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INFORME ALTERNATIVO SOBRE LA SALUD EN AMERICA LATINASecretaries of State, former: "Our objective throughthe Free Trade Agreement for the Americas is to guaranteeNorth-American companies the control of a territorythat goes from the Arctic Pole to the Antarctic,and the free access, without any obstacle or difficulty,to our products, services, technology and capital in theentire hemisphere". [Acción Ecológica, 2002]The Occupation StrategyThe main figures and cadres of the U.S. governmentduring the period of 2001-2004 responded distinctlyto the commercial interests of large transnationalcompanies: oil companies—such as Harken Energy,Halliburton Chevron Texaco, British Petroleum; pharmaceuticals—suchas Pharmacia and Merck; automobileindustries—such as General Motors, Ford andDaimler-Chrysler; and armament industries such asGulfstream Aerospace.The occupation policies of thosecorporations were applied.The strategy to support this occupation and tosubsidize the neo-empire is based on three central aspects:1) financial policies of the multilateral institutions(IMF, WB) and the economical agencies of theU.S.A. (Treasury,Trade, EXIM bank, …), which force nationaleconomies to yield to their interests; 2) concealedoperations of espionage that subdue the populationand the directing political class; and 3) wars andmilitary interventions when both previous strategiesfail or become insufficient.1.-Multilateral Banks. Since the mid 1970’s, multilateralbanks approved a U.S. policy wherein the debtof countries was the first step of the intended financialsetback of Latin America. The CIA and bankingsystem were in charge of the countries becoming indebtedvia forged reports of economical bonanzaand vast future petroleum income; the strategy includedalso the recovery of companies that had beennationalized.The debt of Latin America and the Caribbean,at present, is 22 times greater than in 1970.The total external debt was increased by a factor of4 between 1975 and 1980 (during the period of militarydictatorships in the region), reaching 261.000million US dollars, and it again tripled between 1980and 2002, reaching 725.000 million US dollars.Totalinterest in 2002 amounted to 55.260 millions, whichis on the record as the subvention by countries ofthe south to countries of the north. Although thedebt has been paid three times already, it continuesto increase relentlessly. In 2002, the debt of eachcountry in millions of US dollars was as follows: Brazil,229.000; Mexico, 141.000; Argentina, 133.000;Chile, 39.000; Colombia, 38.000; Venezuela, 33.000;Peru, 28.500; Ecuador, 16.000; Cuba, 12.000; Uruguay,7.000; Nicaragua, 6.000; Panama, 6.000; Bolivia, CostaRica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica,Dominican Republic, 4.000; Paraguay, 2.000; and Trinidadand Tobago, Haiti and Guyana, 1.000. The countrieswith higher debts are the petroleum countries.However, the necessity of capital accumulation isnot fulfilled with the external debt and pillage measuresare orchestrated, as manifested by the privatizationof Pension Funds, the "bankruptcy" of banks,the narco-dollars, and the pillage of local elites. Accordingto the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank., between1974 and 1982, during a period of dictatorship,84.000 million US dollars were transferred to theU.S.A. from Mexico, Chile,Venezuela, Argentina andBrazil.This system is so necessary to the maintenanceof the dollar and the North-American commercialdeficit that it continues to be employed even afterthe dictatorships. Mexico transferred more than100.000 million US dollars stolen from state loansby private firms in the 90’s. In the same period,40