Zepp-LaRouche Sparks
Peru Mass Movement
[Print version of this article]
Nov. 29—Few voices have ever been heard in any national conference of any economist associations in the trans-Atlantic region in recent decades discussing even the status of the existing physical economy, let alone a vision for its future development.
Not so in the XXIII Annual Congress of the Peru Association of Economists, held from Nov. 17-19. The Ucayali chapter of the national association, hosting this year’s congress, organized the gathering around the subject of “The Peru-Brazil Bioceanic Railroad: Impact on the Economy of the Amazon Region and the Country,” and they invited the world-renowned “Silk Road Lady,” Schiller Institute founder and president Helga Zepp-LaRouche, to deliver the keynote presentation.
The Congress was held in Pucallpa, a city of some 210,000 people which is the capital of the department of Ucayali in Peru’s Amazon region. The Ucayali economists have been in active discussions with several Chinese institutions on building the bioceanic train connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific through Peru and Brazil for good reason: Pucallpa is only an hour and 10 minute flight from the nation’s capital, Lima, yet it takes two and a half days to reach Pucallpa by land, because of the condition of the roads leading to it. These folks understood that investment in infrastructure is required if any development is to occur.
Zepp-LaRouche presented the Economists congress, however, with a sweeping overview of the stunning potential for a New Paradigm for all of humanity, and what Peru’s role can and should be in advancing it, which went far beyond the common, limited notion of infrastructure (see Nov. 25 EIR), and the effect was electrifying.
‘Economy From the Moon’
“Congress of Economists Discusses a Futurist Plan of a Lunar Economy,” Impetu, the “dean” of the Pucallpa media, headlined its coverage of the congress, featuring Zepp-LaRouche’s presentation. Zepp-LaRouche “argued that in less than a year, an alliance of nations has been created, which has built a parallel economy at breakneck speed dedicated exclusively to the building of the real economy, in opposition to the maximization of speculative monetary gain, which now includes more than half of humanity,” Impetu wrote.
“This new community of nations”—Zepp-LaRouche continued—“represents a center of power based on economic growth, and above all, on advanced technology which belongs to the future, as is seen in the success of the Chinese moon exploration program, focused on the idea of bringing great quantities of helium-3 from the Moon to Earth for the future thermonuclear fusion economy. She argued that this orientation for a futurist economy points the way to a scientific and technological revolution which will increase, by orders of magnitude, energy flux density, both in the production process on Earth, as well as in the fuel for space travel, and, in this way, introduce a completely new phase in the evolution of the human species.”
Another Pucallpa daily, Al Dia, headlined its coverage: “Specialist Helga Zepp Explained Via Internet to the Congress of Economists that the Bi-oceanic Railroad Can Bring the World to a More Just Economic Order.”
Zepp-LaRouche “explained that the bi-oceanic railroad is a project which will change the current world, which is seeking a more just economic order,” they reported.
“She noted that the change of world paradigms, recently exemplified in the Brexit vote and the U.S. presidential elections, in the context of the global trans-Atlantic financial crisis, which is much worse than that of 2009, may have in the bi-oceanic railroad a basis for world economic recovery.
“Helga Zepp reviewed the history of China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ policy, the alternative to the trans-Atlantic financial collapse, as well as her own activity over 45 years, along with the U.S. economist Lyndon LaRouche, and with developing sector statesmen such as Indira and Rashid [sic] Gandhi and José López Portillo, among others, in support of development corridors designed to build a more just world economic order.
“Zepp-LaRouche’s presentation shows the unique opportunity that the Brazil-Peru trans-continental rail project represents, which is being supported by broad political, business and professional sectors in Peru and South America, and by the Chinese government; whereas The Economist of London has attacked it as damaging to the Amazon ‘environment,’ a false and misleading argument, according to social organizations of the Peruvian Amazon region,” the newspaper concluded.
A National Mobilization Begins
Zepp-LaRouche delivered her keynote address on Nov. 17, at the opening session of the congress. On the second day, a parallel meeting was held in Pucallpa to pressure for the immediate adoption of China’s proposed Bioceanic Rail Corridor. More than 400 people attended this public session of the Transportation Committee of the National Congress of Peru, eight of whose members traveled from Lima to Pucallpa for the occasion. Numerous regional governors, including of the host region Ucayali, and mayors were also present, along with a number of popular organizations and business groups, as well as a strong delegation from the Association of Economists (whose national congress continued nearby). Peru’s major national print and TV media were also present.
 EIRNS
Helga Zepp-LaRouche delivering the keynote to the 23rd National Congress of the Association of Economists of Peru on Nov. 18, 2016.
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Hundreds of copies of a DVD of Zepp-LaRouche’s presentation the day before, were handed out to those present by the head of the Ucayali Economists Association, as were hundreds of copies of the 60-page pamphlet published by the association, containing excerpts from EIR’s “The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge” special report, and Lyndon LaRouche’s Four Laws.
All of the congressmen present came out strongly in favor of the rail project, with a number of them denouncing the government of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (PPK) for blocking the project. Congressman Carlos Tubino of the “Fujimorista” Fuerza Popular party (which was defeated in the recent presidential elections by Boston banker PPK), announced that, immediately upon his return to Lima, he would be calling a hearing in the national Congress on the rail project, and requiring the presence for questioning on the matter of PPK’s Transportation Minister.
The Ucayali Development Front, a regional popular organization, spoke of organizing a regional strike if the rail project is not begun immediately. The Governor of Ucayali also spoke forcefully for the project. A detailed report on the technical details and feasibility of the project was given by Justo Vargas, an adviser to the Governor of Ucayali and a leading organizer of the Economists Association congress, who had also traveled to China earlier this year for meetings with CREEC (the China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group Company, Ltd.) and others. All in all, some 18 people—including EIR’s Peru representative Luis Vasquez—addressed the explosive meeting, of whom 16 voiced unqualified support for the project; only two raised “environmentalist” concerns.
‘We Share Zepp-LaRouche’s View’
Following the conclusion of the congress of the Economists, Roberto Vela Pinedo, Dean of the Association of Economists of Ucayali, issued a document summarizing the results of the gathering, sent to all 24 regional Associations of Economists in Peru with their 20,000 or so members. Its opening statement was blunt:
We economists of Peru, gathered in the city of Pucallpa, informing national and international public opinion of our position regarding the current situation of the country and the world, state the following:
1) That, analyzing the keynote address presented to us by Dr. Helga Zepp-LaRouche, we share the perspective on world development that her message presented, and which can be seen at the following link: http://financiardesarrollo.blogspot.pe/2016/11/la-ferrovia-transcontinental-brasil.html ”
After this opening point of emphasis, Vela went on to write:
6) To overcome this crisis, the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), led by China and Russia, proposed and initiated the construction of a new financial architecture directed at developing nations’ physical economies, in a sovereign relationship in which everyone wins (the ‘win-win’ [original in English—ed.]) strategy, that demolishes the ancien regime’s zero-sum game, under which some win and others lose. . . Peru must join this process in order to achieve growth.
7) We must restructure the state’s economic policy and replace the neoliberal model with a model of development of productive transformation with equity. . .
8) We need to apply science, technology and innovation in our economic development, as the basis for being competitive. . .
11) We must create a Ministry of Strategic Planning to formulate the vision of the country we wish to be. . . and have a new Ministry of Technology and Production. . .
16) The first great step along the path of industrial development and the promotion of scientific and technological capabilities, is that Peru, as a paradigmatic example of this new sovereign relationship in which everyone wins (the ‘win-win’ strategy), should approve the proposal of the government of the Popular Republic of China to build a trans-continental railroad along the Northern Route, which would link the ports of Santos in Brazil and Bayovar in Peru, emphasizing the development of hundreds of complementary projects, such as: agriculture, agro-industry, manufacturing, fishing, ports, nuclear energy, petrochemicals, scientific and technological innovation, road infrastructure, the creation of new intelligent cities, and the creation of thousands of jobs, etc.
After four days of deliberations, we have agreed to demand that the central government [of Peru] accept and promote the construction of this mega-project, given that it is the only one at this time focused on continental integration, and which already has a signed Memorandum of Understanding among the governments of the China, Brazil and Peru.
—Gretchen Small
