In Brief
Argentina's Collapse As we go to press on December 21, the Argentine government of Fernando de la Rtia, faced with deepening economic crisis and violent street protests, has fallen. De la...
...together these have come to be known as the "emerging market crisis...
...Recent reports of the incident describe how members of an elite army unit fired indiscriminately at students gathered at the Plaza de las Tres Culturas...
...That's what international economic policy experts like Riordan Roett have pointed out...
...Throughout Venezuela, almost all activity in trade, industry, banking, the rural sector, the pharmacies, private clinics, land and ferry-boat transport, bakeries and private schools came to a standstill, although the oil industry, air transport and public bodies continued to operate...
...The first response is simple though true: IMF officials under the ideological leadership of Stanford economist Anne Krueger have decided to limit their rescues of bankrupt Third World governments...
...Fox's pledge followed the release of a 3,000-page report providing details of the government's "dirty war" during the 1970s and 1980s...
...Farmers also flocked to Santa Ines-a town in the southwestern plains in Barinas, Chdvez's home state-where Chavez formally signed the Land Law, which has become a symbol of the president's "social revolution...
...Sources Carlos Marichal teaches economic history at the Colegio de Mexico in Mexico City...
...That's why U.S...
...L6pez Portillo also denied responsibility...
...We are fully committed to human rights and fully committed to the rule of law in Mexico...
...Although the President offered to amend certain aspects of the laws, he said they would go into effect as planned...
...www.globalinfo.org SourceMex is a weekly publication of the Latin America Data Base, an online news service available at http://Iadb.unm.edu/ For subscription information, visit LADB's website or call 1-800-472-0888...
...I was the president, not a police officer...
...Beyond these individual cases, human rights organizations called on Fox to show a greater commitment to solving the October murder of human rights activist and lawyer Digna Ochoa...
...Translation by NACLA...
...Chavez, who was granted special powers a year ago by parliament-where his Fifth Republic Movement commands a majority--decreed a package of 49 laws last month on economic, social and administrative reforms, raising an immediate outcry among the business community and the traditional parties...
...The new office would prosecute those responsible for abuses and arrange for reparations to the victims or their families...
...It seems necessary to stress once again that finances and politics are closely intertwined...
...government bear clear responsibility for not seeking an earlier and more orderly solution...
...Fox pledged to appoint a "totally independent" special prosecutor to review the cases...
...The call for the business strike soon turned into a torrent of opposition to Chavez, with the leading newspapers deciding not to print, and most trade unions and business associations announcing their support for the measure...
...I did not know anything," the expresident said in a press conference...
...De la Raa and his economy minister, Domingo Cavallo, have resigned, and the country faces an uncertain future...
...Echeverrfa was also interior secretary during the administration of former President Gustavo Dfaz Ordaz (1964-1970), which ordered the bloody repression of demonstrators in Tlatelolco in 1968...
...Carlos Marichal Mexican Human Rights Commission Releases Report on 1970s "Dirty War" MEXICO CITY-President Vicente Fox, seeking to fulfill his campaign promise to promote a more open government, ordered the creation of a special prosecutor's office to investigate the deaths of hundreds of suspected leftists at the hands of government forces two decades ago...
...He is the author of A Century of Debt Crises in Latin America (Princeton University Press, 1989), and has been a frequent contributor to NACLA...
...It is irrefutable that many responses by public forces were conducted outside the law, particularly forced disappearances, which seriously ruptured all legality by imposing an authoritarian remedy on a political problem," said CNDH director Jos6 Luis Soberanes Fernindez...
...The following analysis was written on the day of the collapse by political economist Carlos Marichal...
...What we want is action...
...Many urged the president to give the new prosecutor full autonomy to ensure adequate follow-up and prosecution of the cases...
...The process is open to all of that," said Fox...
...Meanwhile, thousands of small farmers gathered in the capital to support the president...
...The debt and bank crises that exploded in Mexico, Thailand, Korea, Indonesia, Russia and Turkey between 1995 and 2000 were partially resolved by means of rescues orchestrated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the U.S...
...In response to the strike, which emptied the streets of Venezuela's main cities, Chavez called on peasant farmers to express their support for his "social revolution," and thousands gathered in the main square in downtown Caracas...
...support for auctioning off public enterprises at bargain prices and loading the government up with debts...
...The outcome of the much-foretold Argentine financial crisis didn't have to be a frightening total collapse...
...The call for a 12-hour strike, issued by the leading business association, Fedecamaras, was answered by hundreds of its member organizations nationwide as well as the country's largest trade union, the Workers' Confederation (CTV...
...This is despite the fact that the Argentine economy minister, Domingo Cavallo, performed the most extraordinary financial pirouettes in order to avoid a devaluation and total collapse...
...Another big chunk resulted from the privatization policies pushed by the not-soimpeccable Carlos Menem administration at the beginning of the 1990s...
...Chivez's opponents complain that they were not consulted before the laws were passed, as required by the constitution, and that the new laws violate the right to property and scare off foreign investment...
...now NATO) bases in Turkey assure that the money will keep flowing to Ankara...
...The abuses occurred primarily during the administrations of Echeverria (1970-1976) and his successor, Jos6 L6pez Portillo (1976-1982...
...The human rights of hundreds of people were violated by groups formed under the auspices of national security...
...At that time Domingo Cavallo was able to count on U.S...
...It's worth remembering that this iniciative was originally launched at the end of the 1980s by Bush Sr...
...The PRODH also said the Fox government should be held accountable for unexplained disappearances of individuals in Chiapas, Colima, Sonora, and Baja California states since December 2000...
...We don't want any more proposals," said Rosario Ibarra, leader of the human rights group Eureka Committee, whose son was among the disappeared...
...The basic problem, however, is different...
...It originally appeared in the Mexican daily, La Jornada...
...It enjoys Category I NGO consultative status with the United Nations...
...Nevertheless, it should be stressed that this policy hasn't been consistently applied...
...This is because one area that must be investigated thoroughly is the involvement of the armed forces in these cases...
...InterPress Service is an alternative source of news and analysis from a Third World perspective...
...I'm not responsible...
...The report by the government's National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) named at least 74 officials from 37 government agencies who were involved in a campaign of disappearances, torture, and executions of leftists in the 1970s and 1980s...
...We want them to tell us where the disappeared are...
...IPS is a non-governmental organization structured as a non-profit International Association of Journalists...
...I was commander in chief of the army, and, under my command, it acted with total honesty...
...The crux of the Argentine crisis is a result of the accumulation of a huge debt, which can't be separated from political history in its national and international dimensions...
...SourceMex Venezuelan Business and Labor Groups Bring Country to a Halt CARACAS - Roads were deserted and shutters closed across Venezuela on December 10 as business associations and a leading trade union brought most activity in the country to a halt to protest the economic policies of President Hugo Chavez...
...Argentina's collapse wouldn't just serve as a lesson about the IMF's power but also assure the collapse of Mercosur, the regional customs union...
...Also listed in the document is exfederal safety director Francisco Guti6rrez Barrios, who eventually was appointed interior secretary by former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari...
...It would significantly weaken Brazil's capacity to negotiate with the United States concerning the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas [See "FTAA of the Americas: NAFTA Marches South, p. 27...
...But some critics accused Fox of only paying lip service to human rights and lacking the political courage to prosecute rights abusers...
...The leading figures in the IMF believe that Fernando de La Rija's administration doesn't deserve any more support, and they argue that its failure will make it an object lesson for international investors about the dangers of lending to less developed countries that face fiscal or economic problems...
...The IMF recently decided to continue supporting Turkey, which continues to suffer from large deficits and high inflation.Why support Turkey and not Argentina...
...But this U.S...
...By contrast, Argentina doesn't have strategic military importance for the Bush administration...
...One of the new laws is the Land Law, aimed at breaking up unproductive estates and distributing plots of land to poor peasant farmers in a country where 1% of the population owns 60% of the farmland...
...Fox said the agency would extend its investigations to more recent cases, such as massacres at Aguas Blancas in Guerrero state in 1995 and Acteal in Chiapas state in December 1997...
...Edgar C6rtez, director of the Jesuit-run Miguel Agustin Pro Human Rights Commission (PRODH...
...The presence of U.S...
...Asked if that could include high-ranking officials, even someone at the level of former President Luis Echeverria Alvarez, Fox responded, "When I say everybody, I mean everybody...
...A large part of the Argentine debt originated with the international bank loans taken out by the military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983 in order to buy armaments...
...Both former presidents, who are members of the long-governing Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), criticized Fox for reopening the cases, and both denied responsibility in the disappearances...
...Prominent among those named in the report are army Generals Francisco Quiros Hermosillo and Arturo Acosta Chaparro, who were arrested in 2000 on charges of aiding the drug-trafficking cartel created by the late Amado Carillo Fuentes The CNDH document implicates Acosta Chaparro, who held the rank of captain in the 1970s and 1980s, in at least 29 cases of torture and forced disappearance...
...Their reticence about delivering a scheduled multibillion dollar portion of an IMF loan to Argentina before Christmas to help cover this South American country's foreign debt service is indicative of this strategy...
...In practice, Argentine officials have followed the IMF's instructions to the letter, squeezing ever more taxes out of the public, which has provoked massive protests in recent years, months and days...
...We will follow up in detail, case by case," Fox said...
...I'm not afraid of a trial," Echeverrfa told reporters...
...Continued on page 46 continued from page 2 The report said many victims disappeared after being taken to military bases, installations run by the Federal Directorate of Security (DFS) and clandestine jails throughout Mexico...
...government, but the current Argentine debacle doesn't look like it will be similarly solved...
...The IMF and the U.S...
...Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill supports the policy sketched out by Krueger and insists on punishing the South American government for not coming up with a zero budget deficit...
...project hasn't made much progress, in large part because of the existence of the South American Common Market...
...Today a new catastrophe is wiping out Argentina's economy and society...
...Instead of this, we have before us the specter of a financial catastrophe and a profound social policy crisis which is going to hit all of Latin America very hard...
...To complete this sad picture, in the last few years one loan after another has been taken out in order to cover the mounting public debt, but always with the knowledge of the IMF, which as we know, is a vigilant supervisor of national and international finances...
...Why hasn't the IMF wanted to rescue Argentina...
...The poor, who represent up to 80% of Venezuela's 24 million people, make up Chivez's main support base...
...Since the Mexican devaluation of December, 1994 several other major financial cataclysms have occurred in the Third World...
Vol. 35 • January 2002 • No. 4
