Every few months toilet paper becomes scarce in the Cuban capital, where people are accustomed to cutting up old newspapers to fill the gap. This deficit can last for weeks, until the centralized importation mechanism manages to make another purchase and the inflexible distribution chain supplies it to the stores.
Read MorePresident Raul Castro sounded the alarm when he took office in February 2008, when he made it known that tolerance of misuse of state resources was on the out. Since then, little guys scraping to get by, on up to several of the country’s top ministers and political figures in much larger illicit operations, have fallen from grace after being accused of theft or corruption.
Read MoreThe water, which flows down from Canta Rana and is distributed by gravity to the entire community, is in such short supply that it barely reaches some families due to the lack of pressure. The rest of the population receives the precious liquid in water trucks about every seven days;
Read MoreThe maneuver was exceedingly clumsy and poorly executed – as evidenced by the fake letter of resignation, imitated Venezuelan style – that didn’t convince even their own supporters. They are like the Bourbons: they neither forget nor learn.
Read MoreWas it or was it not a coup d’etat? On Sunday, June 28 hundreds of soldiers surrounded the presidential residence, stormed in, ordered President Manuel Zelaya out of bed at gunpoint and herded him onto an air force plane that flew him to Costa Rica, still in his pajamas.
Read MoreBarack Obama is making his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa as president on Friday, touching down in Ghana after attending the G-8 meeting in Italy. He has much catch up work to do to change the global “uncaring” image of the United States.
Read More“I am not naïve, and I believe the attack is not only against you, President Zelaya, or against the Republic of Honduras. Perhaps there is a strategy that is finer, deeper, one that not only involves those in your country who may want to continue with the model of the non-redistribution of income, etc, etc. I believe that it is also an attempt to frustrate a different policy for the whole of America, of all countries that make up the Americas.”
Read MoreIf Micheletti and the Honduran military hold firm in the face of severe economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation, the ball will be in the court of the OAS, the UN and other regional bodies like the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas to up the ante or let the coup succeed by default.
Read MoreThe first measure taken by those who seized power in Honduras was to order a curfew. In addition, they suspended most television and radio broadcasts – even that of the American network CNN, which could be accused of everything except sympathizing with the popular and progressive sectors of Latin America.
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