A Batistiano America

Can't Happen, You Say?? 
Updated & reaffirmed: Monday, Sept. 12, 2016

       Last week -- Friday, Sept. 9th, 2016 -- this REUTERS/Enrique de la Osa photo depicted a major news conference taking place in Havana. That's Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez. He made a powerful statement and took questions from the international media, such as Marc Frank of London-based REUTERS. The U. S. media doesn't cover such things because they would need permission from the tiny but dictatorial Batistiano contingent that dictates Cuban policy in both the U. S. Congress and the American media, on their way to hopefully soon capturing the White House to, it seems, gain full control of the U. S. government even before re-gaining full control of the Cuban government. But Rodriguez reminded everyone that Cuba, despite the positive results of President Obama's "historically kind gestures" toward the island, will never normalize relations with the United States as long as the embargo remains in place. Cuba only refers to it as a blockade. Rodriguez said, "The blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba in 1962 persists. The blockade is the main cause of the economic problems for everyday Cubans and continues as the primary obstacle to their development." Rodriguez said in recent months the embargo has cost Cuba "4.6 billion dollars" and he explained that is "highly significant" for an island that guarantees "totally free" educations, health, shelter and food for "all of its citizens." Rodriguez, while also praising President Obama's efforts to normalize relations, said, "President Obama still has broad executive latitude that he can use right up to his last minute in the White House, if he chooses to really help Cubans on the island and his own citizens." 

     U. S. experts who have the courage and integrity to confront the Batistiano-directed U. S. Cuban policy agree with the sentiments and statistics used by Bruno Rodriguez in Friday's news conference on the island of Cuba. When it comes to analyzing the impact of U. S. economic sanctions against Cuba, no American knows more than John Kavulich, head of the U.S.-Cuba Trade & Economic Council. He told REUTERS, "Over 100 U. S. businesses have visited Cuba since Obama's Dec.-2014 break-through announcement but they agree the continuation of the embargo prevents finalizing mutual deals."  

        And U. S. expert John Kavulich totally agrees with Bruno Rodriguez's assessment about what President Obama can do in his remaining days in office to help Cubans on the island and U. S. citizens escape the stifling injustices of the embargo. Mr. Kavulich told REUTERS, "Yes, there are approximately 12 regulatory changes that the Obama administration can implement that would have enormous impact upon opportunities for United States companies." Those are the precise words Friday from America's top authority on U.S.-Cuban trade possibilities. But Americans are supposed to ignore them because they don't comply with the vicious dictates of a handful of self-serving Cuban hardliners in Miami and the U. S. Congress.

Regarding Cuba, decent & unbiased U. S. experts don't count.

Regarding Cuba, decent & unbiased panels also don't count.

Regarding Cuba, what now counts as fairness in the United States is a handful of second generation Cuban-American anti-Castro zealots eating their fill of money-burgers lavishly provided by multi-billionaires who seem willing and able and eager to purchase the basic tenets of the U. S. democracy. Prior to this demeaning phenomenon, from 1776 till recently everyday citizens had the collective power of individual votes to sustain the greatest form of government ever crafted. But now, it seems, democracy lovers {or at least defenders of democracy} are sadly becoming a vanishing breed in the United States.

      In a great anathema wisp of time, 1952 to 1959, the U. S. democracy had gone from supporting the thieving, brutal Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba to even more inexplicably allowing the overthrown Batistiano-Mafiosi rule on the nearby island to resurrect itself on U. S. soil, mainly Miami, with inevitable roots that grew into an enigmatic, tar-baby effect on the entire U. S. government with its tentacles attached to the Bush dynasty first and then like a sticky monolith to the U. S. Congress. 

*Batistianos in Cuba were wrong.

 And Batistianos in America are wrong. 

    Next month, -- Oct. 26-2016 -- Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez will once again stand in the spotlight at the United Nations in New York. He will, once again, tell the nations of the world that "The United States economic blockade against Cuba, in place since 1962, is the longest and cruelest in history ever conducted by a powerful nation against a small, weak nation. I ask the nations of the world gathered in this august forum today to agree that this blockade constitutes genocide against the innocent people of Cuba." The United States, even President Obama's administration, like a cowering puppy-dog will also stand before the UN and defend the blockade, which the U. S. calls an embargo. Then the nations of the world will vote.

        Next month at the UN, once again the nations of the world will be asked to vote on whether they agree with Cuba or the U. S. regarding the U. S. blockade/embargo of Cuba. The predictable result will again favor Cuba in an incredibly overwhelming landslide: "Yes 191, No 2, with no abstentions." The U. S., the richest and strongest nation in the history of the world, lavishes economic and military favors on friendly or unfriendly but strategic nations but, incredibly, when it comes to purchasing or bullying support for its Cuban policy, only Israel -- by far the biggest recipient of U. S. economic and military aid -- votes to support America's Cuban policy. That 191-to-2 vote each October flashes around the world, elevating Cuba's prestige worldwide and deflating America's image. Yet, the U. S. media tries to ignore it and the American citizens are supposed to be too stupid or too unpatriotic to give a damn about the near-unanimity of world opinion on a topic that creeps back into the news day-after-day, decade-after-decade.

       So, that's where we are in America on September 12th, 2016 -- as Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Friday in Havana held this blistering news conference depicted by this REUTERS photo.

     And then next month -- once again -- Bruno Rodriguez will stand before this podium at the United Nations and deliver his usual impassioned speech explaining in detail why he thinks the U.S. blockade/embargo constitutes "genocide" against the Cuban people. And -- once again -- he expects the nations of the world to support that damning accusation by a vote of...191-to-2 with no abstentions. As a democracy-loving American, that vote each October embarrasses me. Meanwhile, as I ponder the appalling lack of democracy-loving Americans, that UN vote each October reaffirms my belief that Cuba says a lot more about the United States than it says about Cuba. And what it says is not pretty, not at all.

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