Cuba Adjusts to Trump

With Surprising Overtures!
{UPDATED: Tuesday, January 24th, 2017}

        This AFP/Yamil Lage photo proves that Cuba has not yet given up on a coexistence with President Donald Trump's America although, in stark contrast to the former Obama presidency, the Republican Trump now also has a Republican-dominated Congress, a combination that many believe will doom Revolutionary Cuba once and for all. But Saturday, January 21-2017 -- the day after Trump's inauguration -- a delegation of port and maritime officials from Cuba arrived in the United States to stress the mutual benefits that would result from U.S.-Cuban trade. The visit was arranged by the outgoing Cuba-friendly Obama presidency but this visit has not been canceled by the incoming Donald Trump administration, at least not immediately. 

       Later this week and into the first week of February, the newly arrived Cuban delegation is scheduled to venture to Port Everglades, which is owned by Broward County, Florida. Port Everglades is a major seaport and is a gateway for cruise vacations and other international trade and travel, especially to the Caribbean where Cuba is the largest and most populated nation. Cuba, despite its renowned hostilities with America, is desperate for the U. S., even beyond the friendly Obama presidency, to end the U. S. economic embargo of Cuba, a stifling impediment that has existed since 1962. The Cuban delegation now on U. S. soil will try to convince the Trump presidency that the entire world, by a 191-to-0 vote in the United Nations, wants the embargo ended. And in the next two weeks, unless booted out of the U. S., the Cubans will remind the U. S. and Florida governments that the financial connections of Port Everglades in Florida with Cuba's Port of Mariel would provide extremely logical peaceful and economic opportunities for both countries.

       Cuba's Port of Mariel is located 28 miles southwest of Havana. As the above Voice of America map shows, the proximity of Mariel to Port Everglades, Miami, Key West and Tampa would make for an extremely easy trade relationship between Cuba and the U. S....if Florida and Washington politicians would allow it.

        The Port of Mariel is by far Cuba's best deep-water port, able to accommodate much larger ships and many more containers than the ports in Havana and Santiago de Cuba. Mariel received a billion-dollar refurbishing largely funded by Brazil before the recent coup-like impeachment of Brazil's two-term Cuba-loving President Dilma Rousseff. Cuba has largely based its financial survival on the Economic Development Zone associated with Mariel. Spain, Russia, China, Vietnam, France and other nations have or are in the process of negotiating deals with Mariel but that is in limbo pending how the nascent Trump presidency reacts to the major advances the Obama administration made in trying to normalize relations with Cuba. Thus, if allowed to proceed in these next two weeks, the Cuban delegation now on U. S. soil will make a pitch to connect Port Everglades and other Florida ports to Cuba's prized new port of Mariel.

       As the above photo indicates, back in the 1950s when the U. S. backed the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba, the ports in Florida did MORE BUSINESS WITH CUBA THAN ANY NATION IN THE WORLD. But in 1959 the Cuban Revolution overthrew Batista. In April of 1961 the U. S. and the Cuban exiles tried to regain control of Cuba with the famously failed Bay of Pigs attack. After that, beginning in 1961 and codified in 1962, the U. S. imposed the economic embargo on Cuba that exists to this day but, incredibly, has not brought Revolutionary Cuba to its knees AND NOW Cuba wants to renew its ties to the Florida ports.

        This very important Cuban-American is Manny Almira. He was born in Cuba 59 years ago. Manny is the Executive Director of the important Florida Port of Palm Beach and he covets a renewal of trade with Cuba, his native country. For the last few years...first with President Obama's administration and now Trump's, Manny has worked fervently and feverishly for his Port of Palm Beach to have trade connections with Cuba's nearby and refurbished Mariel Port. It would have happened if President Obama had remained in office a little longer. And now if the Republican Trump's administration blocks Manny's hopes and dreams, it will severely hurt the Port of Palm Beach's future plans. Manny only recently returned his Palm Beach port to profitability. While a few hardline anti-Cuban forces in Miami and Congress supposedly can dictate Trump's Cuban agendas, most of the Cuban-Americans in South Florida want to normalize relations with Cuba and that includes many powerful Cuban-American businessmen like Manny Almira in Palm Beach.

       The leader of the Cuban business delegation in the U. S. till February 3rd is Ana Teresa Igarza. She is the General Manager of the Mariel Economic Zone. Ana is one of the many women with powerful roles in fast-changing Revolutionary Cuba, and it appears that her star is getting brighter with each passing day.

       Last week, Tom Donahue, the President of the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, was back in Cuba. He told Cuban President Raul Castro that he is urging major U. S. companies such as General Electric and Procter and Gamble to sign "major deals with Cuba." Businessman-President Donald Trump may be impressed.

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