In this issue:

Bush Administration Resource Grab in the Americas

Anti-Mara Sweep in Mexico

FARC Prisoners Agree To Leave Battle for Pardons

Inter-American Court Upholds Berenson Conviction

From Volume 3, Issue Number 50 of EIR Online, Published Dec. 14, 2004

Ibero-American News Digest

Bush Administration Resource Grab in the Americas

Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roger Noriega told a Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) forum on Dec. 3, that it is time to develop "a common Western Hemisphere energy policy," as part of the "ambitious agenda" of reforms the Bush Administration wants adopted in the Americas. "The hemisphere has no alternative to this reform agenda: decentralization, deregulation, strengthening property rights, reforming labor laws, and investing in basic social services," Noriega pronounced. The administration's conception of "basic social services" is that of the "stakeholder's society": "affording individuals the opportunity to pull their own weight and create personal wealth."

Noriega specified that the administration wants to see decentralization of revenue collection throughout the region—e.g., municipalities doing their own taxing—which would lead to separatist movements throughout the region.

Noriega's "common Western Hemisphere energy policy" is an old scheme, first officially adopted in Zbigniew Brzezinski's 1978 secret Presidential Review Memorandum 41 (PRM-41), which mooted the possibility that the U.S. might "attempt to seal the border" to Mexican immigrants, should Mexico not accede a "North American community"—the NAFTA-Plus which Mexico's President Fox is again championing.

As next week's EIR Online will report in another installment of its "economic hitmen" series, then-Mexican President Jose Lopez Portillo rejected any such "North American Community" out of hand, because it would "hinder our industrial development," and condemn Mexico to "perpetually extracting and exporting raw materials for their consumption by more advanced societies. To counter this blatant oil grab, Lopez Portillo campaigned for a worldwide agreement for cooperation on developing new energy resources for all, which should function as the old post-war Bretton Woods agreement had. "If at Bretton Woods we were able to establish an orderly structure for handling monetary and reconstruction matters, we could today ... establish a new and more orderly structure for handling energy and resources," he told the UN General Assembly on Sept. 2, 1987.

Anti-Mara Sweep in Mexico

Mexican police and security personnel carried out an aggressive operation against the dangerous Maras Salvatrucha gang in 25 states, with a special focus on the southern state of Chiapas, on the border with Guatemala. "Operation Costa," carried out in late November, was defined as a "national security" operation in which forces from the Federal Police, Government Ministry, Army, Navy, and National Immigration Institute participated—a total of 1,500 people deployed. The operation was carried out in coordination with U.S., Guatemalan, Salvadoran, and Honduran authorities, according to Eduardo Medina, head of the Interior Ministry's intelligence arm, the Research and National Security Center (CISEN).

In the 25-state sweep, the largest such operation carried out to date against the gang, 193 Maras were arrested. Members of the gang have been previously arrested and accused of auto theft, rape, and drug-trafficking, but there was a particular concern in the current operation about their activities involving the trafficking of illegal Central American immigrants brought into the country through Chiapas. Both the Federal government and the Chiapas state government have vowed to continue to "deal with the problem created by the presence of the Mara Salvatrucha in the state."

FARC Prisoners Agree To Leave Battle for Pardons

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe signed pardons on Dec. 2 for the release from jail of 23 lower-level FARC terrorists who were convicted of crimes that do not fall into the category of "atrocious" (terrorist bombings, murder, kidnapping, rape, etc.). The 23 FARC prisoners were released from a variety of prisons around the country, and reportedly agreed in writing to abandon armed fighting and to "reintegrate" into civil society.

The Uribe government has come under heavy pressure to release convicted FARC prisoners in exchange for the FARC releasing some of the hundreds of hostages which it is holding in subhuman conditions around the country, in a so-called "humanitarian exchange." Family members of those being held hostage, many for several years now, represent part of the pressure, but the primary pressure comes from the narco lobby, led by former President Alfonso Lopez Michelsen (alias "The Godfather"). Lopez Michelsen has said openly that a "humanitarian exchange" could be the first step toward reopening negotiations with the FARC.

The Dec. 2 pardon was a unilateral gesture on President Uribe's part, which met the government's conditions for releasing FARC members from jail: that they agree to abandon the war. The FARC as an organization has refused to accept the imposition of any condition upon FARC prisoners for their release.

Family members and other political forces are now urging that the FARC reciprocate, and release some hostages.

Inter-American Court Upholds Berenson Conviction

The Inter-American Human Rights Court announced on Dec. 3 that it had upheld the conviction of American Lori Berenson, who was tried and convicted in Peru twice for collaborating with the narco-terrorist Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). Her first trial by a military court was overturned in 2000, but in 2001, a civil court sentenced her to 20 years in prison. Berenson was first arrested in 1995, and had been working with MRTA members who were plotting to blow up the Peruvian Congress.

The involvement of the Inter-American Court in Berenson's case caused significant tension inside Peru. The pathetic President Alejandro Toledo has vociferously stated that he would never make concessions to terrorists, but there was no guarantee that he wouldn't bend to pressure, had the Inter-American Court ruled in Berenson's favor. She had been made a cause celebre by international human rights circles who claimed that she had been unjustly accused and tried. In the event that the Court had overturned her sentence—even though it lacks the means to enforce such a ruling—authorities had warned it would set a precedent for such jailed terrorists as Shining Path founder Abimael Guzman, and others among his collaborators, to appeal their own sentences and gain their release.

On Nov. 25, speaking more forcefully than Toledo had, Cabinet Chief Carlos Ferrero had told reporters that the government would defy the Inter-American Court were it to rule in Berenson's favor. He echoed statements made earlier by Foreign Minister Manuel Rodriguez. Toledo told Radioprogramas del Peru on Dec. 1 that the Court's decision was the cause of "great satisfaction and tranquility for Peruvian justice and all Peruvians."

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