Opposed by Most Floridians!
This photo is courtesy of Desmond Boylan/AP and it reveals on Feb. 3-2017 how most Cuban-Americans and most businesses in Florida and the U. S. are battling Florida's extreme hypocrisy related to Cuba. The above photo shows American Airlines on Feb. 1-2017 opening an important office in Havana. In the center cutting the ribbon is the airlines' Regional Operations Manager Lorena Sandoval and to her right in the black dress is the airlines' Regional Sales Manager Christine Valls. The two women told the AP "We are extremely delighted this U. S. business with Cuba has reached the level of our needing an office in Havana." Second from the right is Gala Beltran, the airlines' Manager of Cuban Flights. American is one of nine U. S. airlines now making the first commercial U.S.-to-Cuba flights since 1961 as a part of President Obama's historic efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. Beltran told the AP, "We cannot speculate what the new President Trump's next step will be, but I can assure you that we are moving our machine forward. You are a witness to the investment and how important Cuba is to America as a U. S. entity doing business." American Airlines has 13 daily flights to Cuba from Miami and Charlotte that land in the cities of Havana, Camaguey, Cienfuegos, Holguin, Santa Clara and Varadero. Beltran said American Airlines is currently training Cubans on the island so they will soon take over its office in Cuba, which he says has been "very cooperative."
As more and more Florida businesses make plans to get deeply involved in commerce with Cuba, one key television station in Miami has become the first in South Florida to establish a bureau in Havana. WPLG Channel 10 is Miami's ABC-TV station and it regularly and enthusiastically sends unbiased reports from Cuba back to Miami, where the majority of Cuban-Americans eagerly favor President Obama's courageous openings to the nearby island. And, of course, most Florida businesses relish opportunities to make money and create jobs related to Cuban commerce.
WPLG's reporter stationed in Cuba is Hatzel Vela.
This Feb. 1-2017 photo is courtesy of Richard Graulich/The Palm Beach Post. It also reflects how major businesses in South Florida are desperately trying to buck politics and sign deals with top Cuban commerce officials such as Ana Teresa Igarza. That's Ana on the right at this weeks's news conference in Palm Beach with Port of Palm Beach Executive Director Manuel Almira and Vice-Chair Dr. Jean L. Enright. The Port of Palm Beach was about to sign a major contract with Ms. Igarza UNTIL Florida's Governor Rick Scott, always beholden to South Florida's vast counter-revolutionary Cuban-Americans, threatened both the Port of Palm Beach and the Port of Everglades if they did business with Cuba. That prompted a editorial in The Palm Beach Post assailing Governor Scott's hypocrisy in courting massive business with China while bowing to the minority but powerful anti-Cuban Cuban-Americans. The strong editorial stated:
"This is a well thought-out growth plan led by Port of Palm Beach Executive Director Manuel Almira, who was born in Cuba. Ground was broken in July, 2016 on a $10.4 million mini-slip at the port's southernmost berth that could eventually serve as a base for cargo service to Cuba and boost local businesses. The economic potential deserves the state's support, not to be held hostage to politics of the moment. But Governor Rick Scott...has unfortunately lost focus when it comes to the state's doing business with Cuba." The editorial's reference to Governor Scott as a hypocrite related to his "hypocrisy" in eagerly seeking business with China while threatening to cut $920,000 in state funds if the Ports of Palm Beach and Everglades signed deals with Cuba. The hypocrisy also relates to China being a big boy while Cuba is a little island...but also to the fact that China never teamed with the Mafia to support a brutal and thieving Batista dictatorship in Cuba and then China never allowed the overthrown Batista dictatorship to set up shop on nearby U. S. soil in South Florida and eventually extend its hypocrisy to the U. S. Congress.
Florida Governor Rick Scott, shown here with Havana-born Ileana Ros-Lehtinen who has represented Miami in the U. S. Congress since 1989, seems quite typical of most powerful political figures in Florida as depicted by the editorial in The Palm Beach Post that assailed Governor Scott for his Cuban hypocrisy.
Ros-Lehtinen & Carlos Curbelo flanked by the Diaz-Balarts.
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Just in the last 48 hours American Airlines, the Port of Palm Beach, the Port of Everglades, WPLG-TV 10 in Miami, The Palm Beach Post and many other entities in Florida have tried or are trying to rise above a half-century of self-serving hypocrisy related to Cuba. Whether they succeed or not is probably more vital to America and to democracy than it is or will be to Cuba itself. U.S.-Cuba relations in Washington and in the American psyche are dwarfed by many other factors, including intimidation, but this fact remains: From an image standpoint, the only thing that could possibly get a unanimous 191-to-0 worldwide condemnation of the United States in the United Nations is America's HYPOCRITICAL CUBAN POLICY. Now chew on that basic fact while you contemplate the image above of the American Airlines jet on a smooth flight to Havana, Cuba.
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