Kirchner Counters Gore's Racist-Genocidal Policies

May 15 (EIRNS)--Speaking May 11 at the launching of his "National Productive Plan" at the Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires, Argentina's President Nestor Kirchner offered a polemical counterpoint to Al Gordo's racist assertion in the same city, at the First Biofuels Congress of the Americas, that nations such as Bolivia had "spoiled" nature by building infrastructure and developing the countryside.

Bolivia is the poorest nation in South America, which in some key areas such as electric power consumption per capita, falls below the levels of the African nation of Zambia, for example. As the World Bank's own statistics demonstrate, in 2004, Bolivia consumed 435.12 KWh per capita, compared to Zambia's 692 KWh per capita. Argentina, in contrast, consumed 2,300.77 KWh for the same year. Also in 2004, only 60% of Bolivia's urban population had access to improved sanitation facilities, compared to Zambia's 59%, and Argentina's 92%. Again, according to the World Bank, the life-expectancy of Bolivians in 2005, was 65 years. Overdeveloped?

In his remarks, Kirchner described the mentality that Gore exemplifies, although without naming him. In opposition to those committed to building the nation, there is Argentina's right wing "which says that wealth has to be concentrated in few hands; who want a country of services, [who say] you have to control spending, because if you build too much housing, the books won't balance, and that's no good. That's how the neoliberals think. Of course," he said, with a hint of sarcasm, "if there are better hospitals...with better equipment and more investment, you will discover new diseases, and spend even more money." For the neoliberals, he noted, this is spending too much money. "But for us, it's justice, security, giving people what they really deserve."

Addressing the infrastructure deficit in northern Argentina, which is less developed than the rest of the country, Kirchner stated firmly, "we have to multiply investment; we have to bring them electricity, gas, roads, strengthen the hospitals. We have to have huge investment in infrastructure, because it can't be the case that people lack basic services... these are inalienable rights of all human beings."