Re-Americanizing Cuba

 Step by Step  
{Updated: Wednesday, June 29th, 2016}

       This REUTERS/Enrique De La Osa photo is less than 24 hours old but it is already historic. It shows the Gaviota 5th Avenue Hotel in Havana and it's the first hotel in Cuba since the 1959 Revolution to be operated in Cuba under a U. S. brand. The Gaviota flag on the left signifies the Cuban government's Hospitality Company and that flag flies higher than the U. S. flag in the lower right. This hotel is the first of two that will be managed by America's Starwoods Hotels & Resorts. Starwoods has set the price per room at $249. The Gaviota's inauguration and indoctrination into a fast-changing Cuba will be held today -- June 28th, 2016. But then it will close for another few months while undergoing a total refurbishment. Nancy Sarabia, the hotel's P. R. Director, said, "This is a historic moment. It's a symbol of brotherhood and collaboration." 

        This Ramon Espinosa/AP photo shows the magnificent Gaviota Hotel in Havana that is now operated under Sheraton's Four Points and Starwoods Hotels & Resorts brands. The company will begin operating Cuba's Gran Caribe Inglaterra Hotel on August 31st. It marks the largest investment by an American company in Cuba since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution over the Batista dictatorship in 1959.

    Florida's Stonegate Bank will begin issuing credit cards in Cuba.

        This, too, is a recent but historic REUTERS photo. It shows a Cuban girl on the Malecon seawall wrapping herself in an American flag as she watches The Adonia, a gorgeous Carnival Cruise Lines ship, enter Havana Harbor. It was the first time in five decades such U. S. cruises to Cuba have been legal.

        Beginning in September, American Airlines and other U. S. carriers, for the first time in five decades, will begin making commercial flights to ten Cuban cities. Since the early 1960s, only charter flights from the U.S.-to-Cuba have been allowed. A man named Barack Obama smashed such ridiculous laws to bits. 

         President Obama's bold and audacious efforts to normalize relations with Cuba have, incredibly, been forged with Republicans in charge of both houses of Congress and anti-Castro Cuban-American zealots in charge of the Congress-mandated Cuban policy. In the dwindling months of his two-term presidency, Mr. Obama's startling revelations relative to Cuba may well stand as his greatest legacy. His overall approval ratings are, amazingly, now positive and his refreshingly sane and decent overtures to Cuba are supported by the vast majority of people around the world including most Americans and most Cuban-Americans.

        This photo taken by the Associated Press's Ramon Espinosa shows Cubans at sunset enjoying themselves on Havana's famed Malecon seawall. The photo is used today to highlight an article in the Miami Herald written by Nora Gamez Torres entitled: "U. S. Policy for Credit Cards in Cuba Too Lenient, Critics Say." The article is a joke. While Cubans in Miami have legalized advantages and incentives that are available to no one else, the same imperialist-minded discriminatory-type laws for over a half-century have punished Cubans on the island unmercifully. Thus, it is no surprise that the Miami Herald opposes any and all efforts by President Obama to bring sanity and decency to a Cuban policy that shames democracy.

       This photo reveals that other nations are following President Obama's lead in opening up to Cuba with mutually beneficial business deals. On the left is Portugal's Foreign Minister Augusto Ernesto Santos Silva being hosted in Havana this week by Cuba's First Vice President {future President} Miguel Diaz-Canel. 

       Johana Tablada is one of Cuba's most important diplomats. She is now Cuba's Ambassador to Portugal and has also served admirably as the island's Deputy Director for North America. She is responsible for Portugal's closer ties to Cuba. This week as Portugal's Foreign Minister, Mr. Santos Silva, visited the island, Ms. Tablada said, "We are pleased to announce that, in the first six months of 2016, our economy is encouraging and it is poised to continue a growth spurt. Our friendship with Portugal is especially good."

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