Ibero-American News Digest
Election Results Revive Dope Inc.'s Prospects in Colombia
The Oct. 26 gubernatorial, mayoral, and municipal elections in Colombia swept in an unprecedented number of so-called political "independents," who rode the wave of popular disgust with President Alvaro Uribe's embrace of the IMF's neo-liberal policies. While many key cities in Colombia now have new mayors from neither of the two major political parties, the real earthquake is in the capital city of Bogota, where former Communist Party Central Committee member and trade union leader, Luis Eduardo Garzon, handily won what is considered the second most important political post in the country, after the Presidency itself, that of Bogota mayor.
Garzon's program is the same today as it was when he ran for President in the 2002 elections on a platform of negotiating with the narcoterrorist FARC. He was defeated in those elections, when Colombian voters instead gave a resounding mandate to Alvaro Uribe Velez, who campaigned on the necessity of using the full powers of the State to crush the narcoterrorists. Garzon achieved victory this time, by campaigning on the need for a more socially-oriented economic policy than Uribe's IMF policies, but he has already made clear he intends to use the Bogota mayoralty to establish a virtual parallel government to the national government. Garzon boasted to BBC-Brazil the day after the election, that under his reign, Bogota would even carry out its own foreign trade policy, independent of the central government.
Garzon also made clear in that interview, that he is part of a broader continental project. He vowed that he would work closely with his friends from the radical wing of the Brazilian Workers' Party (PT), whom he plans to have advise him on his government. In particular, he vowed to imitate the policies of former PT Mayor of Porto Alegre, Brazil, Tarso Genro, who turned Porto Alegre into the global capital of the Jacobin World Social Forum. Garzon said he plans to reorganize Bogota's finances and government along the lines of the "participatory budget" scheme which Genro implemented in Porto Alegre, a decentralization plan championed by the Chilean-Cuban structuralist Marta Harneker, widow of the infamous Manuel "Red Beard" Pinheiro who headed Cuban intelligence and wetworks in the Americas for decades. Garzon told BBC that Genro's budget model "will give neighborhoods the possibility of developing their own projects. I am committed to my PT friends, and they are committed to advising me on this project."
Garzon claimed he would be meeting with Brazilian President Lula da Silva within a week, because "now that we have a common agenda, we can work together." This could be disastrous for both Lula and for Brazil, strengthening the radical faction within the Lula government. Lula has created an untenable situation for himself at home, by allowing terrorist assets, such as the Landless Movement (MST) to operate inside his government. Associating himself with FARC asset Garzon, will both fuel terrorist operations inside Brazil, and provide ammunition to the neo-cons who want to paint him as an ally of crazy Hugo Chavez and the rest of the Ibero-America's left synarchists.
Colombians Defeat IMF Referendum
One day before the elections, on Oct. 25, Colombians refused to vote up a 15-point referendum authorizing the Uribe government to implement the even greater austerity Wall Street demands, so that Colombia can pay its debt. Much noise is being made internationally, that the referendum's defeat dangerously weakens the Colombian President's authority. In reality, it was the very act of calling a referendum to ask people whether they wished to have their living standards cut further, which undermined the government's political capital. The results were seen in the Bogota election results.
The same Wall Street and IMF crowds, who have consistently supported the drug trade, insisted President Uribe hold the referendum, come what may. When a lower court ruled many of the questions unconstitutional last May (a ruling later overturned by a higher court), the international rating agencies threatened to lower Colombia's credit rating, and speculators trashed the currency. "The referendum is seen by Wall Street as a key test of Mr. Uribe's 13-month-old presidency," BBC said on Oct. 1.
The claim was that the referendum measures would "save" the government $7 billion over the next seven years, with which it could meet IMF budget-deficit conditionalities. The vast majority of those savings were to come from Question #14, which asked voters to approve a two-year freeze on public-sector wages for all workers who earn more than $240 a month, and also freeze public pension benefits for the same time period. They refused.
Andean Movement Raises 'Inca Empire' Banner
Our goal is to eliminate the nation-states of South America, and establish an "Inca International," Peruvian narco-terrorist Antauro Humala, told Bolivian daily, El Deber, in an interview published Oct. 28. The leader of the Peruvian Nationalist Movement, who describes himself as an "ethno-nationalist," declared that the Peruvian state has already collapsed, and that if the Indian populations of Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia unite, they can replace the "creole state" with a new, "Inca international."
Humala, a former Army officer, who led an uprising against the Fujimori government in October 2000, is emerging as a key figure in the continental Jacobin apparatus being put together by the left synarchists. In the recent explosion in Bolivia, along with members of Peru's Shining Path, Humala sent his people in to support the coca producers in blockading highways and carrying out other violent acts.
The fascist Humala states that, "we recognize as our ancestral fatherland, the vast Inca territories, of what is today Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru, northeastern Argentina and northern Chile. This is what [the leader of the Pachacutec Indian Movement] Felipe Quispe of Bolivia proposes, and the National Indigenous Confederation of Ecuador." As Venezuela's Hugo Chavez proposes, the plan is to unite all these groups, to serve as a continental narco-terrorist battering ram against targetted countries' national institutions.
As for Peru, members of Humala's movement propose to participate in the 2006 elections in Peru, or if that doesn't work out, becoming Marxist guerrillas. (See In-depth: "Soros Wins Bolivia Round; Area Slides Toward Drug Empire," for background on Andean crisis.)
Brazil Offers Support to New Bolivian Government
Fearing the chaos that is radiating across South America from the ongoing disintegration of Bolivia, the Brazilian government is seeking to provide some economic breathing room for the new government of Carlos Mesa. Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim met with his Bolivian counterpart, Juan Ignacio Siles on Oct. 27 to underscore Brazil's offer to assist in Bolivia's internal development, and to insure it is also brought into the process of regional integration. In a joint press conference, Amorim also announced that Brazil would forgive the $50 million debt Bolivia owed it, increase its investment in the country by $600 million, and increase purchases of natural gas, from 11 to 18 mn. cubic meters daily. The latter is particularly important for Bolivia, as it would increase export revenue by $200 million.
In a phone conversation with President Carlos Mesa, President Lula da Silva extended an invitation to him to visit Brazil. Amorim also met with President Carlos Mesa, and conveyed President Lula da Silva's offer to help Bolivia in any way he can, to insure the country's pacification and economic development.
Argentine Jacobins Plan Nationwide Mobilization vs. Kirchner Government
Charging that their protest actions are being "criminalized"i.e., their leaders have been arrestedand insisting on more anti-poverty funds, factions of the so-called "piqueteros" groups, whose constant highway and bridge blockades wreak havoc in Buenos Aires and other cities, are working with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's "Bolivarian" beast-man apparatus to develop a plan of nationwide protests against the Argentine government. Representatives of one of the groups involved in the current protest, "Neighborhoods Arise!" attended the meeting in Caracas last August, in which Chavez's "Bolivarian People's Congress" was founded.
On Oct. 22, piqueteros literally imprisoned Labor Minister Carlos Tomada inside his ministry for 12 hours, by chaining the doors to the building shut, and surrounding it. Using the fact that poverty levels remain unchanged, the piqueteros are demanding that President Nestor Kirchner increase the number of 150-peso government subsidies offered by the "heads of household" anti-poverty program, financed by the World Bank (thus, the World Bank is financing these Jacobin protests!). The government says it cannot increase the grants for budgetary reasons, and intends to file criminal charges against those responsible for the Oct. 22 actions, which will fuel further protest. Already the most radical group, the Classist and Combative Current (CCC), is organizing nationwide protest for Oct. 29, that will particularly target municipal, provincial and the federal governments.
Brazil Opens Talks with IMF on New Loan Package
Talks are underway between Brazil and the IMF, on a new loan program for Brazil, Finance Minister Antonio Palocci reported Oct. 28. No dollar figure has yet been mentioned publicly for the new loan package. Brazilian officials insist that Brazil doesn't really need a new accord, but that it would help strengthen market confidence. The facts belie the rhetoric. Consider:
* Brazil's public debt hit its highest level since 1999 in September, at R$707.74 billion (over US$235 billion), with 32% of that debt being short-term (less than a year). The debt keeps rising, despite the government paying off higher amounts, through the "savings" gouged out by reducing spending on everything but debt payments drastically. So far in 2003, the public debt has risen by almost R$71 billion, an amount equal to 35% of the total revenue collected by the government in taxes and payments in the first nine months of the year.
* Foreign Direct Investment in Brazil in 2003 so far, is half of what it was in 2002, falling to a mere US$6.5 billion.
* On Oct. 22, the Central Bank lowered its SELIC benchmark interest rate by 1%, to 19% a year, but industry immediately protested that this would not be sufficient to revive the economy. The average interest rate in September was 49.8%, Tribuna da Imprensa reported Oct. 29. Banks lowered their interest rates on loans to consumers and industry after the SELIC rate was dropped again, but the new rates are still in the stratosphere. For example, the lowered rates for one popular loan category are still 8.38% a month for consumers, and 7.5% a month for companies. O Globo reported Oct. 28, that while consumer indebtedness continues to grow, most of the new debt is not taken on for new purchases, but to get out of arrears on old debts. Consumer debt arrearages were 5.9% more in January to September 2003, over the same period the year before; corporate debt arrears rose by 4.7% in the same period.
* Unemployment in urban centers remained essentially unchanged nationwide in September, dropping a miniscule 0.1% to 12.9%, at a time when there should be a seasonal pick-up in employment. (Unemployment right before President Lula came in on Jan. 1, was 10.5%). In the Sao Paulo metropolitan region, Brazil's industrial heartland, unemployment rose back to 20.6% of the EAP [[?]] in September, the same as it was last April and May, which were and is its highest level since 1985.
* Average income was 14.6% less in September 2003, than in September 2002, as an increasing number workers lose stable salaried jobs, and are forced to take temporary jobs, become self-employed, etc. The drop in average income for self-employed workers was a whopping 19.8%, this year over last.
Brazil and Ukraine Expand Space Cooperation
At the same time that Brazil is deepening its ties with India and China, particularly in high-technology areas, aerospace cooperation has become the center of Brazil's relations with Ukraine.
The Brazilian Foreign Ministry reported Oct. 21, that Ukranian President Leonid Kutchma and Brazilian President Lula da Silva, meeting in Brasilia that day, had reviewed the broad possibilities for intensifying cooperation between the two countries, and "identified aerospace as that with the most potential. They agreed upon the strategic significance of the Brazilian and Ukranian programs for the peaceful use of space, and the importance of cooperation in this field between the two countries." In particular, a treaty was signed, for the launching of Ukraine's Cyclone-4 rockets from Brazil's Alacantara launch site, as well as a "Memorandum of Understanding on Future Bilateral Projects in the Area of Space," the details of which were not spelled out.
Kutchma had been scheduled to visit the Alcantara launch site on Oct. 22, but since he was forced to cut his trip short because of an incipient border incident with Russia, it is not known if he actually made it or not.
The two countries also agreed to explore possible joint ventures in the construction of power plants, gas pipelines and systems of natural gas distribution in Brazil, in light of the commercial possibilities opened by recent discoveries of gas deposits along the Brazilian coast, in particular.
Brazil Offers To Join China's Manned Space Program
Science and Technology Minister Roberto Amaral sent a letter to China's space agency, raising the possibility that a Brazilian could join one of China's manned space flights. One of Brazil's astronauts, Marcos Pontes, who has participated in NASA's international space program for five years, told BBC that he was thrilled with Amaral's proposal. "Give me six months or a year of training on their ship, and I'm ready to go." Interviewed from Houston, Pontes reported that there is a general consensus in NASA's international space program, that "the planet is a single idea," and China's success made everyone happy, as one more possibility for man to get to space. Brazil should increase its participation in international space programs, he argued, as a way to speed up the development of its own space program, and provide opportunities for Brazilian industry and employment.
|