Fighting water privatization in the U.S. - look south

H₂O

is arguably the single most important component of all living organisms... but, if there's a way to make a buck, the already super-rich holders of the world's capital resources will find a way to do it...

All across the United States, municipal water systems are being bought up by multinational corporations, turning one of our last remaining public commons and our most vital resource into a commodity.

The road to privatization is being paved by our own government. The Bush administration is actively working to loosen the hold that cities and towns have over public water, enabling corporations to own the very thing we depend on for survival.

The effects of the federal government's actions are being felt all the way down to Conference of Mayors, which has become a "feeding frenzy" for corporations looking to make sure that nothing is left in the public's hands, including clean, affordable water.

[...]

"The administration has backed language in legislation to reauthorize existing federal water funding assistance programs that would require cities to consider water privatization before they could receive federal funding," reports Public Citizen. "And in lockstep with private industry's goals, the EPA is increasingly playing down the role of federal financial assistance while actively encouraging communities to pay for system upgrades by raising rates to consumers -- exactly the strategy the industry hopes will drive cash-strapped and embattled local politicians to opt for the false promise of privatization." [The U.S. Conference of Mayors Urban Water Council

it isn't just "all across the united states..." it's happening worldwide, and, interestingly, today seems to be the day to look south for guidance...

the global scenario...

Today 460 million people around the world are dependent on private water corporations for their daily supply - compared to 51 million in 1990 - because of the privatization polices promoted by the World Bank and IMF.

argentina...

Aguas Argentinas is a case study of the rush to privatize water services in the last decade by European and U.S.-based companies, backed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.

The deal made between Argentina's water authority and a consortium that includes the Suez group from France, the largest private water company in the world, and Spain's Aguas de Barcelona, in May 1993, established a new private entity, named Aguas Argentinas, with the help of the World Bank which also bought a small stake in the consortium. According to a study by Dr. Malpartida's Ecology and Environment Foundation, the new company was "the biggest transfer of a water service and watershed into private control in the world" encompassing a region with over 10 million inhabitants.

As a result, according to Daniel Azpiazu, a researcher at the Latin American Faculty for Social Sciences, residential water rates increased 88.2% between May 1993 and January 2002 although there was "no relationship between this rate and the consumer price index (inflation rate), which was 7.3% for the same period."

Azpiazu says this provided the company with net profits of 20%, which he says is far higher than is "acceptable or normal" for the water industry in other countries: "In the United States, for example, water companies earned between 6-12.5% profits in 1991. In the United Kingdom a reasonable rate of profit for the sector is between 6-7%. In France, 6% is considered a very reasonable return on investment."

Yet this rate increase did not translate into higher quality or quantity of service. In 1997, the company was found to have failed to honor 45% of its contract commitments for improvement and expansion of services, resulting in massive pollution.

argentina's response...

President Néstor Kirchner rescinded the contract in March [2006], and announced the creation of a new state company, Aguas y Saneamiento Argentinos (Argentine Water and Sanitation).

bolivians took to the streets...

On January 10 [2005] the citizens of El Alto [Bolivia] took to the streets en masse to demand that their water system, privatized in 1997 under World Bank pressure, be returned to public hands. Three days later Bolivia's president issued a decree canceling the water concession, led by the French water giant Suez, and an arm of the World Bank itself. The El Alto water revolt follows, by five years exactly, the now famous revolt against water privatization in Cochabamba, in which a company controlled by the Bechtel Corporation was ousted from the country.

uruguayans took action as well...

Voters in Uruguay, for instance, approved a constitutional reform in 2004, declaring water resources a public good and prohibiting the privatisation of water and sewage services.

so, who's the biggest dog in the water-for-profit game...?

suez [pdf]...

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Pics as promised - Colonia, Uruguay

in a post yesterday, i promised some pics of colonia, uruguay, where i spent yesterday...

it's truly a beautiful little town... you can walk the entire place in a few hours... there are lots of little cafes and places to sit and just take it all in... i wandered through the old quarter, sat for quite a while along the malecón, ate a leisurely lunch at el drugstore (see below), treated myself to some helado (ice cream), and ambled back to the ferry in time to return to buenos aires...

Historic Quarter of the City of Colonia del Sacramento

Founded by the Portuguese in 1680 on the Río de la Plata, the city was of strategic importance in resisting the Spanish. After being disputed for a century, it was finally lost by its founders. The well-preserved urban landscape illustrates the successful fusion of the Portuguese, Spanish and post-colonial styles.

Barrio Viejo, the old Portugese quarter



A panorama of the Rio de la Plata from the malecón



The lighthouse, the harbor, and the rocky shoreline



El Drugstore Restaurant and Bar

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Speaking of Uruguay...! They want Kissinger in connection with Operation Condor...!

i'd no sooner put up the last post than i ran across this...

An attorney for a victim of Uruguay's 1973-1985 dictatorship has asked his government to request the extradition of former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger over his alleged role in the notorious Operation Condor.

Condor was a secret plan hatched by South American dictators in the 1970s to eliminate leftist political opponents in the region. Details of the plan have emerged over the past years in documents and court testimony.

operation condor was the group behind many of the ugly, murderous dictatorships that have plagued latin america in the last 30-40 years, including argentina, bolivia, brazil, chile, paraguay, and uruguay...

Operation Condor ... was a campaign of state terrorism and intelligence operations implemented by right-wing dictatorships that dominated the Southern Cone in Latin America from the 1950s to 1980s, heavily relying on numerous assassinations. The systematic counter-terrorism aimed both to deter democratic influence and ideas disseminated in the region and to control active or potential opposition movements against these governments. This organized counter-terrorism caused an unknown number of deaths, due to the covering up of the different governments involved. According to the "terror archives" discovered in Paraguay in 1992, 50,000 persons were murdered, 30,000 "disappeared" (desaparecidos) and 400,000 incarcerated.[1][2]. There have recently been some attempts of prosecutions against those responsible for this repression, to varied degrees.

[...]

The operation was jointly conducted by the intelligence and security services of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay in the mid-1970s.

Operation Condor, which took place in the context of the Cold War, was given at least tacit approval by the United States which feared a Marxist revolution in the region. The targets were officially leftist guerrillas, but in fact included all kinds of political opponents, including their families and others, as reported by the Valech Commission. The "Dirty War" in Argentina for example, which resulted in 30,000 victims, targeted mostly trade-unionists. Chilean MIR members, activists of the Catholic left-wing Peronist group the Montoneros, members of the Argentine MTO (the "All for the Country Movement") or Uruguayan Tupamaros were among those targeted.

It appears that Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State in the Nixon and Ford administrations, was closely involved diplomatically with the Southern Cone governments at the time and well-aware of the Condor plan.

henry is a cold-blooded bastard and richly deserves to face the music for his long years of getting away scot-free... maybe, just maybe, we're going to see some accountability... it'd be nice of the u.s. would get on the bandwagon as well... too much going on in the u.s. with the current crop of home-grown evildoers, i guess...

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A day away in Colonia, Uruguay

i took the better part of today and took the buquebus hydrofoil ferry to colonia, uruguay... it's about 50 km as the crow flies from buenos aires to colonia, and the hydrofoil makes it in an hour flat, which is probably as fast as the crow could do it... the regular ferry takes three hours which gives you some idea... i figure the hydrofoil does about 40+ kmph, which, for a good size ship that holds over 300 passengers and probably 100 vehicles, ain't bad... colonia's old section, the barrio viejo, is a late 16th-early 17th century portugese fishing settlement and a unesco world heritage site, and quite lovely... i'll have some pics tomorrow if you all behave yourselves...

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An Argentine views Chávez, Latin America, and U.S. hegemony

this op-ed was prompted by the chávez rally here in buenos aires last weekend as bush was visiting in montevideo, just across the rio de la plata... it's as articulate and rational a view as i've yet read...

While many in Argentina would, nevertheless, not hesitate to call the Venezuelan president a clown or a madman, it’s worth keeping in mind that a very heady dose of megalomania is a prerequisite for even dreaming of confronting a rival as overwhelmingly powerful as the United States — which is also led by a president viewed, in many quarters, as a clown and a madman.

[...]

Two major Argentine characteristics are in play here: intrinsic distrust and the need for immediate gratification. Mr. Chávez awakens both of these inclinations, and it’s interesting to see them balance each other out. The dream of a single-currency Latin American Union, modeled on the European Union, to create, insofar as possible, a buffer against the hegemony of the United States no longer seems so impossible.

for many years i have thought that if latin american, certainly one of the largest, richest, and most beautiful areas of the world, and one which, with the exception of brazil, shares a common language, could put aside its endless bickering and work together, it would be an incredibly potent global force... and, yes, they would like to accomplish that without having to toady to the united states to do it...

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Chávez rally in Buenos Aires: "Gringo, go home!"

...

Argentina and Venezuela

i thought briefly about going, but, like i said before, political rallies with tens of thousands of people, even if they ARE anti-bush, don't hold much interest for me...

Argentina provided the microphone, the stadium and thousands of fired-up spectators in the mood to hear some thunderous, fist-pumping, anti-American sloganeering. Venezuela's Hugo Chávez took care of the rest.

As President Bush visited Brazil and Uruguay on Friday as part of a six-day tour of Latin America, Chávez tried to steal his thunder by staging an anti-Bush rally in a soccer stadium filled with Venezuelan flags, Che Guevara banners and signs saying: "Bush Get Out!"

particularly when some guy is going to SPEAK for two hours...

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What will it take for the WaPo to stop cheerleading for Bush?

i sure as hell don't know...

from today's wapo op-ed...

• [W]e'd caution once again against writing his administration off entirely.

• Mr. Bush can adjust course when forced.

• Nor has the administration taken to its bunker and stopped trying.

• [T]he administration seems to be shaping a policy that combines pressure with diplomacy in a way that at least has potential.

• Mr. Bush understands the needed elements...

• [T]the domestic and international success of immigration reform could be a tonic -- maybe even a legacy.

i'll grant you... any other president in history would probably have resigned by now, but is the fact that this one hasn't a mark of principle and dogged determination, or an unwillingness or outright inability to see just how badly he's screwed the pooch...?

bush is leaving d.c. for brazil this evening for a 5-nation latin american tour... he will be arriving in uruguay when a massive "anti-imperialist" rally will be held right across the river here in buenos aires, with presidents hugo chávez of venezuela, nestor kirchner of argentina, and evo morales of bolivia in attendance... will bush understand that HE is one of the principal reasons why that rally will be so huge...? no, of course not...

bush granted an interview at the white house the other day with reporters from all five countries he will be visiting... in his comments, which i read in the argentine paper clarin this morning, he mentioned "social justice" five times... i have been following bush for 6+ years and that is the FIRST time i can recall him EVER mentioning "social justice..." you can bet that the good citizens of latin america don't recall him ever saying it either... does he really think he's fooling anybody...?



Preparations at Estadio Ferro in Buenos Aires for the anti-Bush, anti-imperialist rally tomorrow night

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Bush's excellent (Latin American) adventure

bubble boy's going to visit five whole countries...

...

Brazil and Colombia

...

Guatemala and Mexico



Uruguay

let's see what's he's going to find...

brazil...

President Lula da Silva of Brazil made a point of visiting Venezuela for his first foreign trip after being re-elected last October. There he presided over the dedication of a $1.2 billion bridge over the Orinoco river, financed by the Brazilian government, while he lavished praise on Chavez and gave the popular Venezuelan president an added boost in his own re-election campaign.

colombia...

Colombia is in the midst of a huge national scandal over the responsibility of government officials for mass murder and assassinations of political opponents. More trade unionists are killed in Colombia each year than in the rest of the world combined.

guatemala...

Guatemala is another right-wing ally with a terrible human rights record: two weeks ago three Central American parlimentarians were murdered by a Guatemalan police death squad.

mexico...

Mexico, where the agenda is sure to include immigration, a constant source of tension in relations between the two neighbors.

uruguay...

Dr. [Tabare] Vázquez’s government includes former Tupamaro guerrillas; the guerrilla group kidnapped and killed an American official in Montevideo in 1970.

colombia, mexico, guatemala...

All three governments have been linked to narco-trafficking, but President Bush will likely praise them for their co-operation in the war on drugs.

the region...

For twenty-five years our government has pushed a series of reforms throughout the region: tighter fiscal and monetary policies, more independent central banks, indiscriminate opening to international trade and investment, privatization of public enterprises, and the abandonment of economic development strategies and industrial policies. The Bush team thinks that these reforms, known as "neoliberalism" in Latin America, were just the right formula to stimulate economic growth.

But in fact Latin America's economic growth over the last 25 years has been a disaster -- the worst long-term growth failure in more than a hundred years. From 1980-2000 GDP per person grew by only 9 percent, and another 4 percent for 2000-2005.

and...

“[T]here is a sense that things are not going well for the U.S. in the region,” said Peter Hakim, president of Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based policy research and advocacy group. “There has probably never been so much anti-Americanism and so little confidence in U.S. leadership since the cold war.”

i don't suppose it would make much difference to george w. bush that his trip might 1) actually inflame anti-u.s. sentiment in latin america, 2) subtract another point or two from his standing in the polls as he, don quixote-like, trots off to tilt at more windmills while ignoring the desperate state of his own country (virtually all of which has come about thanks to him), and 3) only serve to throw the spotlight on hugo chávez...

While Mr. Bush is in Uruguay on Friday and Saturday, Mr. Chávez plans to be leading anti-Bush demonstrations just across the River Plate in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he has cultivated an increasingly friendly relationship with that country’s Peronist president, Néstor Kirchner.

i'm almost tempted to go see mr. chávez myself as long as he's going to be in the neighborhood altho' i hate crowds at outdoor political rallies... they make me nervous...

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