Ibero-American News Digest
Mexican Governor Warns Schwarzenegger Victory May Portend New 'Kristalnacht'
Ricardo Monreal, Governor of the Mexican state of Zacatecas, warned in a press conference Oct. 8, that the election of Arnold Schwarznegger, "a man of a highly xenophobic and racist character," as Governor of California, the U.S. state with the largest number of Mexican immigrants, could generate "persecutions" and "distortions" of the human rights of those immigrants.
"We have to be very careful with this actor, because he makes us think that the Kristalnachts of Nazi Germany could be revived," Gov. Monreal warned.
Kristalnacht ("night of the broken glass") is the name given to the unannounced, night-time rampage of the Nazi Party in 1938 against Jewish property, in which the windows of Jewish shops were smashed to piecesa foretaste of the round-up of the Jews into concentration camps that would soon follow.
Monreal recommended that the Mexican and Hispanic immigrants join together, in order to defend themselves.
Zacatecas is not a border state, nor is it very populous. Located in the midst of the Great American Desert as it is, however, its economy is so under-developed, that one-half of the state's population has emigrated to the United States. Almost one-half million Zacatecans live in California.
Jorge Castaneda Endorses California's Hitler
Arnold Schwarzenegger's victory as Governor of California "is not going to be as catastrophic as one would have thought," former Foreign Relations Secretary and Mexican Presidential hopeful Jorge Castaneda assured Mexico's Radio Monitor on Oct. 9. "He knows very well that he has to govern for everyone." Castaneda went further, and called Schwarzenegger the representation of "the American dream," asserting that Mexican Americans will tend to identify with the "Terminator," as "an immigrant who 'made it,' who speaks with a German accent, as many Mexican-Americans still speak with a Spanish accent."
The LaRouche Youth Movement in Mexico hit the nail on the head, when they shut down two of Castaneda's key campaign events in September, denouncing him as a candidate owned, just like Schwarznegger, by the financial interests behind Dick Cheney's neo-conservatives (see EIW, Vol. 2 #37).
Chavez Sets Up New Continental 'Bolivarian' Jacobin Apparatus
Representatives of every major narco-terrorist, indigenist, insurgent group in Ibero-America came together on Aug. 28-30 in Caracas, to found the "Bolivarian People's Congress," (CBP), under the nominal leadership of the mentally unbalanced Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Among the 50 groups represented at the Congress were Bolivia's Movement to Socialism (MAS) party, whose 'cocalero' leader Evo Morales, is leading the current narco-insurgency in that country; Mexico's Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, aging Peruvian terrorist Hector Bejar, leaders of Ecuador's indigenous Pachakutic movement, El Salvador's Farabundo Marti National Liberation, the Cuban Committees to Defend the Revolution, and Brazil's Landless Movement (MST).
Behind the calls for continental unity to "fight globalization," and formation of a "Confederation of Latin American-Caribbean nations," this grouping's agenda is clear: to prevent any sane solution to Ibero-America's financial crisis, such as Lyndon LaRouche's programmatic initiatives, sowing political chaos and violence instead. The assault on Bolivia today by the Soros-financed cocalero movement is an example of what to expect. In fact, Evo Morales' defense of coca producers' "rights" has become a rallying cry of these groups continentally.
Following a series of national meetings in the first half of October, the CBP will hold the "First Bolivarian People's Congress," in Caracas on Nov. 20-23. Organization Secretary Fernando Bossi said in a recent interview that the CBP will be promoting "participatory, protagonistic democracy against those merely representative democracies which haven't offered solutions to the issue of the people's decision-making power." This implies something like Venezuela's Constituent Assembly which replaced the national Congress in order to ram through Hugo Chavez's Jacobin agenda.
Coincidentally, the CBP will celebrate as a continental holiday, April 13, the date in 2002 on which Chavez was returned to power following a failed coup against him. The group is laying the groundwork to act as a unified continental strike force, should their forces be threatened. Bossi warned future Ibero-American coup plotters that they "will not only have to face the people of their own country, but also all the Latin American and Caribbean peoples who, simultaneously, will take to the streets of the largest cities to express our solidarity with the offended population."
Chavez Government Moves Against Opposition Media
The Venezuelan government seized transmission equipment from the leading private all-news TV station, Globovision, on Oct. 3, dispersing protesting supporters of the station with tear gas and rubber bullets as it did so. The equipment seizure did not force the opposition-run station off the air, but it blocks its ability to receive signals from reporters outside the studio, and prevents broadcasts from repeater stations beyond Caracas.
This marks the first step by the Chavez regime to implement its threats to shut down the opposition media. President Hugo Chavez specified on Oct. 3, that any station which airs statements from dissident military officers will be shut.
The U.S. Embassy sent an official note, requesting an explanation, and Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega suggested the seizure might be a violation of the Democratic Charter of the Organization of American Statesthe which could lead to the imposition of collective sanctions against Venezuela.
Defiant, Chavez lashed out at the United States during his Sunday "Hello, President" broadcast Oct. 4, suggesting "Mr. Bush ... busy himself with the United States' problems," and not mess with Venezuela. He also announced that he would militarize the cities again in November, by sending out the National Guard (which he controls at this point) on patrols next to the police, whom he does not trust.
Bush Administration Neo-Cons Revive Bio-Terror Charge Against Cuba
Roger Noriega, the Cuban-American ideologue sworn in as Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs in September, told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Cuba Oct. 2, that U.S. officials "believe that Cuba has at least a limited, developmental, offensive biological weapons research and development effort."
The Cuban Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Oct. 6, in response, denying the bio-warfare charges, and again demanding U.S. officials come up with some proof of the charge. "It's embarrassing that high-ranking figures in the United States government have to lie before Congress to try to justify their discredited anti-Cuban policies," the Foreign Ministry statement said, adding that Noriega "acts like a fanatical member of the terrorist groups of Miami."
In May 2002, another Chickenhawk, Undersecretary of State John Bolton, had charged that Cuba's world-class vaccine and pharmaceutical industries were essentially covers for a bio-warfare capability, but no proof was ever provided. U.S. Presidential pre-candidate Lyndon LaRouche issued a memorable release on that charge on May 13, 2002, under the title: "Bolton Threatens to Satisfy All the Whores of Havana: LaRouche."
Vulture Funds Prepare to Pick Argentina's Bones
Encouraged by the mid-September ruling by Judge Thomas Griesa in New York, by which Argentina must pay $700 million to the Dart Co.'s offshore EM Ltd., many other holders of bonds on which Argentina has defaulted, have gone to court to ask Griesa to make a summary judgment on their behalf, ordering Argentina to pay them back, and setting the stage for asset seizures.
The predators are so aggressive, that President Kirchner cancelled this week's scheduled trips to both Germany and Italy, because neither of those governments could guarantee that the Presidential planethe Tango-01would not be seized by judicial authorities, acting on behalf of creditors in those countries. For the same reason, the Argentine Navy frigate Libertad recently cancelled its scheduled stopover in German ports. (See EIW #40 InDepth section for background.)
Will the Free Trade Accord Be Buried With the WTO?
"It seems that the Free Trade Accord of the Americas (FTAA) is dead, and now the dispute is over who will be left with the responsibility for having thrown in the towel," a well-connected lobbyist in Washington, with access to both the Brazilian and U.S. negotiating teams, commented to Brazilian daily Valor Online. Valor's Oct. 2 story on the FTAA noted that this view is gaining ground among those involved in the negotiations.
At last week's meeting in Trinidad-Tobago, representatives of the U.S., Brazil, and 32 other countries, failed to reach agreement on the key question of lowering tariffs, in the framework of the FTAA. Provoking U.S. anger, Brazil proposed that the FTAA be far less ambitious than the Bush Administration wants, excluding such issues as uniformity in foreign investment laws, competition policies, government bidding processes, etc. Senior U.S. negotiator Ross Wilson charged that by refusing to discuss "substantive" issues, Brazil was "isolating" itself.
Inside Brazil, Wilson found some allies. Agriculture Minister Roberto Rodrigues told a conference Oct. 7 that he was "embarrassed" by the Brazilian negotiators' "intransigence," and called on the Finance Ministryrun by the IMF's friend Antonio Paloccito become more actively involved. A similar response came from the powerful Sao Paulo Industrialists Federation (Fiesp), who argued that Brazil's diplomats should act in a more "civilized" fashion in these negotiations.
Brazil's diplomatic corps, known as Itamaraty, has led the fight for Brazil to maintain an independent foreign policy, by building alliances with such other key developing sector nations as India, China, and South Africa. It was an alliance led by those nations, which shut down the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations in Cancun, Mexico, in September, by refusing to buckle to the Bush Adminstration's pressure.
Itamaraty remains firm on the FTAA. Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told Valor on Oct. 8, that while Brazil didn't intend to obstruct the FTAA, it had no intention of being pressured into accepting the "single vision" that the U.S. wishes to impose on the negotiations. He said that, for example, among the things he objected to at the Trinidad-Tobago meeting, was a U.S. proposal that American companies be allowed to legally challenge (in court) domestic decisions of the Brazilian governmentan obvious violation of Brazilian sovereignty.
Brazil Advances Plans To Export Enriched Uranium
Brazil will commence industrial-scale production of enriched uranium, with an eye to becoming an exporter of nuclear technology, Science and Technology Minister Roberto Amaral announced Oct. 6. Production had previously been projected to begin in July 2002, under the Cardoso government, but apparently is just now going ahead. The industrial production of enriched uranium demonstrates the country's scientific development, and guarantees that the technology will be at the service of national sovereignty, Amaral stated. He said the goal is to produce 60% of the material used in the nation's two functioning nuclear plants, Angra 1 & 2, by 2010, and to export its projected surplus of enriched uranium by 2014.
The technological apartheid crowd will not be happy with this. The director of Nuclear Fuels Production at the Nuclear Industries of Brazil (INB), Samuel Faiad, commented: "We are taking a step to show the nuclear technology export potential of Brazil, in addition to substituting imports."
Brazil is only the seventh country worldwide which has commercial-scale production of enriched uranium. The advanced centrifuge technology employed by the Brazilians was developed in the country, as a spin-off of the Navy's ongoing work in building a nuclear submarine with national technology. The INB which will run the enrichment plant, is a state-owned company.
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