440 lines
23 KiB
Plaintext
440 lines
23 KiB
Plaintext
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Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 9 Num. 22
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======================================
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("Quid coniuratio est?")
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OUR NAFTA NEIGHBOR
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==================
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(From the August 1996 Conspiracy Nation Newsletter)
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---------------------------------------------------
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"Ah. Mexico Lindo."
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"It don't look so 'lindo' to me. It just looks like more Texas."
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These lines are from the great western movie, The Wild Bunch.
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Fleeing bank robbers William Holden, Warren Oates and others
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escape the United States and seek refuge in circa 1915 Mexico.
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They enter a Mexico in the middle of revolution and become caught
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up in events.
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The early 20th century Mexican Revolution is the stuff of legend.
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It is perceived as having been a peasant uprising, but that is
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misleading. There were actually two Mexican Revolutions in the
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mid-to-late 1910s: one was led by an emerging middle class; the
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other was a peasant revolution led by such as Emiliano Zapata and
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Pancho Villa. The former sought a strong central government.
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The latter wanted land rights, reform, and local government.
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After years of fighting, the middle class faction won. One of
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their first priorities was to crush Villa's and Zapata's peasant
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movements.
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Yet subsequent Mexican governments promoted an erroneous history,
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purporting that Zapata and Villa had been part of the victorious
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middle class faction, not that that faction had viciously
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destroyed them -- so much the better to rule when all those you
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rule believe they belong.
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Another almost immediate effect of the revolution was that the
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new Mexican government increasingly became the main source of
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business for private companies. Loyal supporters of the ruling
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party were rewarded with fat government contracts.
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Another major upheaval came in the late 1960s. Hundreds of
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thousands of Mexican students and workers began agitating against
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the Mexican government. They marched, gave speeches, and
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published small newspapers, demanding reform and economic
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justice. Alarmed, the government at last unleashed the military;
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thousands were murdered, imprisoned, and tortured in what is
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known as Mexico City's Tlatelolco Square Massacre.
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After the massacre, those elements of the movement not dead or in
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prison were driven underground. They formed small political
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"cells" and continued to nurture their 1960s rhetoric and ideals.
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Out of the government repression, the National Liberation Forces
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(NLF) was born. It grew and was one of several Mexican guerrilla
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groups having a pro-Cuban, Marxist ideology. For funding, the
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NLF began to rob banks, starting in the 1970s. It also developed
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peasant support groups in Chiapas, the southernmost Mexican
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state.
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By 1980, the organization of the NLF had become four-tiered: a
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national directorate, a politburo, an urban front, and a rural
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front; the Zapatista National Liberation Front (EZLN). The NLF
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strategy had evolved by this time into a Maoist strategy of
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"prolonged popular war."
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In the early 1980s, several Marxist philosophy and sociology
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students from Mexico City's Autonomous Metropolitan University
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moved to Chiapas to help organize NLF's rural guerrilla front.
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Helping them was Msgr. Samuel Ruiz, "the Red Bishop," who
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organized 4,000 lay workers to preach "liberation theology" to
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the Chiapas Indians. (Question: Is this why Lyndon LaRouche,
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shill for the right-wing Opus Dei faction of the Catholic Church,
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has so vehemently denounced the Zapatista rebellion? Remember
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from the last issue, "The Smiling Pope," how leftist and rightist
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factions within the Catholic Church can be quite antagonistic.)
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Besides having lay workers preaching to the peasant groups, the
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waters were further muddied: NLF's people begin to infiltrate
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Roman Catholic peasant groups.
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In 1988, Harvard trained Carlos Salinas de Gotari became
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President of Mexico. During his term of office (1988-1994) the
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big push for the so-called North American Free Trade Agreement
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(NAFTA) gathered steam. In the United States, the Salinas
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government spent $11 million per year on what is politely called
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"public relations" -- propaganda -- designed to persuade
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Americans that Mexico would make an excellent NAFTA partner.
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But, among other things, Yale trained Billy Clinton's and Harvard
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trained Carlos Salinas' NAFTA wound up sending a flood of cheap
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corn and wheat into Mexico. This hurt Mexican farmers badly.
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They, in turn, could no longer afford to hire the Chiapas Indians
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as field hands.
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Carlos Salinas was so often referred to as "the Harvard trained
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Salinas" that he became nicknamed "Harvard Trained Salinas." The
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Mexican state of Chiapas is so impoverished that it is nicknamed
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"Mexico's basement" -- in other words it is kept hidden how
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backward it is. The majority of its people are poor, Indian
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peasants. The women must walk for hours every day, just so their
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families can have water and firewood. Their shacks are lucky to
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have a tin roof.
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So what did Harvard Trained and his government do? Help them get
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electricity and running water? No, Harvard Trained and upper
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crust chums decided to get them 3700 basketball courts! The
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Chiapas Indians, thanks to Harvard Trained, then put together
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12,000 basketball teams. They still don't have shoes and their
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average height is about 5 feet 3 inches tall -- but hey: at
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least after a hard day of toting firewood they can relax and
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shoot some hoops!
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Harvard Trained also caused an $11 million, world class opera
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house to be built in Chiapas. While it was being built, right
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next door to it, two homeless Indian children died of exposure.
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It seems the nights grow cold in Chiapas.
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On February 23rd, 1993, a private dinner party was held at the
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sumptuous home of former Mexican finance minister Don Antonio
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Ortiz Mena. The party was attended by President Salinas and
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several Mexican billionaires. The meeting was supposed to have
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been top secret, but news of its having occurred leaked out.
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Reportedly, each of the attendees agreed to give $25 million to
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the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The "revolutionary"
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PRI is in fact what amounts to as the political party in Mexico.
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It is the political party that was born out of the early 20th
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century Mexican Revolution, way back in the late 1910s. PRI is
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akin to the Democratic Party in Chicago in the sense that, sure
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there are other political parties, but everyone knows that really
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only that one party has the power.
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So just why would it be that several Mexican billionaires would
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secretly give $25 million apiece to the PRI? Had they suddenly
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become extremely "patriotic" yet, being humble about it, did not
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wish to fanfare what noble fellows they are?
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On May 22nd, 1993, the Mexican army entered the now-abandoned
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Zapatista camp near San Miguel, in the Mexican state of Chiapas.
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It was seen that this "spontaneous," "populist," Chiapas
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insurgent army is suprisingly well-funded: the Zapatista camp
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was huge, and included a volleyball court; it was equipped with
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electricity, televisions, and kitchens.
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By 1994 it was becoming clearer that the Zapatista rebel army is
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not autonomous. It is actually being run by white, middle-class
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intellectuals in Mexico City. The "Sub-commander Marcos" is not
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native to Chiapas; he is white-skinned, well-educated, and from
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Mexico City. While this editor is not always in agreement with
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Pat Robertson, one of his writings from the book, The New World
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Order, comes to mind:
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All the extreme political ideologies in the world --
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whether they come from the extreme right or the extreme
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left -- have come from the privileged classes. Those who
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want to determine how the poor should live have never
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endured or even seen real poverty. Socialism in Britain
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was a creature of the aristocracy. Communism was the
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brainchild of German-Jewish intellectuals...
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In Mexico City, like a spider ruling its web, sits Commander in
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Chief "German." Somehow the impoverished Indians of Chiapas are
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quite well-armed, with AK-47 rifles, Uzi submachine guns, grenade
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launchers, and night vision devices. Yet the world press,
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suckers for a story that they can sell to a nostalgic Woodstock
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generation, has promoted romantic nonsense; they have portrayed
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the Chiapas rebellion as a populist uprising.
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1994 saw the imminent expiration of Harvard trained Salinas' term
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of office. On March 23rd, 1994, PRI's presidential candidate
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Luis Donaldo Colosio was assassinated in Tijuana. The confessed
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assassin of Colosio, Mario Aburto Martinez, was at first
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perceived as a "lone nut." But this view quickly changed as the
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government-appointed special prosecutor went on record stating
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that there had been what he calls a "concerted action" (what I
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would call, in other words, "a conspiracy") behind Colosio's
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murder. Speculation grew that the killing had been done at the
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behest of powerful persons in Mexico. The growing apprehension
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threatened to crash the Mexican stock market, the Bolsa, and
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precipitate flight of capital from Mexico.
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Meanwhile, subsequent to the death of PRI nominee Colosio,
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Ernesto Zedillo was unveiled as the Mexican Establishment's new
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candidate for the post of el presidente. Government workers were
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bused to PRI headquarters in downtown Mexico City to serve as
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cheering background for the new candidate. On television they
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could be seen -- to the naive they appeared as spontaneous,
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enthusiastic supporters of Zedillo. But for these stage-managed
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supporters, all that really counted was that they got to stay on
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the gravy train. This situation occurs also in the United States
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where a background of "enthusiastic supporters" is largely fake,
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with the real enthusiasm being for fat government contracts,
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high-level government jobs and potential political backing in
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later campaigns. (Also in attendance as enthusiastic background
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for stooge candidates are naive persons who believe in this
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sh**.)
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The new candidate, Zedillo, is said to be the puppet of PRI
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hard-liners, who favor toughness, intolerance, and repression
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toward dissent.
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In this time frame, Mexico's ruling class had been experiencing
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increasing internal tensions -- a.k.a. a "clash of titans,"
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a.k.a. faction fights. The government was undergoing a process
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of what is code-named "privatization," thought by some to really
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mean the selling off of publicly-owned assets to private
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corporations for benefit of greedy stockholders. This
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"privatization" process is resulting in a shrinking of the
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government's economic pie; a sort of "downsizing" within the
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Mexican government is leading to bitter infighting amongst the
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political rats.
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By the summer of 1994, the "enthusiastic" push for candidate
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Zedillo was in high gear. The PRI secretly paid millions of
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dollars to Mexican newspapers in return for their publishing
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campaign propaganda disguised as news. About 10 percent of these
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monies went to reporters themselves, to keep them quiet about
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what they knew. Televisa, the Mexican television monopoly --
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really an octopus that smothers all other news -- gave the vast
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majority of its air time to the Zedillo campaign. The opposition
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Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) candidate, Cuauhtemoc
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Cardenas, got only miniscule coverage by Televisa. To confuse
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voters, the Establishment's Institutional Revolutionary Party
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(PRI) even created small, fake opposition parties which were
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secretly funded by PRI.
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The Mexican common people struggle for whatever influence they
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can wield over how their lives are being affected. The "El
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Barzon" movement, one million strong, fights the banksters.
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Crushed under usurious debt, they demand renegotiation of past
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loans. Activist groups launch an "adopt a public official"
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campaign: the "adopted" official comes under close scrutiny by
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the adopter; he is put "under the microscope" and, if he is
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corrupt, pressure is brought to bear.
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Thanks to looming NAFTA, the Mexican-U.S. border is more wide
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open than ever to "free trade." That border is becoming the
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number 1 drug smuggling route for illicit narcotics. 75 percent
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of cocaine entering the U.S. comes in via Mexico. Yearly profits
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of about $20 billion further corrupt politics via bribery and
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terror. The drug money is laundered through Mexican banks and
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through investments in resorts and shopping centers. The city of
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Guadalajara has become the "Wall Street" for Mexican money
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laundering. Is that why Cardinal Posadas Ocampo of that city was
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assassinated? Supposedly it was a case of "mistaken identity" --
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but was it rather that Posadas Ocampo had become a thorn in the
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side of Dope, Incorporated?
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Then, on September 28th, 1994, in downtown Mexico City, Jose
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Francisco "Pepe" Ruiz Massieu, PRI general secretary, was gunned
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down. Could this tragedy have happened because his brother,
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Mario Ruiz Massieu, was a senior government prosecutor who had
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publicly sworn to defeat Mexico's massive Gulf drug cartel? To
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stave off such suspicions, hours after the slaying of Jose
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Francisco brother Mario was made chief investigator into the
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case. Daniel Aguilar, gunman in the assassination of "Pepe" Ruiz
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Massieu, had fortuitously been captured at the site of the
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killing. His full confession led ultimately to PRI congressman
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Manuel Munoz Rocha. But Congressman Munoz Rocha then
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disappeared!
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The initial public excitement and outrage regarding the
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assassination of "Pepe" Ruiz Massieu died down with time. With
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the heat off, the investigation by Mario Ruiz Massieu into his
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brothers death began to bog down. On November 15, 1994, Mario
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Ruiz Massieu charged that the PRI was blocking his investigation.
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Later that month, he resigned as special investigator into his
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brother's murder. In early December, Mario Ruiz Massieu fled
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Mexico. He was arrested in Newark, New Jersey, carrying $7
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million. Mexico has demanded he be extradited; they charge that
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Mario had covered up involvement of Raul Salinas -- Carlos
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Salinas' brother -- as mastermind behind the killing of "Pepe"
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Ruiz Massieu.
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By late December of 1994, both the Colosio and Ruiz Massieu
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assassinations had made foreign investors nervous; their Mexican
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deposits began a stampede for the exits. A Zapatista uprising in
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Chiapas lessened investor confidence still further. There was a
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financial crisis. It was decided to "float" the Mexican peso --
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allow the market to fix its price. In the next few months,
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American investors lost more than 30 percent of their money. The
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Mexican financial troubles threatened a worldwide chain reaction
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that could have crashed stock markets throughout the world.
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In early 1995 U.S. President Bill Clinton used his executive
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powers to release $20 billion from the U.S. Treasury Exchange
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Stabilization Fund -- money originally meant to stabilize the
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U.S. dollar -- to help save Mexico from bankruptcy. The New York
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investment bank Goldman-Sachs reportedly had huge investments
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down in the land of our NAFTA neighbor. The just-appointed U.S.
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Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin had until quite recently been
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head of Goldman-Sachs. Hmmm.... Is there a conflict of interest
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here?
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Also in early 1995 the so-called "Chase Bank memo" surfaced in
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the Washington Post. This Chase Manhattan Bank memo urged the
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Mexican government to get moving and crush the Zapatista
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resistance. Furthermore, Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo is
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aware that the Chase Bank memo represents the secret views of
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most banksters.
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In early March of 1995, Raul Salinas was arrested, charged with
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being the mastermind behind the murder of "Pepe" Ruiz Massieu.
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Now ex-President Carlos Salinas, saying he is convinced Raul is
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innocent, began a hunger strike. But, after a day or two to
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think it over, he went back to eating.
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By November 24th, 1995, those with access to Associated Press
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were reading about Raul Salinas being on trial for murder. The
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plot thickens: the murdered "Pepe" Ruiz Massieu was Raul
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Salinas' brother-in-law. Around this time also, Paulina
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Castanon, sister-in-law of Harvard-trained ex-President Carlos
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Salinas, got arrested; she allegedly used false documents to try
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to withdraw nearly $84 million from a Swiss bank account.
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(Associated Press, 11/24/95)
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At about this time too, Reuters reported that Swiss authorities
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had blocked several bank accounts in a probe "into a drugs and
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money-laundering scheme alleged to be linked to the brother of
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Mexican ex-President Carlos Salinas." But, said Carlos Salinas,
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compadre of dashing Bill Clinton, U.S. President, "I know
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nothing." Yet, strangely, Carlos Salinas himself next seems to
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vanish! Where is Carlos Salinas? (Reuters, 11/30/95)
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Carlos Salinas, circa November 30, 1995, was formally "accused of
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treason and fraud in connection with the 1990 sell-off of state
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phone company Telmex." (Reuters, 11/30/95) (You see, they were
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privatizing the state phone company.)
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But hold the phone! Reuters reported on December 1, 1995 that
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another $20 million had been found stashed away for Raul Salinas,
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this time in a London account. And where is Carlos Salinas, the
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ex-President? He has fled Mexico and is said to be laying low in
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Cuba.
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December 2, 1995: Probes were launched by both Canada and Mexico
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into possible financial wrongdoing by Carlos Salinas. And,
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according to El Financiero newspaper, "Mexican police have found
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some $300 million in bank accounts belonging to the
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ex-president's brother in Switzerland, Germany, England,
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Luxembourg, and the Cayman Islands." (See also Reuters,
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12/02/95)
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Reuters ("Mexico Bails Out Top Bank In Growing Crisis," 12/15/95)
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next reported "a de-facto renationalization of the bank system
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that was privatized during the previous government of Carlos
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Salinas." It seems that drug traffickers and others had been
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buying up -- "privatizing" -- the banks, and now the Mexican
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government was forced to bail out these same banks to keep them
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from collapsing. And, noted New Federalist ("Four Nations
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Investigating Salinas Money, Dope Ties," 12/11/95), "According to
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an expose in the New York Times last July, former Bush
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administration officials charged that they had been ordered by
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other senior Bush officials to hush up reports of drug activity
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under the Salinas team -- such as how drug-traffickers were
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buying up Mexican state companies that were being privatized."
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Did Raul Salinas consult with witches regarding the Colosio
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slaying? Reuters ("Mexico Police Probe Witches In Colosio Case,"
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12/16/95) reported that investigators had travelled to the Canary
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Islands to interview two "witches" who might have information.
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But why would Raul Salinas consult them on the Colosio slaying
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when he is supposedly only involved in the death of "Pepe" Ruiz
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Massieu? Or is there a link between the two deaths?
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Meanwhile, Mario Ruiz Massieu, as of December 15, 1995, was still
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fighting extradition back to Mexico. He had been held without
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bail since his March 3rd arrest at Newark International Airport.
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Am I wrong, or would this have made for some interesting reports
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from mainstream "news" outlets? Yet this whole story has been
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scarcely if at all covered here in the U.S. Thus, I have had to
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"dig for buried treasure" just to get a glimpse of what has been
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going on with our new NAFTA friend.
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So details I have are still sketchy regarding our "top secret"
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trading partner and just what is going on down there. Recently,
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news surfaced regarding Citibank and Carlos Salinas being
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involved in "a multimillion-dollar international
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drug-money-laundering scheme." You may have seen a watered-down
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version of this story recently on the CBS program "60 Minutes."
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Apparently, when sister-in-law of Carlos Salinas, Paulina
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Castanon, had tried withdrawing the $84 million from the Swiss
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bank (see above), it opened up a real can of worms. Castanon,
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wife of the imprisoned Raul Salinas, was nabbed at a high-class
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bank, Pictet & Cie, in Geneva. The account at Pictet was set up
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for Raul Salinas, under a phony name, by Amelia Grovas Elliot of
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Citibank. She has been, since 1981, in charge of the Mexico
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branch of Citibank's Private Bank, a bank within Citibank
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handling an ultra-exclusive clientele. Citibank itself went
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bankrupt in 1992 and was secretly placed into receivership by the
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New York Federal Reserve. This means that the New York Fed has
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since 1992, supposedly, been "micro-managing" any Citibank
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transactions of $1 million or more. So it becomes increasingly
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clear that Raul Salinas was washing a lot of money -- be it from
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illicit drug dealings, bribes, or whatever -- with the help of
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Citibank and under the watchful eyes of the Federal Reserve!
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(See: "Fed, Citibank, Salinas In Dope-$-Laundering," New
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Federalist, 06/17/96; Wall Street Journal, 06/07/96.)
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Prognosis is difficult since only smatterings of information
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arrive from Mexico. Recently, it has been reported by New
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Federalist that a mob of starving Mexicans went so far as to
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hijack a freight train loaded with grain going through their
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district. I am attempting to get hold of Mexican newspapers
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which may give more clues. Will our next war be with our current
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NAFTA partner? Divorces can get messy. Stay tuned.
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-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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(Main source for the preceding has been *Bordering on Chaos* by
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Andres Oppenheimer. Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1996.)
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Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those
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of Conspiracy Nation, nor of its Editor in Chief.
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Nation Newsletter, send an e-mail message to bigred@shout.net
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Want to know more about Whitewater, Oklahoma City bombing, etc?
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(1) telnet prairienet.org (2) logon as "visitor" (3) go citcom
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See also: http://www.europa.com/~johnlf/cn.html
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See also: ftp.shout.net pub/users/bigred
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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
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Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et
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pauperem. -- Liber Proverbiorum XXXI: 8-9
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