The Cuban-exile Elite

 A Banana Republic Weakens A Democracy
{Saturday, March 8th, 2014}

     Tom Harkin is a decent American. He was born on November 19, 1939 in Cumming, Iowa and since 1985 he has represented Iowa in the U. S. Senate. At age 74, Senator Harkin has reason to wonder if the American democracy he cherishes will ever again be strong enough to resist external and internal forces that seem determined and even capable of reshaping the world's greatest democracy into an embarrassing Banana Republic, one that enriches and empowers an elitist few at the expense of everyone else. Like many decent, experienced and insightful politicians, Senator Harkin seems to recognize that two generations of elitist Cuban exiles, remnants of the ousted Batista-Mafia dictatorship that the U. S., in one of its most ignorant and egregious endeavors, supported way back in the 1950s, doesn't want to let anyone else have input regarding Cuba. Senator Harkin has lived through two generations of the U. S. government either supporting or capitulating to an elitist few of the most visceral Cuban exiles who seem to have three motives: getting rich, getting powerful, and recapturing Cuba. Senator Harkin, on behalf of his grand-children and great-grandchildren, seems to be concerned that the Cuban-exile erosion of the U. S. democracy is a perpetual cancer that will be seamlessly transferred to a third generation...and beyond.

    Senator Tom Harkin held a recent news conference after returning from a fact-finding three-day trip to Cuba. He had already studied Cuba's health and educational systems as documented by the CIA Facebook, the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and the Pan American Health Organization. In particular, he wanted to study and observe Cuba's health and educational systems up close because, after all, Senator Harkin is Chairman of the U. S. Senate's Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Upon his return from Cuba, at his news conference, Senator Harkin said: "Cuba is a poor country but they have a lower child mortality rate than ours. Their life expectancy is now greater than ours. It's interesting -- their public health system is quite remarkable."

    Senator Tom Harkin -- the U. S. Senate's acknowledged expert on Cuba's health and education system -- obviously is both impressed and distressed that Cuban school children like these have better health care than U. S. children and that care is totally free from birth to death as is the totally free Cuban educational system that guarantees every Cuban a college diploma if they want it. Senator Harkin obviously believes American children deserve such free guarantees, meaning free health care and no huge college loans they have to re-pay to rich bankers. Also, Senator Harkin seems aware and distressed that Cuban children like these live in a much safer but much poorer environment than American children, such as his grand-children and great-grandchildren. Moreover, Senator Harkin appears to recognize that Cuban children like these in 2014 suffer mightily from the U. S. embargo that Cuban-exiles imposed on both Cuba and the U. S. government way back in 1962 for, according to de-classified U. S. documents, the purpose of starving the island's population to induce it to overthrow Revolutionary Cuba. In expressing his views on his recent return from Cuba, Senator Harkin certainly knew that he would be powerfully and shamefully excoriated on the floor of the U. S. Senate and in the lapdog U. S. media for expressing a viewpoint not approved by the Cuban-exile elite. That fact instantly and shamefully became a stark reality in Congress and the media.

      Senator Harkin is abundantly aware that the 100 members of the U. S. Senate include three Cuban-Americans -- Rubio, Menendez, and Cruz {left to right}. It is also acutely apparent that these three Senators reserve unto themselves the right to dictate the Senate's Cuban policy, a policy through two generations that has enriched and empowered the Cuban-exile elite somewhat reminiscent of how the Batistianos and the Mafiosi were enriched and empowered in Cuba in the 1950s. If their dictates are opposed by the majority of Americans, the majority of Cuban-Americans, and the vast majority of the world's citizens, these Senators seem not to care in the least. After all, since 1959 a mere handful of Cuban exiles have succeeded in dictating America's Cuban policy, haven't they? So why stop now?

      Unfortunately, the U. S. democracy features the same scenario over in the 435-member House of Representatives, and remember the U. S. Congress, unfortunately, is only a two-chamber affair. In the House the Diaz-Balart brothers and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen -- Cuban-Americans from Miami -- have long believed they can dictate America's Cuban policy and, unfortunately, they can easily muster the necessary sycophants -- the Bush dynasty, Torriceli, Helms, Burton, etc. -- to accomplish that feat. And, unfortunately, the American people for two generations now have meekly accepted that affront to their democracy. But most unfortunate of all is the fact that from one Cuban-American generation to the next -- such as with the Batistiano minister Rafael Diaz-Balart to his sons Lincoln (born in Havana) and Mario (born in Miami) -- the transfer is not only seamless but indelibly entrenched.

This

Question
Was
Once
Asked
In
Miami
and 
Dade County, Florida.

To the dismay of many,
David Rivera
can now be found
as a Member of
The U. S. Congress
from Miami.

      
    Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Robert Menendez {left to right} -- after latching onto the coattails of the Bush dynasty in the 1980s -- carried the Cuban flag to the U. S. Congress to symbolically create what essentially is the Cuban government-in-exile. The problem is...they are not in Cuba's National Assembly. They are in the hallowed halls of the U. S. democracy that was intended to represent the majority of the American people, not elitist generations of a few Cuban exiles. But that, to a rather significant degree, has been the situation since Jeb Bush began his own extension of the Bush political/economic dynasty by becoming Ros-Lehtinen's Campaign Manager in 1989, a successful but controversial campaign that has embedded her in the U. S. Congress since 1989 as an anti-Castro zealot.

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen rose to become Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Uh, Cuba is a foreign country.

Robert Menendez became Chairman of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee.
Uh...Cuba, remember, is a foreign country.
And the U. S. Congress has only two chambers.

   Only two?

   Oh, my!

********

   Thus, a sparsely attended meeting like this in the hallowed halls of the two-chamber U. S. Congress seems to be the manner in which America's Cuban policy is doled out. If you happen not to be a Cuba-American with a visceral hatred of the Cuban Revolution, it appears that you are not allowed at such sessions although its consequences greatly affect all Cubans, all Cuban Americans, all Americans and, in some cases, many innocent citizens around the entire world.

    That brings us back around to a shameful but fully expected episode when Cuban-American Senator Rubio {left} excoriated, belittled, and embarrassed Senator Harkin on the floor of the U. S. Senate. Mr. Harkin had just returned from Cuba where, as Chairman of the Senate Health and Education Committee, he had visited the island for a first-hand observation. Upon his return he expressed his consternation that such a poor, embargoed country had "a lower child mortality rate than ours." He added: "Their life expectancy is now greater than ours. It's interesting -- their public health system is quite remarkable." All Senator Harkin was doing was suggesting that the U. S., the richest nation in the history of the world, should be able to surpass Cuba when it came to infant mortality and life expectancy. But, of course, because Senator Harkin's conclusions also represented a positive statement about Cuba, Rubio and five other Cuban-Americans in the U. S. Congress went ballistic -- especially 2016 presidential contender Rubio. Rubio's right-wing supporters quickly had his long excoriation of Senator Harkin posted on YouTube, etc.

Which is it?

Journalism or propaganda?

    The Miami Herald, which was a great American newspaper prior to 1959, has evolved into nothing more than a lapdog propaganda organ representing only the most visceral Cuban exiles.  After Rubio's tirade against Senator Harkin, the "Miami Herald" called it "The best oration of his political career." The Miami Herald would not be expected to show any sympathy for Mr. Harkin, who has served honorably in the U. S. Senate since 1985, and surely it would not be expected to allow anyone other than the Cuban-exile elite to express an opinion about Cuba. The Miami Herald and the U. S. democracy changed drastically in 1959, accounting for the fact that the Cuban Revolution, indeed, says a lot more about the superpower U. S. than it says about an island.

     But, amazingly, South Florida still has a newspaper that actually has the courage and the integrity to tell both sides of two-sided stories even if the topic is Cuba. The Tampa Bay Times publishes both negative and positive articles and editorials regarding Cuba, whichever it deems journalistically correct and pertinent. After Rubio's vicious tirade against Senator Harkin, the Tampa Bay Times -- as posted on its politifact.com site -- closely re-examined Senator Harkin's statements and found them to be essentially correct and well substantiated. Senator's Harkin's infant mortality and life expectancy statistics were derived by his study of the CIA Factbook, the World Health Organization, the Pan American Health Organization and the United Nations and apparently confirmed by his own 3-day visit to Cuba. Unlike right-wing sycophants like the Miami Herald, the Tampa Bay Times actually contacted Senator Harkin's office to confirm, in addition to his trip to Cuba, where he had gotten his facts and then the Times, after double-checking, reported them. Of course, Rubio's vast right-wing Public Relations Propaganda Machine made sure that his vitriol against Senator Harkin received about fifty times more media coverage than Mr. Harkin's measured comments.

     Senator Rubio seems to believe, as an elitist Cuban-American from Miami, he can say anything that comes to his mind about Cuba. {His parents...remember?...escaped the Castro tyranny in Cuba in ? 1957 for the freedom of Miami!} Moreover, no one is supposed to have either the courage or the intelligence to question such subterfuge. Rubio was born in Miami and has never been to Cuba, except on a campaign junket to the American-controlled Guantanamo Naval Base. So, how would he know -- as he says in the quotation on the right -- that only "the Cuban elite" on the island actually benefit from Cuba's health system? Senator Harkin, a Democrat, has been to the island and discussed Cuba's health system with everyday Cubans! {So have I...a conservative (but not right-wing) Republican.} 

Conclusion:

       If you want to understand why and how Marco Rubio and a small band of Cuban-exile elites might capture America before they re-capture Cuba, I suggest you read or re-read CUBA CONFIDENTIAL: LOVE AND VENGEANCE IN MIAMI AND HAVANA. There is no one who can explain it like ANN LOUISE BARDACH.

       And then, after you have derived the wisdom and insight of Ann Louise Bardach, I suggest you read or re-read "HAVANA NOCTURNE: How the Mob Owned Cuba...and Then Lost It to the Revolution." In this classic, T. J. English provides insight regarding what the Cuban-exile elite plan to do once they capture America and then re-capture Cuba, and we all need to know that if only to keep us from being shocked when it actually happens.{OH, MY GOODNESS! "Jose, old man, can you see through dawn's early light? I sure hope so!}

  For the first time in 40 years, the restored Marti Theater in Havana has been reopened this month.

 As this stairwell indicates, the restoration project at Marti Theater was expensive and successful.

           {The two Marti Theater photos are courtesy of Havana Times/Elio Delgado Valdes}

Havana's iconic Hotel Capri re-opened last month after an extensive restoration. {AP/Franklin Reyes}

The Capri opened in 1957 and was owned by Tampa's Mafia kingpin Santo Trafficante Jr.

19 stories high with 250 rooms, it was a hedonistic Mafia playpen till 1959.

In 1959 the Cuban Revolution ended the Mafia/Batistiano rule of the island.

In 2014 Revolutionary Cuba magnificently restored and reopened Hotel Capri.

Former Brazilian President Lulu da Silva presents Fidel Castro with a soccer jersey.

Lulu, now 68, began March of 2014 with business lectures in Cuba.

It's a rough winter for birds like this finch and cardinal. {Birds & Blooms photo}

It is vital that birds have help with food during winter. {Photo by Cheyenne B. Ware}

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