Hours Into His Presidency!
Cuba's Ambassador to the United States, Jose Ramon Cabanas, has lavished praise on President Donald Trump for the respect he accorded Cuba on his January 20th inaugural day. Mr. Cabanas took to his Twitter page with comments such as: "Cuba invited for the first time in many years to an inaugural ceremony at Capital Hill." The well-respected Cabanas' ambassadorship in Washington relates to former president Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, such as reopening embassies in Washington and Havana for the first time since 1961. But, unlike other ambassadors, Mr. Cabanas believed he would not be accorded a front-row seat at Trump's inauguration. That belief was based on Trump's transition team including rich and powerful Bush-era anti-Cuban zealots such a Mauricio Claver-Carone, Otto Reich, etc. as well as cabinet appointments such as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who says he would return Cuba to the Sponsors of Terrorism list, and U. S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, who testified at her hearing that, among other things, she wanted Cuba removed from the UN's Human Rights Council. President Trump himself, of course, had vowed to "erase" Obama's long list of positive Executive Orders regarding Cuba.
In his other Twitter-laced praise of President Trump, Cuban Ambassador Jose Ramon Cabanas included this photo and a video of his excellent seat at Trump's inaugural. A major article in USA Today on inauguration day -- January 20th -- was entitled: "THE TRUMP PARADOX: For All His celebrity, There's A Lot We Don't Know About Our New President." Trump most of all is President now but for his previous 70 years he was all-business, born and bred. His astonishing election related to Americans desperately trying to "drain the swamp" in Washington of establishment politics and his lavish promises to emphasize jobs for Americans. Well, Obama's friendly overtures to Cuba have already created thousands of jobs in major industries such as airlines, cruise ships, hotels and even construction...with the potential of creating many more Cuba-related jobs. If Claver-Carone, Reich, Haley and their ilk make the Cuban decisions in the Trump presidency, U.S.-Cuban relations will plunge to the depths of the Florida Straits, perhaps with bloody offshoots. But if the business-man Trump -- "The Paradox" -- makes the Cuban decisions, perhaps not.
The head of the Center for Democracy in the Americas, Sarah Stephens, also seems to have been caught off-guard by President Trump's kind treatment of Cuba on his inaugural day. One of America's most forceful advocates for a sane, Obama-like Cuban policy, Sarah Stephens late on January 20th wrote: "Thinking back to the Obamas leaving aboard the Marine Corps helicopter, it was nice to see a core accomplishment of his Cuba policy alive and well after the transfer of power. Restoring diplomatic relations put Cuba's Ambassador back into the diplomatic corps, and foreign diplomats attend ceremonies like the Inauguration." Sarah Stephens was also happily surprised this week when Mr. Trump named his final cabinet appointment.
This 70-year-old gentleman is Sonny Perdue, the wildly popular Governor of Georgia from 2003 till 2011. President Trump's final pick for his cabinet was to appoint Sonny Perdue Secretary of Agriculture. The appointment means that, for the first time in 30 years, there will be no Hispanics in a White House cabinet. Moreover, Sonny Perdue has always been one of America's strongest advocates for normal trade with the nearby island of Cuba. In 2010 as Governor of Georgia, Sonny Perdue led a huge delegation of farmers and businessmen to Cuba promoting trade with Cuba. And Sonny Perdue has influenced former President Obama's positive vibes related to Cuba and, apparently, he will be a force in Trump's cabinet to stand up to Bush-era anti-Cuban zealots such as Mauricio Claver-Carone, Otto Reich, John Bolton and Nikki Haley.
This photo is courtesy of Jim Wyss and was used to highlight his major article in the Miami Herald related to Donald Trump's inauguration as America's President. The article is entitled: "A Cuban Doctor Ponders Life Stranded Between Policies and Politics." The 26-year-old Elisabet Casero shown above was a Cuban dentist working in Venezuela, one of tens of thousands of well-trained Cubans who perform medical work in the poorest areas of foreign countries such as Venezuela and Brazil. It is a primary source of income for Cuba. The George W. Bush presidency, in its never-ending goal of starving the Cuban government, mandated what is known as the "Cuba Medical Professional Parole Program." The program lavishly encouraged Cuban medical personnel to enter U. S. embassies and defect to the U. S., supposedly with rewards over-and-above the Cuban-only "Wet Foot-Dry Foot" immigration laws that also applied only to Cubans...at least until President Obama this month of January used an Executive Order to end both the Medical Paroles and Wet Foot-Dry Foot. Thus, like thousands of other Cubans headed to the U. S. border with Mexico, Ms. Casero is now "stranded" south of the border instead of being home-free with benefits the moment her foot would have touched U. S. soil. The aforementioned article in favor of Wet-Dry Foot, the Medical Paroles and all other Bush-era laws and policies is related to undermining Cuba. It reflects the reaction of America's rich and powerful Castro Cottage Industry in trying to ward off each and every one of Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. The startling financial and political rewards harking back to Bush-era Cuban policies will always evoke massive reactions whenever such easy largess is threatened by democracy-lovers like Obama or, perhaps, by business-lovers such as President Donald Trump.
Cuban doctors stranded in Bogota, Colombia.
The vast majority of the U. S. media is either too intimidated or too politically correct to report fairly on Cuban issues, but there are exceptions such as the bold and brilliant Paul Guzzo and the Tampa Bay Times. Paul is an outstanding journalist, author, historian and film-maker. On President Trump's inaugural day -- January 20th -- his article in the Tampa Bay Times included such pertinent information as: "In its final days in the White House, the Obama administration made it easier for the Cuban government to drill for oil in Gulf waters just beyond the country's maritime border with the United States." The U. S. previously, of course, had such an agreement with Mexico but Obama included CUBA in a new 3-way agreement. The Eastern Basin of the Gulf, as it is known, is reportedly rich in oil and China's oil industry is already helping Cuba drill for oil to make up for a sharp cut-back in Venezuela's capacity to subsidize Cuba's oil needs. Cuba and the Obama administration also signed a key joint agreement regarding regional protections against oil spills and other environmental threats. The Trump administration, as Paul Guzzo hints, could one day make it possible for U. S. oil concerns to partner with Cuba, which actually would prefer nearby American agreements as opposed to far-away Chinese, Russian and Vietnamese agreements. Such agreements with the U. S. would also, Paul Guzzo hints, nudge Cuba ever-closer to capitalism and maybe even...uh, to DEMOCRACY!
Also on January 20th -- the day of Trump's presidential inauguration -- Josefina Vidal was featured in a major Trump-related article in the powerful London-based The Guardian. The article had this ominous title: "TOP DIPLOMATIC NEGOTIATOR IN CUBA WARNS TRUMP 'AGGRESSION DOESN'T WORK'". Vidal is Cuba's Minister in charge of U. S. relations and she brilliantly negotiated 17 key agreements with the Obama administration. The Guardian asked her if she had any suggestions for President Donald Trump. As you can see if you check the article, she replied: "Aggression, pressure, conditions, and impositions do not work with Cuba. This is not the way to attempt to have even a minimally civilized relationship with Cuba." The unambiguous Vidal is proud of her 17 important agreements with the Obama administration but, before she fully accepts a normalization of relations with the U. S., she has other lines in the sand -- notably an end to the embargo and at least serious discussions about the return of U.S.-occupied Guantanamo Bay to Cuba.
Josefina Vidal got along famously with Obama's Secretary of State John Kerry, as this photo indicates. But Kerry even as a long-time Senator fought tirelessly for a sane U. S. policy towards Cuba. In stark contrast to Kerry, President Trump's Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, has vowed to put Cuba back on the U. S. Sponsors of Terrorism list. Being on that list conveniently enabled anti-Cuban zealots to successfully sue unrepresented Cuba in Miami courts, judgments that resulted in easy payoffs from "frozen" Cuban assets as well as U. S. taxpayers as dictated by Batistiano-directed laws such as Helms-Burton. When President Obama four years ago first contacted Cuba about normalizing relations, the very first line in the sand Vidal drew was: "Remove Cuba from the Sponsors of Terrorism list and I'll be glad to talk to you or your representatives about normal relations." Encouraged by John Kerry, Obama removed Cuba from the Terror list that had been a hallmark of the hardline anti-Cuban zealots. After that, right down to Obama's final days in office this week, Vidal kept her promise and worked diligently with President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry. Now Trump's Secretary of State, Tillerson, wants Cuba back on the Sponsors of Terror list. That means, unless Trump changes Tillerson's mind, that Tillerson wants to make war with Vidal. In a serious war, Tillerson would win but Trump and the U. S. would be the big losers, sinking America and Democracy even deeper than the current 191-to-0 denunciation in the United Nations of its Cuban policy.
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President Trump's VICIOUSLY anti-Cuban Secretary of State.
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