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.
>