Ibero-American News Digest

OAS Chief: Nuclear Energy Is Ibero-America's Right

June 7 (EIRNS)—The people of Ibero-America have the "right to research, develop, and produce nuclear energy for peaceful purposes," said José Manuel Insulza, the Chilean Secretary-General of the Organization of American States (OAS), in his opening speech to that organization's General Assembly June 3, in Panama. Nuclear energy doesn't produce sulfur or mercury emissions or greenhouse gases, he pointed out, and given current oil prices, "it could become cheaper than [energy] produced from oil or natural gas, or even that produced by solar energy, wind power, or biofuels."

The Secretary-General's remarks intersect an intensifying debate throughout Ibero-America, and particularly in his own country, Chile, on nuclear energy as a safe, efficient, and cheap energy source. Of great interest in the Chilean case is Russia's involvement in promoting nuclear energy there, through its state agency Rosatom. This has sparked tremendous excitement among university and scientific circles that have long advocated developing nuclear energy in the country.

In mid-May, Russian government officials and nuclear experts, led by Regional Development Minister Vladimir Yakovlev, participated in seminars in both Valparaiso and Santiago, providing detailed information on the latest developments in Russia's nuclear technology, and its ability to provide small reactors to developing nations such as Chile. Russian participants at a seminar sponsored by the University of Santiago gave impressive presentations on Russia's role in promoting nuclear energy internationally, emphasizing the development of its floating nuclear plants.

OAS to Rice: Butt Out of Venezuela's TV Conflict

June 8 (EIRS)—Organization of American States (OAS) General Secretary José Miguel Insulza also rejected any possibility of direct OAS intervention into Venezuela, as had been demanded by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the OAS General Assembly that concluded June 6 in Panama City. Rice demanded that Insulza send a mission to Venezuela to evaluate whether "freedom of the press" exists in that country, after President Hugo Chávez did not renew the RCTV television channel's operating license.

Chávez's political opposition has used the denial of the license to unleash a wave of student protests, claiming that Chávez is a "dictator." The government charged that the protests had been organized by the Albert Einstein Institute, chaired by Gene Sharp, which has played a key role in organizing allegedly "pro-democracy revolutions" in several Eastern European countries.

Rice cited Article 18 of the Inter-American Charter, in arguing that Insulza should go to Venezuela to prepare an official report on the situation there. Insulza, however, explained that Article 18 requires that the government involved authorize such an official investigation, and Venezuela certainly wouldn't agree to it. Moreover, he added, this really is a matter internal to Venezuela. Insulza also took the opportunity to express his willingness to "reopen" a dialogue with Cuba, which no doubt further raised Rice's hackles.

Global Warming Not Hot at Buenos Aires University

BUENOS AIRES, June 6 (EIRNS)—Students were already waiting when LaRouche Youth Movement (LYM) organizers arrived at the University of Buenos Aires's School of Exact Sciences a half-hour ahead of their scheduled showing June 6 of British Channel 4's expose of the "Great Global Warming Swindle," with Spanish subtitles. When the LYM's Emiliano Andino gave his brief introduction on the political importance of this fight, there were 250 people present, mostly youth, and about ten professors. At the end, the audience broke out in applause.

Argentina is, after all, a country which still celebrates a National Nuclear Day!

Several of the professors reported that they had been persecuted for opposing the global warming hoax, and the LYM found that many students were still angry at Al Gore's recent Buenos Aires visit, where he pumped his fraud.

Protests vs. Mexico's Social Security Privatization

June 3 (EIRNS)—The building protest against the late-March privatization of pensions and health care for the State Workers Social Security and Services Institute (ISSSTE), forced President Felipe Calderón to reiterate again on June 5 that the law will not be revoked.

A third national "civic strike" demanding the law's abrogation took place June 1 in Mexico City and in 13 other Mexican states, and organizing is underway for more marches and demonstrations, culminating in a referendum on the law scheduled for June 15, to be held "in every school, university, public plaza, and community in the country," according to union leaders.

The protests are taking place in the countdown to the June 14 international webcast, featuring Democratic Party leader Lyndon LaRouche; Agustín Rodríguez, Secretary General of the trade union of Mexico's National Autonomous University (STUNAM); and Chilean trade union leaders, in a dialogue entitled "Globalization = Fascism."

Would You Buy a Used Debt Bubble from Genius Who Blew Out Mexican Economy in '94?

June 7 (EIRNS)—That would be Pedro Aspe, the former Finance Minister in the infamous Carlos Salinas de Gortari government (1988-1994). Aspe is a Harvard graduate, and a protégé of David Mulford, Deputy Treasury Secretary under Bush 41 (where he was the architect of the unlamented Brady Bond scam), before going on to become the International Chairman of Credit Suisse First Boston.

After what Salinas and Aspe did to Mexico in 1994, on orders from international banks such as Credit Suisse First Boston, you'd think that no one in Mexico would want to get burned twice. But now it turns out that many state governments have hired Aspe's consulting firm to help them float long-term bonds, that are backed by future revenue streams from taxes, tolls, and the like.

Driving state after state into this suicidal lunacy is the fact that one of the first acts of the new Calderón government was to dramatically slash federal revenue-sharing arrangements with the states—which are far more significant, in relative terms, than similar arrangements in the United States. Mexico's states are largely dependent on these federal monies for survival.

Most recently, the northern state of Sonora had 1.5 billion pesos ($135 million) in federal funds pulled out from under it, which led Governor Bourse to call in financial wizard Aspe, to advise his government on refinancing 5 billion pesos in state debt, with a new bond issue. The new bonds have a 30-year maturity, and are to be paid out of future revenues from auto taxes, parking fees, etc.

The states of Chihuahua, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, Puebla, and others have all gone down this same path. And recently, the government of the Federal District (Mexico City), headed by the PRD party's Marcelo Ebrard, announced that it too had hired Aspe's firm to do the same. Ebrard has also invited Al Gore to speak in Mexico City at the end of July. Perhaps he intends to invite Al's hedge funds in to make a killing on the debt scam, as well.

Colombia's Narco-Terrorists Now Murder, Torture for Biofuels!

June 5 (EIRNS)—It's been the story in Colombia for three decades: hundreds of thousands of peasants are run off their lands at gunpoint by armed gangs of horrific bestiality, to open the way for vast dope plantations. Now, according to the June 5 London Guardian, the same paramilitary bands are back, this time clearing "swathes of territory" of their inhabitants by murder and intimidation for palm oil, the latest international "hot commodity" in the biofuels racket. The Guardian's headline sums it up: "Massacres and Paramilitary Land Seizures Behind the Biofuel Revolution."

Colombia is already the second-biggest ethanol producer on the continent, after Brazil, and as EIR Online reported March 30 ("Of Bushes and Ethanol Madness in Colombia"), President Alvaro Uribe proposes to open up 6 million hectares of territory in the depopulated Colombian Orinoquia region for cultivation for ethanol; more than the total land under cultivation (excluding pasture lands) in the country in 2005!

Bill Clinton 'Honored' To Receive Award from Colombia

June 6 (EIRNS)—Colombian President Alvaro Uribe will personally award former President Bill Clinton his government's "Colombia Is Passion" award, at a gala dinner in New York City on June 8. The award is given in appreciation for those international figures who "believe in Colombia," and "encourage others to do the same." A Clinton spokesman told the Wall Street Journal June 4 that the former President "is honored to be receiving an award from the Colombian people."

Quite a difference from his former Vice President, Al Gore. On April 20, Gore cancelled his scheduled keynote speech at a ritzy biofuels conference in Miami, on the pretext that he didn't want to appear on the same stage as President Uribe, because of allegations from Colombian opposition groups that Uribe is tied to Colombia's murderous paramilitaries.

All of this has very little to do with Uribe, per se. The financial oligarchy whom Gore fronts for, is out to bring about regime-change and create ungovernability across Ibero-America, from "leftist" Venezuela to "center-right" Colombia.