IBERO-AMERICAN NEWS DIGEST
Vicente Fox Investigated for Illegal Foreign Financing of Campaign
In an unprecented decision with the potential to create a Constitutional crisis down the line, Mexico's Electoral Court of the Federal Judiciary Branch (TEPJF) has ruled unanimously that the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) must investigate allegations of foreign financing of Mexican President Vicente Fox's campaign.
The charges were brought before the IFE by two opposition parties, the PRD and the PRI, in separate cases, in the month before the Presidential election of July 2, 2000. (Foreign financing of electoral campaigns is illegal.) On June 22, 2000, the PRD filed a formal complaint with the IFE against the Fox "Alliance for Change," citing reports of illegal foreign and corporate financing. On June 23, the PRI filed its own complaint, charging the Fox campaign had set up a "money-laundering network," presenting photocopies of checks issued in the U.S. and Mexico, and bank records from Belgium.
But, on July 25, 2001, the IFE voted, 5-1, to throw out the PRD and PRI complaints, without further investigation, hiding behind the excuse that they could not violate bank secrecy.
The Electoral Court found otherwise. It ruled that, because the political parties are "entities of public interest," maintained by citizens' taxes, they must give an accounting of their financial activities, and therefore banking and tax secrecy regulations could be lifted. The magistrates, in fact, took the unprecedented measure of ordering the National Banking and Securities Commission to make available all documents relevant to the investigation. The Court specified various ways in which the IFE should proceed, beginning with requesting that Fox's Alliance for Change respond in writing to the charges, and requesting the help of the Foreign Relations ministry in the investigation.
EIR does not have a full reading yet of exactly how far this investigation might go, but the Congress and the Supreme Court have, in the last few weeks, delivered major blows to Fox on the issue of energy deregulation and foreign policy. Should President Fox be found guilty, the legitimacy of his Presidency could be called into question. Under Mexican law, if the President is unable to serve, for whatever reason, within the first two years of the six-year term, new elections are to be calledin this case, by Dec. 2, 2002. After that two-year cut-off, Congress is responsible for appointing a new President.
Mexican Trade Unions Call for Defense of Nation State vs. New Imperialism
Speaking before 25,000 workers gathered in the Plaza Juarez of Guadalajara on May 1, the national leader of Mexico's Revolutionary Workers Confederation (CROC), Javier Montero Orozco, presented a strategic argument in defense of the nation-state and against the IMF and its policies, which he said were aimed directly against the Mexican trade unions, and Article 123 of the Mexican Constitution, which protects the basic rights of Mexican workers.
Montero Orozco declared: "The pressures to privatize Pemex [the state oil company] and the Federal Electricity Commission are intended to hand over to the IMF management of our strategic resources and, at best, to turn our nation into one big maquiladora. We will never become exporters of delusions. We will defend autonomous national development. We will defend Mexico!
"Hanging over our heads is the government initiative to play our savings from the SARH [the government pension fund] on the international stock market, risking everything without our consent, instead of encouraging domestic savings and creating new sources of employment. [This] is dragging us into an economic and information-age bubble which does not produce, but does speculate.... That is why we say here that this is the crucial hour for Mexico. To move forward, our country is once again obliged to take recourse to its most precious asset: Mexico's workers.
"It is clear that globalization will not take place by destroying the workers' organizations.... Our criticism is not that of the globo-phobes. We are not fighting globalization for the sake of fighting. We are fighting to return to the origin of the nation-state, where the people come first, before the usurious banks.
"...As a nation which loves peace, we cannot allow ourselves to become involved in an 'army of the north,' where we know that the last thing the imperial power and its war economy are interested in is our weapons. What they are going for is our oil. That is why we reaffirm here, before the image of Benito Juarez, the universal truth of his maxim: 'Among men as among nations, respect for the rights of others is peace.'"
Bush Officials Call for Policy of Regime Change in Cuba
Bush Administration officials laid out a policy of "regime change" for Cuba, speaking in speeches May 6 before David Rockefeller's Council of the Americas annual conference, which was held, as always, at the State Department. Secretary of State Colin Powell said, "Cuba cannot remain forever the sole holdout from the Hemisphere's march of democracy and free markets," and added President Bush's "goal is to promote a rapid, peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba." Assistant Secretary of State Otto Reich told people that the President has ordered "a review of the policy tools we have available to help accelerate Cuba's transition to democracy." He berated businessmen who are lobbying for an opening of the embargo for trade with Cuba (ADM and other grain cartels, in particular, have been campaigning hard for this), saying that the United States "will not throw a lifeline to save a regime that is sinking under the weight of its own historic failures."
Assistant Secretary of State John Bolton, speaking the same day at the Heritage Foundation, expanding upon the list of George W. Bush's "axis of evil," adding Cuba (and several other countries) to the list of nations deemed to form an "axis of evil," because of its biomedical industry. (See USA DIGEST for more on Bolton's speech.) Both Bolton and Reich are hard-core members of the utopian "perpetual war" grouping that has been called the Wolfowitz cabal. Bolton, who was a founder of the New Atlantic Initiative project of the Anglo-American "perpetual war" grouping in 1996, functions as a kind of "forward point" for the Wolfowitz cabal inside the Administration, often announcing policies as a fait accompli, exacerbating international tensions. Earlier this year, at a briefing to the Washington Times, Bolton announced the targetting of non-nuclear states for nuclear strikes, which later came out as a proposal in the Defense Department's Nuclear Policy Review.
Venezuela's New Cabinet: Neo-Liberal Economics and FARC Collaborators
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is now out to combine University of Chicago economics and rule by his "Bolivarian circles." Chavez announced new Cabinet changes during his May 5 Sunday "Hello, President!" media show.
On the security side, Armed Forces Commander Gen. Lucas Rincón was named Defense Minister, replacing Jose Vicente Rangel, now the Vice President. Former Vice President Diosdado Cabello replaced Capt. Ramon Rodriguez Chacin as Interior and Justice Minister. Rodriguez Chacín, Chavez's long-time "special operations" envoy to the FARC and other continental narcoterrorists, was clearly too hot to be kept on.
Diosdado Cabello may not have all the international ties of Rodriguez Chacín, but he certainly has the same domestic ones. As Vice President, Cabello had run the fascist, FARC-trained "Bolivarian Circles."
Named to the two key economics posts, were plain old neo-liberals. The new Planning Minister, Felipe Pérez Martí, is a product of the notorious University of Chicago. He promised to implement a vague "fourth way," which he said involves "growth from below," combined with fiscal discipline. As for the latter, Perez said Venezuela has to have fiscally sustainable policies from now on, and they will achieve that "with pretty orthodox measures." The new Finance Minister is Tobías Nóbrega, a lesser-known neo-liberal economist.
Mont Pelerinites Plotting 'Post-Duhalde' Government for Argentina
The same international circles of the Mont Pelerin Society's free-market fanatics which destroyed Argentina, are now preparing a political option for Argentina, on the assumption that the Duhalde government can't last. A key figure in this campaign is multimillionaire Mauricio Macri, owner of the popular Boca Juniors soccer team, being played up as an example of a new "entrepreneurial class," ready to present himself as a viable political option uncontaminated by traditional corrupt politics.
The May 5 edition of the Christian Science Monitor touted Macri as exemplary of the "new leadership" Argentina's population seeks. He urges "profound reform" of the state, the justice and political systems, "to make them more efficient." And, "we must seek legislation more in line with the times in which we live," he argues, for example, "in dealing with crime."
Sources in Buenos Aires ask whether this concern with crime extends to the Boca Juniors team, since Macri has hired Colombian soccer players with suspected links to the Cali drug cartel.
Macri claims he's not a candidate for President, but has set up a think-tank with a 200-person staff, and has been courted by Anglo-American institutions in London, New York, and Washington since the beginning of the year. He has also met on several occasions with Ricardo Lopez Murphy, the University of Chicago graduate who served as Finance Minister for two weeks in March of 2001. An announced Presidential candidate affiliated with the Mont Pelerinite FIEL think-tank, Lopez Murphy advocates draconian "shock therapy" for Argentina. An alliance with Macri is not to be ruled out. In a recent speech, Lopez Murphy implicitly presented himself as "the de Gaulle" Argentina, needed to solve its problems.
Last November, Macri visited Oxford University, where he announced he intended to enter politicswhy didn't he do that in Buenos Aires? Then, about 10 days ago, non-candidate Macri did a whirlwind tour of Washington, where he met with Paul Volcker, National Security Council officer John Maisto, Alan Greenspan, and the State Department's Otto Reich, and made presentations at the Brookings Institution, CSIS, and the Heritage Foundation. Then in New York, he met with Citigroup's William Rhodes, and also spoke at the Council of the Americas and the Americas Society. According to La Nacion April 28, the U.S. embassy in Buenos Aires helped prepare Macri's U.S. agenda.
O'Neill Pushes IMF's 'Poverty-Making Machine' on Argentina
On May 5, Daniel Muchnik, economics editor of the Argentine daily Clarin, noted that U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill says, "The world is ready to help Argentina" when "it has reached the limits of what is tolerable."
It appears, Muchnik commented, "that 15 million poor aren't yet sufficient reason to help a devastated nation." So, "will there be international aid with 20 million poor, or will 'critical mass' be reached at 25 million? If these are our friends, who needs enemies?" Muchnik charged that the IMF program for Argentina, which O'Neill insists Argentina must implement in full, is a "poverty-making machine," which instead of pulling Argentina out of the disaster, has forced 300,000 people a month to enter the ranks of the poor.
Argentina Pays IMF at Demand of Bankers
Argentina dipped into its reserves to make a $159-million payment to the IMF on May 7, and intends to make another payment of $135 million on May 22. Also due later this month is an $800-million payment to the Fund, which the government hopes to roll over. If that option fails, then the Argentine government hopes that Brazil, or some other Ibero-American nation, will come through with a billion-dollar bridge loan. The World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank have made clear they won't disburse a penny to Argentina, until it signs on the dotted line with the IMF and accepts all austerity conditionalities.
Not so the Italian government, which continues to be a source of aid to Argentina. The Berlusconi government is sending a $91-million loan for the development of small and medium-sized businesses, and also for the health-care sector. Italy has also signed two agreements with the Inter-American Development Bank, by which another $10 million will go to Argentina in the form of anti-poverty assistance. Italy's Deputy Foreign Minister stated recently, "We believe that Argentina's collapse would be much worse for all our interests.... Italy is the only country which is organizing concrete assistance for the Argentine people."
Foreign Banks Bolting From Argentina
According to Bloomberg May 7, foreign banks are pulling out of Argentina, due to government failure to create the "right conditions" for their functioning. In typical "screw you" fashion, Bank of Nova Scotia announced May 7 it intends to sell its Argentine subsidiary, Scotiabank-Quilmes, rather than keep financing it with fresh capital, and there is speculation that many other foreign banks will pull out as well. On April 29, Alfredo Saenz, CEO of Spain's Santander Central Hispano bank, said that its Argentine branch, Banco Rio, had cash only for three more months, and "when the money runs out, it's overassuming the situation doesn't clear up.... The bank has a commitment not to invest one peseta more," he said.
What foreign banks mean by "clearing up" the situation is removal of any obstacles to their wholesale looting. Like the IMF, they want the "economic subversion" law eliminatedtoo many dirty bankers have been arrested for illegal operationsscrapping of the bankruptcy law, because it "favors debtors," and compensation for having had their dollar loans converted into peso-denominated assets. They liked the plan the government came up with last month, and which Congress refused to discuss, to bail out the banks by converting deposits into state bonds. Various Wall Street sharks say that ScotiaBank's pullout increases the pressure on the Duhalde government to resort to some kind of bail-out scheme.
Colombian President: UN Wanted To Investigate JeninWhy Not Investigate FARC Attack?
In the latest atrocity in the ongoing battle among rival narcoterrorist forces for control of key drugs- and weapons-smuggling corridors in Colombia, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) bombed a rural church filled with hundreds of women, children and elderly seeking refuge from gun battles raging in the streets of their village. An estimated 120 people were killed outright, and another 100 were wounded in the attack, which occurred in the isolated town of Bojaya, in the impoverished and largely black northwest province of Choco. Hundreds of villagers who fled into surrounding jungles are still unaccounted for.
Colombian President Andres Pastrana compared the FARC massacre to that alleged to have been perpetrated in Jenin against the Palestinians, and demanded that the United Nations send an international team of investigators into the area. "The UN Security Council is studying the possibility of sending a humanitarian mission [to Jenin]. Why is the Colombian case in Choco any different?" Pastrana demanded. The FARC has dominated this abandoned area of the country for the past several years, after killing most police officers and forcing elected officials to flee for their lives. When drug-linked paramilitary forces moved into the region to contest the FARC's dominance of the region, not far from the Colombian-Panamanian border, warfare broke out, with villages like Bojaya caught in the middle.
International media coverage on Bojaya has been filled with hypocritical and self-serving attacks on the Colombian military and government for not having a presence in the ravaged Choco region, while in fact international policy toward Colombia has been the deliberate dismantling of the nation's defense capabilities, under the guise of so-called "peace negotiations" with the narcoterrorist FARC cartel. This policy has been backed for years from the highest levels of Wall Street, the City of London, the State Department permanent bureaucracy, the European Union, and the vast majority of international Non-Government Organizations (NGOs). The result has been to turn Colombia on the eve of Presidential elections into a bloody No Man's Land, where horror stories like Bojaya are fast becoming commonplace.
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