and a giant middle finger flipped at cuba's enemies to the north. friends and relatives of elian gonzalez have largely put the past behind him, but monuments like this museum is remind e it's hard to know if he'll ever be able to lead a normal life and what kind of future he'll play in cuba. shasta darlington, cnn, cardenas, cuba. >>> on this earth day, one parent is wondering what on earth was the school thinking when it let a famous felon come talk to the kids. the principal's response? priceless. to stretch around the earth over 190 times. each brita filter can take up to 300 of those bottles out of the equation. >>> well, a degree from a press teenous georgetown university, sounds like a slam dunk. want so much for our 30-second pitch guest. miaima tucker has a bachelors in criminology and has been looking for a job for more than a year, but still no luck. she joins us now from los angeles and we'll try to help her with that. maia why do you think it's so tough? what do you think the biggest challenge has been for you? >> i think at this point e

/cuba relations and what have you or what will you say on that matter to the president? >> i did very much. we already had the event. we had it in two parts. a small group of people met with him first on one side of the house. and then after he greeted them, i was able to show pictures of the march that we had pictures of the ladies in white in cuba getting violently beaten by the police and thrown into a bus. i gave him a letter from a martyr of recent times. his name is orlando sapato de mayo who died on a hunger strike and was beaten. 18 days without water. he died. another one, guillermo familez is about to die. he's asking for prisoners of conscious who are dying because they are so sick. he's been on a hunger strike for 85 days. i talked to him about that. give him letters from the mother of the dead dis-sident. he was standing by me as was everyone here at the party. it was a wonderful night. >> let me ask you right quick, you mentioned earlier that it was an honor for you to have the president in your home. trust me, it was an honor for the democrats as well and

cuba is turning over hundreds of state run shops to employees. as our correspondent reports, this could be the beginning of a long expected privatization of firms. >> it is a light trim rather than a short backside, a small tentative step to reform. the cuban retail sector has often been announced for its core service. nell the proprietors' will be able to rent the space where they work. >> it is experimental, i could not say if it was a good thing or not. i have never worked like this. we are just getting started. >> fidel castro nationalized all businesses back in 1968. -- 1958. now his successor is trying to modernize the system without jumping to full-scale capitalism. he started by giving unproductive land to private farmers. now he is turning to the retail sector. >> i think that they will explain how it will work to the workers. many people think it is a good idea. they are all for it. >> cuba and north korea are the only remaining soviet-style command economies. many others have long since to push through market reforms while maintaining

is base if colombia or cuba there is also a constituency in latin america. and sometimes it makes it more difficult domestic pressures here and the domestic pressures in latin america, going two different direction. it goes both ways. >> to give you an example if i may. part of what is happening between brazil and iran, that has so many people in washington has to do with domestic politics. the fed poking the eye of the u.s., always plays well with the political base of ruling this case. >> and it irritates washington. >> rose: ahmadinejad came to brazil, did he not. >> yes. and hugo is going to brazil in-- to iran in may. he is in brazil. >> ahmadinejad his 9th visit to latin america. american presidents have not spent that much time in latin america. >> rose: and what are these visits about, selling iran oil or. >> oil and trade. >> agriculture. >> rose: so it is not there, not trying to just stick his figure never america's eye but a byproduct. >> it is a combination of economic interests. >> it must be said that barack obama is enormously popular persona

action and he has given more rights to terrorism detainees at the guantanamo bay detainny prison in cuba. the magic wall for the volatile political environment. it in this political environment president obama will name a successor. we have seen the left and the right dominate oirg politics. take michigan, for example. bart stupak a democratic congressman resigned today, trying to make the case in that district that his health care vote was the right vote, because the tea party says no, some on the left criticized him. bart stupak saying 38,000 people in northern michigan will get health insurance and nearly 200,000 will see their costs lowered. that is a view from michigan of the contested political environment. utah, bob bennett a republican senator, been in office for years. he's being challenged from the right in part conservatives say, because they don't like these votes. here's one, school safety ability of 1999. passed by 73-25. 31 republicans vote ford this bill yet conservative says senator bennett should not have. another vote, the ashcroft amendment a bill that would punish pa