"Avante!" Article by Jorge Cadima, member of the International Deparment
Wells Fargo, one of the USA’s greatest financial institutions, confessed in court, that Wachovia, its bank unit, “ had not monitored nor participated [ to the authorities] any suspicions of money laundering through drug-dealers” ( Bloomberg, 10.06.29). This “lapse’s” amount is astounding: 378 thousand millions of dollars. Money issued from Mexican “exchange houses”, during 2004/07. The news adds “ the Wachovia was used to help the Mexican drug-dealers to move dirty –money flows”. Martin Woods, a former leader in the fight against Wachovia’s money laundering, in London, informed the bank and the authorities about the occurrences. “ Woods declared his employers had ordered him to silence and tried to dismiss him.”. Which was the bank’s sanction? It paid off a 160 million dollars fine (“less than 2% of its 12,3 thousand million profit, in 2009”) and promised to improve the vigilance system. If it were to be achieved, “the USA’s government will drop all the accusations against the bank, in March 2011, according to the achieved agreement” (Bloomberg, 10.07.07). Who said crime is not rewarding? It’s always the same all over: “ No great USA bank – including the Wells Fargo – was ever formally accused of violating the Bank Secrecy Law or any other federal law. Instead, the Department of Justice solves the criminal accusations, by using process postponing agreements, in which the bank pays a fine and promises not to violate the law again”. For the bankers there are no taser pistols…
Meanwhile, Mexico disintegrates itself in violence, which has “ killed more than 22 000 people since 2006” (Bloomberg, 10.07.07). The carnage – and the social catastrophe – do not start indignation campaigns. Were it to be in Venezuela, there would have been inflamed commentators with abusive oratory against the “ failed State” and demanding “humanitarian interventions”. But not in this case. Maybe because “ Wachovia is but one of the USA’s and Europe’s banks which has been used to laundry drug money”. Or otherwise, as the UN’s head of the Drug and Crimes Cabinet (UNODC) , stated, in the brick of the financial crisis, in 2008, “ in many cases the drug money was the only net capital investment , […] inter-banking loans were financed by drug-money and other illegal activities. There were signs that some banks were rescued by this process ( in the Observer, 09.12.13).
The USA proceed a massive military escalade throughout Latin American. The official pretext is the fight against the drug-traffic. But there is a long record of links with the USA’s stepping in with other kinds of trafficking. It was so in Nicaragua, Kosovo, with the Colombian regime. It is so in Afghanistan. A country which, according to the UNODC current report, in 2010 “ is responsible for about 90% of the illegal opium production, in the last years”. In page 38 there is an eloquent chart. Practically inexistent since 1980, the Afghani opium production grew notably during the imperialist interference years. The great exception was year 2001, the year just before the invasion, when the Taliban, in power, eradicated over 90% of the production. Following the USA / NATO occupation, all the production records were beaten.
The neighbouring countries are a major target: “free” Russia is currently, “ major national market of Afghani heroine, a market which hastily expanded since the USSR’s dissolution. Together with Central Asia ex- Soviet republics, Pakistan, China and Iran’s eastern regions. The UN report applauds this latter country’s role in the fight against trafficking. “ Deadly combats are frequent among Iranian and trafficking troops, as highlighted by the thousand of suffered casualties within the Iranian boarder guards, during the last decades”. Between 1996 and 2008, Iran “ is responsible for both for over three thirds of the opium seizures, at world level” and about a third of the heroin. In the middle of the 19th Century, the British imperialism launched the two Opium Wars against China, in the name of the opium “ trade freedom”… It appears the USA intends to follow its example.
