EIR Daily Alert Service, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2019

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2019
Volume 6, Number 210
EIR Daily Alert Service
P.O. Box 17390, Washington, DC 20041-0390
  • Witnessing the Disintegration of the System-LaRouche Program Gives the Solutions
  • Putin and Erdogan Agree on ‘Momentous’ Decisions on Syria in Sochi Meeting
  • French and German Farmers’ Tractorcades in Major Cities Protest Farm Crisis, Eco-Madness
  • At IMF, Former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King Warns of ‘Financial Armageddon’
  • Elizabeth Warren Breaks the Silence on the ‘Repo’ Crisis
  • U.S. Credit Union Makes Case To Reenact Glass-Steagall To Deal With Banking Collapse
  • President Trump Optimistic About Signing ‘Phase One’ Trade Deal With China
  • Culiacan Debacle Puts LaRouche Anti-Drug Plan on U.S.-Mexico Agenda: ‘Operation Frozen’ To Stop Arms
  • Energy Secretary Perry in Europe Promotes Small Modular Reactors for ‘Vulnerable,’ Poor Nations
  • The People of Lebanon Take to the Streets, Demand Economic Reform
  • Anti-Austerity Rebellion Spreading in Ibero-America

EDITORIAL

Witnessing the Disintegration of the System—LaRouche Program Gives the Solutions

Oct. 22 (EIRNS)—We are seeing the disintegration of the Wall Street/City of London financial and geopolitical system. “One ominous sign,” noted Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche today, “is how many people are in the streets,” with mass demonstrations against austerity on several continents. “There are different causes and predicates,” she said, but the import is clear. The ‘Old Paradigm’ is unlivable. It is dead.

“We have solutions,” is the point she stressed. Five years ago—anticipating this crisis, the “Four Laws” were proposed by statesman Lyndon LaRouche, involving bank reorganization through reinstating the Glass-Steagall system, issuance of directed, plentiful credit for productivity-raising projects and baseline manufacturing, agriculture, and infrastructure; and science-driver programs for space exploration and harnessing fusion power. Doing this required the collaboration of major nations, especially the “Four Powers” of the U.S., China, Russia, and India. They can bring a “New Bretton Woods” system into being, based on mutual development. Our special focus today is to rebuild Syria and the other nations destroyed by the “regime change” wars in Southwest Asia, under the disastrous Bush and Obama Administrations. On the urgent development of Africa, 47 African nations will be represented at the first Russia-Africa Economic Forum conference in Sochi starting Wednesday.

Today in France and Germany, tens of thousands of farmers took to the roadways in their tractors and other machinery, to block 17 major German towns (Berlin, Munich, Erfurt and others,) and many cities in France, for the purpose of drawing attention to the farm and food production crisis. In Bonn, they focussed on the Agriculture Ministry. In Strasbourg, they targetted the European Parliament, to deliver their demands in person. The problems they cite are not only low prices, but the green dictatorship which outlaws farmers from judging how to use chemicals, care for livestock, and deploy farm equipment. Plus, the new U.S. tariffs on European specialty food exports hit hard on top of this.

Around the globe, are many points of mass protests against impossible conditions. The specifics differ—some conflicts are the direct result of London’s “color revolution” geopolitics, as in Hong Kong and Catalonia. But people are demonstrating over economic austerity in Lebanon, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, France, Germany and elsewhere. In Haiti, there have been weeks of mass appeals for relief from lack of clean water, lack of food and sanitation, and other basics.

Against this backdrop, last week’s IMF sessions in Washington, D.C. were especially disgusting. Wall Street and City of London figures demanded special treatment for their failed system. For example, although the Federal Reserve is advancing billions each day in liquidity pumping for major banks, former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said that, we must have more, fast. Speaking in Washington, he called on the Fed to start meeting “behind closed doors” with other central banks, and plot. “Congress should be confronted with a choice between financial Armageddon and a suspension of some of the rules that were introduced after the last crisis (2007-08) to limit the ability of the Fed to lend….”

The way out of this tumult, is the LaRouche economic and strategic program, for the mutual benefit of nations through development. Getting exoneration for LaRouche, throws wide the door to his ideas. The fact that people are increasingly open to seeing the bigger picture was pointed out by President Donald Trump yesterday at his Cabinet meeting, where he noted that he gets the biggest burst of applause at rallies when he reports that we are bringing the troops home from the “endless wars.”

On that front, progress has been reported at today’s meeting in Sochi between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin. They made an agreement to work against terrorism on the Turkish-Syrian border, which Russia will help facilitate. The fact that peace is breaking out in Syria could not have happened without the coordination between Presidents Trump and Putin—exactly the cooperation that the coup plotters have been frantic to prevent, first through the failed Russiagate hoax, and now with the absurd impeachment operation being run in secret “Star Chamber” style. Putin stressed that all parties should support the Geneva meeting Oct. 29-30 of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, for a political solution in Syria.

In the Americas, another Trump initiative against terrorism and crime is in motion—“Operation Frozen.” After Trump and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador spoke over the weekend, a binational effort was launched, with its first meeting yesterday, to collaborate on stopping the weapons flow from the U.S. to drug cartels in Mexico.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Putin and Erdogan Agree on ‘Momentous’ Decisions on Syria in Sochi Meeting

Oct. 22 (EIRNS)—Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in Sochi, today, and emerged with a joint memorandum on security along the Turkish-Syrian border just hours before the U.S.-Turkish agreement on a pause in Turkish military operations was scheduled to end. At a joint press conference, Putin said, “I cannot but express satisfaction with the fact that as a result of rather long and arduous work [we] managed to achieve agreements … that, I believe, are very important, if not momentous, and will help to resolve the complicated situation on the Syrian-Turkish border.”

Speaking separately, Putin also advocated that the Syrian government and Kurdish forces need to hold broad talks in order to take into account the interests of all the religious confessions that exist in the country, reported Sputnik. Putin stated that Russia shares Turkey’s concerns about separatist sentiments in Syria, which, as the Russian President said, have been stimulated from outside the country. Putin also stressed that the situation in northeast Syria should not block the launching of the Constitutional Committee, which is set to meet for the first time on Oct. 29-30 in Geneva.

The joint Putin-Erdogan statement, as published by the Turkish Daily Sabah, included the following points:

 The two sides reiterate their commitment to the preservation of the political unity and territorial integrity of Syria and the protection of Turkey’s national security.

 They emphasize their determination to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and to disrupt separatist agendas on Syrian territory.

 Within this framework, the established status quo in the current Operation Peace Spring area, covering Tel Abyad and Ras Al-Ayn within a depth of 32 km, will be preserved.

 Both sides reaffirm the importance of the Adana Agreement. The Russian Federation will facilitate the implementation of the Adana Agreement in the current circumstances.

 Beginning at noon on Oct. 23, Russian military police and Syrian border guards will oversee the withdrawal of armed Kurdish YPG elements on the border on either side of the Operation Peace Spring area. After 150 hours, when the withdrawal of the YPG to more than 30 km from the border should be completed, Russian-Turkish joint patrols of the border region will begin, with the exception of Qamishli.

COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM

French and German Farmers’ Tractorcades in Major Cities Protest Farm Crisis, Eco-Madness

Oct. 22 (EIRNS)—After major demonstrations in the Netherlands in recent weeks, on Oct. 22, hundreds of farmers from Germany and France parked their tractors in front of the European Parliament in Strasbourg and handed in their demands in person to resolve the farm crisis.

In Germany, protests took place in at least 17 cities, including Berlin, Bonn, Munich, Stuttgart, Leipzig, Hanover, Freiburg, Bayreuth, Erfurt, Oldenburg, and Görlitz. They have been organized by a movement known as “Land schafft Verbindung,” which brought together tens of thousands of farmers through social media platforms.

According to German police, by 10 this morning around 200 tractors and other agricultural equipment arrived from Brandenburg to Berlin. In Bonn, where Germany’s Agriculture Ministry is headquartered, a further 10,000 protesters drove 1,000 tractors to the city center to join a rally.

Protesters called on German Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner (CDU) and Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) to withdraw current agricultural and climate policies, and instead consult with farmers. A particular bone of contention is a new package introduced in early September that legislated for more nature and animal “protection” in agriculture.

In France, thousands of farmers protested today throughout the country in front of the prefectures of each region and department. Lack of respect for their work and low prices for producers are a major concern. As a result, farmers are leaving agriculture, and farmer suicides are numerous and constant.

As of this year, French farms have dropped to 460,000, as compared to 750,000 two decades ago. One-quarter of French farmers are unmarried—twice the rate of the general population. And despite the doubling of farm sizes in the last two decades, 40% French farmers earn less than €4,320 a year in farming. Without their subsidies from Brussels, tens of thousands of them would such losses, they would have to leave farming.

Whereas in 1979, the individual French farmer could feed 15 people, each farm now produces enough to feed 60 people. “We feed people, but farming doesn’t feed us,” said Philippe Grégoire, a dairy farmer was quoted as telling media.

President Emmanuel Macron promised much, but delivered nothing.

Some of the factors feeding farmers’ anger throughout Europe are:

1) Climate hysteria. Farmers and “intensive agriculture” are accused of causing climate change, blamed for consumer fears and shifts away from eating meat and dairy.

2) The phase-out of the controversial weed killer glyphosate by 2023 and plans to drastically reduce nitrate levels in the groundwater by cutting out certain fertilizers.

3) Free trade agreements, such as Mercosur with Latin America or the CETA with Canada.

4) The impact of $7.5 billion worth of sanctions by the U.S. that came into effect on Oct. 18, against European imports, such as specialty cheeses.

5)  Unfair prices. Supermarkets are squeezing farmer prices.

6)  The phasing out, since the 1990s, of the guaranteed farm prices once offered by the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), worsened by the Brexit. If the U.K. leaves the EU, Brussels will have less income and will reduce farm subsidies. The European Commission announced last year that, post-Brexit, it needed to cut the CAP budget by 5% from 2021.

At IMF, Former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King Warns of ‘Financial Armageddon’

Oct. 22 (EIRNS)—While the current Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney is on his Green finance high horse, his predecessor Mervyn King is warning that the world economy is sleepwalking into a new financial crisis. Although King says the crisis will not start in the U.S. banking system, he argues the U.S. Federal Reserve must be given the “firepower” to save the financial system. In a lecture in Washington at Oct. 19 Per Jacobsson Lecture during the International Monetary Fund annual meeting, King said: “Another economic and financial crisis would be devastating to the legitimacy of a democratic market system. By sticking to the new orthodoxy of monetary policy and pretending that we have made the banking system safe, we are sleepwalking towards that crisis.”

According to the Guardian King warned that the U.S. faces a “financial Armageddon” if the U.S. Federal Reserve is not given back the full and “necessary firepower” to deal with a new crisis. He further said that there has been no “questioning of the basic ideas underpinning economic policy. That needs to change.”

He wrongly claims that “the world as a whole is suffering from demand-led secular stagnation.”

He went on: “It is the failure to face up to the need for action on many policy fronts that has led to the demand stagnation of the past decade. And without action … there is a risk of another financial crisis, emanating this time not from the U.S. banking system but from weak financial systems elsewhere.”

King called on the Fed and other central banks to begin talks “behind closed doors,” saying “Congress would be confronted with a choice between financial Armageddon and a suspension of some of the rules that were introduced after the last crisis to limit the ability of the Fed to lend.”

He said nothing on climate change, nor on a fight for the real solution, a Glass-Steagall-type bank separation.

Elizabeth Warren Breaks the Silence on the ‘Repo’ Crisis

Oct. 22 (EIRNS)—Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) wrote a public letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin Oct. 18, breaking the strange silence of American elected officials and media over the liquidity crisis in the interbank market escalating since Sept. 16. The letter is the counterpole to former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King’s demand on Oct. 19 that the U.S. Congress remove post-2008-crash regulations on the big banks and the Fed, or face “financial Armageddon.”

Warren’s letter began by demanding that Mnuchin explain what is going on, that is causing the banks to need tens of billions of liquidity injections daily from the Fed.

As she sent it last week, the banks’ liquidity hole kept getting bigger. On Oct. 22, Tuesday morning, day 37 of the crisis, total demand from the banks for Fed liquidity loans reached a new high of $117 billion, while the New York Fed was offering a limit of $110 billion between its overnight and its two-week repurchase loan operations. The same morning, the New York Fed bought $7.5 billion in securities from the big banks—its resumed quantitative easing operation—but the demand for those purchases was 5.5 times that, at $41.5 billion.

The second point of Warren’s letter tried pre-emptively to attack the same panic that Mervyn King was ginning up. King may have been demanding that the “bail-in” rules imposed across Europe be replaced by a return to bailouts by central banks including the Federal Reserve. Warren’s letter, on the other hand, demanded to know whether, in the words of a Sept. 18 Reuters wire, “Big U.S. banks are using the recent chaos in short-term funding markets as an opportunity to pressure the Federal Reserve to ease liquidity requirements they have long despised.”

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon claimed on Oct. 19 that those regulations were causing an interbank liquidity crisis. Warren’s statement describing her letter said, these rules were “imposed these rules after the 2008 crisis to ensure that banks have enough cash on hand to meet their obligations in the event of another market crash.”

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

U.S. Credit Union Makes Case To Reenact Glass-Steagall To Deal with Banking Collapse

Oct. 22 (EIRNS)—Dan Berger, the chief executive officer of the National Association of Federally-insured Credit Unions (NAFCU) made a call on Sept. 17 for reenactment of the Glass-Steagall Act. He warned that the big banks have to be broken up before the cause an economic collapse if one of them failed.

“One bank is bigger than an entire credit union industry out there—there are trillion dollar institutions, so you have large investment banks using consumer’s deposits to make risky investments,” Berger told the Hill.TV co-host Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton on the Sept. 17 broadcast of “Rising.”

“The recession could probably hit end of 2019—maybe the first, second quarter of 2020, something for Congress to take a look at so American consumers are protected,” Berger said.

He argued for Congress to bring back the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial banking from investment banking.

President Trump Optimistic about Signing ‘Phase One’ Trade Deal with China

Oct. 22 (EIRNS)—During a public meeting with his cabinet yesterday, President Donald Trump expressed optimism that “phase one” of a trade deal with China can be finalized by the time of, or during, the Nov. 16-17 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Santiago, Chile. The deal with China is “coming along very well,” the President said.

Similar sentiment was expressed yesterday by China’s Deputy Foreign Minister Le Yucheng, speaking at the Xiangshan Security Forum in Beijing. The world, he said, wants China and the U.S. to end their trade war, which requires openness rather than a decoupling of the two nations’ economies or a new Cold War. Le observed that some progress has been made in trade talks, and was optimistic that remaining problems can be solved as long as both sides showed respect for each other, CNBC reported him as saying. “No country can prosper without working with other nations,” he emphasized.

During yesterday’s Cabinet meeting, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer also said that “phase one” can probably be signed by mid-November, although he indicated there are still some outstanding issues to be resolved. Yesterday, bilateral meetings took place at the deputy level, and on Oct. 25, Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will speak by phone with their Chinese counterparts.

Culiacan Debacle Puts LaRouche Anti-Drug Planon U.S.-Mexico Agenda: ‘Operation Frozen’ To Stop Arms

Oct. 22 (EIRNS)—EIR’s March 29, 2019, article, “The LaRouche Plan To ‘Hermetically Seal’ the Border against Drug-Traffic,” has quickly made the “Most Read” list on Sonora’s well-read “Dossier Politico” website this week, after it was re-published in full yesterday by columnist Hugo López Ochoa, in the midst of a national crisis following the crushing display of drug cartel military power five days ago in Culiacan, state capital of Sinaloa.

On Oct. 17, drug cartel gunmen descended on Culiacan from across the state of Sinaloa, as soon as Mexican Army units moved into the city to capture Ovidio Guzman, the son of convicted narco kingpin “El Chapo” Guzman. Ovidio Guzman is wanted by the U.S. for trafficking cocaine, marijuana, and methamphetamine; El Chapo is already in the U.S.’s most-secure prison. After cartel killers took control of the city’s streets and airport, surrounded the Army unit which had captured Ovidio, and threatened to kill any and all, military and civilians alike, if he was not released, Ovidio was released by Mexican authorities, in order to prevent a greater bloodbath.

What happened in Culiacan, “where the narcos exhibited to the world the power which they have gained in Mexico by seizing a city of more than 1 million inhabitants, and paralyzing it by terror for hours, underlines the urgency of applying the LaRouche Plan,” López Ochoa wrote in his short introduction to EIR’s March 29 article. The proposal will drive Soros’s drug legalizers crazy, “but the time has come for sensible people who voted for [Mexican President] AMLO, and even those who honestly did not, to seriously reflect on the need for a change in strategy on this subject,” he stated.

A move towards that change is emerging out of the crisis. Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard reported on Oct. 19, that when President Donald Trump spoke with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) on Oct. 19, AMLO proposed that the U.S. and Mexico deploy technology to close the borders to the weapons trafficking through which the cartels are armed—a central element of the warplan detailed in the article on LaRouche’s proposals to seal the border to drug-trafficking.

According to Ebrard, AMLO told Trump that the cartel gunmen wielded weapons which could easily pierce almost any armor, including at long distances, and Trump agreed with the idea of “freezing— not reducing, freezing the arms traffic into Mexico.” Reuters cited Ebrard, that “the idea is to install at all border crossings advanced lasers, X-rays, and metal detectors, capable of even detecting chemical products,” thus interdicting both drugs going north across the border as well as arms going south. Trump thought the idea of deploying technology was a good one, according press accounts of Ebrard’s briefing.

On Oct. 21, U.S. Ambassador Chris Landau and four Mexican cabinet officials (Defense, Navy, Foreign Relations and Citizen Security and Protection) reached an agreement at a meeting with their teams, to immediately launch “Operation Frozen,” in which the two governments will coordinate security strategies for the border, share intelligence and carry out joint actions in order to “seal the borders” against the weapons trafficking, “each country from their own responsibilities and within a sovereign framework.” Ambassador Landau tweeted that the intention is to face a common threat which “neither of the countries can face alone.”

AMLO has tweeted his gratitude to President Trump for his “respect for our sovereignty and his will to maintain a good neighbor policy, based upon cooperation in development and the well-being of our peoples.”

SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE

Energy Secretary Perry in Europe Promotes Small Modular Reactors for ‘Vulnerable,’ Poor Nations

Oct. 22 (EIRNS)—Outgoing Energy Secretary Rick Perry was in Brussels yesterday, addressing the “First U.S.-EU High-Level Industrial Forum on Small Modular Reactors.” His speech, according to Euractiv website, focused heavily on how small modular reactors, or SMRs, can aid “vulnerable” nations “take control of their destinies.”

Small, off-grid nuclear plants can bring electricity to poor nations, Perry said. “Countries with nuclear power can’t be controlled by other countries wielding energy as a geopolitical weapon,” he argued, reportedly addressing Eastern European nations that have energy deals with Russia. But, he continued, “imagine what small modular reactors can do. Imagine them delivering power everywhere, bringing light to even the smallest villages and far away hamlets dotting the globe. We can disperse the darkness. We can bring life-changing power to these people.”

According to Power magazine, Perry focussed heavily on the role of public-private partnerships (PPP) for financing SMRs. One Department of Energy (DOE) official told Power that several EU member states, including Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania, have already signed memoranda of understanding with several U.S. private-sector entities that are developing SMR technology.

Perry recalled that following President Donald Trump’s 2018 signing of the Nuclear Energy Innovation Capabilities Act, intended to speed up development of advanced reactors in the U.S., the DOE had established the National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) to speed up licensing and commercialization of advanced reactors. According to Perry, “Idaho National Labs, in Idaho Falls, will be where the NRIC provides a platform for U.S. companies to assess the performance of their reactor conceptions through testing and demonstration. So, it’s a classic public-private partnership,” Perry said.

Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Rita Baranwal told Power that at the late September meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between Westinghouse, EDF, and CEA in France, “on a project that they are calling NUWARD—so, nuclear forward, if you will, NUWARD. And that is focused on an SMR concept that is 300-400 MW electric.”

OTHER

The People of Lebanon Take to the Streets, Demand Economic Reform

Oct. 22 (EIRNS)—The people of Lebanon, all 12 religions included (Christians, Muslims, Druze, and all the others) have taken to the streets since Oct. 17, throughout the country, in the hundreds of thousands. They are calling this movement a revolution against corruption and are demanding the fall of the entire government—President Michel Aoun, Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri. All of the established leaders since the return of Aoun in 2005 have lost the population’s trust, even the head of the Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, who used to be a real hero among the Shi’ites.

The demonstrators are demanding their replacement by a temporary but strong government that will carry out a significant economic reform, and also a political reform. While the economic reform demanded is not so clear, except that they want it to be favorable to the lower and middle classes, the political reform would definitely be a revolution in Lebanon’s confessional political system. The demonstrators are demanding that Article 22 of the Constitution be immediately implemented, which would transform the unicameral system of Lebanon into a bicameral one. Today the Assembly is elected according to religious belief, in specific quotas. In the new bicameral system, the members of Parliament would be voted on, not on the basis of their religious belief, but on a political program. The Senate would remain confessionally defined. The problem with the present Assembly is that, because of its confessional character, no majorities can be formed on issues, and therefore, problems are never solved.

The movement has been so strong that the government decided to adopt the 2020 budget, as an emergency. The budget was already ready and presented, and nobody knows why it had not been adopted. Some new concessions were added by President Aoun, such as the demand that secrecy be lifted on the bank accounts of all ministers and government members, as a signal to protesters that corruption will be brought to an end. The other measure is a 50% cut in the wages of the present and former presidents and ministers.

While forces here and there admit that the spark for this revolt may have been lit by the usual culprits of regime change revolutions, the vast majority of reactions, including from the enemies of the neocons’ regime-change revolutions, admit that there is massive discontent against the low standards of living, high taxes, etc.

Starting with President Aoun himself, who is clearly maneuvering to stay in power, there is rapid response to the demands of the people. In the last few hours Aoun, after meeting with Prime Minister Hariri, and accelerating the adoption of the 2020 budget, remarked that the “people are indeed in a bad situation and they are right,” but that they are wrong to lump all the leaders into the category of corruption.

Leaders of the uprising on the ground reported to this news service that the Lebanese are in the streets to get a full change of policy and not a color revolution. They don’t know to what extent they will succeed, but that they are ready to deal against any such destabilization.

Anti-Austerity Rebellion Spreading in Ibero-America

Oct. 22 (EIRNS)—Demonstrations against austerity are spreading in Ibero-America.

Chile: Unrest and protest continue, despite three days of curfews, state of emergency and militarization; 15 people have now died; 1,400 are detained. The sound of pots-and-pans protests are everywhere. President Sebastián Piñera, who is supposed to host the Nov. 16-17 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, has now backtracked from his Oct. 21 diversionary statement that “we are at war with a powerful and implacable enemy” and is proposing to meet with representatives of the opposition to produce a new “social agreement” to “find better solutions to the problems facing Chileans.” But the billionaire Piñera doesn’t seem to grasp the meaning of the slogan “it’s not 30 pesos”—the amount by which he was going to increase metro fare, “but 30 years” of “Chicago Boy” austerity and crushing of economic and social rights. Last night, Chilean miners and other trade union groups announced they were going on strike in solidarity with protesters.

Ecuador: Although there is tense calm, after President Lenin Moreno withdrew one of the IMF’s egregious demands for eliminating fuel subsidies, severely affecting lower-income sectors, nothing is settled here. Moreno is committed to applying other austerity measures in exchange for the IMF’s $4.3 billion loan, and protests could break out at any time.

Haiti: This is a real catastrophe, as the nation has effectively ceased to function. For months, violent protest has wracked the capital of Port-au-Prince, demanding the resignation of President Jovenel Moïse. He is charged with corruption, diverting funds from the Petrocaribe program which allowed Haiti to import Venezuelan oil at subsidized prices and also provide for anti-poverty programs, and ignoring the nation’s pressing economic needs. The fact that infrastructure was never built after the devastating 2010 earthquake—despite hundreds of millions in donations for that purpose—is another issue that enrages people.

Reach us at eirdailyalert@larouchepub.com or call 1-571-293-0935

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