Miami Is Batista's Havana

A Gluttonous, Revengeful Playpen Like 1950s Havana
{Monday, March 10th, 2014}

    Last week {March 4, 2014} the New York Times used the photo on the left {Photo courtesy: Luke Sharrett/NY Times} to illustrate a long article written by Damien Cave entitled: "Miami Congressman Adamantly Defends Isolating Cuba." Because this article defines much of how the most vicious Cuban-exile zealots have dictated America's Cuban policy since January of 1959, I believe Americans should go online and read it. On the left is Mario Diaz-Balart, who followed his brother Lincoln Diaz-Balart into the U. S. Congress from Miami. Once there, they have no problem finding other right-wing Republicans {such as the Virginia congressman Eric Cantor on the right} to support their gluttonous, revengeful Cuban agenda that, since January of 1959, has harmed everyone but a handful of the richest and most powerful Cuban-exiles and their self-serving acolytes such as the Bush dynasty, Torricelli, Helms, Burton, Cantor, etc. But as Damien Cave's topical article in the New York Times indicates, the biggest support that has empowered a few insatiable Cuban-exiles through the past two generations is the simple fact that the last two generations of Americans have not cared enough about their democracy to defend it against such a cancerous blight. But, for what it's worth, here is how Damien Cave began this interesting, insightful and illuminating article:

      "As more Cuban-Americans find ways to engage with Cuba -- through travel, helping families with new businesses, and now business training -- they have increasingly come into conflict with Cuban-America law makers who insist that isolation, through the United States trade embargo, is the best and only acceptable approach when dealing with Cuba. Representative Mario Diaz-Balart, the Republican congressman from Miami, has been a leader among the pro-embargo constituency for years, serving in Congress since 2003. His aunt, Mirta, was Fidel Castro's first wife, leading many to argue that the divide between Cuba and the United States over the embargo is, at its roots, a family dispute. But Mr. Diaz-Balart argues that his position is steeped in principle..." {Excerpt from New York Times article by Damien Cave, March 4-2014}

          The Damien Cave article in the New York Times this week continues on for many paragraphs and includes a long Q & A segment with Mario Diaz-Balart. "Steeped in principle!" He had the gall to use those three words to describe to Mr. Cave the Cuban policy that he and the other richest and most powerful Cuban-exiles have dictated in Miami and in Washington since they were booted off the island, with reason, on January 1, 1959. In the 55 years since then, the United States, the world, and democracy have been severely punished by what Damien Cave calls "a family dispute." Because lavish foreign money, like lavish domestic money, is capable of purchasing large chunks of America's democracy, gluttony-minded and revenge-minded Cuban exiles from the island's overthrown brutal/thieving Batista-Mafia dictatorship have faced few obstacles in crafting what has amounted to a Batistiano government-in-exile on U. S. soil. 

                 Since the overthrow of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba in 1959, two generations of the most extremist Cuban-exiles -- such as Mario Diaz-Balart, his brother Lincoln Diaz-Balart, and their father Rafael Diaz-Balart -- have not only dictated America's Cuban policy -- such as the embargo, the Torricelli Act, the Helms-Burton Bill, etc. -- they have also controlled the narrative by intimidating or colluding with the media. In that manner the majority of Americans have either been too scared to resist the Cuban-exile assault on their democracy or they have simply been too propagandized/proselytized by the intimidated or colluding media. Mario Diaz-Balart this week told Damien Cage that his Cuban agenda is "steeped in principle." What a joke! Here are some points to contradict Mario Diaz-Balart:

    The New York Times article referenced Mirta Diaz-Balart, Fidel Castro's first wife, as an example of the "family dispute" that has played out between Havana and Miami since January of 1959 -- at great expense to decent Cubans and decent Americans as well as to democracy. As the sister of Rafael Diaz-Balart, Mirta is the aunt of his sons Mario and Lincoln Diaz-Balart. As Fidel Castro's wife and the mother of his son Fidelito, Mirta knows Fidel a heck of a lot better than her brother and her nephews who, after all, basically only know that Fidel chased them to Miami. And Mirta has never used Fidel to gain wealth and she has never used the family dispute to self-servingly distort either Havana or Miami. To this day, Mirta still has her own home in Havana and she stays there on her frequent visits to the island to visit her son Fidelito {see photo} as well as Fidel and his second wife Dalia. As far as I know, Mirta, now 85, avoids Miami.

      After fleeing the triumphant Cuban Revolution in January of 1959, Rafael Diaz-Balart became one of the most zealous, richest and powerful Cuban-exiles in Miami, rivaled in zealotry, wealth and power only by Jorge Mas Canosa. In Batista's U.S.-backed Cuban dictatorship, Rafael Diaz-Balart, a law school classmate of Fidel Castro, was a powerful minister. Rafael's son Lincoln, a former member of the U. S. Congress, was born in Havana; Rafael's son Mario, a present member of the U. S. Congress, was born in Miami. 

  As a key minister in the Batista dictatorship, Rafael Diaz-Balart {left} was one of Batista's biggest and most vocal supporters. Thus, it is no wonder that he would become the prime antagonist on the island for Fidel Castro, his former law school classmate who hated Batista's rule. And until he died in Key Biscayne, Florida on May 6-2005, Rafael had out-lived Jorge Mas Canosa {who died Sept. 21-1997 in Miami} and was thus Fidel's prime antagonist in the U. S., a role he bequeathed to Lincoln and Mario, a role the two brothers are zestfully fulfilling.

     In the photo on the right, that is Rafael Diaz-Balart in the middle with the holstered pistol flanked by the infamous Masferrer brothers, Rodolfo on the left and Rolando on the right. In this photo they are holding a pro-Batista rally in 1958 in Chivirico, Sierra Maestra, Cuba. Americans need to comprehend just how infamous the Masferrer brothers were as the prime enforcers for Batista. That comprehension can, of course, begin by simply Googling "Rolando Masferrer," which you should do because to be unfamiliar with Rolando Masferrer is to be unfamiliar with the U.S.-Cuban nexus, especially what spawned Fidel Castro. 

   Tete Puebla, for example, is today a General in the Cuban army. Barely in her teens, she joined Celia Sanchez's guerrilla army in the Sierra Maestra and became a teenage legend fighting and defeating Batista soldiers while Fidel Castro was in prison. In her biography -- "Tete Puebla and the Mariano Grajales Brigade" -- Tete explained what motivated her: The Masferrer Tigers had come to her little village and burned friends and relatives to death in locked sheds and gunny sacks as a warning not to resist. The teenage Tete didn't heed that warning and she'll tell you today that neither did the bulk of the similarly motivated female half of the population, a fact that tipped the incalculable odds against Fidel Castro into his favor. Study this photo of General Tete Puebla. Do you think she still remembers Masferrer?

   Beyond any shadow of a doubt, Batista's Cuba displayed no respect for teenage girls like Tete Puebla or for mothers like these who began the Cuban Revolution with brave marches like this. If Batista, the Mafia and the U. S. had shown just a tad of respect for the non-elite female half of the Cuban population, there is no way either Havana or Miami would ever have had to deal with Fidel Castro. But study the stoic photo of Tete Puebla in her General's uniform. Then study this and other photos of mothers outraged by the murders of their children, and then you can understand why everyone has heard of Fidel Castro. There is no way a dictatorship backed by the strongest nation in the world, the U. S., and by the strongest criminal organization in the world, the Mafia, could have been overthrown by Fidel Castro if he had not recognized and utilized the outrage of Cuba's female population. If you disagree with that, study Tete's and the Marching Mothers' photos a little longer.

     Linda Pressly {Photo on the right} is the top senior producer at the BBC in London. Via emails and phone calls, Linda contacted me when she was doing a documentary on Celia Sanchez. She said she was going to Cuba to research it and asked me who I thought she should contact. I immediately said, "General Tete Puebla, Marta Rojas, and Melba Hernandez. Those three remarkable Cuban women are still living and they have indelible memories of fighting beside and working beside Celia Sanchez. Celia played the biggest role in defeating Batista and then defending the revolution...just ahead of the still-living Tete, Marta, and Melba and the late Haydee Santamaria and Vilma Espin."

  Celia Sanchez was a 99-pound doctor's daughter from the little Cuban town of Media Luna and she adored Cuban children. She became outraged when she learned that peasant girls as young as ten were being kidnapped and used as lures in Mafia-run hotel-casinos to entice pedophiles to Cuba. The fate of a beautiful ten-year-old Cuban girl named Maria Ochoa was the last straw for Celia and the biggest mistake Batista, the Mafia, and the United States ever made on the island of Cuba.

   That's because the fate of little Maria Ochoa transformed the petite doctor's daughter into history's all-time greatest female guerrilla fighter and revolutionary leader as well as the prime reason the Batistianos today dominate Miami but not Havana. Celia died of cancer at age 59 in 1980 but way back in 1959 she had boldly proclaimed: "The Batistianos will never regain control of Cuba as long as I live or as long as Fidel lives." Of course, Americans are not supposed to know Celia Sanchez because such knowledge might conflict with America's Cuban policy since 1959.

    The photo on the left shows Rafael Diaz-Balart the way he looked when he made a long and impassioned speech before the Cuban parliament that rubber-stamped Batista's rule. An incredible series of brutal acts against Cuban women and children had induced the United States to persuade Batista to free Fidel Castro from prison where he had spent two years following his ill-fated July 26-1953 attack on the Moncada Army Garrison. Batista offered to free other prisoners but not Fidel but the U. S. told him that the only way to appease the masses and the pro-Fidel New York Times reporter Herbert L. Mathews was to free the rebel hero Fidel. Batista, beholden to the U. S. for vast financial and military assistance, had to listen to that ultimatum from the U. S., which only wanted to pacify the outraged majority of Cubans who admired Fidel. But Rafael Diaz-Balart -- in that long and impassioned speech -- still pleaded for Fidel to be kept in prison. Rafael said: "I think this amnesty, so imprudently adopted, will bring days, many days, of mourning, pain, blood and misery to the Cuban people...because Fidel Castro is nothing more than a fascist psychopath." Still, Batista ignored his minister and capitulated to the U. S. order. Fidel was freed. The rest is history, including Rafael's powerful emergence in Miami where he and Masferrer were among the first to form paramilitary units to strike back at Revolutionary Cuba. So, Celia's proclamation has been severely tested each day since 1959 but it has yet to be punctured.

   
    The photo on the left shows Fidel Castro on May 15, 1955 just as he was released from the Isle of Pines prison. Celia Sanchez, whom he had yet to meet, had sent a note to him prior to the amnesty telling him of the safe houses to use before he regrouped in the U. S. and Mexico prior to joining her in the Sierra Maestra. He missed his rendezvous point where Celia waited with a force that could have protected him and the other 81 rebels on the old, leaky yacht Granma. Only 17 of the rebels survived a coastal ambush but the Castro brothers and Che Guevara were among the 17 survivors.

    
    By he way, in 1955 Marta Rojas {right} was a young, talented news reporter that Batista trusted. Thus, she had access to Fidel Castro in his Isle of Pines prison. Marta, however, was a part of the urban underground loyal to Celia Sanchez and Frank Pais, the two most vital anti-Batista rebels. Marta carried notes from Celia in her bra to Fidel in his prison cell. Marta exited the prison with notes in her bra from Fidel to Celia. That was the beginning of the Celia-Fidel nexus that eventually spelled doom for the Batista-Mafia dictatorship.

    The photo on the left shows Marta Rojas interviewing two of the greatest heroines of the Cuban Revolution -- Haydee Santamaria and Melba Hernandez. Haydee and Melba participated in the attack on the Moncada garrison on July 26, 1953 and they, like Fidel, were freed from prison in May of 1955 by that U.S.-brokered amnesty.

    Haydee Santamaria left that interview with Marta Rojas to join Celia Sanchez's guerrilla unit in the Sierra Maestra. The photo on the left shows Haydee and Celia leading a well-armed unit of guerrilla fighters in the Sierra Maestra Mountains. The two incomparable rebels formed a life-long bond. In Revolutionary Cuba Celia died of cancer on January 11, 1980. Haydee was so distraught over Celia's death that she committed suicide, a fact documented in Haydee's biography "Rebel Lives" and also by Haydee's daughter Celia Hart who was named, of course, for Celia Sanchez. {Celia Hart was a prolific Latin American writer till both she and her brother died in a car wreck as they were driving to help Cubans devastated by back-to-back hurricanes}

   
    Marta Rojas {Photo by Tracey Eaton} is now 83-years-old and a legendary heroine of the Cuban Revolution. She is also a renowned Latin American journalist/author. Her best book, I think, was "Tania: The Unforgettable Guerrilla." It was first published in English in the 1970s by Random House. When I was researching my biography of Celia Sanchez, Marta was gracious enough to provide first-hand information including email attachments of personal notes to and from Celia Sanchez.

Hey, I deterred a bit but back to the Diaz-Balarts!

   Of course, the extraordinary power of the Diaz-Balarts -- and other Cuban-exile extremists -- is directly linked in Miami and Washington to their tight alignment with the Bush dynasty, both economically and politically. From both an economic and political standpoint, that alliance, of course, has been extremely beneficial to the Bushes, the Diaz-Balarts, and the rest of the Cuban-exile elite while being extremely detrimental to everyone else.

    The reason Mario Diaz-Balart this week tried to pull the wool over the eyes of one of the New York Times' most renowned reporters, Damien Cave, is the fact that he obviously -- like the other Cuban-exile extremists from Miami -- was reacting to a recent poll that shows even the vast majority of Cuban-Americans in Miami now desire an end to the embargo and other vile hostilities against the Cubans on the island. Mario is also abundantly aware that the entire world, for the 22nd consecutive year, has voted in near unanimity in the United Nations to end the embargo. {Only Israel, which likes the billions of dollars in military and economic aid it receives from the U.S. each year, supports the U. S. on that UN vote}. Mario is also aware that Alfy Fanjol -- the billionaire Cuban-born sugar magnet who has bank-rolled anti-Castro politicians and anti-Castro acts for decades, has suddenly declared that he has been visiting Cuba with thoughts of investing on the island that now is encouraging foreign investments. And Mario is also aware that the 28-nation European Union has called for re-establishing ties with Cuba and that includes the two EU nations -- Poland and the Czech Republic -- that have long capitulated to U. S. pressure to assail Cuba. So no wonder this week we see Senator Marco Rubio from Miami stoking the fires of protests in Venezuela, a close Cuban ally, and Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart rushing to the New York Times to explain how and why the vicious Cuban exile-fueled U. S. Cuban policy is "STEEPED IN PRINCIPLE." 

The "principle," of course, is to 

enrich and empower

more generations of....

the Cuban-exile elite!

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