Ibero-American News Digest

LaRouche: 'Death to the Narcos; Civilization Must Prevail!'

Dec. 23 (EIRNS)—Briefed today on the recent savage murders carried out by Dope, Inc.'s narcoterrorists in both Colombia and Mexico, Lyndon LaRouche stated that the only appropriate response to such atrocities is "death to the narcos! Civilization must prevail!"

In Colombia, commandos of the drug cartel, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), yesterday killed the Governor of Caqueta, Luis Francisco Cuellar, whom they had kidnapped on Dec. 21. After President Alvaro Uribe announced that he had deployed the military and police to rescue not only the governor, but all of the FARC's hostages, the FARC slit Cuellar's throat.

A similar act of barbarism occurred Dec. 22 in Mexico, in the town of Paraiso, Tabasco, where narcos gunned down four family members of Melquisedet Angulo Cordova, a young Navy commando who was murdered a week earlier during the assault in Cuernavaca by Navy special forces who killed drug kingpin Arturo Beltran Leyva. Angulo Cordova was buried with full military honors, and declared a hero, but the publicity surrounding his funeral identified his family members and their place of residence. Within hours, hit men entered their home and mowed down Angulo Cordova's mother, aunt, and two brothers. The brutality with which they were killed has greatly angered the Mexican people.

President Uribe stated today that there is only one word for the FARC's actions: "terrorists." Without naming them, Uribe pointedly addressed Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, and his fellow "Bolivarians" in Cuba, Bolivia, and Nicaragua, who defend the FARC assassins, and recently named top FARC leader, Alfonso Cano, to the executive committee of the newly created Continental Bolivarian Movement (see Ibero-American Digest, Week #49, Dec. 15, 2009). "There are still those who try to offer political recognition to the FARC narcoterrorists," Uribe said. "It would be good were the international community to reflect on this."

Brazil Sided with 'Winners' at Copenhagen...

Dec. 22 (EIRNS)—The decision of the Lula government to stand firm with the Chinese- and Indian-led bloc of nations defending national sovereignty at the Copenhagen Climate summit, exemplifies the power of the new dynamic sweeping the world.

Brazil's foreign policy has historically been crassly pragmatic, crippled by an orientation to Britain. Brazil went to Copenhagen with a posture of "mediator," seeking to negotiate "consensus" between British imperial interests and Brazil's recent Asian and South African allies, the so-called BASIC group (Brazil, South Africa, India, and China). When push came to shove at the summit, however, Brazil chose to stand with China and India, for sovereignty, rather than the world dictatorship of London and its parrot, President Obama, so much so that President Lula da Silva refused to meet alone with Obama at the end, as requested.

The proposal for international monitoring reminds us of IMF policies, Lula stated in his address to the summit on its closing day, Dec. 18; we're not going back to that. "We have to be very careful with this intrusion into the developing and poorest countries. With the experience which our countries have had, be it with the IMF or the World Bank, it is not recommended that this continue to occur in the 21st Century."

...Not So Fidel Castro

Dec. 22 (EIRNS)—When it came to Copenhagen, veteran Synarchist Fidel Castro once again came down firmly on the side of the British monarchy's plans for genocide through world dictatorship against development, with his would-be imitators eagerly trotting along.

Draping their Union Jacks with "anti-imperialist" rhetoric, Castro, along with Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia, demanded acceptance of the global warming fraud, as well as the world dictatorship that the British sought—but failed—to ram down governments' throats at the summit.

In a Dec. 21 article in Granma, Castro warned that "a great catastrophe threatens our species"—global warming—and chastised Barack Obama for not forcing through a binding agreement at Copenhagen, imposing a reduction of at least 45% of carbon emissions by the year 2020, and of no less than 80% or 90% by 2050.

That view is consistent with Castro's parroting of the Club of Rome's Malthusian lie that elevating Chinese living standards to modern industrial levels should not be permitted, as it would threaten the world's resources.

Chávez postured that the failure to produce a binding agreement for restricting development was the work of the "imperial dictatorship" of the United States that has been imposed on the world. Morales added in his speech that the capitalist system caused global warming, and must be eliminated, if mankind is to survive. He repeated his call for an international climate court which would prosecute governments that commit "ecological crimes."

Brazil Moves Toward South America's First High-Speed Train

Dec. 22 (EIRNS)—Earlier this month, Brazil opened the bidding process for construction of its first "bullet train," which is to link Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, its two largest cities, in the country's industrial heartland where 40 million people live—20% of Brazil's population. The train is to have a maximum velocity of 350 kph (217 mph) and be completed by 2015. Public hearings are scheduled in January, and final conditions for bidding are to be released in early February. Companies from Spain, Germany, Japan, China, and South Korea, among others, are interested in the project. Brazilian officials emphasize that the government will chose the construction company that offers the most favorable technology transfer conditions, as well as the lowest price.

Opponents of Argentine government plans to build a high-speed train between Buenos Aires and the industrial city of Rosario, fear that the Kirchner government might follow Brazil down these tracks.