Deciphering the New Cuba

An Historic Transition For Sure!!
{Saturday, April 21st, 2018}

      In the past 72 hours, the enigmatic and iconic capital of Havana -- and thus all of Cuba -- has been changed drastically.

      86-year-old Raul Castro has passed Cuba's presidential baton to 57-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel who is quite popular in Cuba.

     Minutes after officially becoming Cuba's first non-Castro leader since 1959, Miguel Diaz-Canel delivered a revelatory half-hour speech to the island's 604-member National Assembly. It revealed that Diaz-Canel is a powerful, effective speaker.

     But most of all, President Miguel Diaz-Canel's very first major televised speech revealed that he is furiously, everlastingly pro-Revolutionary and pro-Sovereignty.

     The photo above best encapsulates the new Big Three in Revolutionary Cuba. Standing is Esteban Lazo Hernandez and right behind him are new President Miguel Diaz-Canel and outgoing President Raul Castro. As the transition shakes out, although there are those who will disagree, the new power structure in Cuba will be in this order: Lazo #1, Diaz-Canel #2, and Castro #3. That is the way the now semi-retired Raul and Esteban crafted the transition and it was/is approved by Miguel.

     The 604-member Cuban National Assembly, or Parliament, ratifies all major decisions in Cuba, including the presidency. The most powerful revolutionaries, the Castro brothers, could dictate their wishes to the Assembly but the retiring President Raul Castro wants the now ultra-powerful ruling body to be the prime dictator of Cuba going forward, stressing the fact that the 604 parliamentarians are elected in fairly democratic municipal processes such as the recent elections held at 24,000 polling places across the island. With that being said, Esteban Lazo has been President of the National Assembly since 2013 and today, at the start of the non-Castro domination, Lazo's power is markedly strengthened. Thus, as shown above, his control of the transitional Assembly this week was paramount and not just symbolic. Also, as Lazo orchestrated the Castro-to-Diaz-Canel presidential transition, this photo correctly foreshadows the even more powerful positions of women.

     So, who is Esteban Lazo, shown here posing April 19th with one of Cuba's outstanding young broadcast journalists, Rosy Amaro Perez. Now 74-years-old, Lazo has been ultra-powerful in Cuba since 1980. Since 2013 he has been President of Cuba's Parliament, the National Assembly. Note his age, 74, and the fact that he has been a very powerful and very visible prime pro-Revolutionary zealot and a favorite of both Castro brothers since 1980. Those two factors, whether self-adorned Cuban experts off the island agree or not, now make Esteban Lazo the most powerful person in Cuba, as authorized by Raul Castro and as approved by Miguel Diaz-Canel. At 74 Lazo is agewise directly between the 86-year-old Raul and the 57-year-old Miguel. To Raul, that was important...along with Esteban's revolutionary zeal and his proven worship of the late Fidel Castro.

    The image above...again whether or not the self-ordained Cuban experts off the island agree or not...is more emblematic of the transition transpiring in Cuba this week than even the three photos above that were taken in the National Assembly as the process was firmly implemented and officially stamped. It was Fidel Castro's Revolution and -- although he died at age 90 on November 25, 2016 -- it is still Fidel Castro's Cuba. So, you should put more stock in this photograph than in what actually occurred this week as Raul Castro's presidency was transferred to Miguel Diaz-Canel. The image above is the way most Cubans on the island today think of Fidel Castro -- their tall and powerful revolutionary icon who weathered all the powerful forces allied against him, except the mortality of age. Before he died, he had dictated to his people that there were to be no statues in his honor, nor any streets or buildings named for him. He vowed that he didn't want "a cult personality" to be associated with his legacy. That dictation, however, has fallen victim to his charisma, yes, but mostly to the Revolution he won, against overwhelming odds, and the Revolutionary Cuba that has survived for 6+ decades AGAINST OVERWHELMING ODDS. So this photo -- Fidel Castro standing tall against ominous dark clouds -- still defines Revolutionary Cuba and that is so even as the historic changes take place.

     This photo shows Cuba's new President, Miguel Diaz-Canel, paying homage to Fidel Castro on November 25th, 2017, which was the first-year anniversary of Fidel's death. Such solemn remembrances of Fidel Castro will be more common during Diaz-Canel's presidency than they were even when Raul Castro was President of Cuba.

     Shown above with his wife waiting in line to vote in the recent municipal elections, President Diaz-Balart happens to be very popular on the island. He gradually attained his power in Villa Clara province far from the hectic environs of Havana. An electrical engineer, even when his job ascendancy afforded him a free government car, he preferred bicycles and motorcycles, often using those modes of travel to visit rural areas to check on the welfare of Cubans, especially children and the elderly. He became Cuba's powerful Education Minister and then, as he was groomed for the presidency during the previous five years, he was President Raul Castro's First Vice President. In his youth Diaz-Canel was a huge fan of the Beatles and today he remains a huge fan of the Rolling Stones. And that's why, when U. S. President Obama was showing friendship to Cuba, Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones honored the Cuban people with a rollicking free concert in Havana. Most Cubans, including the crucial and restive young-adults, support Diaz-Canel. As an educator, he is proud of Revolutionary Cuba's totally free educations through college and totally free health care for every Cuban. And as Cuba's President, Diaz-Canel will be less inclined than Raul Castro was to negotiate with the United States. Indeed, Diaz-Canel did not support Raul Castro's historic detente with President Obama, which practically succeeded in normalizing relations between the two nations although the Little Havana/Miami-dominance of the U. S. Congress dictates the most harshest assaults on Cuba, such as the embargo that has existed since 1962. Even at the height  of the Castro-Obama engagements, Diaz-Canel warned Raul Castro, "You are dealing with a 2-party system and a Congress locked-in against Cuba. And with the next Republican U. S. president, their interminal war against us will resume."

    Before his ten years as Cuba's President ended this week, Raul Castro fully comprehended the wisdom of Miguel Diaz-Canel's warnings about the USA's 2-party system, its locked-in Congress, and the inevitability of the next Republican U. S. president. The photo above reveals just how correct Diaz-Canel was in 2016. The 7-story U. S. Embassy in Havana was reopened by presidents Castro & Obama for the first time since 1961 and it was fully staffed and operational under Obama. But the startling U. S. election of the Republican Donald Trump as President quickly resulted in what we have today: Huge locks on the doors have shut-down the huge U. S. embassy building in Havana, to Raul Castro's dismay and to the dismay of the millions of Cuban-Americans, including two million in the Miami area, who benefited from its reopening. But as for Cuba's new President, Miguel Diaz-Canel, he is far less concerned than Raul Castro of having a functional U. S. Embassy in Havana because Diaz-Canel believes: "The time we waste dealing with the U. S. can better be spent dealing with nations friendly to us. In the end, our dealings with the U. S. will, in any case, be defending ourselves and our sovereignty. While dealing with other nations will not only help our defense but also help our economy, which is also our lifeblood."

    With that hard-earned and well-educated Anti-American mindset, Cuba's First Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel has traveled to important capitals around the world polishing his ties to world leaders, such as China's omnipotent President Zi as shown above. Also, as pointed out April 19th by USA Today, Diaz-Canel has already "hosted meetings in Havana with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and leaders of Mexico, Spain, Germany, India, Pakistan, El Salvador, South Africa, Portugal, the United Arab Emirates and the Vatican." And also the USA Today reported these facts: "He led government delegations to Russia, China, Japan, North Korea, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Angola, Bolivia and the 2016 Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States." In other words, Cuba's new President, Miguel Diaz-Canel, is hoping to be friends with all nations EXCEPT, of course, THE UNITED STATES of America.

      And now, I will stick with my first major observation, which is that this National Assembly photo April 19th-2018 best defines the new Cuba and Cuba's new Big Three in this order: 74-year-old Estevan Lazo #1, President Miguel Diaz-Canel #2, and semi-retired Raul Castro #3. That is the configuration that Raul Castro constructed and that's what Cuba now has. If the "experts" disagree with that analysis, they are wrong.

      If you expanded Cuba's new Hierarchy to a Big Four, you would need to include Ana Mari Machado.

        If you expanded Cuba's new Hierarchy to a Big Five, it would have to include Ana Teresa Igarza Martinez.

      If you expanded the new Cuban hierarchy to a Big Six, you would have to include Miriam Brito Sorroca.

      As of today there is no Big Seven in the newly re-configured Cuban Hierarchy, but keep an eye on fast-rising student leader Mirthia Onis. A loud little lady, Mirthia was Cuba's most volatile defender last week at the Summit of the Americas in Peru. Her fierce love for Fidel, the Revolution, and Cuba's sovereignty was already well known. Mirthia's firmness has resonance on the island: "If the empire ever overthrows our government, the next day a revolution that Fidel would be proud of will begin."

    And so -- as of April 20th, 2018 -- Revolutionary Cuba's sovereign flag is still waving in the warm Caribbean breezes.

 *&***********************&*