by the El Reportero’s news services
José Angel Córdova
The Mexican health minister, José Angel Cordova, said on TV on April 27, that the number of deaths from, and cases of, swine flu (A/H1N1) was falling in Mexico. This claim is at odds with the action on April 27 of the World Health Organization which increased its state of alert on the outbreak to Level Four, only two notches below its top rating.
Cordova’s statement is the most high-profile claim yet that Mexico is not a failed state and that its government has coped with the swine flu outbreak effectively.
Cuba suspends flights to and from Mexico over flu
Havana – Cuba suspended Tuesday all flights to and from Mexico for 48 hours to prevent spread of the flu virus which has caused 152 deaths in Mexico, including at least 20 from a newly emerging swine flu virus, Cuba’s Public Health Minister Jose Ramon Balaguer said in a statement.
The Cuban government said earlier Tuesday that no cases of swine fl u had been reported in the country and that there were also no suspected cases, although they increased health surveillance at airports and ports.
“There is indeed a danger, but the country has already undertaken the relevant measures,” said Deputy Public Health Minister Luis Estruch Rancano.
Summit of the Americas produces success without consensus
The host of this week’s Summit of the Americas, the Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago, Patrick Manning, was the only signatory to the Declaration of Port of Spain.
In that sense, it was even less successful than the last summit in Mar del Plata in 2005, widely considered an unmitigated failure. In every other respect, however, it was more successful, infused with what Manning described as the “spirit of cooperation”. There was not much substance, but the style provided a marked contrast to 2005. Then Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez hailed the “utter defeat” of the US-backed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA); this time he grasped the hand of his US peer Barack Obama, even if he did press into his spare hand a copy of Open Veins of Latin America, Eduardo Galeano’s seminal left-wing polemic.
Cuba – The Spirit of Trinidad
The Fifth Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain Trinidad on 17-19 April capped a month of fl urried diplomatic activity on Cuba. At the summit, President Barack Obama played to the crowd, admitting past wrongs in the region and declaring that the US sought “a new beginning with Cuba”. He was, he said, “prepared to have my administration engage with the Cuban government on a wide range of issues — from human rights, free speech and democratic reform, to drugs, migration, and economic issues.” Obama also broke the ice with key leftwing regional leaders like Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, thereby creating much needed room for maneuver in the region. Obama has made the fi rst move at little domestic political cost to himself, and fl ew out of Trinidad having kicked the ball fi rmly into Havana’s court. Judging by the mixed hot and cold messages coming out of Havana, the Cubans are unsure how to respond.
