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INFORME ALTERNATIVO SOBRE LA SALUD EN AMERICA LATINAstaffed by ‘retired’ soldiers of the U.S.A., slaughterersfrom Latin-American armies, and death squads.The South Command assembles trains and indoctrinatesnational armies to serve the interests ofthe U.S.A. under that country’s direction. Doing thisavoids the use of North-American troops and reducespolitical opposition by U.S. citizens to such confrontations.Health as a Tool to Weaken PeoplesWith impoverished governments and withoutresources for education, the statistics of literacy instructionfall much lower than the anticipated objectivesand health is shattered by the loss of control overmore than 30 infectious diseases, whose incidence increasesin each country. In Latin-America and the Caribbean,there are 1.6 million infected with the AIDSvirus. Of these, only 8% receive treatment, due to thehigh costs of pharmaceuticals. 2.3 million children sufferrespiratory distress syndrome each year as a resultof urban air pollution, and 35,000 people die prematurelyin Mexico for the same reason. Tobacco, promotedby northern companies that see their markets affectedin those countries, destroys 550,000 peopleeach year in Latin America. Contaminated water causesthe deaths of more than 36,000 people annually.At the moment, 78 million people in Latin America donot have sufficient water, while 117 million lack adequatehygienic installations and 59 million suffer fromchronic hunger and famine.The strategy of occupation and militarization hasbegot consequences such as an increase in unemployment,a rise in migratory fluxes of cheap manual laborto the countries of the north, while peasants are urbanized(77% of the population is urban), escaping froma land with no supports. Violence is becoming a resource:each year 140,000 Latin-Americans are assassinated,and one in three families in the region is a victimof some type of criminal aggression. The murderrates of women in Mexico and Guatemala reach outrageousnumbers, and more than 17 million schoolagechildren work in very poor conditions in the minesof South America, are enslaved as "domestic workers,"or are sexually exploited. Simultaneously, 40 millionstreet children, victims of violence, drift throughoutthe cities, and more than 30 million of them inhalesuperglue in an attempt to run away from povertyand abandonment.The strategy of occupation, accompanied by thepolicy of debt and pillage, has been, on one side, thesource of impoverishment of Latin-American countries,leading them to abandon their industries (just rawmaterials are exported), and to the proliferation of thevolume of exportations, making products cheaper.Thenational industries purchased by multinationals wentfrom the local manufacturer system to models of pureassembly. Research diminished, the situation fosteredbrain drain, and exportation economy was prioritizedrather than production for the internal market.The destruction of health is an adjunct to the unlimiteddestruction of environment. This presupposesthe reality of pushing the population to a struggle forsurvival, where it becomes totally alienated from thefight for freedom, justice and human rights. Environmentallyspeaking, Latin America retains the highest deforestationrate in the world, having lost more than46.7 million of forest hectares in 10 years. The transgeniccrops are an important element of this deforestationand the heavy irresponsible use of pesticidesdestroys both legal and illegal crops in Colombia, throughfumigation.Mechanisms for social domination are also implementedin the health field. The "business of illness"opens doors to large pharmaceutical emporiums thathave systematically rejected any natural treatment thatis not patented. It is the case of vitamins, micronu-44