They Abound and They Change!!
{Monday, November 26th, 2018}
With Donald Trump midway through his first 4-year term as President of the United States and Jair Bolsonaro just starting his first term as Brazilian President, in the USA the remnants of the Batista dictatorship in Cuba think they have a golden chance to regain control of the island after 6+ very determined decades of trying. In the United States Trump has turned America's Cuban policies totally over to the Little Havana extremists in Miami and in the U. S. Congress while Bolsonaro, an extreme right-winger, has done the same in Brazil.
Prior to the startling election of President Trump in 2016, the more decent U. S. President Barack Obama had bravely and astutely done all he could to normalize relations with Cuba. As shown above, he went to Cuba and assured the Cuban people, "Cuba does not need to fear a threat from the United States." But now, in the closing days of 2018, 11.4 million Cubans on the island are well aware that they face a dire threat from Trump's United States of America, the world's Superpower, and now from Brazil, Latin America's Superpower.
When Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro can stand side-by-side with thumbs-up gestures, the Little Havana U. S. Cubans, at long last, assume Havana will soon be theirs again, and it well may happen.
The photo above shows Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in 2013 with some of the Cuban doctors she sent to the poorest areas of Brazil where there had never been doctors. When Brazil goes from a Rousseff to a Bolsanaro and the U. S. goes from a Obama to a Trump, Cuba is in deep trouble...but so too may be Brazil and the U. S.
The Eraldo Peres/Associated Press photo above shows two Cuban doctors holding Brazilian and Cuban flags at the airport in Sao Paulo on their way back to Havana. It is featured in an informative AP article written by Evan Marshall. Shortly after 2013, in a deal negotiated with Cuba by Brazil's left-wing President Dilma Rousseff and the Pan American Health Association, about 14,000 well-trained and dedicated Cuban health professionals were employed in the poorest areas of Brazil where previously there were no doctors or nurses. Even though Rousseff was forced out by what she calls a left-wing coup before she finished her second democratically elected term, there were 8,300 Cuban health officials in Brazil when extreme right-winger Jair Bolsonaro was amazingly elected president. Even with Cuban-friendly left-wingers in charge of the Brazilian government for almost four complete presidential terms, the U. S. along with Brazilian left-wingers had bribed Cuban medical personnel to defect, and some did. Now with both extreme anti-Cuban Presidents in Washington and Brasilia, President Bolsonaro has invited the Cubans to defect to Brazil. Meanwhile, the poor Brazilians loved and appreciated the medical care provided by the now-departed Cubans, but Bolsonaro said they will be replaced.
The AFP photo above shows the first group of Cuban doctors that have returned to Havana after being booted out of Brazil by that country's new right-wing, anti-Cuban President Jair Bolsonaro.
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Above is a very important photo taken in Havana on Friday, November 23rd, 2018. It shows Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel and his wife strolling the streets of Havana and greeting everyday Cubans. The significant man just to the left of Diaz-Canel is the Prime Minister and leader of Spain Pedro Sanchez, who arrived on the island Thursday.
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| Credit: BALLESTEROS/EFE.
Thursday -- Nov. 22, 2018 -- Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez arrived in Havana for an important two-day stay. Cuba's new President Miguel Diaz-Canel had enjoyed a nice meeting with Sanchez back in September in New York City. It is the first time in 32 years that a Spanish Prime Minister has visited Cuba, reflecting a long Spanish-Cuban chasm but now finally challenging and changing three decades of capitulations to the USA's economic Embargo-Blockade of Cuba. Sanchez also confirmed that Spain's King and other members of its Royal Family will be in Cuba in 2019 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Spanish explorer Diego Velaquez de Cuellar's arrival on the island. But mostly Sanchez announced on his arrival in Havana yesterday that, "My visit to Cuba is to normalize, stabilize, and deepen bilateral ties with this island nation." And then Sanchez opened a business forum in Havana's 5-star Grand Packard Hotel that is operated by Spain's huge Iberostar hotel chain that appreciates a lack of competition on the island from U. S. companies. Three leading dissident groups on the island -- Elizardo Sanchez, Guillermo Farinas, and Damas de Blanco {Ladies in White} pressured Sanchez to meet with them, but Sanchez resisted that pressure. Meanwhile, Sanchez on Friday, Nov. 23rd, 2018, attended a business forum in Havana that included Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Borrell, Industry Minister Reyes Maroto, and Treasury Secretary-General Carlos San Basilio as well as dozens of Spanish business executives.
This is the newly opened 5-star Iberostar Grand Hotel Packard in Havana. Despite the Trump administration's tightening of the U. S. embargo-blockade against Cuba, a record 4,750,000 tourists have visited the island this year. Spain's Iberostar hotel chain, even prior to the Packard, already had 27 hotels with 7,881 rooms on the island. Uh, did I say that Iberostar loves the fact that it doesn't face any Cuban competition from USA's hotel chains. Yet, while Spain is displaying some brave independence in resisting the long-standing U. S. belligerency towards Cuba, other nations -- most notably Brazil -- are suddenly buying into President Trump's current effort to recapture Cuba by at last starving or overthrowing the Cuban Revolution, as indicated below.
This photo was taken by Eraldo Peres for the Associated Press. It shows a Cuban doctor taking a selfie of herself this week as she prepared to board a plane in the Brazilian capital of Brasilia to return to Havana. She is one of thousands of Cuban doctors booted out of Brazil by Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil's newly elected but extremely controversial right-wing President. Thousands of Cuban doctors had been working diligently in Brazil's most remote and poorest areas, many that never before even had a single doctor. The Pan American Health Association as well as the United Nations and other international organizations have supported the projects, as have the prior left-wing Lula-Rousseff Brazilian governments. But things have changed drastically in Latin America's largest, most populated, and richest nation -- and not just the change from prime Cuban supporters to a prime Cuban enemy but also now, with an extreme right-wing President in Brazil aligned with USA President Trump, the chance of right-wingers destroying Revolutionary Cuba have sky-rocketed. Even during the 4 democratically elected terms when Cuban-protectors Lula and Rousseff ran the Brazilian government, the USA had mounted massive and expensive projects to get Cuban medical personnel in Brazil to defect, which in many cases were successful. But now that Brazil has elected an extreme right-wing President, the USA no longer has to bribe Cuban doctors to defect to the USA from Brazil, like the Cuban doctor shown above flying back to Havana from Brasilia this week, while making sure of taking a selfie with the Cuban flag next to her face.
The ultra-powerful Batistiano/Mafiosi-fueled Cuban Counter Revolutionaries in the United States have tried desperately to regain control of Cuba for over six decades -- every day since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959. The best chances came during the 12 years of the three Bush presidencies but many of the Batistiano-Mafiosi leaders in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood believed the incredible election of Donald Trump as U. S. President in 2016 affords them the best-ever chance to recapture Cuba. But now, with the equally incredible election of right-wing extremist Jair Bolsonaro as President of Brazil in 2018, the zealots in Little Havana and in the U. S. Congress are doing celebratory hand-stands, and well they should. The USA, the world's economic and military Superpower, is now aligned with Brazil, Latin America'a economic and military Superpower, in agreement that Cuba's revolutionary government must be overthrown so rich Americans and rich Brazilians can exploit the Caribbean's largest and most coveted island the way rich Americans exploited it from 1952 till 1959 during the brutal Batista-Mafia dictatorship. And now, as you study the Jair Bolsonaro image above, consider this: Prior to Trump's 2016 election in the USA, President Obama for the previous 8 years had been America's all-time most-friendly U. S. president regarding Cuba; and prior to Bolsonaro's 2018 election in Brazil, the almost 4 terms of the Lulu-Rousseff presidencies in Brazil had been the all-time most-friendly Brazilian presidents regarding Cuba. So considering that the USA is the world Superpower and Brazil is the Latin American Superpower, please consider what those recent incredible elections in the USA and in Brazil mean for the vulnerable island of Cuba.
Internationally known as a Superstar journalist, Anthony Boadle has headed bureaus for London-based Reuters in both Cuba and Brazil and he is a highly respected Latin American expert. And Mr. Boadle now openly feels sorry for poor Brazilian children who no longer have their skilled and dedicated Cuban doctors to take care of them. Boadle headlined: "Cuban Doctors Head Home, Leaving Poor Towns With No Health Care."
On Nov. 22nd-2018 Anthony Boadle used the above photo on both Reuters and his Twitter page. The photo shows two young Cuban doctors, holding Cuban and Brazilian flags, booted out of Brazil by staunch right-wingers and flying back to Havana. Boadle described the photo this way: "The first of 8,500 Cuban doctors returning home, some happy to see their families and arrive back with a 49-inch TV, others sad to leave their work in poor and remote parts of Brazil, and the affection of Brazilian patients who were sad to see them go." In other words, in Brazil now the rich supporters of their new right-wing President will get much richer while the poorest Brazilians will get poorer, and millions of them are once again without any medical care.
Probably still the most popular politician in Brazil, and the champion of poor Brazilians, is Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a left-winger who worshiped Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution. Lulu was twice democratically elected President of Brazil as was his protege Dilma Rousseff who was also a worshiper of Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution. But, accused of corruption, right-wingers forced Rousseff out of office before her second term was completed...and Lulu? Well...Lulu is in prison. Lulu and Dilma...and millions of their poor supporters like the ones above...claim the right-wingers framed them with corruption charges because Lulu and Dilma were spending huge amounts of Brazil's wealth on the long-neglected poorest Brazilians, and that included the expenditures for the Cuban doctors that all unbiased sources acknowledged were performing excellent and extremely necessary work in Brazil.
For the most part, Americans get their Cuba-related news spoon-fed to them from Counter Revolutionary propagandists or from extreme right-wing rags like Brietbart that are lushly funded and promoted by extreme right-wing billionaire dollars. But Americans seeking the truth on Cuba-related news should depend on sources like Anthony Boadle of Reuters, which is the world's best news agency and, thankfully, has wide worldwide reach including the USA. Otherwise, the mainstream U. S. media is simply too afraid or too politically correct to anger Counter Revolutionary Cuban extremists in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. One way, in addition to Reuters, to get important and accurate Cuba-related news is to also follow the social media pages of Anthony Boadle, especially on Facebook and Twitter.
For example, yesterday -- on Nov. 22nd, 2018 -- Anthony Boadle used the photo above on Twitter to preview an important Reuters article. Mr. Boadle explained that: "Brazil is hosting air combat exercises for 14 air forces including the United States Air Force." And, of course, as Anthony Boadle well knows...and as Cubans and Americans should know...both Brazil and the United States are awash with sophisticated air power that could easily do to countries like Cuba what the ultra-modern Saudi Air Force, purchased from arms sellers like the US and UK, is doing to Yemen. And, of course, the current Commanders-in-Chiefs of Brazil and the United States are two anti-Cuban zealots -- Jair Bosolnaro and Donald Trump. Thus, these war exercises in Brazil surely don't appear to be defensive in nature because neither Russia nor China has any interest in attacking Brazil; so they are, instead, offensively minded...it seems.
And meanwhile, as he hosts Spain's friendly Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez this week in Havana, Cuba's new President Miguel Diaz-Canel is trying to adjust to the new USA-Brazil axis that is poised to starve-out or to simply just recapture his island. Diaz-Canel back in September in New York City and at the UN tried to enlist new friends and also reinforce old friendships. Then after John Bolton, America's newly appointed extreme right-wing National Security Adviser, essentially declared war on Cuba during a speech in Miami, Diaz-Canel this month made a whirlwind trip that took him to France, England, Russia, China, Vietnam, North Korea, and Laos. Now back on the island Diaz-Canel is trying to solicit investments from friendly nations even as he spends much of his time promoting the island's New Constitution that is being discussed at 24,000 forums across the island and will then be voted on in early 2019, changing Cuba's Constitution for the first time since the 1970s. Also, Diaz-Canel, Cuba's former {and very popular} Education Minister, is trying to prioritize the Revolution's two proudest achievements -- free educations through college and free healthcare for life. In his Tweet above this week, Diaz-Canel was offering "Felicitaciones" -- "Congratulations" -- to "Mariam Nicado." Diaz-Canel, Cuba's former Education Minister, had just named her the first female Rector at the University of Havana in the school's "290 years" of existence.
Mariam Nicado, the University of Havana leader.
This photo of a precious little Cuban girl was taken Nov. 22-2018 by Roberto Garaycoa Martinez, one of Cuba's most notable professional photographers.
This was extreme right-winger John Bolton, speaking on behalf of United States President Donald Trump. Bolton is shown here adjusting his classes in Miami as he declared war on Cuba, at least that remains the significant interpretation by Cuba's new President Miguel Diaz-Canel.
Declaring war on Cuba, of course, is also declaring war on the little Cuban girl that Roberto Garaycoa Martinez photographed this week. Like all Cuban children born on the island since 1962, this little girl has been severely targeted by the U. S. economic embargo that, according to DE-classified U. S. documents, was in 1962 as it is still today intended to starve, deprive, and make miserable the lives of everyday Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow their revolutionary government. Somehow, remarkably, little girls like this...through three generations now...have survived the embargo, rather beautifully as you can see. Hopefully, little girls like this will also survive the war that, apparently, the Trump-Bolsonaro forces are preparing to unleash on their island.
Perhaps the cruelest cut of all...even above such atrocities as the unending embargo and the impending war...is the fact that vicious and self-serving Counter-Revolutionary U. S. Cubans -- like Mario Diaz-Balart and Marco Rubio -- can get away with repeatedly proclaiming that, "WE ARE TRYING TO HELP THE CUBANS ON THE ISLAND." That is a bald-faced lie.
And as a democracy-loving American, I sincerely believe that the parents and the grandparents of this little Cuban girl know very well that Mario Diaz-Balart, Marco Rubio, and their USA enablers are, indeed, bald-faced liars. The people who really care about little Cuban girls like this one are the people on the island, certainly not people like Mario & Marco who are feasting on their bald-faced lies in both Miami and in the U. S. Congress.
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