By Max J. Castro
History will record that it was a crushing victory in the North Carolina primary that proved Barack Obama’s decisive blow against Hillary Clinton in the 2008 race for the Democratic presidential nomination. The state’s combination of a significant African American population, a large number of college students, and a big pool of highly-educated white voters proved magical for the Illinois Senator.
Clinton, who has dodged many bullets during this campaign, may stay in the race until the bitter end. But only a miracle for her or disaster for Obama can change the dye cast in the Tar Heel state. By last weekend Obama, who holds an insurmountable lead in pledged delegates, had erased Clinton’s once-substantial lead in superdelegates. After winning the Indiana primary held the same day as the North Carolina election by a slim margin, Hillary Clinton claimed that the tide had turned. Indeed, it had but not in a direction favorable to the New York Senator. Clinton’s disappointingly meager Indiana victory combined with...
The alimentary crisis and Latin America
A real crisis or a conspiracy?
By Eduardo Dimas
'Control the oil and you'll control the nations; control the food and you'll control the people.' -- Henry Kissinger (1970)
I've known that phrase from Kissinger for a good many years. I confess that until now I had not given it much importance. It is an absolute truth, almost an axiom, that could become a terrible reality.
The alimentary crisis is real. The price of foodstuffs climbs and climbs. The reserves drop. The same happens with oil, which places many nations and peoples who do not produce food or oil in a desperate situation. Is this the result of a set of random events that coincide in time, or is it the effect of a plan for world domination?
If we guide ourselves by Kissinger's words, it seems to be the latter rather than the former. And that leads us to ask ourselves other questions. Was the idea of increasing the production of ethanol (launched by George W. Bush in March 2007) by utilizing the basic grains for the feeding of humans and animals also a coincidence?
By Saul Landau
At a May 2 dinner in Miami hundreds of Cuban exiles, the vast majority of them in the Viagra generation, feted Luis Posada Carriles. This homage to the man suspected of masterminding the bombing of a Cuban commercial airliner that blew up over Barbados in October 1976, attracted a well known, aging radio personality. Tomas Garcia Fuste described Posada as “a real hero who has spent his life fighting for the freedom of Cuba.” Fuste, who attended the dinner, said “Posada saw from the beginning that Fidel was a communist and began his heroic fight against him.”
One of the dinner’s organizers called Posada “a great Cuban ... a great patriot who has suffered a lot.” Several of those interviewed denied Posada had authored the airplane sabotage that killed all 73 passengers and crew members, even though the actual perpetrators of the bombing identified him to police. Other evidence pointed directly to Posada. His adorers also discounted facts showing he had orchestrated bombings of Cuban tourist centers in the late 1990s. One tourist died; scores of others suffered injuries. Posada lovers in Miami blamed the Cuban government for destroying its own airplane “to create martyrs” and “staging” the tourist bombings “to get sympathy.”
Looking ahead through Ángel Fernández Varela
By Alvaro F. Fernandez
My father passed away May 18, 2001 -- exactly seven years ago this week. I am glad he never saw Sept. 11 of that year. I have a feeling he had felt it coming, though. Not exactly what happened, maybe, but he knew the world was changing, drastically.
The fact is that 9/11 has become a before-and-after moment. The truth is, for me, it has not been the same … before and after May 18 and Sept. 11.
I bring up my father because at his death he had a very pessimistic outlook on the world and where it was headed. But, strange as it may sound, I believe that if there was one area where he felt optimism, it dealt with Cuba’s potential and future. I call it strange because when you think of persons of his generation, especially with his trajectory and résumé, and his dealings with Cuba and Fidel Castro, you’d expect the exact opposite.
Looking back, I found a 1993 copy of Contrapunto magazine, a now defunct publication once published by Nicolás Ríos, who, I believe, still lives in Miami. In the Oct.-Nov. issue of that year, Ríos published an interview he conducted with Ángel Fernández Varela, parts of which are still worth reading.
- Join us
- Most Popular
 |
 |
Poll
Raul Martinez for healthcare
Notorious
McCain
“…Back
in the early nineties … the political career of Arizona Sen. John
McCain almost went down in flames during the savings and loan
scandal.
Senator
McCain … was one of the
notorious Keating Five, a
group of U.S. senators accused of using their clout to help bail out
Charles Keating, chairman of the failed Lincoln Savings and Loan. All
had received campaign contributions and other perks from Keating.
The
collapse of Lincoln Savings cost
the American taxpayer $3.4
billion. Charles Keating went to prison. Mr. McCain got off with a
mild rebuke for "questionable conduct" from the Senate
Ethics Committee…”
-- Michael Winship for Truthout
