>From chriscd@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu Wed Feb 15 17:57:58 1995 Received: from jhuml1.hcf.jhu.edu (jhuml1.hcf.jhu.edu [128.220.2.86]) by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.6.9/8.6.9/CNS-3.5) with ESMTP id RAA11789 for ; Wed, 15 Feb 1995 17:57:56 -0700 Received: from jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu by jhmail.hcf.jhu.edu (PMDF V4.3-9 #5488) id <01HN39WS01CWH12EF1@jhmail.hcf.jhu.edu>; Wed, 15 Feb 1995 20:04:04 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 15 Feb 1995 20:03:22 -0500 (EST) From: Christoph Chase-Dunn Subject: Chase Manhattan wants everyone to know (fwd) To: wsn@csf.colorado.edu Message-id: MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Status: RO XTaken from the Progressive Sociologists Network: > 'U.S. Bank disavows newsletter on Mexico' > > NEW YORK, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- Chase Manhattan Bank distanced itself > Monday from a newsletter produced by its Emerging Markets Group that > called on Mexico to "eliminate the Zapatista" rebels in the southern > state of Chiapas. > The four-page newsletter, "Mexico - Political Update," authored by > Riordan Roett "does not reflect the opinion of Chase Manhattan," a > bank official said. > Roett, director of Latin American Studies at the John Hopkins School > of Advanced International Studies who was on leave of absence while > serving as a Chase adviser, "is not, and will not be available," she > said. > The Jan. 13 newsletter was released as President Clinton proposed a > $40-billion loan guarantee to prop up the fumbling Mexican peso that has > lost more than 40 percent of its value in relation to the dollar. > Analysts have pointed to the uprising in Chiapas as a major element > in the flight of foreign investors that weakened the Mexican peso. > "The uprising has boosted the price of the Mexican Indian blood," > said the man known as Subcommander Marcos, who leads the Zapatista > National Liberation Army in Chiapas. > "Not long ago, it was valued less than two chickens, now it is the > condition for the largest loan of ignominy in history," he said Monday. > The Chase newsletter said "the uprising in Chiapas is now one year > old and no nearer to resolution." > After a reference to "local peasants groups who are sympathetic to > Marcos and his cronies," Roett said that the government of President > Ernesto Zedillo "will need to eliminate the Zapatistas to demonstrate > their effective control of the national territory and of security > policy." > Regarding the elections this year in the states of Jalisco, > Guanajuato, Yucatan, Michoacan, and Baja California, Roett wrote that > "the Zedillo administration will need to consider carefully whether or > not to allow opposition victories if fairly won at the ballot box." > "To deny legitimate electoral victories by the opposition will be a > serious setback in the President's electoral strategy," Roett wrote. > "But a failure to retain PRI control runs the risk of splitting the > governing party." > The Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI), has ruled Mexico since > the 1920s. > From **In relation with posting *Chase Manhattan Report (original)* here another information about the "public diassociation with the document", according Chase Manhattan Bank. Cordially, **Javier Campos Modern Languages & Literatures, Latin American & Caribbean Studies Fairfield University Connecticut, EE.UU. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- **Source: Newsgroups: soc.culture.mexican ================================================================= The circulation of the internal Chase Bank report calling for the elimination of the Zapatistas has so disturbed the Bank that it has issued a public diassociation from the document and its author --a Chase employee. The following story was filed on the AP wire yesterday. So far I have not seen it in print. Although Chase "disavows" the statement, its spokesperson also admits that the report was one Chase provided to its "capital markets clients." Now, how can a business in the service sector that "provided" this report to its clients as an integral part of its services to them "disavow" something which was clearly its own product?? This is twisting and turning to avoid corporate responsibility, scapegoating the worker whose report it was circulating. Highly amusing at one level. Pathetic at another. (By the way, the fact that Roett is the Director of Latin American Studies at Johns Hopkins, when he is not prostituting his brain and mouth to Chase, raises interesting questions about the nature of such "Area Studies" centers and the role they have played in setting the stage for current Mexican government actions.) ----begin AP story---- Chase Bank Denies Urging Elimination of Mexican Rebels By Donald M. Rothberg AP Diplomatic Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - A Chase Manhattan assessment of political and economic turmoil in Mexico said last month that the government would need "to elminate the Zapatistas" to restore stability. The bank disavowed the statement Monday as the work of an independent scholar. The assessment for Chase's Emerging Markets' Group w3as written by Riordan Roett, who is on leave as director of Latin American Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Reached at Chase Manhattan, Roett declined to comment. Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo ordered troops into the Chiapas state last week to hunt down leaders of the rebel Zapatista movement. In a letter released Monday, Subcommandante Marcos, the rebel leader, accused the government of taking the offensive to repay those who helped ease Mexico's financial crisis. Roett's assessment, dated Jan. 13, said "while Chiapas, in our opinion, does not pose a fundamental threat to Mexican political stability, it is perceived to be so by many in the investment community." "The government will need to eliminate the Zapatistas to demonstrate their effective control of the national territory and of security policy," Roett wrote. After Roett's comments became known, the bank issued a statement saying his opinions "represent his personal views as a scholar. They were not meant to nor do they represent the views of Chase Manhattan." The brief statement said Roett "has written commentaries that Chase Manhattan's Emerging Markets Group has distributed to its capital markets clients." Spokesman John Anderson said the Emerging Markets Group is the "area of the bank that specializes in trading, issuing and underwriting emerging market debt." Anderson refused to comment when asked the extent of Chase Manhattan's investments in Mexico. "The greatest threat to political stability in Mexico today, we believe, is the current monetary crisis," wrote Roett. "Until the administration of President Ernesto Zedillo identifies the appropriate policies to stabilize the peso and avoid uncontrolled inflation, it will be almost impossible to address issues such as Chiapas and judicial and electoral reform." After Congress rebuffed President Clinton's effort to provide Mexico with $40 billion in U.S. loan guarantees to help stabilize the peso, Clinton unilaterally came up with $20 billion in support from a Treasury Department fund created to defend the value of the dollar. Congressional approval was not required to use that fund. Clinton asked Congress to act the day before Roett wrote his memo. He took unilateral action 18 days later. ----end of AP story---- ====================================== Harry Cleaver Department of Economics University of Texas at Austin Austin, Texas 78712-1173 USA Phone Numbers: (hm) (512) 442-5036 (off) (512) 471-3211 Fax: (512) 471-3510 E-mail: hmcleave@mundo.eco.utexas.edu ====================================== An