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