CUBA: CHANGE OR DIE, THE DILEMA OF 2011 The new year arrives in Cuba loaded down with uncertainty, with the survival of the system at stake and with expectations that there will finally be economic changes on the island. In the eye of the hurricane there are 11 million Cubans, of which 70 percent were born after Fidel Castro came to power on Jan. 1, 1959. After half a century of egalitarian policies, the State government has begun to cut drastically social expenses and it has decided to cut “inflated staff” government positions, a traumatic process that in three years will eliminate 1,300,000 state employees, or one in four work positions. The first half million will be eliminated in 2011. The pressure of the crisis is suffocating but with the cuts and the policy adjustments there will be new opportunities. “Today we are not talking about the new year that is coming, but instead about the new country,” said Granma, the official Cuban newspaper, recently.(www.elpais.com)

SPAIN: CONGRESS APPROVES THE ANTI-TOBACCO LAW WHICH BANS SMOKING IN CLOSED PUBLIC SPACES The year 2011 arrives accompanied by tidings without smoke. Beginning Jan. 2 tobacco will be banned in all local public places. No smoking will be allowed in restaurants, bars or discotheques in Spain. There will be no difference between smoking and non-smoking bars, nor will there be cubicles for smokers. The Congress of Deputies approved on Dec. 21 the new anti-tobacco law after a year of debates and amendments. With this new law, Spain strengthens its standards of behavior. In addition to the ban in discotheques and restaurants, smoking will be eliminated in the smoking areas located at the airports and will even be banned from the entrances to hospitals, parks and schools. These measures convert Spain into one of the most restrictive countries against tobacco. Only some states in the United States have prohibited smoking in certain outdoor areas, a ban that has not reached European countries where anti-tobacco laws have been in place for years. “Second-hand smoke kills. This is not a law against smokers, but instead protects non-smokers,” declared Rodrigo Cordoba of the National Committee for the Prevention of Smoking. (www.elpais.com)

BRAZIL: ROUSSEFF INITIATES HER TERM OF OFFICE WITH A TEAM OF SUPPORTING ECONOMISTS The President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, has wanted to relay a message of confidence to Brazil’s investors by forming a team of supporting and solid economists whose duty will be to take measures, amongst other things, to control the slippery fiscal discipline, to control public expenses and to put a stop to an inflation of 5 percent. A good portion of these collaborators with the new president come from the team that worked with former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Unprecedented in the democratic history of Brazil, the new president will rely on an absolute majority within the Congress. She now has a support of 362 out of 513 deputies and a support of 60 out of 81 senators, more than the three fifth’s majority necessary to modify even the Constitution. The new president has not lost any time. On Sunday, Jan. 2, she was already at her office at 9 in the morning receiving the main foreign leaders who had helped her get into office. The first was Prince Phillip of Spain. At the meeting, which lasted 40 minutes, Prince Phillip and Rousseff reiterated that Spanish corporations are very active in certain sectors such as in telecommunications, banks and energy. The president encouraged Spain to collaborate more in this country that is “fully developed,” and cited the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016 as occasions conducive to more investments by the Spanish companies. Rousseff promised that she would aid Brazil in becoming a bilingual country in both Spanish and Portuguese. (www.elpais.com)