Temper Cuba’s high expectations: Avoid ‘oil curse’
By Jorge Piñon
International oil companies are currently conducting oil and natural gas exploration activities in the Strait of Florida and southeastern Gulf of Mexico, within the deep waters of Cuba’s economic exclusive zone.
Expectations of a major oil discovery are high. Geological and seismic studies indicate the possible presence of 5-6 billion barrels of undiscovered oil reserves, which could well prove to be a long term turning point for Cuba’s future...
The search for Gulf oil begins
By Gerardo Arreola
HAVANA - With a multinational investment that may total hundreds of millions of dollars, Cuba began a search for oil in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, with the potential to impact the United States’ economic blockade against the island like nothing ever before.
The semi-submersible platform Scarabeo-9, built in China and Singapore for the Italian company...
Environmental internationalism: Cuba’s new mission?
By Saul Landau and Nelson P. Valdés
(Second and final part)
Since 1959 Cuba has played a significant world role, quite a feat for a nation of 5 million – 11 million now. Cubans have shown their values, commitment and solidarity in dealing with the aftermath of natural disasters around the world.
The hypocrisy of America’s Cuba policy
By Roland S. Martin
For more than 50 years, the United States has had an embargo against the island of Cuba, all because we supposedly hate communism and believe the nation 90 miles from our borders should institute democracy.
Democracy for the few
Less than 14% voter-turn-out in Miami this week. Two important charter amendments ignored. Is this the kind of democracy we want? I suppose we get what we deserve… Elsewhere: Members of Congress Mario Diaz Balart and Corinne Brown lost in court this week. Good! A federal court ruled against them in upholding the state's new constitutional redistricting protocols for congressional seats. Both favor democracy as long as THEY set the rules.
-- Alvaro F. Fernandez, Progreso editor
Follow our progress by clicking here where we will show you the number of hits received on a monthly basis. Or, at the top, click on each of our sections and there you'll find a week by week account of how each article was received by the number of hits it received.
Dismantle? You must be crazy!
By Luis Sexto
The gamblers who bet that, at the first Conference of the Communist Party of Cuba, the party leaders would go bonkers and begin to dismantle the socialist process or set up the machinery to impose capitalism on Cuba will have to throw in their chips and say to themselves: I must have been crazy!
Or, at the very least, in a show of feigned realism, they’ll temper their frustration with the sacramental phrase: “There was an opening, but not enough.”
Paternalism and the young
By Osmany Sanchez
Not a day goes by that I don’t hear someone, particularly someone elderly, refer to the harm done to Cuban society by the now famous paternalism. At gatherings, bus queues, or in the cafeteria, paternalism is always used to justify someone for not doing what he had to do.
I don’t deny it, it is true that for a long time we got used to letting Daddy State solve most of our problems while we only received and criticized. But the fact is that we cannot continue...
Florida primary bares Republican split
By Max J. Castro
The polarization that increasingly has characterized, and virtually paralyzed, the U.S. political system now has acquired a new dimension. Added to the ever-widening chasm between Democrat...
Honduras: A mess made in the U.S.
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and her Cuban-American constituency to blame
By Dana Frank
Honduras: A mess made in the U.S.- Dana FrankIt’s time to acknowledge the foreign policy disaster that American support for the Porfirio Lobo administration in Honduras has become. Ever since the June 28, 2009, coup that deposed Honduras’s democratically elected president, José Manuel Zelaya, the country has been descending deeper into a human rights and security abyss. That abyss is in good part the State Department’s making.
The headlines have been full of horror stories about Honduras.
The ‘self-deportation’ fantasy
A Washington Post editorial
By declaring that “self-deportation” is the solution to illegal immigration, Mitt Romney gave voice to an idea in wide currency among Republicans – that America’s 11 million undocumented immigrants would simply go home if government made their lives miserable enough. But even by the debased standards of primary-season rhetoric, the idea is as simple-minded and absurd as it is popular – as Mr. Romney’s rival, Newt Gingrich, quickly pointed out.
Click to continue reading...The three big lies of Newton Leroy Gingrich
By Bill Press
Political junkies like me have never seen anything like it: Running 20 points behind, just a week before the South Carolina primary, Newt Gingrich catapulted to the top of the pile and ended up defeating Mitt Romney by 12 points. It's almost enough to make a believer out of you.
Indeed, his 32-point tour-de-force in just seven days is stunning, given that Gingrich, whose entire campaign staff walked out on him lastsummer, ran anembarrassing fourth in Iowa and New 
Hampshire. It's all the more remarkable when you realize that his entire campaign is...
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