The military power of Iran and the unity of its leaders with their people convinced Western countries, led by the United States, Britain and France, to cast aside for the moment the drums of war. Instead, they are imposing a strong economic blockade to weaken the government and, in that way, try to own the country and its oil reserves.

So far, this tactic has not worked, since Tehran has managed to evade the sanctions and continue on with its economic-social and scientific development.

Economic blockades have been the first measures used in recent times by Washington to take over strategic areas of the Middle East and North Africa. Then, the White House finds a pretext to carry out invasions and occupations as happened in Afghanistan, Iraq or Libya, just to name the best known.

As for the Islamic Republic of Iran, the third largest exporter of oil, the U.S.and Israel(the latter, main enemy of Iran, which possesses more than 200 nuclear weapons) have falsely accused Teheran of running a non-peaceful nuclear energy program, which Tehran’s authorities have repeatedly denied.

The sanctions against Iran have not worked as Western countries expected because several major oil importing countries like China, India and South Korea, have continued to trade with Iran.

However, the European Union arranged to eliminate all trade with Iran from July on. As a reply, the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad agreed to halt oil supplies to Spain, Italy and Greece two months ago, which has meant a hard blow to those countries.

Italy, Spain and Greece have the Persian nation as their main supplier of oil. In the case of Madrid, for instance, Iranwas the leading oil vendor with 14.6% of the total; in the case of Italy, it represented 13.1%.

But the biggest impact fell on Greece last year when Athens received around 18% of its oil from Iran on favorable payment terms because Teheran gave it with no financial guarantees due to the Greek economic crisis.

Among the solutions, Iran has accepted Chinese Yuans and Indian Rupees for oil, hard currencies later used to acquire goods and services in both countries.

Another important situation to consider is that by depriving the U.S.and the EU to Iran's access to International Banking System (SWIFT) through which most payments denominated in dollars around the world are carried out, Western analysts could have made a strategic mistake.

But while finding variants, the Islamic Republic continues its development and recently announced an ambitious project to build small refineries of petrol, diesel and kerosene, each of them capable of processing 10 000 barrels per day.

These plants will be installed throughout the country at a cost of $100 million dollars and its products can be used to meet domestic needs and for export.

It was also announced the beginning of operations of new oil deposits in the Persian Gulf that will achieve a total storage capacity of 4.7 million barrels.

Tehran just acquired the world’s largest oil supertanker with a tonnage of 2.2 million barrels at a cost of $300 million dollars, and this year will receive other 7 supertankers, 4 of which will arrive in 2013.

Mother Nature has also favored Iran. In April and May of last year, the largest deposits of black gold in the history of the country were discovered, located in the southern province of Khuzestan and in the Caspian Sea. Thus, 18 new oil fields have been discovered throughout Iran, and its reserves are over 154 000 million barrels now.

Oil is an urgent need for the vast majority of countries worldwide that do not possess it; therefore, Iran is an important entity in its production and marketing. But, at the same time, the West knows that Iran is a very tough nut to crack.

Therefore, it is best to reach agreements of understanding and peaceful trading with Teheran instead of starting a conflict with unforeseeable consequences that could lead to the beginning of World War III -- where we would all be losers.

by Juan Gelman

The alarms of economic European crisis, the ups and downs of the euro, Greece’s departure of the Euro zone, the Hollande/Merkel clash on how to overcome the situation by merging oil and water, or austerity and development, the summit meetings of the heads of state of the Union, shaken by the protests, have silenced a no small feat: US and NATO’s unspoken confession of defeat in Afghanistan. 

In happened in the Chicago Summit, when the leaders of NATO adopted Obama’s position and signed a “Transition Treaty” that is presented as conducive to the irreversible fall-back of its troops from the Asian country in the second half of 2013, leaving the security measures in the hands of the locals. As it happens in Europe most of the public opinion in the United States is opposed to continuing the conflict, which is considered to be over since the death of Bin Laden. And Obama is struggling due to his re-election in the midst of electoral year: this way, he will then keep his promise of retiring the troops by 2014.  

The new Treaty is practically the same to the one adopted by the NATO heads of state summit, which took place in Lisbon on November 18 and 19 of 2010, although only one different detail: over two weeks before the Chicago summit, during a quick unannounced trip to Kabul, Obama signed an agreement with Afghan President Karzai “to cover the decade following the troops’ final fall-back in 2014”. The terms of this deal are not yet public and the White House occupant clarified that the troops will not fall back, but will only be in charge of “training the Afghan forces and to fight terrorism, but will not build permanent bases in the country, nor will they patrol its mountains and cities”. It is a curious victory: the United States will continue the war for another ten years. For now.

Obama’s declarations remind us of W. Bush, when he said “mission accomplished” in May 2003 when Saddam Husein was overthrown: The US’ and NATO’s effectives stayed another 8 years and not all left.This experience perhaps advised the White House that is was preferable to extend the combat previsions for another decade, since violence in Afghanistan has increased in 2011, the fifth year in a row: the number of diseased Afghan civilians was increased over 15% in the first half of the year, suicidal attacks were intensified and the Taliban’s’ efforts to fight the invaders have not ceased.

A National Intelligence Evaluation was performed by the US’ National Intelligence Council, which groups the 16 organs which believe that the fighting is on a dead point: “corruption, the Afghan government’s ineffectiveness and the operations launched by the Taliban from Pakistan, have mined the ground won by the increase of the US troops in 2009.  

Obama himself admitted in Chicago that Talibans are stills “strong enemies” and that what NATO accomplished in the battle field is frail. So, Afghanistan will be occupied one way or the other until 2024.

There is more than one problem in the midst of NATO. The decision to withdraw all the French troops from the Asian country at the end of the year, which socialist President Francois Hollande announced keeping a promise made during elections, but which does not apply to what was agreed in Chicago, so it is a challenge to Obama and NATO. On the other hand, the United States finances 85 percent of the war and presses the European allies in economic crisis to increase their contribution.

The main problem is that the war goes on in spite of the Pentagon’s pessimist announces. General John Allen, commander of all the installed troops in Afghanistan, declared that the United States will use “significant firepower” in the 2012-2013 period. “We will need combat capacity – he said – and I don’t think anyone World question that. I owe the President and realist analysis on the subject.” The General is on the grounds and knows what he is saying. 

Egypt is back to the polls again, this time not to find their lawmakers, but a president to replace, after fifteen months, President Mubarak Hozni.

More than 50 million people are eligible to vote, and it will most likely go to a second round, since none of the 12 candidates is shown as a clear favorite to reach 50 percent plus one required.

Analysts and Western media show the polls as the sweetest fruit of the "Egyptian Arab Spring," a process with popular origin and subsequently kidnapped by the elites and power groups to make it a winter.

That is the context in which this event takes place: the frustration of unfulfilled promises, an economy still to be raised, the same social problems and a precarious political system, incapable of building a new and better Egypt. Just one example: Egypt does not have a constitution, that is, the next president does not know at this point the level of power he will have in the country.

It's true ... maybe these could be the freest elections  in years, but no one guarantees full transparency, unlike Mubarak’s times, when everyone knew in advance the fraudulent result.  This election seems to be a springboard to a more acute political crisis.

The truth is that the country is confused, an example are the candidates: out of the four with more possibilities, two candidates of radical Islam, the religious and political power that conquered the parliament and now runs out of steam within society, the other two candidates were high government officials of Mubarak’s government.

Who are these last two characters? Shafiq Ahmed, Prime Minister with Hosni Mubarak and Amro Musa, former foreign minister of the same government.  But how can it be possible that the people who drove a despotic government are voting today in part on the return of some of its leading figures?  Insecurity and economic crisis are the keys. Millions dream of a past, more corrupt and dictatorial, but with safer streets. In the case of Musa, the candidate has won the hearts of the farmers by promising better credits through an agricultural bank. For millions of Egyptians, democracy is now more important than the insecurity and not the lack of food.

The next president will face a super-army with 30 percent of the GDP in its hands, reluctant to lose their large space in making decisions. He will have to save an economy in ruins, for which he will have to comply with the conditions of international financial organizations.

However, a detail, if an ex-supporter of Mubarak wins, who will bring the greatest political benefits?  Undoubtedly. the U.S that will see that the presidency of Egypt is a continuation of their ancient alliance. The favorite, Amr Moussa, was secretary of the Arab League which facilitated the invasion of Libya.

Best known so far about Afghanistan is the presence of U.S.military and the International Security Assistance Force to the UN Security, under the command of the Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Although it is also known that Islamic rebel forces defending the independence and national sovereignty and whose main objective, according to its leaders, is to annihilate the foreign occupiers, who invaded this Central Asian territory in October 2001.

For more than 11 years, only talks and reports about operations, offensives, fighting, suicide car bombs, suicide attacks and bombings against civilians, especially in rural areas of production, are the order of the day.

This makes sense, but the international media agencies are not interested in disclosing information about the existence of a large item or fourth segment inhabiting the country, which is under threat of disappearing due to lack of minimal resources for combat the local daily hunger.

Hence, the UN Undersecretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs, Valerie Amos, alerts on the vast needs facing the people and urged the international community to contribute a greater financial commitment to address the needs of Afghanis.

We must continue to mobilize resources to help those who are in dire need, said Mrs. Amos at a press conference, who returned to New York after a 3-week diplomatic round-up by the Central Asian Islamic nation, saying there are millions of people affected by the conflict and natural disasters.

Most of these refugees, some 5 million, settled down in the neighboring Islamic nations of Iran and Pakistan, but others tried to rebuild their lives in reception camps spread across the Afghan territory without official support; with great difficulty and little help from the international community.

Amos brought up the situation faced by women in general in the Asian country, a place with high mortality rates --one of the largest on the planet--, as well as extreme poverty and great difficulties in accessing health and education.

She mentioned the necessity of the investment in human development and delivery of vital services such as housing, primary education and health by the international community.

The UN estimates that $437 million is urgently needed this year to provide humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan, but the official said that only 27% of these funds have been raised so far.

This helplessness prevails despite the billions of dollars of international economic aid received by Afghan authorities since 2002, a nation which remains with one of the world lowest development indicators.

This is facilitated by the escalation of the conflict spread to various parts of the country previously considered relatively peaceful, where 3 thousand and 21 civilians were killed last year compared to 2 thousand 790 in 2010, according to statistics from the UN mission in Afghanistan.

A large percentage of these deaths is due to indiscriminate aerial bombardment, night operations and massacres perpetrated by the U.S.and NATO.

This serious crisis is exacerbated by the continuation of more than 130,000 soldiers from 40 states grouped in the International Security Assistance Force Security, sent by the UN under the command of NATO.

For this reason, Afghanistan remains as the 5^th poorest country in the world, according to UNDP, with widespread corruption as a spearhead that chokes this nation’s social development.

Added to this is that access to clean water, electricity and medical care is an illusion by which half of its 30 million population lives badly below the poverty line.

Only 10% of those living in big cities have electricity and 5% of the rural population only reaches a life expectancy of 46 years old.

Moreover, the rate of economic growth forecast is 4% for this year, from which more than half comes from drug trafficking and the rest comes from international aid provided to the administration of Kabul.

By María Josefina Arce.

 Year after year since 1982, the United States has maintained Cuba on the list of countries that, in their arbitrary and unilateral understanding, sponsor terrorism; a list only trying to silence the excesses and outrages that the northern empire commits on a whim around the world.

The international demand that Cuba be removed from that hypocritical list is growing. This is how academics from both countries, meeting in Washington, recently called for the immediate exclusion of Cuba from the annual report, with which the State Department intends to certify the nations regarding their alleged support of extremist groups or activities.

A reflection of the hostile and sickening North American policy towards Cuba in its inclusion in this enumeration, when for many, it is clear that Cuba does not pose any danger to the United States’ national security.

As important officials see, and as it is read in the report on Terrorism of 2008, the White House does not have evidence of money-laundering activities related to terrorism or of the financing of activities in Cuba.  

Even Rear Admiral John Adams recently requested that Washington remove Cuba from the list of terrorism-sponsoring countries because he considers that this designation responds to a “counterproductive and hypocritical” policy.

And really speaking of terrorism, it is the United States who should be at the top of the list. The economic, commercial and financial blockade that has been imposed on the Cuban people for over half a century is no more than state terrorism and can also be qualified as an act of genocide against the people.

Washington also supports and protects known criminals who have organized terrorist actions against Cuba. That is the case of Luis Posada Carriles, who walks freely on the streets of Miami, in spite of being the perpetrator of sabotaging a Cuban commercial air plane in flight in 1976 and of other actions that have caused deep grieve to families of the Caribbean country.

In addition, in the name of its own interests and security, Washington starts wars, invades countries, and fills the World with secret prisons where they practice torture, criminal actions that violate International Rights.

Cuba on the other hand, shares life and hope with other countries. There are the thousands of Cuban doctors who offer their help to those who need it most in many nations of the World, and the more than five million people from about thirty countries who have become literate thanks to the Cuban literacy method “Yo sí puedo,” or “Yes, I Can.”

Cuba has won the respect and admiration of many people in the World, not only for its solidarity and selfless help, but also because the revolutionary government has been able to guarantee the most elemental human rights to its people; this is proved by the quality health and educational ratings.

In this sensational Op-ed, Paul Buchheit explains why the United States, in spite of being the most developed and wealthy nation in the world, has some of the lowest indicators of social development and welfare among developed nations.

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses...I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" These words, from poet Emma Lazarus, were inscribed on the Statue of Liberty over 100 years ago. Today the golden door has a lock on it, paid for with record profits from the health care, education, and financial industries.

1. We're near the bottom of the developed world in children's health and safety

According to a 2007 UNICEF report, the U.S.ranked last among 21 OECD nations in an assessment of child health and safety. The assessment measured infant mortality, immunization, and death from accidents and injuries.

A related 2009 OECD study generally agreed, placing the U.S.24th out of 30 OECD countries for children's health and safety. It also showed the devastating effects of inequality in our country. Despite having the second-highest average income for children among the 30 OECD countries, the U.S.ranked 27th out of 30 for child poverty (percentage of children living in households that are below 50% of the median income). 

2. We've betrayed the young people who were advised to stay in school

Over 40% of recent college graduates are living with their parents, dealing with government loans that average $27,200. The unemployment rate for young people is about 50%. More than 350,000 Americans with advanced degrees applied for food stamps in 2010.

As Washington lobbyists endeavor to kill a proposed bill to reduce the interest rates on student debt, federal loans remain readily available, and so colleges go right on increasing their tuition.

Meanwhile, corporations hold $2 trillion in cash while looking for investments and employees in foreign countries, and American students are forced to accept menial positions. Yet delusions persist about our new generation of would-be workers. Conservatives are all bubbly about today's young entrepreneurs creating their own jobs -- jobs that "don't yet exist."

3. The main source of middle-class wealth has been largely wiped out

American homeowners owe almost as much as the students, with $700 billion of debt over and above the value of their homes.

This removes the only source of wealth for middle America, especially for blacks and Hispanics. Remarkably, for every dollar of NON-HOME wealth owned by white families, people of color have only one cent.

So when minority families were specifically targeted for high-risk, subprime loans that could be re-packaged and sold for a quick short-term profit, most of their assets were erased. Median wealth fell 66% for Hispanic households and 53% for black households. For whites the decline was 16%.

With a disturbing note of irony, Sanford Weill, the banker largely responsible for the reversal of the mortgage-protecting Glass-Steagall Act, was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences for "extraordinary accomplishment and a call to serve." 

4. We give prison sentences for smoking marijuana, but not for billion-dollar fraud

About half of our world-leading prison population is in jail for non-violent drug offenses. Americans have also been arrested for handing out free food in a park. Mothers in Ohio and Connecticut were jailed for enrolling their kids in out-of-district schools. As of 2003 in California there were 344 individuals serving sentences of 25 years or more for shoplifting as a third offense, in many cases after two non-violent offenses.

How does the market deal with this steady tide of petty crime? It strives for more. The new trend of private prisons is dependent on maintaining a sizable prison population to guarantee profits, with no incentive for rehabilitation.

As the number of inmates has surged, the people who devastated countless American lives "get out of jail free." The savings and loan fraud cost the nation between $300 billion and $500 billion, about 100 times more than the total cost of burglaries in 2010. The financial system bailout has already cost the country $3 trillion. Goldman Sachs packaged bad debt, sold it under a different name, persuaded ratings services to label it AAA, and then bet against their own financial creation by selling it short. Other firms accused of fraud and insider trading were Morgan Stanley, Bear Stearns, Bank of America, Countrywide Financial, and Wells Fargo. The New York Times reported in 2008 that the Justice Department had postponed the bribery or fraud prosecutions of over 50 corporations, choosing instead to enter into agreements involving fines and 'monitoring' periods.

5. You can have health care, if you pay for it

A recent Commonwealth Fund study compared U.S.health care spending to 12 other OECD countries. The data shows that reducing our costs to the median level of spending among the OECD countries would save us $1.5 trillion a year, more than our entire deficit.

Unfortunately, insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies and hospital administrators won't hear of it. There's too much money to be made. Bypass surgery in the U.S.costs 2 to 3 times more than in Great Britain, Canada, France, and Germany. Cataract surgery costs 4 times more.

That's if you can pay for it. There are currently about 50 million uninsured Americans. At the other extreme are $2,400 oxymoronic penthouse hospital suites complete with butler and grand piano. Or, for those who don't get out much, emergency rooms in the home, with private cell-phone access to "concierge doctors."

Inequality in our country is so severe that 120,000 health care workers could have been hired with the salary paid to one man. That's a $40,000 salary for 40 health care workers for every one of the 3,000 counties in the United States. Instead, $5 billion dollars went to one man who reportedly made his first big haul ($4 billion, in 2007) by conspiring with Goldman Sachs in the above-mentioned short sale subterfuge.

The result of ignoring the health needs of the greater population, according to a report in the Annual Review of Public Health, is that "the health rankings of the United States have declined substantially when compared with other nations."

Conclusion

Privatization simply hasn't worked for health care, mortgage banking, higher education, or prison management. There is little incentive for profit motivated firms to invest in disadvantaged or underemployed Americans. That's why taxes are necessary -- to provide for the common good, and to return some of the gains from 60 years of productivity to the great majority of Americans who contributed to our growth. Unfortunately, the golden door on the Statue of Liberty seems to have an invisible hand holding it shut.

By Paul Buchheit

Source: Nation Of Change

The complex challenges imposed by the current international situation becomes even more essential for the unity of the Non-Aligned Movement, an objective that Cuba has always supported, the only founding Latin American member nation of that forum.

And, as recently affirmed in Cairo by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, we live during a decisive moment in history where there is time to boost our differences or foster division. But, Cuba’s top diplomat affirmed, in such circumstances, solidarity must be more clearly manifested.

As a founding country, Cuba has always worked to keep the Non-Aligned Movement alive, which comprises two-thirds of UN member countries, and undoubtedly, is a politically and ideologically heterogeneous movement in a world where interference in internal affairs, wars and the nuclear threat are paramount.

By taking its presidency for the second time in 2006, Cuba visibly strengthened the role of the forum in international discussions and its voice has become indispensable when discussing key issues and deciding on the international agenda.

During the Cuban presidency, which ended in July 2009, the Movement was consistent with its principles and grew in statue. The work of the Coordinating Bureau and its various Working Groups ensured that the Third World’s criteria could not be ignored in making decisions of this body and other multilateral forums.

And it is because Cuba has always defended the Movement's goals of maintaining peace, security, stability and defending the rights of nations of the South.

The Non-Aligned Movement has a real impact because the principles upon which it was built still stand to defend the respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, regardless of their power and ability to defend themselves, and non-use of force, among others.

Therefore, in the ministerial meeting in the Egyptian capital, the Cuban foreign minister expressed his concern about what is actually happening in Syria, a member of the Movement. He said that this is a very illustrative example of the serious dangers to which we are all exposed, if those who seek to impose their will to justify the use of force achieve their goal.

The indigenous peoples of Our America are demanding their right to existence, which still suffer from colonial policies that the so-called discovery of America 500 years ago introduced in the region.

About two thousand members of indigenous communities from around the world gathered at the United Nations headquarters in New York, saying that the policies of extinction and domination that characterized the conquest and led to murder and enslavement of millions of native peoples still prevail today.

Discriminated against during these five centuries, native peoples are not recognized as having a history, identity, aspirations, specific objectives and the capacity of self-determination and self-government.

It is a fact that the indigenous inhabitants of our continent have been evicted from their lands and suffered daily violations of their cultural and spiritual expressions.

It is a reality that many Latin American countries still experience, despite the winds of change throughout the continent which have allowed several nations to restore to these peoples their rights as in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Bolivia, which has the first-ever indigenous president of that country.

The arrival of Daniel Ortega to Nicaragua's presidency in 2007 made the difference for native peoples in that Central American country, who have been helped with the literacy campaign. In their own languages, on their own lands and with respect for their ancestral cultures, members of these ethnic groups are finally learning how to read and write.
 
Last year, the U.N Special Rapporteur on human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, James Anaya, congratulated the Sandinista government for its actions to recognize and protect the rights of these peoples to their ancestral lands.

Prior to 1999, indigenous people in Venezuela did not exist from a legal perspective.  However, with the government of President Hugo Chavez, these communities experienced significant progress in social inclusion, according to the president of the National Assembly Commission for Indigenous Peoples, Jose Luis Gonzalez.

But there are still many countries in the region that do not respect the rights of indigenous peoples of Our America. This is the case of Chile, where the Mapuche population registered the highest rates of poverty, infant mortality, unemployment and illiteracy, while laws inherited from the military regime of Augusto Pinochet are used against them.

The attorney for the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia, Ana Manuela, said that of 102 indigenous communities of her country, 35 out of them are at risk of physical and cultural extermination.

And in 2007, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted, which recognizes the compensation native peoples deserve as victims of conquest.  Despite this Declaration, full political and social rights are still a pending issue for the indigenous peoples of our continent.

Vladimir Putin, the country's most popular politician and father of "New Russia", a national project successfully launched after Boris Yeltsin's disastrous years, officially returned to the presidential office on Monday. He’s not only the political figure of more support, but perhaps has the clearest insight into how the Russian political and economic elite and the strings of power function, as he was Prime Minister twice and now President for the third time.

To internally steer Russia will not be a big problem for the president again, someone who institutionalized the country during his first two terms in office, managed to consolidate state power, and economically speaking, the high prices of oil, natural gas and raw materials in general, key products to underpin the government's coffers. At the same time, Moscow is one of the largest cereal producers, and a vast territory full of natural resources of all kinds whose hydrocarbons stand for a well-known international key role.

Where are the greatest challenges of Putin, though? The great task to fulfill is in the international arena, that is, namely the role of Russia in a world under the current complex situations. On the topic, let’s note two fundamental elements: first, Russian foreign policy is the President’s responsibility; and second, the election of Putin was not good news for the core of Western powers in the U.S.and Europe. He was the man who re-made Russia into a great power in the international arena, a nation based on its own interests often contrary to the interests of Washington and Brussels.

What are the possible strategies to deal with these challenges? Russia will continue to strengthen ties with the BRICS group, as the quintet comprising Brazil, Russia itself, India, China and South Africa, brings together the fastest growing emerging economies that have achieved economic development of each of its members separately, while generating a capable force of creating new centers of powers outside U.S. hegemony. It will be vital to continue strengthening its relationship with China, where Russia hopes to achieve its modern required infrastructure and access to new technologies.

The European Union is the largest trade partner of the Slavic nation and its economic difficulties can hit it; however, some analysts say the Kremlin could maneuver to face the growing disunity in the European community if it establishes close relations with European members individually, something that is apparently the case for Germany.  Regarding relations with the U.S., NATO’s plan to encircle Russia is certainly one of the major bilateral issues he will face.

However, Central Asia will be the priority. There are the former Soviet republics rich in hydrocarbons, which Russia takes as its area of ​​influence, especially by the cultural ties that bind them, and what happens there is a national security issue for Moscow.

In short, Putin assumed in conditions perhaps more complex than in his previous mandates. There are new strategies, and the chessboard of the current political world has changed.

The powerful incendiary bomb that destroyed the offices of the travel agency Airline Brokers in the city of Coral Gables, one block from 8th Street, the main street of Little Havana, opens a new question about terrorism in south Florida.   Are we going back to a time not many years ago when Miami came to be, to win much fame and misfortune, in the capital of terrorism in the Americas by the grace of the Cuban-American extreme right?

Federal authorities and local police agencies say they are working in the investigation of this criminal act that occurred at dawn last Saturday, which is considered intentional, in order to capture those responsible for such a reprehensible and cowardly terrorist act. Hopefully positive results can be obtained as well as the capture of the perpetrators of this despicable crime.

But the truth is that the one who placed the bomb has not been arrested yet.  What is true, although the press does not qualify as such, is that it is a clear terrorist act and that none of the political leaders of Miami or Florida State, whether Republicans or Democrats, has come to the political arena to properly condemn this criminal act that damages the image of Miami and threatens the safety of its citizens as well as millions of tourists, the base of the economy of the region.

The hatred of the terrorists against Cuba and our people have moved to Miami and its environs, which does not exclude the city of Coral Gables where the terrorist act occurred, with its elusive former Mayor in Chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba, the notorious Mr. James Cason.

And the Miami press, which claims to be free, says nothing of the terrorist attack last Saturday. Not even to honor the anniversary of the death of Osama Bin Laden.

The Miami Herald and the Inter American Press Association, like ostriches, they hide their heads in the sand, either by sympathy, complicity or fear of the real terrorists, and they refuse to comment about this criminal act carried out by Cuban right-wing terrorists in Miami, against a U.S.legal and humanitarian company of travels to Cuba.

The terrorists are having a party in Miami. The fire bombing was not carried out in Cuba, but in the U.S., in the state of Florida, where this criminal aggression took place.  It was actually a terrorist act against the United States, against the country that has proclaimed itself as the main enemy of international terrorism.

The Cuban terrorist mafia are the ones who rule in this banana republic of South Florida.  They should thank the cowardly tolerance or indulgent complicity of the United States, where terrorists freely walk down the streets of Miami and Coral Gables.

This May 1^st, International Workers Day, millions of people took to the streets to remember the date and under different motivations. Some, like Venezuela or Bolivia, celebrated victories as the minimum wage increase and a new labor law, which dignify workers. Others, like the Europeans and Americans, marched to protest against the gains lost, and made clear the hard struggle ahead.

But generally, on May 1^st the world had more to lament rather than celebrate, the future is gloomy and that became clear in a report by the International Labor Organization (ILO) which said there are over 197 million unemployed today and that number will exceed 200 million by the end of year, but if this situation persists, the toll could reach 207 million next year.

If we delve into a data, more serious details are found, as in the case of women, considered as one of the segments hardest hit by the lack of jobs. Parallel, and according to the report of the institution, young people are also in a total crisis, since they are three times more likely to be unemployed than adults, while 40% of those under 25 do not have jobs today.

Will it be easy or complicated to reverse the current situation? Let’s see. You need to create, for instance, more than 600 million jobs over the next 10 years to alleviate the employment crisis. At this point, under these conditions and with these prospects, the calculation seems an ironic joke of science fiction.

However, to understand the full extent of this, it is necessary to analyze its consequences. First, it is logical to expect a worsening of the already seen: the social protests. There are several elements that should really concern the global capitalist elite. Workers and the unemployed are increasing their struggle, which has not been, as many originally thought, a short or temporary situation. Despite the attacks and the judicial measures, protest movements are multiplied in Europe and the United States, the two main poles of traditional capitalist power.

Nevertheless, other elements are that protesters are winning ideological consciousness and discarding the idea that within the system they can achieve a solution and that the culprits are governments. Sustaining the struggle requires organization and if these protesters consolidate its structure, they can be much stronger compared to big capital. On the other hand, this is not only a struggle of workers and the unemployed, but also a struggle for students, social movements and those small and medium-sized enterprises.  This fight does not look like any other in modern history.

And there is a news story that shows the ILO report is right on target. Unemployment in Europe has a new record!  So, where are the positive effects of the socioeconomic adjustments suggested and applied almost everywhere?  Are capitalist politicians aware of the chaos that awaits them around the corner?