FROM LATIN AMERICA SPINNING, SPINNING

Will Iran be attacked by the United States or not? Anything can happen, or nothing will happen. But, the tension hangs in the air and, meanwhile, the world continues to turn. North American tariffs, which are currently at 10% and will soon reach 15%, are another unpredictability we have in international trade. And then we arrive at our continent, the new old backyard of the powerful neighbor of the North.

Some unwary say that Brazil, more for the wisdom of its government than for the American grace, benefited from the new tariff policy. Nothing more wrong, because we will have numerous other tariff instruments that have not been revoked and, therefore, we are far from being able to say that it is quiet.

The most striking fact this week on the continent was the murder by security forces of the most fearsome Mexican hitman, El Mencho. With her death, the Mexican President consolidated her government with the firm purpose of fighting organized crime, but the country plunged into a wave of murders and riots that can last a long time.

Different disruption had with strikes and protests in Argentina, where the chainsaw owner Milei achieved the impossible: to approve in the Legislature a labor reform, the dream of South American capitalism. And he also approved the agreement between the European Union and Mercosur, something that is on the agenda of Congress in Brasilia, but far from being approved without an additional vacation.

Impressive is what is happening in Venezuela. Maduro and his wife disappeared, no one talks about them, the country has increased oil production, American "experts" control finances and the flow of money and everything else is in holy peace. Some political prisoners were released, Maduro's gang forgot about him and obeys Washington's orders better than many in the United States itself.

Colombia, whose president Petro exchanged some of the worst quality kindnesses with the US president, went to visit him at the White House and they were childhood friends again, since there will be elections in a few months. In fact, in this line, the president of Nicaragua, archenemy of the USA, has disappeared. Not even his wife, vice president, talks anymore. And the Brazilian government announced that President Lula will go to the capital of the continent in March in its new version.

And in Cuba, where there is no more oil, the energy crisis, generating food and health crisis combined with all kinds of Uncle Sam sanctions, problems recognized even in the newspaper of the Communist Party Granma, what will happen? Unofficial sources say that the two parties are talking and the interlocutor is Raul Castro's grandson. The US is pressuring Cubans very hard, but what the solution will be, it's too early to say. The regime change in Cuba would be the fall of the last pawn in the independence albeit relative of the continent of the United States.