cubaninsider: Cuba's Mafia History Lingers

Still Topical Today!!
{Monday, April 3rd, 2017}

On April 1st, 2017 The Economist -- founded in London 173 years ago and still one of the world's most respected media sources -- used the above photo to illustrate a major article about Cuba. It is entitled: "WHAT THE TOURIST INDUSTRY REVEALS ABOUT CUBA: Sun, Sand and Socialism." The intriguing and insightful first paragraph states:

"Few places are as naturally alluring as Cuba. The island is bathed in sunlight and lapped by warm blue waters. The people are friendly; the rum is light and crisp; the music is a delicious blend of African and Latin rhythms. And the biggest pool of free-spending holidaymakers in the western hemisphere is just a hop away. As Lucky Luciano, an American gangster, observed in 1946, 'The water was just as pretty as the Bay of Naples, but it was only 90 miles from the United States.'"

Unlike the U. S. media, The Economist has the freedom to report fairly on Cuba and thus it can mention the island's Mafia past. Any serious update should make such a reference as a reminder of Cuba's U.S.-imposed Mafia history, which began in earnest with America's top gangster Lucky Luciano in 1946.

YES, that Lucky Luciano -- "The man who organized crime in America" and then was sicced on Cuba in 1946 so rich U. S. businessmen and politicians could participate in the rape and robbery of the island.

Lucky Luciano's arrival in Cuba in 1946 occurred after the United States government callously freed him from a 50-year prison term in New York -- supposedly because, as the supreme Mafia kingpin, he was needed to protect the U. S. from Hitler's Germany and to help the Allies win World War II. That somewhat questionable excuse to this day -- in April of 2017 -- still affects Cuba and its U. S. relations.

The Mafia had eyed Cuba since the 1920's but its "massive criminal empire" in Cuba began to take shape in 1933 when Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky first aligned with Cuba's Fulgencio Batista.

But the most brutal, thieving Lucky Luciano-Meyer Lansky-Fulgencio Batista dictatorial plundering of Cuba began in 1952 when right-wingers high-up in U. S. President Eisenhower's administration, with no objection from U. S. citizens, supported the pillaging of Cuba so rich American businessmen could partake in the spoils. The wholesale thievery didn't spawn the do-or-die revolution but the extreme brutality did.

The murders of peasant children supposedly to quell resistance resulted in brave Cuban mothers mounting anti-Batista marches that fueled the revolution and emboldened a young lawyer named Fidel Castro. The Luciano-Lansky-Batista starvation of Cuban children also included totally neglecting their educational and health needs, dooming the Mafiosi rule even with the support it was receiving from U. S. businessmen and the U. S. government. The lower-right photo reflects the fate of dissidents...at least till they were organized, first by the doctor's daughter Celia Sanchez and the young school-teacher Frank Pais and then, after the murders of Pais and his teenage brother Jesus, by Celia Sanchez and Fidel Castro.

The initial organized recruiting and resistance was led by guerrilla fighters Celia Sanchez and Haydee Santamaria, both of whom played key roles in Cuba after the 1959 triumph of the Cuban Revolution.

The Havana Mob operation in Havana was run by Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano, with enormous kick-backs to Dictator Batista. But soon the gangsters in Cuba included other top U. S. Mafia leaders, such as Santo Trafficante. In 1959 many of these criminals and their loot landed back in the United States.

All the top American Mafiosi who fleeced and brutalized Cuba beginning in 1952 fled the island in the wee hours of Jan. 1-1959 instead of hanging around to fight the advancing and outraged revolutionary rebels. Typically, the frightened criminals just returned to safer havens on nearby United States soil. The photo above shows Santo Trafficante Jr. with his talented lawyer Frank Ragano after Santo Jr. returned to Tampa, Florida where he and his father were the Mafia kingpins for decades. After fleeing Cuba, Santo Jr. typically was tied to numerous Mafia and CIA attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro. In fact, Ragano himself, just before he died of cancer, tied Santo Jr. and other Mobsters to assassination attempts against both Kennedy brothers -- President John and presidential-candidate Robert -- because the Mafiosi and Cuban exiles blamed the Kennedys for the failure to recapture Cuba during the Bay of Pigs attack in April, 1961.

The above photo shows Trafficante Jr. in the center with Frank Ragano on his left and Carlos Marcello on his right. Marcello, who participated in and profited from the Mafiosi rule of Cuba, was the long-time Mafia kingpin of both New Orleans and Dallas; according to many sources, including their expert lawyer Ragano, Marcello was more obsessed with killing the Kennedys than with killing Fidel Castro.

Photo courtesy of Larry Warner.

While the Cuban Revolution on Jan.1-1959 booted the Mafiosi and their supporters out of Cuba, the Mob leaders who simply returned to the U. S. lived out long and lucrative lives, such as Trafficante Jr. who died on March 17, 1987 of natural causes as a totally free man...like most of his criminal associates.

Lucky Luciano -- the most powerful of all the Mafiosi kingpins in the U. S., Italy and poor little Cuba -- died of a heart attack {above} at the Naples Airport in Italy on Jan. 26-1962. His real name when he was born in Italy in 1897 was Salvatore Lucania. He was at the Naples Airport that fateful day to meet a producer interested in making a movie of Lucky's life, which he considered fitting for a criminal of his renown.

Although he died at the Naples Airport in his native Italy, Lucky Luciano's body was flown back to the United States so he could have a massive funeral procession in New York City where his criminal career began. Then he was buried {above} in the huge tomb at St. John's Cemetery in Queens, New York City.

This photo shows Lucky Luciano lounging happily in Havana in 1948 when he was in his heyday as the most powerful criminal in the world and as the all-time most powerful Mafia figure. So, on April 1st in 2017 when the London-based The Economist published an interesting update on today's Cuba, it was very appropriate for the article to include a prominent quote from Lucky himself about the island he once ruled.

The April 1-2017 article in The Economist also reminded me of this photo. Outraged Cuban women -- like the three victorious guerrilla fighters shown above -- were keys to starting the Cuban Revolution and to finishing it. The sad-looking rebel on the left is Tete Puebla. By the time she was 15, Tete had carved out a reputation as a fearless guerrilla fighter against Batista's soldiers. In regards to this photo, Tete was later asked, "You had just arrived in Havana after chasing the Batistianos and Mafiosi off the island, so why did you look sad?" She replied, "Because we were hoping they would hang around Havana and fight us."

Today Tete Puebla is a General in the Cuban army. In April of 1961 she defended Revolutionary Cuba at the Bay of Pigs when the revengeful Cuban exiles -- backed by U. S. air, land and sea support -- attacked Revolutionary Cuba. If necessary, she will defend Cuba today with the ferocity she fought back then.

And yes, to understand the torrid history of U.S.-Cuban relations, you need to know the massive role played by seedy American politicians as well as the most brutal and powerful Mafia kingpins, such as Lucky Luciano. That's why the April 1-2017 Cuban article in the The Economist appropriately included a Lucky Luciano quotation. The Economist, you see, understands that second generations of U.S.-based Batistianos & Mafiosi are just as determined to regain control of Cuba as Lucky and his pals were long, long ago.