Preying on Innocent Cubans

The USA's Unending Cuban Shame!!
{Updated: Sunday, June 3rd, 2018}

     As a democracy-loving American...self-proclaimed but also quite true...I subscribe to Smithsonian Magazine, which is a product of the Smithsonian Institution that is a classic symbol of Americana's unique greatness. But my last two editions -- the ones dated May-2018 and now June-2018 -- have reminded me of what I consider the TWO greatest blemishes on America and its cherished Democracy. Those two greatest blemishes are:

    {1} Allowing right-wing thugs in the Eisenhower administration to team the United States government with the highest echelons of the Mafia to support the brutal, thieving Batista dictatorship on the island of Cuba in 1952.

And

        {2} Allowing the overthrown U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba to quickly reconstitute its dictatorship on U. S. soil in January of 1959 with its new capital being Little Havana in the heart of Miami, Florida.

      I am, of course, abundantly aware that it is both politically incorrect and quite unhealthy to make those two aforementioned points, just as it was unhealthy in Miami when the decent Cuban-American newsman Emilio Milian complained about unchecked and rampant terrorist attacks on totally innocent Cubans, such as deadly hotel bombings to discourage tourism on  the island and such as the bombing of the civilian Cubana Flight 455 child-laden plane that killed all 73 on board and then was celebrated in the Miami media as "The biggest blow yet against Castro!!!" Opposing such things in Miami in 1976 got Emilio Milian car-bombed and, quite successfully, such things sent the clear message that Americans and Cuban-Americans should not oppose the reaffirmation of the ousted Batista-Mafia dictatorship on U. S. soil, first in South Florida and later in Washington, namely in the U. S. Congress and in all six Republican White Houses since 1959.

        And now, permit me to explain how the last two issues of Smithsonian Magazine are graphic reminders of how firmly established the Batistiano-Mafisoi dictatorship has been in the USA from January of 1959 until this day more than six decades after it was overthrown in Cuba.

Emilio Milian

Car-bombed in Miami in 1976.

 Eusebio Leal

Assaulted for being a great Cuban in 2018.

     In its May-2018 issue, Smithsonian Magazine featured an excellent 18-page article entitled The Man Who Saved Havana. In one of its summary sentences, Smithsonian stated: "As its greatest old buildings were falling down, a fearless historian named Eusebio Leal remade the city into a stunning world destination." That great man is the now 75-year-old Eusebio Leal, the internationally respected Havana Historian. Of course, as revealed by the new June-2018 issue of Smithsonian Magazine, the Counter Revolutionary Batistiano minority, which still insists on dictating America's Cuban policies and America's Cuban narrative, went ballistic just because a major U. S. magazine very correctly paid tribute to a Cuban in Cuba who has done remarkably good things for Cubans on the island...as opposed to Cubans in Miami who routinely for over six decades have done dastardly things to Cubans on the island. SO WHAT, as expertly documented by the May-2018 issue of Smithsonian Magazine, has a great man, Eusebio Leal, done to make things better for the Miami-maligned Cubans in Havana?

       The 18-page article in the May-2018 edition of Smithsonian Magazine that painted a positive image of Cuba was written by renowned travel writer Tony Perrottet and featured photos, like the one above, by Nestor Marti. Somehow the article escaped the purview of the Miami Batistianos who, since 1959, have vehemently demanded that only they can dictate America's Cuban narrative. But after the publication, of course, they unleashed their vitriol and demeaned everything associated with an update on Cuba that Americans simply are not surpposed to be exposed to. The photo above shows the magnificent 5-star Hotel Manzana Kempinski in Havana. It is one of many formerly dilapidated, rundown buildings that, in the past three decades, Eusebio Leal has restored to a grandeur far exceeding its original structure or intent.

       The 18-page Smithsonian article used this map to delineate 15 of the buildings in OLD HAVANA that Leal has remade into magnificent jewels, with the Hotel Manzana Kempinski pinpointed in the left-central  portion of the map just northeast of Leal's beautifully refurbished Capital Building. The article minutely details how, incredibly, Leal has managed to secure the financial wherewithal to carry out the startling refurbishing of so many formerly rundown buildings. Everyone of the pages and photos in the long article infuriated the Miami extremists who apparently believe Smithsonian should praise the terrorist bombers of Cuban hotels, airplanes, coastal fishing cabins, etc., but not the re-builder Leal. For example, the June-2018 edition of Smithsonian Magazine that arrived in my mailbox this week included this denunciation of the May-2018 article:

"HAVANA HERO?

In 'The Man Who Saved Havana' you do not take into consideration the reason Havana had fallen into disrepair. Fidel Castro came to power in January 1959. At that time, the city was considered the "Pearl of the Antilles." Yet by the mid-1970s it was a slum. The work of Eusebio Leal was the product of a Communist regime. As a Cuban-born American citizen, I am saddened that this man today is considered a hero.

MARIA MATILDE MENOCAL/Miami, Florida"

      Because exiles from the Batista-Mafia dictatorship have dictated the Cuban narrative in the United States since 1959, Americans are not supposed to comprehend the extreme poverty among the majority and everyday Cubans from 1952 till 1959. But that fact is well documented, including by a plethora of photos like the one above. All the while poverty like this was being ignored by Batista and the U. S. government, extreme wealth was being extracted from Cuba by the Batistianos, the Mafiosi, and leading U. S. companies. In other words, as the Cuban-born Miami citizen who assailed the Smithsonian article pointed out, Americans are supposed to "take into consideration" only what they are told by a handful of extremists exiles to CONSIDER!!

      Americans are also not supposed to comprehend the plethora of photos from Batista's Cuba like the ones above. They reveal the primary cause of the Cuban Revolution and it wasn't the aforementioned poverty. It was, incredibly, the murders of Cuban children apparently intended to discourage dissent. Well, the childhood murders encouraged the start of the Revolution that chased the rich Batistianos & Mafiosi to regroup their dictatorship on U. S. soil.

    And from U. S. {Miami} soil, starting in January of 1959, Cuban exile-terrorists, many in the employ of the CIA and the U. S. military, committed horrendous terrorist acts against innocent Cubans. Perhaps the most famous -- although Americans are not supposed to consider it -- was the terrorist bomb that blew the child-laden civilian Cubana Flight 455 into the ocean on October 6, 1976, killing all 73 on board.

       To this day, in Cuba and elsewhere in the Caribbean, there are memorials honoring the victims of Cubana Flight 455. But Americans are not supposed to consider them -- not even when the famed longtime CIA/Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles died a few days ago -- on May 23rd, 2018 -- at age 90 in Miami.

      And so, when a great American magazine, Smithsonian, spends 18 pages in May of 2018 to document what a truly great man 75-year-old Eusebio Leal is, the U. S. democracy is typically soiled by Cuban-American extremists who defame the article because Mr. Leal is a Cuban in Havana, not a Cuban in Miami's Little Havana. Purblind, propagandized, and intimidated Americans and Cuban-Americans, for over six decades, have been programmed to ignore everything about Cuba except what a handful of Counter Revolutionary extremists TELL THEM to think.

     The Smithsonian photo above shows today the once-dilapidated Hotel Ambos Mundos after Eusebio Leal oversaw its refurbishment. Back in the 1930s Ernest Hemingway wrote "For Whom the Bell Tolls" in a room at the Hotel Ambos that he rented for $1.50 a day. Leal, the famed Havana Historian, is directly responsible for the way Hotel Ambos and dozens of other historic buildings look so beautifully today in Old Havana as opposed to the way the miscreant perpetrators of terrorist attacks and the U. S. embargo against Cuba want them to look. A hero like Eusebio Leal who can achieve so much while being opposed every step of the way by vicious Counter Revolutionaries hiding behind the skirts of the nearby world superpower IS A HERO.

   This beautifully Leal-rebuilt building spotlighted by Smithsonian is the Palacio del Segundo Cabo and it is now the center for Cuban-European Union relations. The 28-nation EU has emerged as Cuba's main trading partner. The Smithsonian Magazine article and photos highlighting why Eusebio Leal is "The Man Who Saved Havana" helps explain why the Counter Revolutionary zealots in Miami and in the U. S. Congress so adamantly demand that Americans are the only people in the world who do not deserve the freedom to visit Cuba, lest they judge it for themselves.

       As both America and Cuba try to survive the post-Obama Trump-era in the United States, arguably the most important friend Cuba has in the world is Federica Mogherini, the High Representative of the 28-nation European Union. In the photo above taken earlier this year, Cuba's hero Eusebio Leal is pointing out to Mogherini one of his newly refurbished buildings in Old Havana.

      The EU's powerful executive Federica Mogherini is shown here chatting with Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez. Because of her abiding interest in Cuba and her fierce condemnation of America's Batistiano-directed Cuban policies, Mogherini and Rodriguez have met this year in three different capital cities -- Havana, Brussels, and Geneva. She calls the U. S. embargo of Cuba "cruel, insane, and illegal." That, of course, is an apt description of the embargo that the U. S. has shamefully imposed on the Cuban people since 1962. Decent people the world over, including former U S. President Obama, totally agree with Mogherini's depiction, as registered by the 191-to-0 UN condemnation when Obama himself condemned it. Yet, a Batistiano-controlled U. S. Congress is allowed to dictate, decade after decade, a Cuban policy that shames America and belittles Democracy. Because of Federica Mogherini, the European  Union has recently signed economic deals with Cuba designed to help the island survive Trump and the Embargo....but, as always, it's an uphill struggle for the vulnerable nation that lies just across the Florida Straits from vile, unchecked enemies who hide behind the skirts of the world's superpower. 

      Like a majority of Cubans on the island, the EU's Federica Mogherini is a strong supporter of Cuba's new President, Miguel Diaz-Canel. Since taking over as the island's leader on April 19th, Diaz-Canel has had to deal not only with the Miami-Washington belligerence of the Batistiano-dictated Trump administration but just in the past two weeks a plane crash on the edge of Havana killed 101 Cubans and just in the last few days at least four Cubans have died from the continuing devastation of Hurricane Alberto, which has destroyed over 100 homes in Diaz-Canel's hometown Villa Clara region while also destroying or severely damaging homes, bridges, etc., in key cities such as Havana, Trinidad, Cienfuegos, Matanzas, etc. International friends like Mogherini help Cuba as best they can during such tragedies but Mogherini is not afraid to tell the world, "When Cubans on the island are hurting the most, it seems that's when the American-based enemies of the Cuban people, with Washington's acquiescence and assistance, try their hardest to strangle these beautiful people on this beautiful island."

      And so, while 75-year-old Eusebio Leal is considered a hero by the Cuban people, by decent people like Federica Mogherini, by the brave people at Smithsonian Magazine, etc., he's considered a pariah by the handful of USA Counter Revolutionaries in Miami and Washington.

*&***********************&*