In this issue:

Mexico Will Fight To Defend Iraq's 'Energy Sovereignty' at UN

Mexico Will Also Work for Peace, as President of UN Council

Brazil Foreign Minister Calls for Dialogue and Diplomacy, Not War

Chile Tries To Win Favor with U.S., After Voting Against War

Castaneda in Chile: Let Us Grovel for the Anglo-Americans

Dangerous Alliance in Rio: Colombian FARC, Brazilian Drug Mafia

Chavez Unleashes Two-Pronged War on Agriculture in Venezuela

Argentina's Once-Proud Agriculture Sector Collapsing

From Volume 2, Issue Number 14 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published April 7, 2003

Ibero-American News Digest

Mexico Will Fight To Defend Iraq's 'Energy Sovereignty' at UN

As President of the UN Security Council, Mexico will fight to defend Iraq's "energy sovereignty" and its territorial integrity. In an interview with Milenio March 31, Mexican UN Ambassador Adolfo Aguilar Zinser underscored that as President of the UNSC, beginning April 1, "Mexico will fight to ensure that Iraqi crude [oil] remains in Iraqi hands, not in the transnationals' [hands]." Given its own history, he said, Mexico is particularly sensitive to this issue. Sovereignty over natural resources "is consecrated in our Constitution.... [W]e have also suffered attacks, and desire for our oil." Asked about the juicy contracts that U.S. firms are lining up, Aguilar replied, "Mexico will insist that the occupying powers have certain obligations. Within that framework, the formula must be found to guarantee Iraq's sovereignty and [territorial] integrity."

Aguilar Zinser's comments are sure to annoy the Bush Administration, which is demonstrating increasing "coldness" toward Mexico. The Miami Herald's Andres Oppenheimer reports March 31 that President Vicente Fox put in a phone call to George Bush at the end of last week, to "test the waters" following Mexico's anti-war vote at the UNSC, but had to wait four days before Bush returned the call.

Mexico Will Also Work for Peace, as President of UN Council

Mexico will also make every effort to "build a consensus" for peace, as President of the UN Security Council during the month of April. Ambassador Adolfo Aguilar Zinser told Associated Press that, although Mexico's Presidency of the UNSC will only last a month, "It's a critical month." The hope is, he said, that deep divisions within the Council can be overcome, so that discussion can focus on the crucial "humanitarian responsibilities" the Council will have regarding Iraq.

Referencing the U.S. pressures on Mexico, stemming from the fact that the government of Vicente Fox refuses to back the war on Iraq, Aguilar Zinser said that, "when a country makes very critical decisions about interests, values and principles, it's easy to feel isolated. But we felt we were acting for the collective good."

Last week, Aguilar's UN post was rumored to be in jeopardy—the U.S. was said to be pressuring Fox to fire him, for "misleading" Washington on where Mexico stood on the Iraq war. But Aguilar flew back to Mexico City to confer with Fox, who reaffirmed the Ambassador in his post.

Brazil Foreign Minister Calls for Dialogue and Diplomacy, Not War

Brazil's Foreign Minister says no country yet has a recipe for stopping the war, but they must be ready to act, when an opening appears. At the conclusion of a series of meetings in Europe—first with European Union and Ibero-American Foreign Ministers in Greece, then with Pope John Paul II and the Vatican Foreign Secretary in Rome, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Ivanov in Moscow, and April 2 with French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin in Paris—Celso Amorim was asked by O Estado de Sao Paulo to assess the possibilities of cutting the war short, and rebuilding the United Nations.

"Nobody has an immediate answer to resolve these problems," he answered. What is important, is that there is "a consensus on the importance of maintaining dialogue and diplomacy, as the conflict goes on, because an opportunity to return to the negotiating table could arise, and it would have to be taken advantage of. Today, the situation appears difficult. But, that could change."

The Brazilian government is discussing a formula to shorten the conflict in Iraq, O Estado asserted, asking if this idea is going anywhere. Not immediately, Amorim repeated, but he is certain that a diplomatic solution would be sought again, hopefully "as soon as possible." The UN Security Council could benefit from a broader discussion with countries that are interested in peace, but are not members of the Security Council, such as Brazil. We do not want to overestimate, nor underestimate what Brazil can contribute to securing peace, he said.

(See "War and Economics Join To Change Brazil Policy," article in INDEPTH, for more on Brazil's diplomatic efforts, and some potentially sweeping changes in Russian-Ibero-American relations.)

Chile Tries To Win Favor with U.S., After Voting Against War

Chile is trying to ingratiate itself with the U.S., after voting against the Bush Administration's Iraq war in the UN Security Council, media reported March 31. As he had agreed with the U.S. Ambassador in Santiago, President Ricardo Lagos instructed Chile's Geneva-based diplomat Jorge Enrique Vega to vote against a UN Human Rights Commission resolution calling for an investigation of the United States for human rights violations against Iraq. But Vega disregarded Lagos' instructions and abstained instead, thus embarrassing the President. Vega was immediately "resigned."

At stake for Chile is its free-trade accord with the U.S., on which it has pinned its hopes, falsely, for an economic "recovery." The FTA was scheduled to go before the U.S. Congress for a vote at the beginning of May, together with Singapore's FTA. But Chile was just advised that its FTA has been "decoupled" from Singapore's—it's unclear when the vote will occur—in what is assumed to be a reprisal for Chile's having voted against the U.S. at the Security Council on Iraq. Chile's Foreign Minister immediately denied there was any problem, saying it was only "a technical" glitch.

Castaneda in Chile: Let Us Grovel for the Anglo-Americans

Mexico's Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda, who wants to make sure that Mexico remains in the good graces of the Anglo-Americans, took a high-profile trip to Chile at the end of March; and in a meeting with President Ricardo Lagos, recommended that Chile and Mexico continue the "good work" they began in opposing the U.S. on Iraq, by voting together in favor of an upcoming UN resolution condemning human rights violations in Cuba. In this way, Castaneda said, the two countries can show that the opposition to the U.S. on Iraq was an anomaly, and that both countries "share principles and values with Washington." Castaneda's trip to Santiago was part of his preparations for launching his own Presidential campaign.

Dangerous Alliance in Rio: Colombian FARC, Brazilian Drug Mafia

An explosives expert from Colombia's FARC was arrested in the slums of Rio de Janeiro on March 28, in the company of Brazilian drug-trafficker Jorge Alexandre Candido, said to be a top aide to drug kingpin Fernandinho Beira Mar. FARC member Carlos Orlando Messina Vidal, a Chilean, was in Rio to instruct favela (shantytown)-based drug traffickers on the use of weapons and explosives, and methods for breaking out of prison. In the two days following the arrests, bombs exploded in three locations in Rio. Although Beira Mar is imprisoned, he directed the drug gangs he controls to shut down key sections of the city last month, in a bold challenge to the Lula da Silva government. Subsequently, two anti-narcotics judges were assassinated in Brazil in the space of 10 days.

Brazilian authorities indicate that at least 82 judges in 13 states have received death threats from drug and organized-crime mafias. Justice Minister Thomaz Bastos was scheduled to meet the head of the national Magistrates Association during the first week of April, to discuss measures to protect judges, including constitutional amendments, the use of "faceless judges" (a practice well known in Italy), armored vehicles, and permitting judges to carry weapons.

Beira Mar has now been transferred to a maximum-security prison in Sao Paulo state, in an effort to cut off his communication with his base. If his FARC friends are now showing up in Rio, it should alert the Lula government to the gravity of the threat it faces, and encourage stronger cooperation with Colombian government.

Chavez Unleashes Two-Pronged War on Agriculture in Venezuela

The Venezuelan government of Hugo Chavez, using exchange controls as a political weapon, is denying farmers the foreign-exchange dollars they need to purchase crucial agricultural equipment. At the same time, the mentally unbalanced President issued a call on national television at the end of March, for desperate peasants to seize farmland across the country. The combined actions will sink Venezuela's farm sector for good.

The Venezuelan daily El Universal estimated that agricultural output could fall as much as 20% this year, because producers have been unable to purchase fertilizer, insecticide, and seeds. According to Jose Manuel Gonzalez, head of the Fedeagro agricultural association, the inability to obtain dollars could mean reduced winter planting, which begins in June. Urban areas are already seeing an influx of farm workers who've lost their jobs. This counters government claims that it has authorized $5.2 million for companies to purchase needed agricultural supplies abroad.

Then, on March 30, Chavez announced an "agrarian reform" program, with the dramatic declaration on his "Hello, President" weekly television marathon, that "peasants have the right to occupy land, live and produce there, and no one is going to kick them out of there." He promised that abandoned or "unproductive" farms—the number of which is skyrocketing in the countryside—will be handed over to impoverished peasants, along with titles to the same. Within 48-72 hours after that "Hello, President" program, groups of peasants invaded five privately owned farms. Jose Luis Parra, head of the National Cattlemen's Federation (Fedenaga), reported that a total of 18 farms had been invaded in Portuguesa, in addition to others in Lara state, and he warned that this is leading to "a dangerous state of anarchy."

Argentina's Once-Proud Agriculture Sector Collapsing

There are now 25% fewer agricultural producers in Argentina—until recently, one of the top five grain producers in the world—than there were in 1988, according to a recent census published by Indec, the government statistical agency. This is the direct result of the free-market policies imposed at the beginning of the 1990s by the Carlos Menem-Domingo Cavallo duo, which opened up the economy to foreign-food imports, and launched an orgy of deregulation, such that the state had no role whatsover in determining agricultural prices or taking any action on farmers' behalf. Small farmers, in particular, were left to the mercy of "the markets"; thousands were driven out of business, and larger farms, or foreign speculators like George Soros, gobbled up their lands.

While the government today boasts of "record harvests," the reality is that the social support apparatus in the countryside has disappeared. The state has dismantled all rural development programs, and, as Clarin wrote April 1, "devised nothing in their place to prevent the debacle of small and medium-sized producers." Of 318,000 farmers nationwide, 60,000 are small farmers, some at subsistence level, afflicted with the same poverty seen in urban areas, although this is often not reported. Their inability to pay the government's export taxes places their survival in doubt.

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