"Last Vestige of Cold War"

France Fights for Cuba
But Rubio Is Now #1 Republican

         As we have said in this forum for many months now, Josefina Vidal -- Cuba's indefatigable American expert -- has predicted that Marco Rubio will be the next U. S. president beginning in January of 2017. Because her expertise regarding the U. S. has been extremely accurate in the last fifteen years, many top Cuban observers, including those confused by America's prolific punditry, put much stock in Vidal's long-shot prediction. Today -- Feb. 2-2016 -- it is far less of a long-shot. Rubio was the big winner with a strong 3rd place finish in yesterday's first Republican primary voting in the Iowa caucus. Vidal and the Cuban government have embraced President Obama's massive efforts to normalize relations with Cuba but, following Vidal's lead, Cuba is resisting following up on economic and political ties with the U. S. that a Republican-dominated Congress along with a Republican in the White House can easily overrule beginning less than a year from now. For that reason, and because of Vidal, Cuba is stressing the need to firm up relations with all other countries other than the United States. In 2016, a year in which Fidel Castro turns 90 and Raul Castro turns 85, the future of post-Castro Cuba is more than ever in Vidal's hands. She is acutely aware that U.S.-backed right-wingers now powerfully challenge Cuban-friendly governments in Venezuela and Brazil. She is acutely aware that post-Castro Cuba must adopt the Chinese and Vietnamese styles of capitalism. And she is also acutely aware that a Republican, namely Marco Rubio, will defeat the Obama-like Democrat, Hillary Clinton, in America's ongoing 2016 presidential sweepstakes.

        Marco Rubio, the first-term U. S. Senator from Miami, can now seriously point to the White House. In the Iowa caucus yesterday he finished a strong third behind the winner, fellow Cuban-American first-term Senator Ted Cruz, and Donald Trump. But that showing projects Rubio as the strong favorite of the Republican financial and political establishment, which will, in the coming months, easily elevate Rubio.

      The two Cuban-Americans -- Rubio and Cruz -- will now begin to squeeze out the national poll-leader, Donald Trump, for the Republican presidential nomination. That's the way it looks now after Iowa and that's the way Vidal predicted months ago.

        French President Francois Hollande is warmly hosting Cuban President Raul Castro this week in Paris. After a state dinner at Elysee Palace, Hollande spoke profoundly against the U. S. embargo of Cuba, calling it "the last vestige of the Cold War and one the world wants ended once and for all against Cuba." 

Cuban President Raul Castro was given full military honors in Paris.

Presidents Hollande and Castro have met in both Havana and Paris.

        This AP photo shows Cubans enjoying internet connections thanks to one of the 50 wireless connection points in Havana. This week Cuba announced it will open 17 more wi-fi hook-ups in Havana and it is now launching broadband internet service in homes in two Havana neighborhoods and will later extend it to cafes, bars, and restaurants. The BBC says 150,000 Cubans now use Havana's wi-fi hook-ups.

     The makers of Bacardi Rum are furious at President Obama. Since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, the Bacardi family has been one of the many who have benefited massively from exiting the island to embrace American capitalism and decades of U. S. efforts to recapture what it had in Cuba during the Batista-Mafia years from 1952 till 1959. Bacardi Rum was founded in Santiago de Cuba in 1862. Now based in the tax-haven of Bermuda and making its rum in the U. S. Territory of Puerto Rico, Bacardi has multiple buildings in the Miami area. Bacardi for decades has enjoyed having the Bacardi trademark and a monopoly on rum sales in the U. S. and the massive areas it most influences. Also, historians have noted that considerable Bacardi money has supported numerous anti-Castro enterprises. In 1996, for example, Bacardi's highly financed lobbyists in Washington, led by anti-Castro zealot and Bush-connected Otto Reich, pushed through the infamous anti-Cuban Helms-Burton Act that has mightily enriched a few Cuban-Americans but massively harmed millions of Cubans on the island. But last month President Obama, in his continuing efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, bravely renewed the famous Havana Club trademark for Cuba's Cubaexport company. Bacardi, not surprisingly, has sicced its vast lobbying effort in the U. S. Congress on Obama.

     Except for the U. S., Cuba's famed Havana Club trademark is recognized by the rest of the world. Havana Club was officially introduced in Cuba in 1934 but it dates back to 1878 when Jose Arechabala founded a distillery in Cardenas, Cuba. It is now distributed via a propitious long-term deal with the French alcoholic giant Pernod Ricard. Havana Club is considered the only authentic Cuban rum and has earned a reputation as being a superior product to Puerto Rican-produced Bacardi. Thus, if President Obama's overture prevails and creates a level playing field, Havana Club could overtake Bacardi's huge multi-billion-dollar advantages in the U. S.

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