cubaninsider: Cuba and the White House

A 2016 Nexus
Updated: Saturday, June 13th, 2015

Reverend Joan Brown Campbell this week, June 11th, paid a visit to her good friend Fidel Castro in his Havana home. She is the former President of the National Council of Churches USA. A spokesman for Mr. Castro said, "Reverend Campbell and Fidel have had a friendship that dates back many years. She has given countless expressions of solidarity to Fidel and Cuba. She loves Fidel and the Cuban people." Reverend Campbell has represented Fidel in the U. S. on many touchy issues over the years -- such as the return to Cuba of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez in 2000 and the return of the imprisoned Cuba 5 to Cuba in 2014.

Fidel Castro turns 89-years-old on August 13th, 2015.
Reverend Campbell's visit may indicate his health is declining.

This week -- Thursday, June 11th, 2015 -- in Brussels, Belgium, all the nations of the Caribbean, Latin America, and the European Union issued a stirring denunciation of the U. S. embargo of Cuba, a cruel anachronism that has defamed America's and democracy's image since 1962. In a joint statement the Caribbean, Latin American, and European Union nations stated firmly: "We expect all necessary steps to be taken towards an early end to the embargo against Cuba." The nations of the world, each October, just as overwhelmingly, make the same denunciation. Yet, decade after decade, the United States maintains the embargo to appease a handful of Cuban-Americans in Miami and Union City as well as their self-serving right-wing sycophants in the U. S. Congress. A new poll in Miami issued yesterday also reveals that a huge majority of Cuban-Americans want the embargo ended. The UN nations, the Caribbean nations, the Latin American nations, and the European Union nations are surprised and ashamed that the U. S. democracy is not strong enough to end the embargo, which to them is nothing more and nothing less than a huge, strong nation punishing innocent people in a small, weak nation. Of course, Americans are supposed to continue to ignore world opinion as expressed at the UN, Caribbean opinion, Latin American opinion, and the opinions of the European Union's 28 nations. Thus, the image of America as depicted in the above graphic will continue around the world...for another six decades or so, or at least until a future generation of democracy-loving Americans can join the pantheon of the Greatest Generations of Americans.

Fashion designer Stella McCartney has issued this stunning tableau to herald President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. {Photo courtesy: Quartz/BFA}

At precisely 3:31 P. M. Wednesday {June 10th}, Gulfstream Air Charters made history when its jet left Orlando International Airport in Florida bound for, of all places, Cuba. However, fashion designers, airlines, etc., are being a bit premature as they take advantage of the lull before the next U.S.-Cuban storm. Permit me to explain.

39-year-old Danny Diaz has been named Campaign Manager of Jeb Bush's floundering bid to become the Republican presidential candidate. After revamping his team with Diaz the leader, Bush flew to Europe for photo ops with notables such as Germany's Angela Merkel. Diaz is a hard-charging lobbyist with PP1 Strategies in Washington. But it was in New Mexico as a publicist and strategist for two-time Governor Susana Martinez that Diaz established his political prowess and his indelible Bush connections. In 2004 he worked tirelessly in New Mexico for the unfortunate but successful re-election of President George W. Bush.

But if Jeb Bush, backed by billions of dollars and the vast Bush connections, emerges as the Republican candidate, behind-the-scene power-brokers like Al Cardenas will have far more to do with it than young upfront whippersnappers like Danny Diaz. Since the late 1980s when Jeb Bush launched his political career in Florida as the Campaign Manager for Havana-born Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's successful and entrenched bid for the U. S. Congress {the seminal election that began the Miami-to-Washington pipeline}, Jeb has taken his directions, and orders, from Al Cardenas. Even as a two-term Governor of Florida, if Jeb wanted something, he asked Al Cardenas. If Al Cardenas wanted something, he told Jeb Bush. Jeb's asking and Al's telling remains today the economic and political relationship between Jeb and Al, which is far, far more important than any other Jeb Bush ties or connections.

Al Cardenas was born in Havana in 1948. For years, he dominated Miami politics. Now as one of the most powerful lawyers-lobbyists in Washington, Mr. Cardenas is capable of putting either Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio in the White House in 2016. If and when that happens, Bush or Rubio would answer to Mr. Cardenas. Although Rubio is a Miami-produced Cuban American, Mr. Cardenas seems to prefer that Bush precedes Rubio in the White House, with the understanding that the young Mr. Rubio can wait his turn.

Josefina Vidal is Cuba's expert and prime decision-maker on all things American. While television pundits in the U. S. will spend hours each day and night filling airtime with a litany of wild prognostications and updated polls on the current presidential sweepstakes, Vidal's less commercially involved predictions in Havana have proven far more accurate when it comes to the top echelon of U. S. politics. Vidal's main concern is maintaining Cuba's independence, not selling commercials or political ads. Vidal has already decided the outcome of America's presidential race, a process that she closely relates to Cuba's existence. And she has concluded this: Rubio will edge Bush for the Republican nomination and then Rubio will edge Hillary Clinton in the final one-against-one election. In the next fifteen months, the television networks will collect billions of dollars in political ads, and hope Americans ignore the prognosticator in Havana. Privately, Vidal told a Spanish reporter-friend, "Miami already dictates Cuban policy to the U. S. Congress. So, what the 2016 presidential election will mean is this: The Miami Batistianos will have captured Washington before they re-captured Havana." The Spanish reporter didn't have a follow-up question. He had already learned to accept Vidal's prognostications when it comes to American politics.

President Marco Rubio, effective 2016! It is believed that Al Cardenas, on behalf of Jeb Bush, tried unsuccessfully to convince Marco Rubio to wait his turn for the White House, meaning right after Jeb's two terms. It is interesting that Havana-born Cardenas in Washington prefers Jeb over Little Havana {Miami}-born Rubio. It is also interesting that Ms. Vidal in Havana prefers Rubio over Jeb...in a scenario she knows as the lesser of two evils because she considers the Bush dynasty even more vindictive. But she believes if Rubio as Commander-in-Chief backs up his Cuban pre-election rhetoric, it will essentially mean war, one pitting an island against the nuclear superpower. Vidal, Havana's prime American decision-maker, is already preparing for what she believes will be a nuclear Bay of Pigs. Of course, the pro-Rubio television pundits will insist that is ridiculous, totally out of the question because we have other ways to recapture Cuba. Regardless, the recapture of Cuba is an underlying {and understated} toxic and volatile current coursing through the bowels of America's 2016 presidential election. Josefina Vidal says Rubio will be the winner and there is no television pundit in the United States that knows as much about American politics as Vidal. If that were not the case, the recapture of Cuba would have happened back during the 8 years {2001-2009} of the George W. Bush presidency. Cuba survived that threat only because of Vidal's acute wisdom. She got a reprieve in the fast-fading two-term presidency of Barack Obama, but she anticipates another Republican -- most likely Rubio -- in the White House following Obama. It remains to be seen, after that, if Cuba, as a sovereign nation, can survive. If it does, Vidal again will be the reason.

This photo shows Dr. Yoandra Muro {upper right} checking out a Family Health Clinic in Cuba this week. Dr. Muro is Cuba's Minister of Public Health. She says, "It is well known that we have far more Family Health Clinics, per capita, than any nation in the world. My job is to make them the best in the world."