The Baltimore events, triggered by the murder of Freddie Gray, a young Black man, are a preview of what will happen in the future in all US cities.

One of the antecedents of what happened in Baltimore were the events in Ferguson, where young Black Michael Brown was murdered. We say one of the antecedents, because in the months of this year 2015, more than forty young Black people have been killed by police in different cities.

All Governor of Maryland, Larry Hogan, could think of to contain the popular uprising was to activate 5,000 National Guard troops, to add to the more than 10,000 police who were repressing the population.

For two years, the US ruling class has been preparing for this kind of contingency against those whom they call "insurgents”.

According to the New York Times, as part of this preparation, they have transferred from the Army to the police in many states a large amount of weapons, including 432 heavy armored vehicles; 435 light armored vehicles; 44,900 night vision devices; 533 aircraft, among which are drones, planes and helicopters; 93,763 machine guns and M-16 rifles of 5.56 and 7.62 calibre; grenade launchers; camouflage clothing, helmets and bulletproof gear; communications equipment and other items. All of these for a total value of 4,200 million dollars.

The "insurgents" against whom this military potential will be used are not Russian paratroopers who would land in the capital, nor waves of Chinese invaders who would try to take the states along the coast of the Pacific, nor Cuban and Venezuelan Communists who would land in Florida.

The "insurgents" that will be met and suppressed by these forces are the citizens of the United States who, at a given moment, oppose the plans of the ruling class or struggle to improve their standard of living.

The tempers had not yet cooled off in Baltimore when, on April 27, a young man named Terrence Kelom, age 20, was murdered by the police in Detroit. The victim was inside his house when he received ten bullets that caused his death. Kelom was unarmed and at the time when he was killed was with his parents and a sister. It is expected that this death will also cause strong protests from relatives, neighbors and friends, most of them Black.

Obama and the current government in the United States ask for calm; they ask the families of the victims and their friends to trust US justice: the same justice that for hundreds of years has maintained injustice, especially for citizens who are Black, Latino, or poor.

They fear that the serious social unrest ahead that may threaten the dominance of the rich over the poor. They fear that, in the United States, there might be a second revolution, where the repressive forces that serve the establishment will drown in blood part of the protesters, but may succumb under the force of those who remain alive.

The main concern of the ruling class –of the establishment– is how to control and repress such an event that challenges the prevailing situation in the United States. At no time have they given any thought to modify to the causes that trigger these manifestations.

Racial discrimination causes these events. The hopes of Black citizens have been frustrated: those Black citizens who expected a radical change during the Obama administration so that all would have the same rights as outlined in the Declaration of Independence of the United States that reads: "all men are created equal".

Another factor contributing to these events is police violence. This is present in all the states of the union. Police repress brutally, indiscriminately, and usually with impunity. Police violence increases and is consolidated by the delivery of sophisticated weapons with greater firepower.

Another important factor, and not the last, is poverty. It is the people of less economic resources who suffer the most; those living in the worse conditions and who find it more difficult to meet their daily needs of food, health, education, and culture.

These three factors come together as causes of the manifestations that are taking place in the United States. Police violence is usually higher against Black citizens who also are among the poorest in the country.

Large sums of money are spent –four thousand two hundred million dollars– to buy weapons to repress the people of the United States. That money should be used to improve the living conditions of the population.

The second American Revolution is underway. And so the "spring", which they have so often created elsewhere, has now come to their own country.

May 2, 2015

- Dr. Néstor García Iturbe is a retired Cuban diplomat of many years standing. He was a member  of the Cuban diplomatic team which conducted secret negotiations with Washington held in New York City which led to the end of the Angola war and to the withdrawal of Cuban troops from Africa. These days is teaching at ISRI, the Higher Institute for Foreign Relations in Havana, the school for diplomats which is part of the Cuban Foreign Ministry or MINREX.

(A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann.

http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs4368.html )