On Display This Week
This week -- Thursday, June 25th -- Secretary John Kerry's U. S. State Department released its annual Human Rights Report. It castigated five nations in particular: Cuba, Myanmar, Vietnam, Iran, and Thailand. The report cited Cuba for "denying passport requests for certain opposition leaders, or harassing them upon their return to the country." Secretary Kerry tempered the scathing denunciations by saying they were "not intended to be sanctimonious," apparently in reference to the fact that the United States has a few problems in regards to human rights, especially involving blacks and other poor people.
Not surprisingly, Cuba's most ubiquitous and dynamic journalist/television personality -- 26-year-old Cristina Escobar -- was quick to respond to Secretary of State John Kerry's labeling Cuba as one of the world's worst human rights violators. "By including Cuba," she said, "Kerry used one correct word -- sanctimonious. He should have used two others -- hypocrite and mendacious. I respect Mr. Kerry. He is helping to normalize relations with Cuba. But what would normalization be? I think it might be more of an opportunity for the Miami Cubans to suck the oxygen from the island so they and their Mafia friends can regain control of what they perceive as their piggy-bank and playpen. So, Mr. Kerry's Human Rights Report shows further cowardice on the part of the U. S. Government, which continually capitulates to the Miami Cuban extremists on this Human Rights Report and on everything else regarding Cuba, including the training, funding, and protection of the terror-bombers who downed our civilian airplane, shot up our coastal dwellings, and bombed our hotels...with impunity. Mendacious lies, sanctimony, hypocrisy...the U. S. government and the U. S. media approach to Cuba may fool Americans but not Caribbeans or Latin Americans." When Cristina Escobar speaks, Cubans, Caribbeans, and Latin Americans listen. She is hailed as "the new young voice of Cuba." On the island she is the host of "Cuban Television News." She is also a regular panelist or anchor on Cuba's top-rated "Round Table" discussion of news events. And now, as depicted above, she hosts her own program -- in English -- on the "Telesur" network. When John Kerry, Marco Rubio, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Robert Menendez, the Diaz-Balarts or anyone else assails Cuba, it goes unchallenged in the U. S. But that's no longer the case in Cuba, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Cristina Escobar now has forums, complete with microphones and cameras, to challenge anything she deems as "lies" about an island she loves.
In other words, this week U. S. Secretary of State John Kerry and the U. S. media presented one side of Cuba's human rights record. Cristina Escobar quickly followed up before her ever-increasing regional audience with Cuba's side of that story. It differed quite sharply with Mr. Kerry's. "We have a city of 300,000 people...I speak of Cienfuegos...that goes six months to a year without a serious crime. Can you name me an American city that goes five minutes without multiple serious crimes...rape, murder? I ask Mr. Kerry...is blowing up children on a civilian airplane a human rights violation? Is shooting a harmless and unarmed black man in the back 8 times a violation of human rights? I know sanctimony, hypocrisy, and lies when I see or hear them."
It is obvious Cristina Escobar keeps close tabs on how the U. S. media portrays Cuba. Recently in Washington to cover the last Vidal-Jacobson diplomatic session, she made headlines, speaking in perfect English, when she highlighted a news conference by asking White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest a blistering series of questions: "Do you think U. S. diplomats {at a proposed new embassy in Havana} will be respectful to Cuba?...etc. She followed up that news conference with one-on-one interviews and speeches around Washington...in both Spanish and English...in which she stressed, "The lies the U. S. media tells about Cuba hurts everyday Cubans the most. I am still young and I am hopeful, but I also realize that the small cabal of right-wing thugs with ties back to the Batista days still dictate America's Cuban policy."
Throughout the Caribbean and Latin America, Cristina Escobar is now the go-to journalist other television reporters and anchors depend on the most for the Cuban side of U.S.-Cuban issues. "Cuba is not devoid of self-inflicted problems," she says. "But it is our right and our duty to deal with them, and more-and-more my generation is seeing a drastic improvement in that regard on my island. I see a U. S. publication this month that listed verbatim...how many was it?...38?...tax-funded programs currently in place for the purpose of either enriching the Miami Cubans or bringing about regime change in Cuba. How nice! 38. So, how much of the dissidence on this island originates here and how much originates in Miami and Washington? Impartial journalists posted in Cuba from abroad see little internal dissidence but they surely see a lot of dissidents supported and encouraged from Miami and Washington. I guess all of them get free Smart Phones, courtesy of U. S. taxpayers, in case they get to photograph or video what the U. S. could call a human rights violation. The Cuban government doesn't pay for Smart Phones that Americans could use to videotape human rights violations in the U. S. and if my government did such things I would use my forums to denounce it."
This photo shows Cristina Escobar interviewing Cuba's omnipotent Minister of North American Affairs Josefina Vidal. Ms. Escobar says, "Vidal has more freedom in Cuba, or when she is off the island, to speak much more frankly about U.S.-Cuban affairs than any of her counterparts in the United States, including the capable Roberta Jacobson. Jacobson must get clearance from Mr. Kerry or Mr. Obama and they, in turn, must get clearance from the Miami Cubans. Vidal, on the other hand, has the freedom to make off-the-cuff comments and stick by them. Freedom is a wonderful thing. Cubans didn't have any of that in the Batista days. We have more of it now, but we want and are getting more. We would get all of it much faster were it not for the Miami Cubans dictating to Washington about embargoing, starving, depriving, bombing, nuking...or whatever...an island that in no way harms the United States. But I believe that process, those gross anti-Cuban dictates, harms the United States every bit as much as it harms Cuba. The two weeks I spent in California last year and the few days I spent in Washington this year amaze me most of all because of how easy it is to lie to the American people about Cuba, for sure, and I imagine about other things. I don't expect the U. S. to treat Cuba fairly but I am most disheartened because the American people don't seem to care what their government, or the Miami Cubans, do to Cuba on their behalf -- including blowing up children in an airplane or associating with the Mafia and terrorists in carrying out designs on a supposedly vulnerable little Cuba."
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A very unique generation of outraged Cuban women -- led by the incomparable Celia Sanchez -- played the decisive role in defeating the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship. That was way back in the 1950s. The retrenched Batistiano-Mafiosi forces -- in all the decades since -- have furiously lashed back at the nearby island from U. S. soil with massive help from the U. S. military, the CIA, and the U. S. Treasury. But, against all odds, Revolutionary Cuba still stands. A second generation of Cuban women, personified by Josefina Vidal, is helping defy Cuba's enemies. And now a third generation of Cuban women, epitomized by Cristina Escobar, is trying mightily to make sure Cubans on the island, not in Miami, define its future.
Cristina Escobar is certainly the new face, voice, and soul of Cuba. When she speaks, she now has microphones across the island and across the region that spread her views. She believes "the Miami Cubans" harm Cuba but "harm the U. S. and democracy even more." Cristina has criticized aspects of the Cuban government whenever she feels it can better serve "everyday Cubans." But overall she is a staunch defender of Revolutionary Cuba as "far superior to any government dictated from a foreign country." She is loved by Cubans of her generation and deeply respected by older Cubans, including the not-so-old Josefina Vidal. This week the U. S. Secretary of State John Kerry denounced Cuba's human rights record. Cristina Escobar used her mounting forums to denounce that denouncement. There are, for sure, two sides to the U.S.-Cuban conundrum. The Miami Cubans represent one side; Cristina Escobar represents the other. It's still very much a David-vs.-Goliath proposition, but it is not as lopsided as it once was.
Beauty & Brains vs. Braun & Belligerence.
Cristina Escobar: The new face, voice, and soul of Cuba.
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