First Iraq, Then the World!




Macaspana, Tabasco.

The billboard posted along the scrubby highway running east in sultry, southern Tabasco state displays lush jungle, a sun-dappled iguana, and a flock of dazzling macaws. "We're working for a better environment" the giant road sign radiates.

The leafy graphic contrasts starkly with the blighted scenery of this tropical state whose rivers have been contaminated, the fish envenomed, and the corn fields blasted as the acid rain drips from the polluted sky thanks to the efforts of PEMEX, the national oil monopoly and its multiple transnational sub-contractors--Tabasco holds Mexico's largest land-based petroleum deposits.

But the billboard here in Macaspana, swampy oil-rich Chontal Indian land, was not posted by the Environmental Secretariat to inspire conservationism or even by PEMEX to burnish its tarnished image. No, this pristine scene is signed off by a familiar U.S. name, in fact PEMEX's largest subcontractor: Halliburton de Mexico, the Houston-based petroleum industry titan's south-of-the-border subsidiary. Vice president Dick Cheney's old mega corps and the largest oil service provider on the planet, has been doing business in Mexico for a score of years.

The privatization of PEMEX, nationalized in 1938 after depression-era president Lazaro Cardenas expropriated Caribbean coast oil enclaves from Anglo-American owners, was right at the heart of Mexico's still-questioned July 2nd presidential election. Right-winger Felipe Calderon, a former energy secretary, is committed to selling off --or at least entering into joint agreements that would guarantee the contemporary version of the Seven Sisters a substantial quotient of Mexico's diminishing reserves (only 10 more years according to the worst case scenario.)

On the other side of the ledger, leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a native of Macaspana who probably won the presidency July 2nd, advocates maintaining the state's rectorship over PEMEX which accounts for more than 40% of the Mexican government's annual budget, on the grounds that the oil wealth of the nation belongs to the Mexican people and no one else.

Knowing full well which side their bread was buttered on, transnationals like Halliburton rushed to support Felipe Calderon--as did the corporation's former CEO (1995-2000) Dick Cheney and his running mate George Bush. Both Cheney and Bush have long-standing ties to the Mexican oil industry--Bush's daddy ran Zapata Offshore, a PEMEX subcontractor back in the 1960s--his partner Jorge Diaz Serrano, a former PEMEX director, served time for an oil tanker kickback scheme. Cheney's Halliburton somehow finagled its way into lucrative service contracts for the newly opened offshore Cantarell field (said to contain upwards of 12 billion barrels) back in the 1990s.

How Halliburton got in on the ground floor smells fishy to National Autonomous University professor John Saxe-Fernandez who watches strategic resources--the Cantarell contracts were assigned while Cheney was running the show in Houston and at the same time the Texas conglomerate was busy bribing Nigerian oil officials across the Atlantic.

The truth is that the debate about privatizing PEMEX is no longer much of a debate. Petrolios Mexicanos has long since sub-contracted out virtually its entire exploration and perforation divisions to transnationals like Halliburton, Flouor-Daniels, and Bechtel, leaving PEMEX a virtual shell.

Cheney's old outfit has grabbed off the lion's share of this billion-dollar boodle. Between 2000 and 2005, Halliburton picked up 159 contracts with the PEP (Perforation and Exploration) division for a total of $2.5 billion Yanqui dollars, about a quarter of PEMEX's annual operating budget, according to Saxe-Fernandez. The contracts cover everything from slant and vertical drilling to maintenance of offshore platforms to logging out jungle for the perforation of 27 turnkey wells in Tabasco and Chiapas.

With 1250 employees and thousands of contract workers, Halliburton de Mexico has offices in Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche (the fast-shrinking Cantarell operation); Reynosa Tamaulipas where Dick Cheney's boys are helping to exploit the Burgos natural gas fields; and Poza Rica Veracruz, a region in which Standard Oil's Harry Doherty and Lord Cowry (Weetman Pierson), owner of what eventually became British Petroleum, once ruled with an iron fist and where Halliburton is now combing through what is left of their old Chicontepec field.

Halliburton also maintains offices in Mexico City and Villahermosa Tabasco from which it oversees its off and onshore Caribbean domain. Mexico's Gulf coast is not Halliburton's only Caribbean operation. The KBR (Kellogg Brown Root) division of Cheney's conglom built 207 cells at Guantanamo Bay Cuba in 2002 to house "enemy combatants."

Halliburton has had a boot planted in the rebel-ridden state of Chiapas since 1997, three years after the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) rose up in rebellion and declared war on the Mexican government, when the conglom built a natural gas separation plant in the north of that southern-most state. In 2003, Halliburton won a $20 million USD contract to expand natural gas infrastructure at Reforma--Zapatista autonomous communities lie south and east of the Halliburton installations.

Both PEMEX and Cheney's associates have their eyes on Chiapas--ample reserves lie under the floor of the Lacandon jungle in areas where the Zapatistas have established their "Caracoles" or public centers, according to studies by UNAM political geographer Andres Barreda. Indeed, the first battle between the EZLN and the Mexican military took place near a capped well at Nazaret in the canyons that lead down to the jungle floor hard by where the Zapatista caracol "Road to Hope" (La Garrucha, the autonomous municipality of Francisco Gomez) now sits.

According to closely-held PEMEX numbers unearthed by Houston oil investigator George Baker, Nazaret was putting out a million cubic feet of natural gas a day when it was capped back in the early 1990s--if Halliburton had been in the picture back then it probably would have picked up the contract and Dick Cheney, an avid if erratic hunter, would have gotten a chance to exterminate many endangered Lacandon jungle species.

In a religious mood, Vice President Cheney once wondered out loud why God did not put the oil under democratic countries, and with that mission in mind has set out to democratize foreign oilagarchies. His endeavor to bring democracy to Iraq have resulted in over 650,000 Iraqi dead, civil war, devastation and destruction in every corner of the land, and the systematic sabotage of that nation's petroleum infrastructure.

Now Cheney and his Halliburton associates are "democratizing" Mexico, having aided and abetted the stealing of the July 2nd presidential election from leftist Lopez Obrador--as noted above, Felipe Calderon is commited to the privatization of PEMEX. As a member of the Council of Communication which groups together transnationals doing business in Mexico, Halliburton helped pay for a vicious TV spot campaign that featured libelous hit pieces tagging Lopez Obrador as a danger to Mexico. Because only political parties can mount such campaigns, Halliburton's participation was patently illicit according to Mexico's highest electoral tribunal, the TRIFE.

Planted outside Halliburton de Mexico's offices in a soaring skyscraper overlooking Paseo de Reforma where Lopez Obrador's people would soon be encamped last summer, 80-year old former oil worker Jacinto Guzman remembered the great strikes (his father was a striker) that had impelled Lazaro Cardenas to expropriate the Caribbean complexes where Halliburton now rules, and bemoaned the depredations of Cheney Inc and others of their ilk against what belongs to the Mexican people. But, dressed in a wrinkled suit and hardhat, the old oil worker was even more vexed about Halliburton's participation in the smear campaign to vilify Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. "The gringos think they own our elections too" he complained to a U.S. reporter.

John Ross's ZAPATISTAS! Making Another World Possible--Chronicles of Resistance 2000-2006 will be published by Nation Books in October. Ross will travel the left coast this fall with the new volume and a hot-off-the-press chapbook of poetry Bomba!--all suggestions of venues will be cheerfully entertained--write johnross@igc.org


By JOHN ROSS

UCLA police go way overboard when a student fails to show his student ID in the library.

A student was shot multiple times in the library on UCLA campus on Tuesday, Nov. 14. A community service officer (library security guard) was making regular rounds at the library, randomly asking students to show their student ID in order to enforce the school's policy allowing only UCLA students in the library after 11 PM. Mostafa Tabatabainejad, for an unknown reason, did not show his student ID and was asked to leave. Several minutes later the community service officer returned with campus police. Witnesses report that Mostafa had his backpack on and was leaving when campus police approached him. One officer grabbed Mostafa's arm at which point Mostafa told the officer to let him go. Mostafa continued to tell the officers to get off of him, instead they fired their Tazers. Mostafa dropped to the floor screaming and yelled "I have a medical condition." Officers then asked him to stand up, when he didn't they shot him again with the Tazer. He and the officers made slow progress towards the building's exit, Mostafa being tazered several times along the way.

Students who asked for the officer's names and badge numbers were threatened with
tazers.






Pepe.

the Nevada town Pharump is making it illegal to fly a foreign nations flag by itself.

the town council voted 3-2 this week to require a 50 dollar fine and 30 hours of community service for anyone who displays such a national symbol by itself or above as a flag.

the officials in the town, west of las vegas, also pushed through measures to deny service to undocumented immigrants and make English the offical language.

Pepe

una razon mas para unir a nuestra gente.

los unicos imigrantes son ellos!

Missouri House panel’s Democrats refuse to sign conclusions

By TIM HOOVER

The Kansas City Star

JEFFERSON CITY | A report from a Republican-led Missouri House committee argues that illegal immigration is partly the result of abortion and a “welfare culture,” findings that Democrats called ridiculous.

The six Democrats on the House Special Committee on Immigration Reform refused to sign the panel’s final report, which was signed by the 10 Republican members. In a letter to Rep. Ed Emery, the Lamar Republican who heads the committee, the Democrats said the report included things the panel never discussed and other comments that were “inappropriate.”

One of those comments was listed in the report’s recommendations section, Democrats said.

“The lack of a traditional work ethic, combined with the effects of 30 years of abortion and expanding liberal social welfare policies have produced a shortage of workers and a lack of incentive for those who can work,” the report said. “Today’s growing affinity for government dependency has created a class of potential employees who are not eager to work.”

Other sections of the report supporting this argument said that “the entitlement and government welfare culture that has emerged over the last 50 years” had caused a shortage of workers, and “many Americans prefer a subsistence income from the public treasury rather than earning a similar or better income as a reward for hard work.”

The result is that 50 years of “counterproductive social policies” makes it hard for employers to find legal workers, concluded the report, which was completed late last month.

National immigration expert Tamar Jacoby, a senior fellow with the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research in New York, dismissed the connections between abortion, welfare and immigration.

She called them “silly arguments” that have been embraced only by the far-right wing.

Emery said that he had inserted the language on abortion into the report.

“It is certainly my opinion,” he said. “I don’t know that we heard committee members express that as their critical concern.”

Emery said, though, that the language on social programs reflected the majority view of the panel.

Rep. Trent Skaggs, a North Kansas City Democrat, said the sections on abortion and “liberal social welfare policies” sucked all credibility out of the report.

“It’s delusional and not really owning up to what the problems are,” Skaggs said of the report.

Rep. Ed Wildberger, a St. Joseph Democrat on the committee, agreed and called Emery’s arguments “ridiculous.”

Jacoby said a prominent cause for the rise in immigration is Americans’ rising education.

For example, half of American men dropped out of high school and pursued unskilled work in 1960; today that figure is 10 percent, she said. Unskilled jobs still must be filled; immigrants are hired for many of them.

Welfare isn’t a good explanation for immigration, she said, because the overhaul of welfare in the mid-1990s imposed limits on how long people can depend on welfare for their livelihood.

Emery’s comments in the report include a section on the history of immigration in America, immigration law and the importance of English as a national language.

“Our culture is worth protecting,” Emery wrote. “It does not treat women like Muslim nations do. It does not kill newborn daughters like Communist China. … Cultures are not equal. Ours needs to be protected from being diluted by those who disrespect our laws and come only to exploit our successes.”

Skaggs and Wildberger said the report paid virtually no attention to Democrats’ chief concern — that the first priority should be to crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants.

A point in the report’s executive summary of recommendations mentions “increased penalties and enforcement to stop hiring of those without lawful presence,” but there is no elaboration. Wildberger said it was difficult to get even that snippet of vague language in the report because Republicans were reluctant to penalize employers who often complained they unknowingly hired illegal immigrants.

“I did express more than once that one of my personal goals was that we not punish the innocent to get to the guilty — that we didn’t create an anti-business climate,” Emery said.

Other recommendations included making English the language of official proceedings, imposing greater restrictions on admitting illegal immigrants to public higher education institutions, restricting taxpayer-funded services for illegal immigrants, giving the Highway Patrol a role in enforcing immigration law and abolishing income taxes in favor of sales taxes.

Minutemen @ Maywood
Come Help Maywood defend its Sanctuary City Status against the Minutemen
November 11th, 2006 @ 9am
Maywood City Hall - 4319 E. Slauson Ave, Maywood CA 90270
For more info:
E-mail Sisepuedeamnistia@yahoo.com or call 626-375-2873

A bit of History:

On August 26, 2006, The Minutemen/SOS came to Maywood, just south of LA, to protest against the city's policies. This included the fact that Maywood became the first Sanctuary city in the US. Maywood also disbanded it's traffic division because the cops would set up checkpoints in order to tow away the cars of the undocumented residents. With a 90+% percentage latino population (largely immigrant) that was very organized, the Minutemen/SOS were in there for a surprise. During the morning protests, hundreds of counter protesters (up to even 1000) confronted them. This included seasoned anti-minutemen activist, community members, and Maywood organizers. Only numbering about 60, the racists were vastly outnumbered. Not only that, the community and activists were so united that they stood their ground united and peacefully in spite of countless Minutemen/SOS that tried to pass through our crowd and stood against the police trying to drive the community back. Maywood showed the strength of an organized community against racism and police oppression. It showed that much of the immigrant community is willing and motivated to confront the people who are trying to take their rights away. Finally, it showed that with a strong opposition, the Minutemen/SOS will become demoralized to the point that even in their own forums, they admited defeat in Maywood. Now, they're coming back to try to prove to themselves that they can get away with spewing their racism in immigrant communities. Thus, It's even more important now to kick them out of Maywood again, this time with more people and more support. The community in Maywood is ready for them, we need everyone else to help out. Come to Maywood November 11th! No to Racism, No to Vigilantes, No to a Border Wall, Yes to Unconditional Legalization/Amnesty!!!