World Highlights Of A Decade (2000-2010)

The terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001, opened a new decade with enormous challenges worldwide. Two thousand 976 people of various nationalities, were killed during the attacks. These attacks unleashed the so-called global war on terror "led by the United States.

Previously, the American electoral process had been stalled by the results of the November 2000 elections in which Republican George W. competed Bush, governor of Texas and Democrat Al Gore, vice president. Finally, after much debate, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that Bush was the winner.

On October 7, 2001, the U.S. began the invasion of Afghanistan with the aim of overthrowing the Taliban regime that had given refuge to the terrorist organization Al Qaeda, responsible for the attacks on New York and Washington. The top leader of the terrorist network, the Saudi Osama Bin Laden, fled and has not been caught until now. It is believed to live in the mountain ranges of the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The attacks by al Qaeda occur later in Spain, Britain, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, among other places.

In April 2002, a group of soldiers and civilians staged a coup against the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, after mass protests against the president that led to the deaths of innocent civilians at the hands of pro-Chavez gunmen captured on camera. Chavez asked to be transferred to Cuba. Within hours, the coup was reversed and Chavez returned to power.

In March 2003, the U.S. invaded Iraq with the argument that the dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The invasion came after lengthy discussions at the UN agency had issued 14 resolutions that Saddam had not complied. However, UN experts warned that did not believe the controversial Iraqi leader had weapons of mass destruction hidden in the territory of Iraq. U.S. took Baghdad, but the weapons never found. In December the same year Hussein was caught in a hideout, alone. After a trial, was hanged in Baghdad. The anti-war protests held around the world, including inside the United States, and flare up when it is revealed that Washington has authorized mock torture to extract information from prisoners captured in Afghanistan and Iraq. Some 600 prisoners were held in a U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with the label "enemy combatants" rather than prisoners of war.

Also in March and April 2003, the Cuban government carried out a wave of arrests of dissidents. Finally 75 of them sentenced to long sentences in prison and executed in a firing squad of three black youths who tried to hijack a boat to sea to flee the United States. Young had not caused harm to passengers or crew of the boat. These events trigger a wave of international condemnation, including from prominent figures of the Left. The Portuguese Communist writer José Saramago, Spanish singer-songwriters Joan Manuel Serrat and Joaquin Sabina, the Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, also Spanish actor Javier Bardem and singer Mercedes Sosa Argentina are among those critical of the actions of the Cuban regime.

On November 11, 2004 passed the historic leader of the Palestinian resistance, Yasser Arafat. He was 75, died in a French military hospital. At the time of his death, Arafat held the post of president of the Palestinian Authority, the governing body internationally recognized Palestinian government.

The decade is rich in technological advances. Became popular to record levels of Internet use and develops mobile Surprisingly, even that is integrated into the network.

During the decade, increasingly accepted standards for measuring corruption organization Transparency International. The world's most transparent countries are in Europe. The United States has occupied places ranging between 18 and 22. Only three speaking countries had higher levels of transparency of the first world: Spain, Chile and Uruguay, in places close to 20. Haiti, Venezuela and Paraguay have been among the most corrupt in the world.

Low levels of education in Latin America keep hands and feet tied. Among the 100 universities in the world there is no located in Latin America. Among the first 200 there are three, but below position 150. These are the UNAM of Mexico, the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The three most important of the world, Harvard, Stanford and UC Berkeley, are American. The first European and fourth in the world is the British Cambridge, followed by the impressive Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States.

In 2005 and 2006, the Argentine composer Gustavo Santaolalla won consecutively the Oscar for best original music for his work in film Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Babel (2006).

On April 2, 2005, the most charismatic of the leaders of the modern Catholic Church, Pope John Paul II, died in Rome at the age of 84. He was called the "Pilgrim Pope" for his many travels around the world. He visited several times in Latin America. Polish by birth, is credited with having contributed to the demise of communism in Europe and have brought the Catholic Church to other religions.

On the morning of August 29, 2005 enters the southern U.S. state of Louisiana the most deadly hurricane that had struck the United States since 1928, Katrina. Destroyed the city of New Orleans and left an official toll of 836 thousand dead. It also caused extensive damage from central Florida to Texas. This event put into question the resilience of federal emergency services (FEMA, for its acronym in English) from USA.

On December 18, 2005, the union leader Evo Morales was elected president of Bolivia with 53.7 percent of the vote. Morales became the first indigenous president of his country. In August 2008, strengthened his popularity during a referendum, which established him in power with 67.4 percent of the vote. In December 2009 he was reelected for a second term with 63 percent. He is considered a leader of the radical left, an ally of controversial Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.

Throughout the decade are elected leftist governments in Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Venezuela, Uruguay, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Paraguay. Some experts believe that a movement is divided into left-wing governments or social democratic and radical left. The Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez heads the radical group, while the governments of Lula da Silva in Brazil and Michelle Bachelet in Chile, are the most prominent social democratic left.

On July 31, 2006, states that the Cuban communist dictator Fidel Castro underwent emergency surgery for an intestinal crisis product. In a proclamation read by an aide, the elder Castro delegated his duties as President of the Council of State in his younger brother, General Raul Castro and other officials. On February 19, 2008, Fidel Castro announced he will not stand for another term at the head of the State Council. On 24 February the same year, General Raul Castro was elected president of the Council of State for National Assembly official parliamentary body. On January 1, 2009, the Castro regime celebrated its 50 consecutive years in power, since the popular revolution of 1959. Fidel Castro retains the post of first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, which the Caribbean country's Constitution, is the highest body of political power in Cuba. No ruling has been 50 years in power in the modern era. Fidel Castro is behind the Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, with 40 years at the helm of his country.

In 2006 and 2007, the United States is fighting a hard battle for immigration reform that would give legal status to 12 million undocumented immigrants. During those two years, the reform fails to have sufficient legislative support, despite the fact that had the backing of then-President George W. Bush and presidential candidate Barack Obama, Democrat, and John McCain, Republican. It is believed that in 2010 could be discussed again in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

On December 26, 2006 earthquake and subsequent tsunami in the Indian Ocean shook the world, by causing the deaths of nearly 300 000 people in several countries in Asia. The images come from Indonesia and Thailand are frightening.

A year later, on December 27, 2007, the former Pakistan prime minister and candidate for that office again, Benazir Bhutto, was shot dead during a campaign rally. There was prime minister 1988-1990 and 1993-1996. It was the first woman elected to that office in a Muslim country in the late 80s.

In Mexico, gaining strength an intense war against organized crime, from the inauguration of conservative President Felipe Calderon. Drug trafficking and kidnapping industry cause thousands of deaths annually in Mexican soil.

On March 1, 2008 a Colombian military incursion into Ecuador to destroy a camp of the FARC narco-guerrillas and causing the death of Comandante Raul Reyes, one of the top guerrilla leaders. The Colombian soldiers occupy Reyes computers with valuable information about the alleged backing of Hugo Chavez and the government of his Ecuadorian counterpart Rafael Correa to the FARC. The incident created a dispute between Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, which is relieved shortly after the mediation of the Dominican Republic.

In a spectacular military operation, on July 2, 2008 was rescued former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages from the hands of the FARC narco-guerrillas. Some of those freed had been kidnapped more than a decade. Betancourt, the most famous hostage, had been six years in FARC captivity.

In September 2008, on the campaign trail, it is known that the U.S. is on the brink of financial collapse, resulting from a crisis caused by so-called subprime mortgages. Amid criticism from taxpayer watchdog groups, the U.S. government established a multimillion plan to help banks that are on the verge of bankruptcy.

On November 4, 2008, Democratic Senator, lawyer and former constitutional law professor, Barack Obama is elected U.S. president. Obama becomes the first African-American president. It also believes that Obama is the agent further to the left of the median voter, the United States has had in its history. His mother was a white American and his father an African student. They met while studying in Hawaii. Obama defeated at the polls to Republican senator and war hero from Vietnam, John McCain.

In December 2008, disclosed the news that the U.S. had been in recession for the past 12 months, since December 2007.

A late win internationally acclaimed Cuban dissident philologist Yoani Sanchez, author of the blog Generación Y. Sanchez was included in the list of 100 most influential people in the world of Time magazine. He won the Ortega y Gasset prize given annually by the Spanish newspaper El Pais, and also received the Maria Moors Cabot Prize awarded by the University of Columbia. On November 19, 2009, the U.S. president, Barack Obama, gave an interview to Sanchez, who was posted in his blog Generation Y. The young dissident General Raul Castro made the same questions to Obama, but the new strong man of Cuba has still not answered. Instead, in those days, Sanchez and her husband were harassed and beaten by civilian mobs apparently organized by the Communist Party and the Ministry of Interior.

On June 25, 2009, music lovers suffered a blow. Michael Jackson, the king of pop, died in Los Angeles at age 50 while preparing for a European tour. He lost consciousness, and rescuers could not revive him. He was pronounced dead at 2:26 p.m. that day in the Ronald Reagan Medical Center at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). At the time of his death had on his body doses of several drugs such as propofol, lorazepam and midazolam. Authorities are still investigating.

On June 27, 2009, the president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, is dismissed by other constitutional powers, Congress and the Supreme Court, for attempting to violate the Constitution. Is sent to Costa Rica by air. The way in which the dismissal was made the story reminded many coups on the continent. The new government, headed by Congress President Roberto Micheletti, the Liberal Party's own Zelaya, received sentences from all over the world. Honduras is blocked by the OAS, UN, U.S. and European Union. The de facto government withstands the November 2009 elections, in which he was elected Porfirio Lobo, the National Party. Lobo has been recognized by the United States and other countries. It will take office in January 2010.

On November 18, 2009, the Telediario 2 Spanish Television (TVE) was crowned the best in the world, at least from the European point of view, being awarded the Prix Report 2009 (TV News Award) in Zurich, Switzerland, over news of great prestige such as the BBC (Britain), RAI (Italy), ABC News, CBS, Fox News, NBC (USA) and TF1 (France), among others.

Throughout 2009, the world faces serious economic recession and financial crisis from the mortgage mess. In the United States is considered to be the worst economic crisis since the days of the Great Depression of the 30s of XX century. In October, the U.S. unemployment rate reaches 10.2 percent. In November down to 10. Experts believe that the recession is over after two quarters of slow recovery.

In December 2009, Obama announced the shipment of 30 thousand soldiers to Afghanistan, days before he delivered the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. In the midst of a fierce battle for legislative approval of a health reform, with two long wars before it, and a weak economy, Obama's popularity has fallen from roughly 67 percent who had to take office in January This year, 50 percent.

2010 is still to be judged, we will have to sit back and see what the world brings, hopefully this is a year of change for the better and hopefully the next decade is one of great achievements and moments of happiness and prosperity to all.