Did Trump Do It Thursday?
At his Thursday {Feb. 16-2017} news conference President Trump finally pointed a finger at Cuba although, for sure, his Caribbean winds are much calmer than the far more toxic and stronger tsunami-like torrents from places like...Russia, Iran, North Korea, China and the mainstream U. S. "news" media that is far more interested in destroying Trump's presidency than it is in actually delivering news. But Trump's brief but pertinent reference to Cuba essentially declared war on the Caribbean island with the almost oblique but palpable declaration that he and Marco Rubio had "similar views on Cuba." Dismissed by most as a tiny ripple in a big ocean, to some it was more of a thunderous declaration of war against Cuba.
Cuba's prime Minister regarding the U. S., Josefina Vidal, merely confirmed that "Yes, I heard it" in reference to Trump's brief statement about Cuba Thursday. It was made by President Donald Trump and thus Vidal considers it more significant than Trump's pre-election anti-Cuban and war-like promises made to the fiercely revengeful Brigade 2506-Bay of Pigs veterans during a campaign appearance in Miami.
It turns out that President Trump and his wife had hosted Senator Marco Rubio and his wife at dinner in the Blue Room at the White House. That session, not surprisingly, prompted this exact quote from President Trump: "We had dinner with Senator Rubio and his wife, who was, by the way, lovely, and we had a very good discussion about Cuba because we have very similar views on Cuba." If Trump's views on Cuba are, in fact, the same as Rubio's, then Cuba needs to revert back to a war footing, not necessarily another Hot War such as the 1961 Bay of Pigs air, land and sea attack on Cuba but at least another Cold War, which evolved for decades after two 1962 events -- the scary Cuban Missile Crisis and the prurient U. S. embargo against Cuba, which the genuflecting U. S. Congress maintains to this day even after President Obama and other American democracy-lovers tried so hard to abolish it. For sure, if the Rubio-Trump war against Cuba is a hot one, one U. S. submarine in the Florida Straits could end it in about 15 minutes but the fallout would be more harmful to the U. S. democracy than to whatever was left of Cuba. And if the Rubio-Trump war against Cuba is merely a cold one, the drip-drop of the unending embargo would merely enhance its original premise that, according to declassified U. S. documents, was/is designed to starve and deprive Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow their revolutionary government.
And speaking of the embargo...as you can see from the declassified page listed above...it became effective at "12:01 A. M., Eastern Standard Time, February 7, 1962" and it remains in effect to this day in the second half of February, 2017. Most Americans, most Cuban-Americans and the entire world -- based on the current 191-to-0 vote in the United Nations -- want the embargo to end but the sheer fact that a handful of hardline Cuban-Americans, such as Rubio, can maintain it DECADE AFTER DECADE reflects servile genuflection of the 535-member U. S. Congress that bows to a few revengeful or otherwise self-serving benefactors who obviously are unconcerned with how injurious it is, internationally, to the United States.
The democracy-loving Sarah Stephens, head of the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas, on her February 17th website, assailed Trump's new war-like alliance with Rubio. A very powerful advocate for American and Cuban engagement, she decried Trump's "...anti-engagement position aligned with hardliners like Sen. Rubio and the other three Cuban-American representatives from South Florida."
While the world votes 191-to-0 to condemn America's Cuban policy, and great American democracy-lovers like Sarah Stephens agree with that unanimity, Ms. Stephens cringes at the stranglehold "Sen. Rubio and the three Cuban-American representatives from South Florida" have in the U. S. Congress.
Cuban-American U. S. Senators Marco Rubio & Robert Menendez this week introduced legislation to "reform the human trafficker report produced annually by the State Department" because the last one produced by the courageous President Obama and his Secretary of State John Kerry reflected a positive regarding Cuba. Sometimes it appears that Rubio & Menendez -- and the other Cuban-Americans in Congress -- are only concerned with counter-revolutionary activity aimed at Cuba, indicating they feel there are no issues concerning the American people that needs their attention. Also, some democracy-lovers -- such as Sarah Stephens -- wonder when or if a moderate Cuban-American will get elected to Congress, especially considering that polls even in Miami show that most Cuban-Americans oppose the embargo and other salacious anti-Cuban bills easily rammed through a Batistiano-friendly Congress.
Of course, any counter-revolutionary Cuban dissident, such as Yoani Sanchez, are hailed in Congress by Rubio & Menendez as world-class heroes and heroines totally deserving of U. S. support and tax dollars by the time they return to Cuba. The intended impression of photos like the one above is that most Cubans on the island are dissidents, which unbiased visitors to the island readily understand is not so. But, of course, that also is one reason that everyday Americans, SINCE 1962, have been the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba because, apparently, if they did, they might not accept the Cuban narrative in the United States that, for the most part, is dictated by self-serving counter-revolutionaries.
This rather interesting photo -- apparently orchestrated with care by Senator Rubio -- shows, left to right, President Trump, Lilian Tintori, Vice President Pence, and Senator Rubio himself. Rubio seemed to make sure that the Tintori visit duly impressed the two White House leaders. Tintori is the wife of the imprisoned Venezuelan political activist-dissident Leopoldo Lopez. Why is Rubio such a powerful advocate of Tintori and her husband? Well, Venezuela has for years been Cuba's primary supporter and at the moment its Cuba-friendly Madura government is barely hanging on in the midst of grave economic and political turmoil, which many observers believe will surely doom the Venezuelan government and, subsequently, perhaps the Cuban government too. And so, if you forgive me, I assume Rubio's interest in Venezuela is at least partially related to Rubio's ongoing counter-revolutionary activities related to Cuba.
The current Venezuelan saga related to the imprisoned but powerful Leopoldo Lopez and his dissident wife Lilian Tintori is eerily reminiscent of the George W. Bush White House. Rubio this week making sure that President Trump and Vice President Pence got to meet Tintori evokes images of 2002 when the Bush White House was tightly tied to the coup that briefly overthrew Venezuela's Cuba-friendly President Hugo Chavez, a coup that most historians believe was promoted by Bush-appointed anti-Cuban zealots.
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Shown here with former CIA Director, Vice President and President George H. W. Bush, Otto Reich for decades has been one of the richest and most powerful anti-Castro Cuban-Americans. Born in Havana in 1945, the now 71-year-old Otto Reich, like most of the ultra-powerful and counter-revolutionary Cuban-Americans, rode the coattails of the Bush dynasty to fame, fortune, and infamy related to their mutual counter-revolutionary Cuban ideals. When Republicans control the White House, people like Otto Reich end up with appointive power directly from the White House. When Democrats control the White House, people like Otto Reich generally revert to rich, ultra-powerful anti-Cuban consultants and lobbyists.
This photo shows Otto Reich with President George W. Bush, the son of former President George H. W. Bush. On January 11, 2002, President Bush appointed Reich Assistant Secretary of Western Hemisphere Affairs, essentially putting Reich in charge of Cuba in the Caribbean and Cuba's Latin American friends. It was a recess appointment -- one that didn't require Senate confirmation, of course -- that lasted until Nov. 22, 2002. All of Latin America cringed with Reich in such a powerful position. On April 11, 2002 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was ousted in a coup that is tied to the Bush White House and to Otto Reich. For a few hours there were wild White House celebrations as U.S.-friendly anti-Cuban Pedro Carmona took over as Venezuela's President. But Carmona's regime lasted only a few hours until massive anti-coup street demonstrations and dire threats induced the coup-leaders to release Hugo Chavez and reinstall him as President. Latin America -- from 1953 until 1973 -- had tried desperately for democratic elections despite U. S.-backed coups that favored U.S.-friendly dictatorships. In 1973 the Nixon-Kissinger ties to the bloody coup in Chile resulted in the death of the beloved, democratically elected Salvador Allende, a dear friend of Fidel Castro. Allende's death installed the U.S.-friendly Augusto Pinochet as Chile's brutal, murderous dictator for the next 17 years. To this day the coup that resulted in Allende's death to make way for the murder-fueled Pinochet dictatorship chills Latin America, and today the twice democratically elected Chilean President is Michelle Bachelet, who was also Fidel Castro's dear friend. Michelle Bachelet's father was one of Pinochet's many murder victims. Pinochet's famed Condor international murder squads often included well-trained Cuban-American assassins {You can Google the infamous murders of Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier and his beautiful American aide Ronni Moffitt within sound of the White House in 1976, for example}. Latin America's democratically elected governments to this very day still cringe over {1} the 1973 coup in Chile and {2} the brief but memorable coup in Venezuela in 2002. And that's why the Reich-Bush photo above still haunts all of Latin America and the Trump-Rubio photo scares Latin America.
To understand U.S.-Cuba relations, study "Salvador Allende."
Allende's best political friend was...Fidel Castro.
Pinochet & Allende prior to the bloody 1973 coup.
Pinochet & Henry Kissinger after the 1973 coup.
Ronni Moffitt, 1976 Pinochet murder victim in D. C.
At the start of what turned out to be Donald Trump's startling presidential election, the early favorite was Jeb Bush because of the wealth and power of the Bush dynasty but Americans, extremely tired of establishment and dynastic control of their democracy, elected the most non-political candidate, billionaire businessman Trump as their for-change, non-establishment President. But as you can see from the above graphic, Jeb Bush's "Foreign Policy Team" was dominated by famed anti-Cuban zealots led by Havana-born Lincoln Diaz-Balart whose father Rafael was a key Minister in the Batista dictatorship. And the other names on Jeb Bush's foreign policy team were also like a who's-who of anti-Cuban counter-revolutionaries -- such as Otto Reich, Roger Noriega, Paul Wolfowitz, John Negroponte, Porter Goss...all names closely tied to the Bush dynasty and anti-Cuban zealotry as any serious Googler would know. But even though Jeb Bush, the establishment and dynastic favorite, was quickly eliminated in the 17-person Republican presidential race, any Republican in the White House -- most certainly including Donald Trump -- is obligated, it seems, to appoint Bush cronies to powerful anti-Cuban positions, defying the well-known desires of American voters who long for a democracy devoid of self-serving incumbents and recycled unelected, appointed cronies.
This photo deserves a second look. It shows Venezuela dissident Lilian Tintori and U. S. Vice President Pence sandwiched between President Donald Trump and Senator Marco Rubio. It's a reminder that Cuba, which shed itself of vile dictator Batista in 1959, doesn't deserve -- after all these decades -- a Rubio-type or Rubio-directed government on the island. However, that seems to be Rubio's plan, with the help of his old bitter Republican rival Trump. And, of course, Rubio plans on being Trump's successor in 2020 -- or sooner if the embattled Trump is impeached, a prime desire of the mainstream U. S. media. And considering pugnacious little Cuba's resilience, don't be totally shocked if the Batistianos capture the U. S. government before they recapture the Cuban government. In 2002 the brief Venezuelan coup seems to have merely been a prelude to recapturing Cuba. This week Lilian Tintori's prominent presence in the photo above seems to be a harbinger portending the fall of Venezuela's current government, which once again might be a logical step toward...orchestrating Cuba's demise. Rubio's interest in Cuban dissidents like Yoani Sanchez is understandable. But Venezuela's Tintori seems to be a key piece of his Cuban puzzle too.
And by the way:
The above presidential photo has gone viral online this third weekend in February of 2017, punctuated by Irish comments. The jolly, neatly-attired fellow is Michael Higgins, the President of Ireland who has had "a totally fabulous and wonderful time visiting Cuba and the great Cuban people this week." President Higgins has long been an unabashed and outspoken admirer of the late Fidel Castro and the still viable Cuban Revolution, which he acutely contrasts with "the bastardly and brutalizing Batistas."
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