("Quid coniuratio est?")
"NOTHING IS HAPPENING"
Apparently, to watch the "news," "nothing" much is happening. Clinton is (yawn) doing a tough guy routine with Iraq. Bob Dole, the straw man from Kansas, is pretending to be running for President. Congress is "considering." About whatever is really occurring: "mum's the word."
So we turn to our new NAFTA neighbor, Mexico, where at least the whole country is not all "looking the other way" and pretending there is no news.
A new Special Prosecutor has been appointed to investigate the 1994 assassination of PRI presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio. The new Special Prosecutor, Luis Raul Gonzalez Perez, replaces Pablo Chapa Bezanilla. It is being demanded that Gonzalez Perez subpoena Mexico's ex-president Carlos Salinas de Gotari.
Past Special Prosecutor Bezanilla has refused to respond to more than 60 written questions on the Colosio case delivered to him by law school students at Mexico City's UNAM university.
According to La Jornada, "The dimunitive figure of the former Special Prosecutor in the Colosio case could be seen scurrying at top speed through the halls of the UNAM Law School. Behind him, about 20 reporters were earnestly trying to make him respond to diverse questions regarding the investigation. As his only response, Pablo Chapa Bezanilla gave a little smile."
Bezanilla's "little smile" came immediately following his participation in a meeting during which he had stressed the necessity of the current investigation's recovering its public credibility. But Bezanilla lamented to reporters that "he prefers to reflect on their questions," then exited at full speed from the building.
The Mexican mass media, unlike our own here in the united states, has been aggressive in its demand for the truth. Says Alfonso Molina Ruibal, president of the government commission charged with investigating the Colosio assassination, "If there had not existed such a firm position by the media... it is possible that the temptation to cover up would have prevailed."
According to Mexican journalists, the Carlos Salinas connection has not been sufficiently looked into and it could shed light on just who might be the "intellectual author" of the Colosio assassination.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in sunny Mexico, two policemen connected with something called "Transformacion 2000" shot at hundreds of pedestrians in Mexico City's Historic District who were trying to lynch them. This occurred after the two policemen tried to rescue the actor Carlos Bracho who had run over a 4-year-old child with his Jeep Cherokee automobile.
According to witnesses, the actor had tried to escape but dozens of pedestrians stopped him.
At this point the two policemen, Victor Manuel Mindez Fuentes and Israel Zarazza Robles, arrived. They tried to take away the actor, but were confronted with protests and outrage by the pedestrians. With shouts, and with some of them armed with sticks and bottles, they surrounded the trio and prevented their leaving.
The policemen, to clear the way, tried driving through the crowd and injured several of them, one of whom had to be hospitalized. With this, the anger of the crowd increased and they began to destroy the policemen's automobile. In the meantime, the police and the actor attempted to escape the ugly scene on foot, but were cut off and captured at the corner of Costa Rica and El Carmen streets.
Here, the policemen shot at their pursuers, wounding Felipe Acosta Suarez in the leg. But the shots did not deter the angry crowd which, more furious than ever, chased the uniformed officers to the Worker's University, where they took refuge.
At this point, hundreds tried to break down the door in order to drag out the policemen and set fire to them "in the middle of the street, like dogs," shouted some. Others proposed to hang them from a post and the majority favored just to throw them in the sewer. The two officers stayed hidden in a room on the second floor, where they tried to find different clothes to put on. Around 8 pm they were rescued by officials who, amid struggles, managed to move them to the primary agency of the Public Ministry. Even still, some of the inflamed crowd followed after them. Others went to the hospital to try and prevent the escape of actor Carlos Bracho and to "throw him in the sewer when we see him."
La Jornada gives a different perspective on the Iraq situation; it allows us to hear more of the Iraqi position regarding current tensions. Iraq rejects the legality of the "zones of exclusion," i.e., the "no-fly zones," imposed on them. The legality of these "zones of exclusion" has not been recognized by the United Nations Security Council.
This past May, an agreement had been reached to allow Iraq to export oil in return for food. Now, with this agreement apparently on hold due to renewed hostilities, the price of "October crude" oil has gone up 63 cents. So it looks like "somebody" is making a profit.
Elsewhere in Mexico, directors of banks and businesses are urgently making known to Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo their great worries over the violence generated by the Popular Army of the Revolution (EPR, Ejercito Popular Revolucionario) and to demand greater efficiency in the government's actions meant to counteract the growing popular unrest, a phenomena having negative impact on economic activity. They are demanding prompt solutions.
Respecting the offer made by U.S. Ambassador to Mexico James Jones to help combat the EPR, the general feeling is that, while grateful for the offer, Mexico must solve the problem itself.
While admitting that massive unemployment is fueling unrest, the businessmen and bankers refute those who sustain that Zedillo's neo-liberal economic policies are the cause of current troubles.
Meanwhile, orders of arrest have been issued against leaders of PROCUP and the FAC-MLN (see CN 9.05). They are to be interrogated regarding any knowledge they may have about the EPR.
Regarding the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN, Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional), the government says it remains favorable to continued talks with the rebel army. Yet Commandante Ramon of the EZLN warns, "Every day there is the danger of a confrontation because the federal Army continues to search for us in the mountains... From what we can see, at least from this side, is that an attack is coming -- even though the government says not. When the government says it's not going to attack, it is because it is going to attack. If not, then why so much troop movement in the mountains?"
Finally, the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon is gearing up for a plebiscite on the separation of that state from the federal union. The apparent motivation is the unequal distribution of fiscal resources between Nuevo Leon and the federation. The wish is to halt tax payments and divert those funds toward the state economy.
In the beginning of July, Mexican president Zedillo met in Monterrey with leading businessmen of Nuevo Leon. The dialogue was sharp, with complaints of not receiving support from the federal government rising in tone. In exasperation, Zedillo responded: "If it weren't for federal support, you wouldn't be here."
It is argued that those who seek to divert more funds to Nuevo Leon do so not for the state's development so much as to enlarge their own enterprises and personal fortunes. The problem in Mexico is the distribution of wealth, says La Jornada.
Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those
of Conspiracy Nation, nor of its Editor in Chief.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I encourage distribution of "Conspiracy Nation."
For information on how to receive the improved Conspiracy Nation Newsletter, send an e-mail message to bigred@shout.net
See also: http://www.europa.com/~johnlf/cn.html
See also: ftp ftp.shout.net pub/users/bigred