cubaninsider: Cuba and Puerto Rico

U. S. Piggy-banks...
and Caribbean cousins!!
{Updated for Sunday, July 3rd, 2016}

As islands in the Caribbean Sea, Cuba and Puerto Rico are almost kissing cousins. They are separated by the island of Hispaniola, which includes Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Cuba, the largest Caribbean island, is much larger than Puerto Rico. Cuba's population exceeds 11 million and Puerto Rico has about 3.5 million people, all of whom are U. S. citizens. The history of Cuba and Puerto Rico converged in 1898 when the U. S. scored an easy victory against over-extended Spain in the Spanish-American War. Spain's empire lost four countries to imperialist-minded America, including Cuba and Puerto Rico. The U. S. dominance of the two Caribbean jewels diverged markedly on Jan. 1-1959 when the Cuban Revolution overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship. Doggedly, Revolutionary Cuba has thwarted many obstacles to maintain its sovereignty, such as the air, land and sea Bay of Pigs attack in 1961 and a stifling economic embargo first imposed by the U. S. in 1962 that extends to this very day although President Obama has finally sliced deeply into it. Meanwhile, Puerto Rico is a U. S. Territory populated with U. S. citizens who are represented in the U. S. Congress and can vote. In other words, in 1898 Cuba and Puerto Rico became kissing cousins after the Spanish-American War but since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 the superpower U. S. has tried to destroy Revolutionary Cuba while being obliged to support Puerto Rico. Not surprisingly, Cuba has experienced dire financial straits since 1959 but, amazingly, Puerto Rico is even more of an economic basket case than its Caribbean neighbor Cuba.

Harry Franqui-Rivera of Hunter College is a leading authority on both Puerto Rico and Cuba. He told London's The Guardian how he sums up the U. S. relationship with the two Caribbean islands: "A successful Cuba would make the U. S. look bad and a failed Puerto Rico would make the U. S. look even worse." If you study that quote, you will begin to understand Cuba and Puerto Rico from the American perspective. One, Cuba, has been a long-time U. S. target, and the other, Puerto Rico, has been a long-time U. S. Territory.

This composite by Almy/Getty Images was used by The Guardian to illustrate an article written by Alan Yuhas entitled "Caribbean Neighbors Cuba and Puerto Rico Wonder Who Really Won." The photo on the left shows a crumbled building in Havana due in large part to the U. S. embargo. The Photo on the left shows a crumbled building in San Juan, the U. S. Territory of Puerto Rico. Inspired by discriminatory U. S. laws designed to hurt Cuba, millions of Cubans live in the U. S. after being lured by laws that provide them financial and other incentives beginning the moment they touch U. S. soil, privileges provided no other immigrants. But more millions of Puerto Ricans live in the U. S. because, as U. S. citizens, they can easily flee poverty and crime on their island. So, the question posed by The Guardian is appropriate. While Cuba staged a successful revolution to get shed of a U.S.-backed dictatorship, Puerto Rico has considered and is still considering getting shed of being a U. S. Territory. Puerto Rico, it seems, hates the inequality of U. S. capitalism as much as Cuba does...or did. A recent Puerto Rican documentary by Aljazeera America went to the island to discover that it is so broke it can't pay its $72 billion debt, including a $1.9 billion payment that was due Friday, July 1st, 2016. But, as Professor Franqui-Rivera predicted, the U. S. Congress with a bill signed Friday by President Obama bailed out Puerto Rico, as for now. The aforementioned documentary pointed out that most of that bail-out tax fund will go to U. S. hedge fund operatives that most Puerto Ricans blame for their financial problems. The documentary showed one hedge funder showing off "our new 6-star hotel" and the "biggest collection of luxury yachts in the world." The hedge funder was asked how he justified such things when the Puerto Rican government couldn't provide health care or safe environs for its people and was closing down one school after the other. The hedge funder pleaded ignorance to that but they have banded together to make sure they get their money...from U. S. taxpayers, of course.

This Reuters photo shows Puerto Rican Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla in Havana a few weeks ago in June. Puerto Rico has generally had friendlier relations with Cuba than with the United States. A New York Times article this week, on June 30th, hinted that Governor Padilla is siding with the independence movement that has always been strong and at times violent. But as of this month of July in the year 2016 the U. S. Congress and President Obama have joined forces to ease Puerto Rico's financial doldrums.

On June 4th, 2016, Puerto Rico's Governor Padilla announced plans to open a major commercial office in Havana. He told Marc Frank of Reuters that he considers Puerto Rico as independent as Cuba. His exact words were: "The future of Puerto Rico depends on Puerto Ricans, just like Cuba's future depends on what Cubans on the island decide." Mr. Padilla's new office in Cuba is derived from President Obama's detente.

The demonstration depicted above by this AP photo shows that many Puerto Ricans on the island and in the U. S. are "FED UP" with Wall Street and hedge fund billionaires preying on Puerto Rico.

Cuba can commiserate with Puerto Rico about being overwhelmed by U. S. policies designed to enrich already rich Americans who have more than enough money to lobby necessary members of Congress.

This photo shows President John Kennedy signing the embargo against Cuba. From the Eisenhower-Nixon administration, he had inherited the Bay of Pigs plans to recapture Cuba. Kennedy in the first two years of his administration that started in January of 1960 followed up dutifully on those plans as well as fully supporting the CIA-Mafia-Cuban exile plans to assassinate Fidel Castro. In 1962, Kennedy's last full year in office, a declassified U. S. document confirmed that the embargo was designed to starve and deprive Cubans to entice them to overthrow Castro after the 1961 Bay of Pigs attack failed quite dismally. Yet, in the first two weeks of November, 1963, Kennedy told his staff that his top priority after he returned from Dallas was to normalize relations with Cuba. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas on Nov. 22-1963.

The U. S. embargo against Cuba has been in effect since 1962.

In all the decades since the Kennedy assassination, only America's current President, Mr. Obama, has seriously attempted to end the embargo against Cuba. But the vast Castro lobby in the United States since 1959 has simply been too lucrative and too strong for even Mr. Obama to "lift the embargo" of Cuba.

The anti-Castro lobby easily dictates the embargo and other unpopular Cuban issues to the U. S. Congress despite the massive inroads made by President Obama to normalize relations with Cuba.

In July of 2016 as you try to understand the Obama-orchestrated "U.S.-Cuba Reboot" take note of the headlines about the U. S. bailing out the economic doldrums of the U. S. Territory of Puerto Rico. As Caribbean islands, Cuba and Puerto Rico have a lot in common -- including the 1898 Spanish-American War when the U. S. snatched away much of Spain's imperialist treasures. While a lot of rich Americans have feasted on the spoils of the Spanish-American War, both Cuba and Puerto Rico to this day are in dire need of a "reboot" that will benefit everyday Cubans and Puerto Ricans, not just a few greedy miscreants.

Caribbean cousins: Puerto Rico & Cuba.

This photo was taken in Havana by Kamilia Lahrichi and it is used this weekend to highlight a June 2-2016 article in USA Today written by Kamilia Lahrichi. The surprising article states that Islam is "thriving" in Cuba with a population of "about 10,000." A focal point in Old Havana, it says, "is a mosque that was inaugurated in June of 2015 thanks to funding from Turkey's president, Recep Erdogan." Yes, a very surprising and interesting article.

And by the way:

A magnificent website -- first-americans.com -- has posted 36 gorgeous photos of teenage Indian girls in the 1800s. This is a Kiowa girl. Her name is "O. O. Be" and the photo was taken in 1884. All the 36 photos are gripping.

This is an Arapaho girl. She was the only child that survived the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado, one of the most shameful episodes in U. S. history. Albert S. McKinney took this stupendous photo.