With all honors, the people of Matanzas fired this Sunday members of the Cuban Fire Department from Pinar del Río, Artemisa, Havana, Mayabeque, Villa Clara, Cienfuegos, Ciego de Ávila and Sancti Spíritus, after facing the fire in the base of super tankers.

On the esplanade in front of the Mártires del Goicuría primary school, once a barracks converted into an educational center, the gratitude of the citizens and the main authorities was publicly expressed to the heroes and those who died during the incident caused by an electric shock on August 5 last. .

Yunisexky Bernal Lóriga, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) in this main town, said that upon learning of the tragic event, the brave firefighters did not hesitate for a minute to start their trucks and leave for Matanzas.

The party leader meant that the honorees exemplify with their attitude and altruism the precept of the National Hero José Martí: “the true man does not look on which side he lives better, but on which side duty is.”

That fire that did not stop, the immense curtain of polluting smoke that suffocated by the simple fact of looking at it, will remain forever in the memory of the people of Matanzas, but respect and admiration will also remain for the courage of those who transcended their fears, placated ours. and they defeated terror, he valued.

The ceremony, in which a minute of solemn silence was observed in tribute to those who fell in action, was presided over by Susely Morfa González, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) in Matanzas, and Mario Sabines Lorenzo, governor of the territory , who gave recognition to the solidarity firefighters.

Yurisbel Estrada Carrasco, Chief of the Cárdenas Firefighters Command, thanked the work of colleagues from the rest of the country and also those from other sister nations, the Cuban Red Cross, rescuers, combatants, volunteers, and those who sent humanitarian aid.

The fire spread and caused the explosion at the supertanker base, in the industrial zone of this city; it was extinguished on the last 12 thanks to the work of specialized forces and media from Cuba, Mexico and Venezuela.

They recognize Mexicans and Venezuelans who fought the fire in Matanzas

Orders of Solidarity and a replica of Major General Antonio Maceo’s Machete were delivered to five chiefs and directors of the Mexican Army, PEMEX and PDVSA respectively, by the Secretary of Organization of the PCC and the ministers of the FAR and the Interior. Recognition of solidarity and contribution to extinguishing the fire at the Matanzas Super Tanker Base.

Friendship Medals were awarded to each of the members of the Venezuelan and Mexican contingent who, together with the Cubans, contributed to extinguishing the fire at the Matanzas Supertanker Base.

Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) and President of the Republic, in messages addressed to his counterparts in Mexico and Venezuela, expressed gratitude for the support in confronting the incident at the base of supertankers in this city.

During the award ceremony for Mexican and Venezuelan forces, Susely Morfa González, first secretary of the PCC in the province of Matanzas, read the letters from the head of state.

To Andrés Manuel López Obrador, president of the United Mexican States, Díaz-Canel communicated that in recent days the Cuban people faced with the strength and unity that characterizes it an accident that, due to its magnitude and destructive effects, ranks among the most devastating it has suffered. the country.

The resolute and decisive accompaniment of the Mexican brothers was very opportune and necessary, Mexico has been here, with its worthy children, running the same risk as us, together with the Venezuelan brothers, to all of them, President, I convey our recognition and gratitude, reads the message from the head of state.

He also thanked those who contributed and ensured the invaluable help from Mexico, and especially López Obrador for his friendship, and the immediate decision to provide such an important collaboration that the Cuban people will never forget.

The letter to Nicolás Maduro Moros, president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, states that the resolute accompaniment of the Venezuelan brothers was opportune and decisive, like so many other times, the sister Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela sent its worthy sons willing to run the same risk than the Cubans, together with the Mexican brothers.

Our recognition and gratitude extends to all of them, also to those who ensured the invaluable and prompt help and especially to you for your proven friendship, the Cuban people will keep in mind this noble gesture, it is assured in the president’s lines addressed to Maduro.

During the ceremony, 133 Friendship Medals were awarded, and five experts received

(Published Global Research)

The objective of the war against Libya is not just its oil reserves (now estimated at 60 billion barrels), which are the greatest in Africa and whose extraction costs are among the lowest in the world, nor the natural gas reserves of which are estimated at about 1,500 billion cubic meters. In the crosshairs of “willing” of the operation “Unified Protector” there are sovereign wealth funds, capital that the Libyan state has invested abroad.

The Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) manages sovereign wealth funds estimated at about $70 billion U.S., rising to more than $150 billion if you include foreign investments of the Central Bank and other bodies. But it might be more. Even if they are lower than those of Saudi Arabia or Kuwait, Libyan sovereign wealth funds have been characterized by their rapid growth. When LIA was established in 2006, it had $40 billion at its disposal. In just five years, LIA has invested over one hundred companies in North Africa, Asia, Europe, the U.S. and South America: holding, banking, real estate, industries, oil companies and others.

In Italy, the main Libyan investments are those in UniCredit Bank (of which LIA and the Libyan Central Bank hold 7.5 percent), Finmeccanica (2 percent) and ENI (1 percent), these and other investments (including 7.5 percent of the Juventus Football Club) have a significance not as much economically (they amount to some $5.4 billion) as politically.

Libya, after Washington removed it from the blacklist of “rogue states,” has sought to carve out a space at the international level focusing on “diplomacy of sovereign wealth funds.” Once the U.S. and the EU lifted the embargo in 2004 and the big oil companies returned to the country, Tripoli was able to maintain a trade surplus of about $30 billion per year which was used largely to make foreign investments. The management of sovereign funds has however created a new mechanism of power and corruption in the hands of ministers and senior officials, which probably in part escaped the control of the Gadhafi himself: This is confirmed by the fact that, in 2009, he proposed that the 30 billion in oil revenues go “directly to the Libyan people.” This aggravated the fractures within the Libyan government.

U.S. and European ruling circles focused on these funds, so that before carrying out a military attack on Libya to get their hands on its energy wealth, they took over the Libyan sovereign wealth funds. Facilitating this operation is the representative of the Libyan Investment Authority, Mohamed Layas himself: as revealed in a cable published by WikiLeaks. On January 20 Layas informed the U.S. ambassador in Tripoli that LIA had deposited $32 billion in U.S. banks. Five weeks later, on February 28, the U.S. Treasury “froze” these accounts. According to official statements, this is “the largest sum ever blocked in the United States,” which Washington held “in trust for the future of Libya.” It will in fact serve as an injection of capital into the U.S. economy, which is more and more in debt. A few days later, the EU “froze” around 45 billion Euros of Libyan funds.

The assault on the Libyan sovereign wealth funds will have a particularly strong impact in Africa. There, the Libyan Arab African Investment Company had invested in over 25 countries, 22 of them in sub-Saharan Africa, and was planning to increase the investments over the next five years, especially in mining, manufacturing, tourism and telecommunications. The Libyan investments have been crucial in the implementation of the first telecommunications satellite Rascom (Regional African Satellite Communications Organization), which entered into orbit in August 2010, allowing African countries to begin to become independent from the U.S. and European satellite networks, with an annual savings of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Even more important were the Libyan investment in the implementation of three financial institutions launched by the African Union: the African Investment Bank, based in Tripoli, the African Monetary Fund, based in Yaoundé (Cameroon), the African Central Bank, with Based in Abuja (Nigeria). The development of these bodies would enable African countries to escape the control of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, tools of neo-colonial domination, and would mark the end of the CFA franc, the currency that 14 former French colonies are forced to use. Freezing Libyan funds deals a strong blow to the entire project. The weapons used by “the willing” are not only those in the military action called “Unified Protector.”

(Published in Al Jazeera)

BP announced on June 1, 2010 that they were instituting a $20bn compensation fund to aid those affected by the oil spill, although residents complain they can't access the money [EPA

The owner of a charter fishing business, he had always supported the oil industry in his home state of Louisiana.

He previously trusted BP, and the rest of the oil industry, to do the right thing in case an accident happened. But not any more. “I’m seeing people starving to death and BP won’t pay them,” said Lambert.

His business drop of 94 per cent in the last year has cost him more than $1.1mn, he told Al Jazeera, “They won’t pay me, they owe me well over a million dollars just for last year, and all they do is send more papers to fill out.”

He continued:

They know what they did is wrong and they still won’t pay me. I’m done playing their games. All they are doing is starving people out and trying to get them to take the one-time $25,000 payment and give up their right to sue. I know thousands of people in the fishing industry, and I don’t know one person who has been made whole yet.

In the aftermath of BP’s disaster that began on April 20 of last year, the oil giant promised those whose livelihoods had been damaged that they would be made “whole” and fully compensated for their losses.

On June 1, 2010, upon the announcement that they were instituting a $20bn compensation fund to do this, BP board chairman Henric Svanberg stated: “[President Obama] is frustrated because he cares about the small people, and we care about the small people. I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are greedy companies or don’t care, but that is not the case in BP. We care about the small people.”

Lambert vehemently disagrees.

“I want the entire country to know, you cannot trust what BP or [what] the oil industry promises you. I’m most definitely taking up litigation against BP,” he added.

Criminally negligent

Lambert is not alone.

The Centre for Biological Diversity (CBD) is a group that uses the law to protect the lands, waters, and climate that species need to survive. CBD has an unparallelled record of legal successes, with 93 per cent of their lawsuits having resulted in favourable outcomes. And, now they are suing BP for $19bn.

“We have sued them under the Clean Water Act,” Kieran Suckling, the executive director and founder of the CBD told Al Jazeera. “The way the Act works is it levies a fine based on the number of gallons [of oil] spilled and how malicious or criminal BP was acting when the spill occurred. So a big part of the suit is about determining how many barrels were spilled, and BP’s level of negligence.”

Suckling explained that, depending on BP’s level of negligence, the fine they face per barrel of oil released into the Gulf of Mexico, “could range from $1,300 to $4,300 per barrel if they are found criminally negligent.”

CBD believes BP released 5.5 million barrels of oil, and is awaiting the official estimate from the federal government, which has not been released yet.

“BP will try to low ball the amount,” Suckling added. “They are currently trying to argue that rather than being charged per barrel, they want to be charged per day of the spill, and they’ve come up with a ridiculously low number for that. If they have their way, their fine will be in the millions rather than the billions.”

So far, CBD has filed eight lawsuits and six notices of intent to sue to make sure BP and the federal government are held accountable. The fact that it’s the largest environmental disaster in US history strengthens their case further.

“The big issue will be what position the feds take, since we filed this suit because we do not trust the Obama administration to hold BP’s feet to the fire,” Suckling said, “so ultimately we will be fighting both of them.”

Blown out of the water

Cyn Sarthough is the executive director of the Gulf Restoration Network (GRN), an environmental group active in all of the states that have a coastline on the Gulf of Mexico. GRN, like CBD, sues companies and government organisations that violate environmental laws, and has had much success in doing so over the years.

“Much of our litigation is against the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE), the group that was formerly the Minerals Management Service (MMS),” Sarthough told Al Jazeera. “There is also a challenge to BP’s original oil spill response plan. We are engaged in this with several other claimants because what they had in place was inappropriate and failed to meet safety requirements because it grossly exaggerated BP’s response capabilities.”

This month the CBD released a report titled, A deadly toll: The Gulf Oil Spill and the unfolding wildlife disaster.

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BP's oil disaster has caused anger and destruction across the Gulf [Erika Blumenfeld/Al Jazeera

One of GRN’s lawsuits involves what Sarthough says is the failure of federal agencies, like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as well as BP, to comply with the Endangered Species Act.

“If you believe you are going to harass or injure them [endangered species] you have to get an Incidental Take Permit,” she explained. “In the past, MMS would go in and get a sort of regional Incidental Take Permit that would cover the oil and gas industry. But in this instance, for reasons we are not clear on, there was no Incidental Take Permit agreement between the federal agencies, thus BP did not have one.”

This means that any harassment, injury, or death of an endangered species is in violation of the law.

“We believe there should be compensation for this paid by BP, in fines,” Sarthough said, “and this money is then put into restoration of the species that were impacted.”

Sarthough says that the now defunct MMS had found impact statements that showed there was no specific danger to species by work being done by the oil and gas industry in the Gulf.

“They claimed there was no real risk of any significant action that would harm endangered species,” she said, “we believe this needs to be redone because it is based on an assumption that no longer holds true. The BP disaster has blown that assumption of theirs out of the water. There needs to be a focus on the species that were impacted. That’s what we want.”

Environmental effects

This March, US interior secretary Kenneth Salazar approved the first deep water drilling exploration plan since BP’s disaster, giving Shell Offshore the go-ahead to drill three exploration wells in water 2,950 feet deep, after his department’s environmental assessment plan found there was “no possibility of significant environmental effects”.

Prior to this, CBD, GRN, the Natural Resources Defence Council, and the Sierra Club filed a formal notice of intent to sue Salazar for ignoring marine-mammal protection laws when approving offshore oil and gas activities in the Gulf.

CBD has already filed suit against Salazar for concluding that oil drilling poses no possible risk of significant environmental effects. Furthermore, for failing to assess possible impacts on the Gulf of Mexico’s endangered whales and sea turtles, his continued approval of offshore drilling plans in the Gulf without environmental review, and for his withholding emails, phone logs, and meeting notes documenting his interactions with oil-industry lobbyists since he became secretary of the interior.

About the suit CBD is preparing to file against Salazar for ignoring marine mammal protection laws when approving offshore oil and gas activities in the gulf, Suckling is blunt:

In the wake of the beginning of BP’s disaster last year, it became apparent the Obama administration has not followed the Endangered Species Act, among other laws, so despite claims they’ve reformed the agency, they are still not following these Acts or the National Policy Act. So it’s business as usual with a little window dressing. They are still not obeying the law.

As for BP, Suckling feels the oil giant, “should be made to pay $19bn under the Clean Water Act and in so doing be found to be criminally negligent. That $19bn should be entirely new funds, not including anything they’ve already put out, and those funds should be dedicated to Gulf Coast restoration.”

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CBD, GRN, the Natural Resources Defence Council, and the Sierra Club intend on suing the US interior secretary for breaking marine-mammal protection laws when approving offshore oil and gas activities in the Gulf [Erika Blumenfeld/Al Jazeera

“And BP should be found liable for the deaths of the 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon, and that should go as high as Tony Hayward, as far as who should be held criminally liable.”

In the wake of the disaster and after a series of public gaffes that led to his ceding the CEO post to Bob Dudley, former BP CEO Tony Hayward grabbed headlines with a $17.9mn pension, $1.6mn payoff and $13mn in share options.

Death and business

The Gulf Coast-based law firm Brent Coon and Associates (BCA) is considered one of the world’s foremost experts on BP, and has successfully sued the oil giant in the past.

Brent Coon was the lead attorney in a case against BP for a 2005 explosion at their refinery in Texas that killed 15 workers. His firm forced BP to accept full responsibility and compensate the victims and their families.

BCA now represents more than 5,000 claimants from BP’s Gulf of Mexico disaster, and has been appointed by the Plaintiff’s Steering Committee to head several key sub-committees relating to discovery.

“We represent a cross section of claimants, who range from people who worked within the oil industry, to shrimpers, captains, deck hands, restaurant and condominium owners,” Coon told Al Jazeera. “We want full restitution and reparations for harm done by BP.”

Coon said that in addition to BP, other companies that were involved in the disaster, like Halliburton and Transocean, need to be held accountable as well.

“From what I’ve seen, after representing thousands of people who were made sick or died from petrochemical industry hazards over the years, companies like BP, Exxon, Citgo, Shell, and others do not mind killing people as the cost of doing business,” Coon added, “even when it’s their own employees. I’ve seen it time and time again.”

“Unless you criminally prosecute these people and make them pay for their decisions, they do not have a sufficient deterrent for the way they do business,” he continued, “unless the government steps in and criminally prosecutes these bastards and hold them accountable, nothing is going to change.”

Coon, and the claimants his firm represents intend to do just that.

Lambert, the charter fisherman, plans on fighting BP to the end.

Mr Feinberg recently told Dan Rather that the people in the Gulf who talk the loudest have the most dubious compensation claims,” Lambert said.”I challenge him to see if I have a dubious claim. I’ll be the one yelling from the rooftops.”