Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 6  Num. 81
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                    ("Quid coniuratio est?")

NEWS FROM OUR "NAFTA NEIGHBOR"
Hola, Amigos! Que Tal? Que Hay De Nuevo?

You remember how former Goldman-Sachs employee and now Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin helped Bill "The Generalisimo" Clinton send $50 billion down to Mexico earlier this year? To help out Goldman-Sach's investors who -- oh oh -- stood to lose some bucks when the Mexican Peso got devalued subsequent to the departure -- for "parts unknown" -- of "Harvard educated" Carlos Salinas?

Remember how all five living U.S. presidents marched proudly to the NAFTA tune? "Oh yes, NAFTA is going to mean jobs, jobs, jobs, when pent-up Mexican consumer demand is let loose in U.S. markets," they and impressive-looking and gabby "experts" clucked.

Well things are really going on down Mexico way, but you wouldn't know it by watching the "three stooges": Peter, Dan, and Tom of, respectively, evening "news" shows on ABC, CBS, and NBC. Of course these were the same bozos who helped propagandize NAFTA in the first place!

Reuters ("Mexico Bails Out Top Bank In Growing Crisis", 12/15/95) reports "a de-facto renationalization of the bank system that was privatised during the previous government of Carlos Salinas." It seems that drug-traffickers had been buying up -- "privatising" -- the banks and now the Mexican government is forced to bail out these same banks to keep them from collapsing. "According to an expose' in the New York Times last July, former Bush administration officials charged that they had been ordered by other senior Bush officials to hush up reports of drug activity under the Salinas team -- such as how drug-traffickers were buying up Mexican state companies that were being privatized," writes Gretchen Small in The New Federalist. ("Four Nations Investigating Salinas Money, Dope Ties", The New Federalist, 12/11/95)

The abovementioned Reuters article notes that every major Mexican bank, except Bancomer, has been forced to turn over part of their debts to the government. "The banking crisis is a story that gets worse every week," a Mexico City banking analyst is quoted as saying. Referring to the Mexican government's frantic attempts to prevent total disaster, Isaac Katz, chief economist at Mexico City's ITAM University, warns that the "government is trying to put out fires in one room when the whole house is burning down."

Harking back to NAFTA's glory days, when fancy talkers in ties were all chortling their chorus of praise, we can now hoot and howl in derision. "Officials now admit the probe into the global financial apparatus of former Mexican President Carlos Salinas and his family is being run at the highest level by a three- nation task force whose focus is drug-money laundering," writes Ms. Small in her above-cited article. "The investigations have proven that the Salinas regime was indeed a textbook case of how 'free trade' is a cover for dope and looting."

Say, couldn't we have used that $50 billion about right now, to help keep the government from shutting down?

In Conspiracy Nation, Volume 6, Number 67 (CN 6.67), we told you about how Raul Salinas de Gotari, brother of the vanished Carlos Salinas de Gotari, is on trial for murder -- charged with masterminding the killing of Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu, Raul's brother-in-law. Reuters now cites a Mexican newspaper (Reforma) as claiming that Mexico's federal prosecutor "has evidence to tie the assassinations of presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio and one-time Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) leader Francisco Ruiz Massieu." ("Deaths Of Mexico's Colosio, Ruiz Massieu Tied", 12/17/95) But links between the two murders are being hidden, according to Jesus Zambrano, part of the official commission looking into the assassination of Colosio. Says Zambrano, "...it is believed that the pressure has been so great on the former President (Carlos Salinas de Gotari) that he has made a deal with the President (Ernesto Zedillo) that will keep him from being held responsible."

Hot on the trail of the possible link between the murders of Colosio and Ruiz Massieu, investigators have travelled to the Canary Islands to interview two "witches" who may have information. El Financiero newspaper, according to a Reuters article ("Mexico Police Probe Witches In Colosio Case", 12/16/95), has said that Raul Salinas may have consulted with these "witches" regarding the Colosio slaying. You will recall from the above that Raul is charged in connection with the murder of Ruiz Massieu: so why would he seek out the two "witches" in regard to the death of Colosio? Unless, that is, there actually is a link between the two slayings. According to Reuters, "El Financiero said one version of the information had Raul Salinas attempting to contact the spirit of Colosio to ask forgiveness for the killing."

You will recall from CN 6.67 that the brother of the assassinated Ruiz Massieu, Mario Ruiz Massieu, has been implicated in his brother's murder and is now under arrest here in the United States. Mario is accused of trying to hide the alleged mastermind of the murder -- Raul Salinas -- from justice. Prosecutors have now said that they "may reduce the amount of money they have accused him of stealing." This looks good for Mario, who is fighting extradition back to Mexico. (Reuters, 12/15/95, "Extradition Efforts Set Back In Mexican Case".) Mario Ruiz Massieu "has been held without bail since his arrest March 3 at Newark International Airport by U.S. Customs Service officers, who found he was carrying thousands of undeclared dollars as he was preparing to board a flight to Spain with his family," says Reuters.

I encourage distribution of "Conspiracy Nation."

See also: http://www.europa.com/~johnlf/cn.html

See also: ftp ftp.shout.net pub/users/bigred