Aznar on the Phantom Menace

Aznar denied that Al-Qaeda was responsible for the Madrid metro attacks, and suppressed evidence to the contrary, including the wiping of  files from government computers pertaining to crisis management during the incident. He lost the election.

Aznar extiende su influencia sobre AL: “Aznar extends his influence over Latin America” (La Jornada).

Madrid, 27 de marzo. Con la pretensión de ”influir” en las personas que toman decisiones desde México hasta Brasil, el ex presidente del gobierno español, el conservador José María Aznar, identificó a los que considera ”enemigos de Occidente”, entre ellos los movimientos indígenas, los terroristas y los altermundistas.

Aiming to “influence” decision makers from Mexico to Brazil, the former president Spain, José María Aznar, identified those he considers “enemies of the West,” among them indigenous peoples’ movements, terrorists and anti-globalization activists.

En el documento titulado América Latina. Una agenda de libertad, en cuya elaboración participó el presidente del Partido Acción Nacional (PAN), Manuel Espino, Aznar fija la doctrina que, a su juicio, deben seguir todos los dirigentes afines a sus ideas políticas; es decir, los partidos políticos latinoamericanos de cariz conservador y democristiano.

In a document titled Latin America: An agenda for freedom, which Manuel Espino, president of Mexico’s PAN party helped to author, Aznar sets for the doctrine that, in his view, ought to be adhered to by all political leaders aligned with his political ideas: That is to say, Latin American political parties with a conservative Christian-Democratic bent.

On which see also “Bulwark Against Populism”:

One of the more interesting signs of the times this week is the transfer of the Internet domain odca.cl — the Web site of a Pinochetist party in Chile — to new owners. Administrative contacts: Manuel Espino, president of Mexico’s National Action Party (PAN) and Xavier Barrón, of Peru’s Partido Popular Cristiano.

On Alan Garcia’s approach to safeguarding democracy, see also Peru: You Got the Army on the Streets.

En el documento, que presentó hoy en la Fundación para el Análisis y los Estudios Sociales (FAES), que creó cuando todavía detentaba el poder y que ahora utiliza para establecer las líneas doctrinales en su propio partido, el Popular (PP), y en los sectores más conservadores de la sociedad española, Aznar, fiel a su discurso, expone un panorama político de permanente amenaza de los “enemigos de Occidente”, contra los que invita a combatir sin tregua.

In the document, which he presented today [March 27] at FAES, the Foundation for Social Analysis and Studies, authored while Aznar was still in power and now used to define the agenda of his Popular Party (PP) and the most conservative sectors of Spanish society, Aznar, true to form, describes a permanent threat from “enemies of the West,” against whom he issues a call for a war without truce.

The FAES does not disclose who funds it.

El texto, de 98 páginas, sostiene que “la alianza antisistema empezó a gestarse de manera espontánea, por la coincidencia en los enemigos y en las fobias. Esa aversión común es la que aglutina a la izquierda que fracasó en mayo de 1968 y a la que se le vinieron encima los cascotes del Muro de Berlín; a los intelectuales que alentaron el comunismo y hoy ven con complacencia la pulsión anti-occidental del islamismo jihadista; a los antiglobalizadores altermundistas del más distinto pelaje y a las distintas manifestaciones de indigenismo, populismo y fanatismo religioso”.

The text, with 98 pages, maintains that “the antiestablishment alliance has begun to organize itself spontaneously, through a converence of enemies and phobias. This shared aversion is what holds together the left that failed in May 1968 with the other that came over the Berlin Wall when it fell, along with intellectuals that gave cover to communism and today regard the anti-Western surge of Islamic jihadism with complacency, anti-globalization other-worlders of various stripes, and various forms of indigenous rights movements, populism and religious fanaticism.

Añade que “todos los que forman parte de esta alianza, difusa pero operativa, creen ver en ella una oportunidad de acrecentar su influencia y debilitar a su enemigo común, Occidente, y para ello no dudan en aliarse los más extraños compañeros de viaje, lo que explica la creciente cercanía y coordinación entre todos estos elementos y el islamismo”.

He adds that “all those who form part of this alliance, which is diffuse but effective, belief they see an opportunity to increase their influence and weaken their common enemy, the West. To that end they have no qualms about joining up with the strangest of bedfellows, which explains the increasingly close ties and coordination between all these elements and Islamism.

We have heard this theory before. See, for example, Olavo de Carvalho: The Council on Foreign Relations is a Tool of the Communist Devils.

See also the cover of yesterday’s New York Post — Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post — on a visit by Speaker of the House Pelosi to Syria.

Madame Speaker’s head is pasted on to the body of a beauty pageant contest wearing a sash titled “Miss Syria.” The contingent she leads also includes members of the Congressional opposition.

Tenor of the front page editorial: Opponents of the Bush GWOT are dupes, traitors, or worse.

La FAES es una institución que no sólo adoctrina a la derecha española, sino que ahora pretende extender su influencia hacia América Latina, para lo que estableció una serie de acuerdos de cooperación y colaboración con otros partidos, como el PAN, lo que permite tanto el intercambio de información como la asistencia de jóvenes políticos mexicanos a cursos de “capacitación” en Madrid.

FAES is an institution that not only indoctrinates the Spanish right, but now intends to extend its influence over Latin America, to which end it has established a series of cooperation and collaboration agreements with other parties, among them PAN, which permit both exchange of information as well as attendance by young Mexican politicians at “training” courses in Madrid.

Foreign participation in Mexican politics is, in theory, not permitted. Same in Brazil, although the NED has been working to get around those rules.

See Dicking Democracy, Down South American Way, on the adventures of Dick Morris and Rob Allyn in the flophouses of Tijuana, for example.

Former Brazilian president Cardoso’s presidency of the Council of Madrid suggests that the effort is nothing new.

Hasta la fecha, unos 200 jóvenes latinoamericanos han asistido a estos cursos, y “algunos de ellos ya han tomado decisiones en lugares estratégicos de esos países”, explicó Aznar.

To date, some 200 young Latin Americans have attended these courses, and “some of them have already made decisions in strategic posts in these countries,” Aznar said.

Precisamente, Espino fue una de las personas que colaboraron en la elaboración del documento y con quien la derecha española mantiene una fluida comunicación.

More specifically, Espino, with whom the Spanish right maintains close contact, was one of the persons who collaborated in the preparation of the document.

Uno de los diagnósticos que expone la FAES sobre América Latina es la falta de seguridad jurídica y el “quebrantamiento del estado de derecho”, además de que, añadió, “la libertad de expresión también está amenazada en la región por las actuaciones que van desde la utilización discrecional de la publicidad, a métodos menos sutiles como la censura y la persecución de algunos periodistas y medios opositores a los gobiernos de turno”.

One of FAES’s judgments about Latin America is the lack of judicial certainty and “failure of the rule of law”; also, “freedom of expression is also under threat in the region from actions that range from the discretionary use of publicity to less subtle methods such as censorship and the persecution of certain journalists and media in opposition to current governments.”
I will have to see what cases, if any, get mentioned in the report.

I have seen cases in Brazil in which you hear screams of oppression when anyone criticizes the corporate media for lying its ass off, for example. See also ‘Opponents of Media Monopolies Are Stalinists’.

“Freedom of expression” can be used to mean “freedom to lie to the public and fire or SLAPP down anyone who calls us a liar.” Aka the FOX-Monsanto Doctrine.

Aznar, quien gobernó entre 1996 y 2004, señala en el texto que México es un ejemplo de “que cuando las instituciones funcionan son una garantía para la democracia y la libertad. Y eso es aplicable a toda América”.

Aznar, who governed from 1996 to 2004, singled out Mexico as an example of “when institutions function they are a guarantee of democracy and freedom. And this is applicable to America as a whole.”

Asimismo, el ex mandatario español fustigó a los gobiernos del presidente venezolano, Hugo Chávez, y de su par cubano, Fidel Castro, al calificarlos de regímenes “siniestros” y “totalitarios”.

Likewise, the former Spanish governor blasted Chavez and Castro, calling them “sinister” and “totalitarian.”

Consideró que la transición cubana deberán construirla los de la isla, y los del exilio, los del gobierno y los de la disidencia, y evitar una alianza revolucionaria con Venezuela, Bolivia o Ecuador.

He thinks that the Cuban transition ought to be managed by those on the island and those in exile, those in the government and those in the dissident ranks, and avoid a revolutionary alliance with Venezuela, Bolivia or Ecuador.

En cuanto a los movimientos indígenas, Aznar agregó que este fenómeno “empieza a ser para América Latina lo que el nacionalismo es a Europa. El indigenismo racista siembra la división social y agudiza problemas existentes”.

As to indigenous movements, Aznar adds that this phenomenon “is beginning to be forLatin America what nationalism is for Europe. Racist indigenous movements seed social divisions and sharpen existing problems.”

Wow.

Los dos, dijo, “subordinan principios e instituciones liberales como la división de poderes, el mérito y capacidad, la igualdad ante la ley y el respeto por los derechos individuales, al logro de sus objetivos muy cercanos al totalitarismo”.

Both, he said, “subordinate liberal principles and institutions such as the division of power, merit and capacity, equality before the lay and respect for individual rights to objectives that flirt with totalitarianism.”

Latin American “meritocrats” of this kind tend to be legacy admissions in the Tato Malzoni mold: third-generation scions of promiscuous political-business latifundios in which the fire in the belly and the light in the mind of the founding father has long died out.

The apple may not have fallen far from the tree, but it is certainly rolled quite a ways downhill.

Not the kind of gazillionaire whom daddy forces to earn his way to the boardroom from a start in the mailroom.

I had a great conversation recently with a São Paulo cabbie about this.

El público presente en la sede de la Faes, formado por cuadros jóvenes de partidos conservadores latinoamericanos y de militantes del PP, recibieron con un aplauso la “doctrina” que Aznar pretende expandir en los gobiernos de América Latina en los próximos meses.

The audience at FAES headquarters, made up of young activists from the PP and Latin American conservative parties, applauded the “doctrine” Aznar intends to extend to Latin American governments in the coming months.