For One+ Years Or For Five+ Years!!
{UPDATED: Tuesday, August 6, 2019}
{UPDATED: Tuesday, August 6, 2019}
Although the demise of Revolutionary Cuba has been predicted almost daily since January 1, 1959, that prognostication got new adherents back in June-2019 when the Trump administration activated Title 3/Helms Burton, a starvation tactic that even the Batistiano-aligned George W. Bush presidency had considered too cruel to activate.
Once Title 3/Helms Burton was activated against Cuba back in June, the USA's vast economic influence worldwide was considered by many, at long last, to be the final nail in Revolutionary Cuba's coffin. After all, Title 3 legalized the total blockade against the vulnerable island, forcing other nations to cooperate in blocking all imports and exports to-and-from Cuba as well as decimating the island's vital tourist industry. Of course, as written originally by Batistiano lawyers in 1996, Title 3/Helms Burton is also designed to create more Cuban-exile millionaires and billionaires by legalizing vast lawsuits in Batistiano-friendly U. S. courtrooms to benefit heirs of the supposedly honest Batista-Mafia dictatorship that ruled Cuba prior to the 1959 victory of the Cuban Revolution.
Indeed, the Trump administration expected little Cuba to surrender by now, especially after new reports from the island, starting in June-2019, began to reveal food shortages and energy blackouts in Cuba due to Title 3/Helms Burton. Yet, as indicated above, little Cuba screamed back that no United States "economico bloqueo" would usurp "nuestra dignidad." {"our dignity"}.
And so far, for about the millionth time since 1959, the white dove bearing the Cuban flag of independence has somehow escaped the clutches of the Batistiano-directed United States, and the dove each time has flown safely back to the Caribbean's largest and most beautiful island, much to the chagrin of the remnants of the former Batista-Mafia rulers still nestled securely and RICHLY on U. S., but not Cuban, soil. If Title 3/Helms Burton doesn't work, all sane and decent people HOPE the Trump administration will not consider nuking the island on behalf of the Counter Revolutionary extremists but, of course, one never knows what Trump might do.
As far as is known, not a single decent American or Cuban-American approves the extreme genocidal cruelty of Title III/Helms Burton. Indeed, decent Americans like Peter Kornbluh at the Washington-based U. S. National Archives; Emily Mendrala at the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas; and countless other decent folks have literally begged Little Havana's Marco Rubio to allow President Trump to "SUSPEND" in its entirety the insanity of Title III/Helms-Burton. But, of course, dating back to the 1950s the collective obsessions of a mere handful of Republican right-wingers aligned with a mere handful of Batistiano-Mafiosi extremists have been able to dictate America's Cuban policies, forcing the island nation to repeatedly adjust but to not surrender.
In these first few days of August, 2019, Cuba has announced to the world its latest plan to survive President Trump and Title 3/Helms-Burton. The island has welcomed some brave help from the Russian, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Japanese governments, but it seeks vital new investments from nations closer to home. The AFP image above was used to illustrate an August 4-2019 article by BUSINESSDAY. It explained that Cuba has informed all potential investors of its total foreign debt, which it says is $18.2 billion that it is trying to keep paying off. Also, Cuba explained updated figures on how it is earning money to survive the Trump administration. For example, in 2018 Cuba earned $970 million from hotel and related services; $722 million from telecommunications; $600 million from transportation and support services, etc. Also, Cuba says its exports in 2018 totaled $14.5 billion, down from $18.6 billion in 2013; and its imports in 2018 totaled $12.6 billion, way down from $15.6 billion in 2013. BUSINESSDAY said that Cuba, for the first time, is revealing such statistics in order to try to convince foreign investors that the island is not only open for business but is also a safe investment even during the duration of the current Republican administration in Washington. Cuba insists it will survive the Little Havana-directed Republican presidency and await an Obama-like Democratic U. S. president.
On August 4th-2019 the Foundation for Economic Education {FEE} used the graphic above in discussing the evils of Cuba's socialism compared to the wonders of Hong Kong's capitalism. Not discussed much is the wonders of socialism in, say, Norway, which has a far higher per capita income than the U. S. and, of course, a far safer and happier population. What if Cuba, like Norway and everyone else, had not suffered under brutal U. S. economic sanctions since 1962? Also, in July and August of 2019 massive anti-government demonstrations have inundated Hong Kong...not to mention that massive demonstrations in San Juan have just overturned the latest corrupt government on the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico, which is a U. S. Territory with U. S. Citizens who receive billions of U. S. tax dollars and other aid to help out during national disasters like hurricanes. When Cuba suffers from similar disasters, the U. S. embargo blocks outside help from nations that otherwise would like to help.
So, can little Cuba survive Helms-Burton's most genocidal provisions recently enacted for the first time by the latest Little Havana-directed Republican administration in Washington? Well...maybe or maybe not!! But one thing is sure: Cuba...is trying real hard to survive Trump while hoping someone like Obama claims the American presidency.
Obama: "Cuba does not need to fear a threat from the United States." A sacred promise President Obama made on his historic visit to Cuba in 2016. It was a sincere quote by President Obama but Revolutionary Cuba, indeed, has been forced to fear a dire threat from all six Republican administrations since the 1950's.
But Donald Trump is the only U. S. Republican President that has: {1} Activated the genocidal starvation provisions of Title 3/Helms-Burton; and {2} he is the Republican President that quickly went to Little Havana in Miami and promised the few remaining April of 1961 Bay of Pigs attackers that their defeat will be avenged and Cuba will be returned to them during their lifetimes. In exchange, Trump believes Little Havana can again deliver him Florida's crucial 29 Electoral Votes heading into his 2020 re-election. For sure, since the Spanish-American War in Cuba in 1898, and especially since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Cuba has said a lot more about the United States than it has said about Cuba itself. And I think we can all agree, WHAT IT SAYS is not pretty. The above photo is merely one of many things attesting to that basic fact.
As a democracy-loving American, I was ashamed in October of 2016, the last year of the Obama presidency, when the entire world voted 191-to-0 at the United Nations to unanimously condemn the U. S. embargo of Cuba that has existed since 1962. And similarly, I am ashamed that billboards like the one above can inform the Cuban people that the embargo...Cubans call it a blockade...is by far the longest and cruelest economic embargo ever imposed by a strong nation against a much weaker nation. The words "EL GENOCIDIO" as used above means "THE GENOCIDE" and that, I believe, is a term that should shame the people in any powerful country...China, Russia, US, etc.
This photo was taken in Cuba last week by Roberto Suarez and it shows Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel addressing Cubans in a televised speech. He used the word "genocide" to describe the Trump administration's activation of Title 3/Helms-Burton and then he explained what the Cuban government is trying to do to survive it. Cubans are well-educated and now they are very active on the Internet and the Social Media. A strong majority of Cubans support Diaz-Canel and they know him well as their former Education Minister. He was born after the triumph of the Revolution but he is a fierce supporter of it, as are most Cubans on the island. If that were not so, Revolutionary Cuba could never have survived all these decades. The Cuban narrative in the United States since 1959 starts with the premise that the Batista-Mafia dictatorship was a sweet, Mother Teresa-type government in Havana. And that's a lie. And furthermore, it hasn't been a sweet, Mother Teresa-type government on U. S. soil in Little Havana since 1959 either.
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