Ibero-American News Digest
48-Hour Strike in Dominican Republic vs. IMF
Trade unions and popular front groups in the Dominican Republic called a 48-hour strike against the Hipolito Mejia government on Jan. 28; the strike received the backing of the Roman Catholic Bishops Council and the National Private Enterprise Council, each of which issued statements supporting the strike as an understandable reaction to a government which has turned its back on the nation's problems.
This is the second national strike in less than three months protesting the Mejia government's refusal to break with IMF dictates, which have led to an annual inflation rate of 42%, official unemployment of 16%, a doubling in price of most food and fuel basics over the past year, and a foreign debt which has doubled to $7.6 billion during Mejia's term in office. Conditions on the island have so devolved, that desperate people are taking to the seas, to try to escape. More than 1,000 Dominican boat people have been intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard in January alone, as compared to 190 just one year ago.
There was near total adherence to the strike, with streets empty, and businesses and schools shut down. All branches of the military were out in force, patrolling the main cities with heavy weaponry.
Living Standards, Employment Fall Under Lula Government
Brazilian President Lula da Silva is being held up by financiers internationally, as the exemplar of an economically "responsible" government which refused to implement "populist" policies, and instead concentrated on "stabilizing" its debt. But look at what that program did to Brazil's people, during Lula's first year in office:
According to the official statistical agency, IBGE, unemployment averaged 12.3% in 2003, in the country's six major metropolitan areas, up from the 11.5% it had reached in the last year of Fernando Henrique Cardoso's government. In absolute numbers, the number of unemployed rose from 2.1 million at the end of in December 2002, to 2.3 million unemployed at the end of 2003. Furthermore, the average real income of Brazilian workers in December 2003, was 12.5% less than in December 2002. In the six regions surveyed, average income was only R$830.10 in Decemberor approximately $285. The collapse in income for self-employed persons was even more dramatic, falling by 19%.
The rise in unemployment and the fall in income were worse in the industrial heartland of Brazil: metropolitan Sao Paulo. According to the IBGE, average income in Sao Paulo was 15.3% less in December 2003 than the year before. The yearly survey of the private Seade/Dieese Foundation, however, reports even worse unemployment in metropolitan Sao Paulo than the IBGE does, putting it at 19.7% at the end of 2003, up from 19% the year before. This is the highest level since 1985, when the foundation began its statistical series. Fifty-five thousand manufacturing jobs were lost in 2003 in Sao Paulo.
Brazil and India Consolidate 'Exceptional Partnership'
If we coordinate between us, this century will belong to the developing countriesto India, China, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, and BrazilBrazilian President Lula da Silva told a conference of Indian industry leaders in New Delhi on Jan. 27, during his five-day (Jan. 25-29) state visit to India. The Brazilian President was invited to be the guest of honor at India's 55th Republic Day.
Lula stressed on every occasion that he had learned as a trade unionist that "no one that you speak with will respect you if you are submissive.... India and Brazil together can build a strong political force... so that the trade geography of the world can change for the better."
A framework accord for negotiating a free-trade zone between India and the Mercosur common market was signed on the first day of his visit, with ministers of Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay joining the Indians and Brazilians for the signing.
"I am returning to Brazil, convinced that we have consolidated an exceptional partnership" with India, Lula told a press conference at Brazil's embassy Jan. 27. Our countries have taken "a long time" to discover each other, but "we will not miss this chanceneither Brazil nor India." Trade between the two reached $1.2 billion in 2003, but this is not even 10% of what can be done, said Lula, who also invited Indian businesses to explore the possibilities for investing in Brazilian infrastructurethe Indians are reportedly particularly interested in helping build Brazilian railroadsand proposed an air-link connecting Sao Paulo, Johannesburg, South Africa, and Mumbai, India.
Among the accords signed during his visit, was a framework agreement for cooperation on joint research in space and atmospheric sciences.
Prime Minister Vajpayee was invited to pay a state visit to Brazil in June 2004.
New York Times Takes Aim at Brazil's Space Program
The New York Times has declared war against Brazil's space program, with a piece of yellow journalism penned by its lead hack for Ibero-America, Larry Rohter, on Jan. 23. The article follows the IAEA and neo-conservative assault on Brazil's nuclear-enrichment program, and neo-con hysteria over Brazil's strengthening ties to Russia, China, India, and South Africa.
Rohter knows more about bars than he does rocket science, but he presented his findings as the results of "a four-month investigation" into what caused the explosion of Brazil's VLS rocket in August 2003, in which 21 top scientists and technicians were killed. His article was quickly picked up by the Brazilian media.
Rohter claims his interviews with former Brazilian government officials, scientists, and relatives of those who died, "taken as a whole, portrayed a dangerously underfunded program that forced researchers to rely on substandard parts and questionable procedures, and had little public accountability under an unclear and divided chain of command." The Brazilian rocket program is failing because it still operates under military controlmaking international control difficult, he asserts. He particularly targets Brazil's cooperation with Russia, which got around U.S. efforts to keep any country from selling certain technologies to Brazil.
Neo-Fascist Networks Spread Tentacles into El Salvador
Venezuelan opposition leader Alejandro Pena Esclusa, who argues that a military coup is the only solution for Venezuela, visited El Salvador in the week of Jan. 26 to organize against what he paints as a China-backed, Cuba-backed continentwide "communist threat."
Pena's intervention came just weeks before El Salvador's Presidential elections in March, and will only help turn that Central American nation once more into a battleground between the left- and right-wing synarchists who submerged the country in civil war throughout the 1980s. The election pits Farabundo Marti Liberation Front (FMLN) leader Schafik Handal, for decades a hardline Castroite leader of the continental Sao Paulo Forum narcoterrorist swamp, against a government-backed right-wing candidate, who promises to continue the free trade, neo-liberal economic policies which have destroyed living standards, and eliminated the nation's currency.
In a public address hosted by the anti-Castro "Liberty Foundation" on Jan. 26, attended by some 300 people, Pena, who is an asset of the new fascist international being formed by Spain's pro-Franco Blas Pinar (see InDepth: #33 in 2003, and #1 & #3, 2004), argued that the Sao Paulo Forum is consolidating its political position to take power in the greatest number of Ibero-American countries possible, and Salvadorans had better act before they find themselves ruled by an Hugo Chavez ally. Otherwise, as he told El Diario de Hoy, "El Salvador would suffer a new civil war in the short-term."
Soros Denies Funding Campaign of Castaneda
Former Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda is criss-crossing Mexico to build his Presidential campaign. Although the elections are not until July 2006, the race is already the central subject of gossip nationally. Castaneda is on the hustings, promoting Wall Street's line that Mexico's institutions must be ripped apart, before "reform" can be put through, and he's the man to do the job. Pollsters and press have begun to puff his candidacy, which the LaRouche Youth Movement (LYM) began so effectively to disrupt a few months back.
Since he resigned as Foreign Minister in January 2003, Castaneda has made 42 campaign trips, and participated in 220 events and conferences with businessmen, youth, and social organizations, CNI news service reported on Jan. 13. On a recent visit to Guanajuato, Leon, he took out TV spots, with the message that he was the architect of President Vicente Fox's defeat of the PRI Party in July 2000which brought the synarchist PAN Party to power.
The LYM's exposé of Castaneda's ties to the speculator and drug legalizer George Soros, clearly have become a problem. The Mexican daily Milenio reported Jan. 26 that Soros, from Geneva where he was attending the Davos World Economic Forum, went out of his way to deny that he is financing Castaneda's Presidential bid. "It is not true, absolutely not true, that I am financially supporting Castaneda's political career," Soros insisted to the media. "I greatly respect Mr. Castaneda. When I was thinking about creating my foundation [in Mexico], I thought of him.... We had some talks," but after his decision to run for President, "we ended our talks."
Argentina Rolls Back Another Privatization
On the grounds that it had failed to comply with the terms of its contract, on Jan. 25 the Argentine government revoked the privatization contract for regulation of broadband frequencies which had been granted to the French defense group, Thales-Spectrum, in 1997, Clarin reported Jan. 26. Cabinet Chief of Staff Alberto Fernandez further announced that a decision has been made to return this function to the state, rather than reprivatize it. In a joint press conference Jan. 26 with Infrastructure Minister Julio De Vido, Fernandez warned that the state will demand full compliance with the terms of every privatization contract.
This is the second annulment of a privatization contract that has occurred under the Kirchner Administration. A few months ago, the government revoked the privatization of the Post Office, which had been bought up by the Macri Group. Currently, the Post Office is in state hands, but the intention is to privatize it once again. Fernandez emphasized, however, that broadband frequency regulation is not a service that can readily be delegated to private interests, and reported that the state had lost 300 million pesos ($100 million) as a result of Thales' non-compliance with the original contract. It has also been suggested that bribery may have been involved in the granting of the contract originally, which occurred under the notoriously corrupt Menem government.
The government's action has provoked panic among other privatized firms, whose owners are largely foreign. Kirchner acted on the eve of his trip to Spain, where he intends to announce that "every single" privatization contract granted during the 1990s, especially to utility companies, will be reviewed, and revoked, should any irregularities or non-compliance with contracts be discovered.
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