LaRouche Urges Peru:
`Take a Firm Position and Stick It Out'
U.S. Democratic Presidential pre-candidate Lyndon LaRouche granted the following telephone interview on June 6 to Gente magazine, Peru's second-largest circulation weekly, which was published in a slightly edited form in their June 8 issue under the headline "Lyndon LaRouche Warns of a Major Financial Crisis in the U.S., and Asserts that `Assassinations Are Not Impossible.' " The interview was accompanied by a box reporting that the Bank for International Settlements' warning of an imminent financial crisis (see Economics section in this issue) was being "suspiciously" blacked out by the United States media, "mocking freedom of expression." Gente preceded the interview with the following introductory note.
According to the Democratic Party Presidential candidate [LaRouche], "there are people in Washington who feel a real hatred toward President [Alberto] Fujimori, and want to destroy him. These people are mad right now, and the worst is that they are unpredictable." The recent nomination of U.S. diplomat Luigi Einaudi as Assistant Secretary General to the OAS [Organization of American States] is sort of like putting "the fox to guard the hen house," keeping in mind the serious accusations made against him by dissident Democratic Party leader Lyndon LaRouche, in our previous edition No. 1327. [See EIR, June 9, p. 34]. There, he said that Einaudi is "a new mercenary to attack Peru again," and points out that "we can detect the work of Einaudi against Peru before [OAS electoral observer mission chief] Ambassador [Eduardo] Stein even got out of diapers." LaRouche reminds us that Kissinger "ran--together with people like Einaudi--the Pinochet coup in Chile. And Luigi Einaudi was, of course, the key man behind the so-called Second War of the Pacific scenario, in which they were trying to destroy Peru earlier." Now, he warns that the international lobbies are trying to prevent the release inside the United States, of news of their eventual collapse in a financial crash of enormous proportions and terrible consequences that will also affect Peru, a country which has prepared itself these past ten years to survive these attacks." On Fujimori, he said that "there are people in Washington, including Mrs. [U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine] Albright, who would try to push this as far as they can. Assassinations cannot be ruled out," he said angrily. At the same time, he indicated that the Clinton government is very upset with his policy orientation toward Peru. Referring to the press adviser to [Alejandro Toledo's organization] Peru Posible, Gustavo Gorriti, who, in a program on El Comercio's television channel, called LaRouche a paranoid and a neo-fascist, LaRouche said, "These fellows are cheaply bought, and they run around all over the world."
Q: Mr. LaRouche, our first question has to do with this news we have just received from the OAS, that they have decided to send a mission here to Peru. We would like to know what the truth behind this decision is? What does this mean?
LaRouche: Well, when you've got this Toledo situation, you have to recognize what's behind it. Toledo is a trainee of [University of Chicago professor Arnold] Harberger, who is the actual key figure in the Pinochet coup some years back under Kissinger. So you're not dealing with the problem of Toledo, but who is behind Toledo. And you're dealing at the moment with, principally, the U.S. and British governments. And the British government, of course, is represented through Canada. And what is involved is a strategic operation to try to break Peru, because Peru is key to Mexico and Brazil. And remember that Kissinger is also involved in this.
At this point, Kissinger has the backing of a group around the President of the United States, which is the strength behind the current deployments of Mrs. Albright. So, this is a test of will, as to whether they can use this to break Peru's will. The next target, of course, if Peru is broken, will be Mexico and Brazil. This is a worse situation, in some respects, than when Kissinger ran--together with people like Einaudi--the Pinochet coup in Chile. And Luigi Einaudi was, of course, the key man behind the so-called Second War of the Pacific scenario, in which they were trying to destroy Peru earlier.
The only way in which this thing could have gone through at Windsor, with the OAS, was with tremendous pressure from the U.S. government and from Canada. So, I would say the fight is on. It's a very serious fight.
Q: We understand that it's not only against Brazil and Mexico, but also against the Venezuelan government.
LaRouche: Yes, everything, but especially, they want to crack Brazil and Mexico. Those are the two chief targets.
Q: Do you believe, then, that they are going to achieve this objective? What is their thinking?
LaRouche: Well, it's dangerous, but it's also complicated. I don't know what you've got in terms of the news there in Peru today, but the Bank for International Settlements [BIS] has published a study, which contains a forecast, which is an accurate one. It essentially says that the United States is going to go under in a major financial crash. There will not be a soft landing for the United States. And, while there should be no illusions about the Bush crowd--the Bush crowd is as dangerous as the crowd around Al Gore, the Vice-President of the United States--nonetheless, presently, Al Gore is absolutely hysterical, because it's apparent to people in the government that he is not electable. And the President of the United States has made a great commitment to the Gore candidacy, which I think is foolish. And although I'm somewhat friendly to the Clinton Administration, I'm even getting a certain amount of hysteria against me because of this. And they're very unhappy with my policy on Peru, among other things.
So, I think there is no simple strategic assessment of the situation. It's a very serious situation. The United States is likely to make some great mistakes at this point--the present government. My estimation is that Peru will survive this situation. I think there will be a great effort to cause it to capitulate, but I also think, that with the financial crisis coming on rapidly--
Let me interpolate something here. Look, the report of the BIS forecast is all over Europe. But so far, not a single leading news agency in the United States has reported on the existence of that BIS report. The only condition under which that report would have been suppressed, is an absolutely hysterical pressure on the part of the United States government to get every news agency to suppress--for the time being--the existence of that report. But I know that the break-up of the system is inevitable, it's coming on rapidly. And one would hope that in the process of conducting this fight to defend the integrity of Peru, that they will come to their senses in Washington. But in the meantime, they will tend to be very hysterical and very threatening. So, it's a tough situation, as I think the people in Peru sense, but the point is that Peru has no choice, because if it capitulates, it goes down, it will be dissolved, it will be broken as a nation.
I would say that one should look at that from the standpoint that that is the nature of this period of history--that is the kind of world we are living in. We will have to see how the United States reacts to, what is probably very soon, a financial collapse of the dollar. Beyond that, I can't say definitely what I think is going to happen. I know how these people will react. What will happen, I'm not sure of, but I know how they'll react to this kind of situation.
Q: I would like to ask you, if it is possible to obtain a copy of this report you're referring to, the one that they are covering up in the United States, as we would like to publish this in our publication.
LaRouche: Okay, fine. What we are doing is, we are studying this report, that they've got here in Europe, and we'll be issuing today, from our Wiesbaden office in Europe, our preliminary news report about the fact of the BIS report. And I'm sure that a copy of the report that we will issue, should reach you sometime today.
We will be doing a follow-on study of that report, and we can transmit that to you as soon as we have it done. So that should be coming to you right away, and as we get our job done, we'll get copies to you. Because of the time of day, we'll relay it from the Leesburg [Virginia] office, because they will have the up-to-date reports that we'll be making over the course of the day. But, we can get you some preliminary information immediately. That's already in process.
Q: I'd like to ask you about Mr. Gustavo Gorriti, a Peruvian journalist who has been hired by Peru Posible as a sort of official press spokesman. He was interviewed recently by Channel 8 and Channel N in Lima, which belong to the chain that owns the newspaper El Comercio, and during that interview, he was asked about [EIR Ibero-American editor] Dennis Small and about Lyndon LaRouche. During that interview, he called you a neo-fascist and a paranoid.
LaRouche: Well, he's probably jealous. He probably thinks that if I'm a fascist, I might compete with him. Before you treat him seriously, you have to laugh first, so you don't get upset and treat him too seriously. These fellows are cheaply bought, and they run around all over the world. I don't pay too much attention to them.
Q: We don't know much about him, so we'd like to ask you a few things. We understand that, first of all, he escaped so-called "political persecution" here in Peru, and then he fled to Panama, where we understand he also had some problems. We want to know if you have something to say about this.
LaRouche: We know the Panama end of this thing that he was tied to. He is a dirty operation. Our knowledge of him goes to the George Bush/Iran-Contra drug-running operation. He was tied to that politically.
Look, Bush got into a quarrel with [Gen. Manuel] Noriega of Panama, and some of Noriega's special forces were used as part of the aid to the Contras in Nicaragua. Then, Bush sacrificed those Panamanian troops, and made some demands on Noriega which Noriega refused. And when you know Bush the way I know him, from a great deal of experience, he's the kind of person who will kill someone he doesn't like. As a matter of fact, most of the things that happened to Noriega in that connection, were a result of Bush's personal animosity against him. Once Bush had the U.S. military under his control, he launched a war against Panama, and tried to kill Noriega. That's the kind of person he is.
Since I'm in Europe at the moment, I don't have access to all of my old files on that, but I'm sure that [EIR correspondents] Carlos Wesley or Gretchen Small can get you the dossier we have on Gorriti. For me, he's a collateral part of that operation. We know a lot about it, but I don't have the details at hand. We can get to you what we have on this. The general point is that Bush was working with one of the Colombian cartels, and the Bush people got drugs from one of the cartels, and Bush would have been in trouble if he had not been exonerated by the President of the United States. So, this is just more of the reason why Bush happens to hate Noriega. We have the facts on that, but I don't have them at hand here.
Q: I have a question about Toledo, and also [Toledo adviser Diego] García Sayan. According to the information we have here, both Toledo and García Sayan are connected to international drug-trafficking networks. In this regard, what would be the connection of Mr. Gustavo Gorriti?
LaRouche: Look, the problem here is that you've got people who work as part of a political network. They may be working for drug people. Whether they themselves are personally involved in drugs, may be another question. It's like the case of George Soros. Soros is very openly a supporter of the international drug trade. And it's impossible that he is not involved in some laundered drug money, through his large-scale operation. But as to whether George is actually taking drug money personally, I don't know.
From my standpoint, when somebody is involved in those networks, and they know what goes on in finance, they know they're involved as an ally of the drug pushers, and, as far as I am concerned, they're morally the same as drug pushers.
But, in my position, I'm very careful about making those distinctions, so that nobody exaggerates what I'm saying.
Q: Finally, regarding the case of Peru. What do you think we can expect vis-à-vis this OAS resolution to intervene in Peru?
LaRouche: There are people in Washington, including the people tied to Mrs. Albright, who would try to push this as far as they can. They would actually--I mean, assassinations are not impossible in a situation like this. Knowing the state of mind of these people, as I know it, they are in a state of real hatred against President Fujimori. And they are out to destroy him.
My appreciation of Mr. Fujimori is that he is a courageous person, more courageous than many other people who have had to deal with these fellows. He seems to be highly respected by his countrymen, which is all very good in this situation. But, as someone who is experienced with this kind of thing, I would say to be prepared for tough times ahead. I'm optimistic about the situation, but it's not going to be easy for the moment. These fellows are in a very mad fit, and are somewhat unpredictable.
Q: Are you saying, then, that the life of President Fujimori is directly in danger, as of now?
LaRouche: Well, I don't know. What I do know is the temperament of these people. They have been my opponents for a long time, and I think I probably understand them about as well as anyone. I certainly would not take any chances with the life of Mr. Fujimori. But I do know the mental state of Al Gore and the people around him. I also know the mental state of the Prime Minister of Great Britain, which is also dangerous. Mr. Blair is in a rather desperate political situation at the moment, and Blair is a very close ally of Mr. Gore. So, anyone who is tied to Gore and Blair, I would say they're very dangerous. But I think that Peruvian security officials and the President of Peru are sane, very capable people, and I think if anyone has the chance of surviving, they are the kind of people who would tend to survive a situation like this.
Remember, that when President Fujimori dealt with the Japanese Embassy incident, and also cleaned up some of the other terrorist problems in Peru, he made a serious enemy of those in Canada and elsewhere, who want him to capitulate. So, their hatred is partly opportunistic, because Peru is very important for all of the Americas right now. And for this pro-drug crowd around George Soros and the Inter-American Dialogue--these guys are all pro-drugs--and for Al Gore and for Madeleine Albright, there's a very special hatred against the government of Peru right now. I think that, under better circumstances, President Clinton would be, shall we say, much more reasonable. But at the moment, I think that the [U.S.] President is in a bad mode.
In the meantime, I think that the onrushing international financial crisis is going to produce some very quick and fundamental changes in global politics. And I think that, in a time like this, one must take a good strong position, do the right thing, have firm nerves, and stick it out. That's my view.
