Venezuela-CUBA-Nicaragua-Bolivia

Regime-Changes in That order???
{Friday, February 1st, 2019}

    Along with the AP and Reuters, the Agence France-Presse make up the world's three biggest news agencies. AFP photos like those above and below have illustrated this week's most pertinent headline: "Russia and the U. S. Have Had Chilly Exchanges at the United Nations Over the Venezuelan Crisis." It seems that anti-Cuban Cuban-American zeolets and profiteers like Rubio, Claver-Carone, the Diaz-Balarts, Menendez, etc., view the Venezuela crisis as an excuse to finally execute a regime-change in Cuba. It also seems that Russia this time is not willing to allow the U. S. to become the dominant force in Venezuela, and that's not just because Russia is aware that Venezuela's oil reserves are unequaled in all the world. While the U. S. economy dwarfs that of Russia, Russia's military and nuclear arsenals match those of the United States...two factors that might make Russia less apt to shy away from a fight over Venezuela. TRUMP vs. PUTIN in charge of the world's two prime nuclear powers is somewhat of a scary proposition, especially with Rubio's success at maneuvering anti-Cuban zealots into positions as Trump's National Security Adviser, Secretary of State, and the head of the State Department's anti-Cuban Western Hemisphere division.

      In the volatile Venezuela tender-box the anti-Cubans guiding Trump's current Latin American strategies, according to their own statements, seem merely waiting for an incident involving Maduro's police that could be used to touch-off U. S. military interventions that would be launched either from Colombia or Brazil. After that, if it happens, the reactions of Putin and Maduro take Center Stage...one way or the other. Either way, innocents suffer the most.

 Trump & Putin -- scary!!

 Trump & Rubio -- even scarier!!

Maduro & Putin -- scary!!

 Trump & Bolsonaro -- even scarier.

      One week ago the United States, quickly followed by many other countries, recognized 35-year-old Juan Guaido as the President of Venezuela, tightening the reins on President Nicolas Maduro. Today -- Jan. 31, 2019 --  the New York Times photo above topped an article entitled: "Juan Guaido Says Venezuela Opposition Had Secret Talks With Military." If the military, or even a significant portion of it, turns against Maduro, he will be quickly doomed. And unless Maduro accepts the amnesty that Guaido has on the table, considerable bloodshed could be inevitable. In any case, oil-rich but destitute Venezuela, Cuba's close ally, is destined for drastic changes and in short order, hopefully without a Latin American War or a United States-Russia conflict.

     Somehow since the Cuban Revolution ousted the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship on Jan. 1-1959, the eternally vulnerable and coveted island of Cuba has ACTUALLY been a sovereign nation -- ruled by people in Cuba and not by imperial powers such as Spain and the United States. "STRENGTH FOR OUR CUBAN FAMILIES AND BROTHERS." The image above, once again, has been revived on this last day of January-2019 to once again boost the stamina and the resolve of 11.4 million Cubans on the targeted island. Always anticipating destructive natural and man-made hurricanes, Cubans today are being blind-sided by a historically devastating tornado and by a virtual PERFECT STORM that has developed in Latin America to benefit and enthrall the latest group of fierce Counter Revolutionaries lurking in Miami and in Washington. Since January of 1959 the odds of Cuba surviving as a sovereign nation have been extremely low; on this last day of January in 2019 those odds are practically ZERO. A second generation of Batistianos, spawned quite rich and politically powerful in Miami's Little Havana capital city, will be back in charge of Cuba by April, 2019. I'll explain. You may, or may not, digest those words...but then, ready or not, here is MY explanation and analysis.

      Yesterday -- Jan. 30th-2019 -- Juan Guaido, the 35-year-old President of Venezuela as recognized by the United States first and then many other nations, talked by phone with U. S. President Donald Trump...and with key military leaders in Venezuela. Such revelations continue to spell doom for Venezuela's President of the last six years, Nicolas Maduro.

     So now it's not a question if Juan Guaido replaces Nicolas Maduro as the lone President of Venezuela, but when.

    Then with a vast infusion of foreign economic and military help, the Venezuelan flag will fly steadier...at least for a time. But U. S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the world's two top nuclear-powered military leaders, both will vie for dominance of Venezuela.

    The U. S. military presence across Venezuela's border in Colombia has been bolstered and is being directed at assuring the regime change in Venezuela. With millions of Venezuelans, deprived of vital necessities such as food and medicine, fleeing into Colombia, it is understood that something must be done to revitalize destitute but oil-rich Venezuela. A gripping new BBC report from inside Venezuela this week showed and heard from young Venezuelan men desperately grappling in garbage dumps seeking whatever food scraps they could find. But the regime-change in Venezuela should not be directed by the USA, which feasted on greedy and bloody regime-changes in Latin America from 1953 till 1973...Guatemala to Chile...including overthrowing democratically elected governments to install murderous but U.S.-friendly dictators such as Pinochet. And if Americans don't accept that analysis, it's only because they have been successfully and easily lied to by the U. S. government and by the U. S. media. So, unless war-mongers want to benefit from endless guerrilla-style wars in Latin American or the threat of a nuclear war with Russia, some United Nations-directed unbiased nations should broker the Venezuela crisis. That would mean that Donald Trump's four prime anti-Cuban/war mongers -- Marco Rubio, John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, and Mauricio Claver-Carone -- should keep their greedy and grubby paws off what's developing in Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Brazil, and Colombia.

      AND MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT THIS: Massively distracted by a myriad of other problems, Trump's impending Latin American War is being directed by Marco Rubio and Rubio's two prime war-mongering mouthpieces Mike Pompeo and John Bolton. And, beyond that truth, this other key fact should be entered into the equation: Rubio, Pompeo, and Bolton are primarily concerned with blessing Little Havana in Miami by finally regaining control of CUBA. Those three long-time anti-Cuban war-mongers believe they have stumbled into the Perfect Storm -- an easily malleable Trump, an extreme right-wing anti-Cuban President in Brazil, and a right-wing anti-Cuban President in Colombia, which borders Venezuela.

  Once extreme right-winger Zair Bolsonaro became President of Brazil, it is for damn sure that Rubio made sure that a lifelong anti-Cuban zealot was quickly dispatched to Brasilia to meet with Bolsonaro.

    Then, of course, Bolsonaro had a definitive meeting with Rubio's most famed and most notable war-mongering mouthpiece, John Bolton. After the Bolsonaro-Bolton meeting, America's best expert regarding U.S.-Cuban relations, Tracey Eaton, said that he would "not be surprised" if the U. S. launched an attack on Cuba "from Brazil." And since then, the U. S. and Brazil have had joint military maneuvers but so in the last few days have Russia and Venezuela.

      As January fades out and February arrives in 2019, the BBC graphic above depicts the players involved directly in the Venezuela crisis. But as in other international jostling, this boils down to the United States vs. the two giant nations shown in red in the upper-right above -- military Superpower Russia and military Superpower China, which...like the USA...is both an economic and military Superpower. Long before the current Venezuelan denouement was upon us, both Russia and China had decided to compete with the USA for dominance in Latin America, and Russia now has its first military base in the region on a Venezuelan island about 150 miles from Caracas...with nuclear-armed Russian jets and bombers already taking advantage of it. As the USA directs Venezuelan oil money and other assets toward its chosen President Guaido, there are reports from the UK today that a huge airplane loaded with Venezuelan gold bars is headed for an "undisclosed location," meaning Russia.

    The three world powers -- the U. S., China, and Russia -- all would like to dictate Venezuela's economy, which is destitute right now but remains a mineral-rich nation that has the world's largest known oil reserves. The BBC chart above shows where Venezuela sold its oil in 2017, the last year of known statistics. Up until recent years, Venezuela also was shipping over 100,000 barrels of oil a day to Cuba. Also, as the chart above was being registered, the U. S. overtook Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the world's #1 producer of oil. Yet, the U. S. doesn't want Russia or China to have strong access to Venezuela's enormous oil reserves...and vice versa.

     What all this adds up to is this: A lightweight named Rubio is directing prime strategically placed war-mongers like Bolton towards a dangerous Latin American War for the main purpose of finally putting Rubio's Little Havana mentors in Miami back in charge of Cuba. Rubio is neither smart enough nor concerned enough to weigh the costly, bloody, and long-term repercussions -- endless guerrilla-style revolts in America's backyard, to say the least, or even a nuclear war with Russia that the USA will not win and neither will Russia but a patient China might win about two decades down the road.

     Thus, in the coming days, expect Trump in Washington and Bolsonaro in Brasilia to grin and bask in the short-term glory of masterMINDING regime-changes in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and, OF COURSE, Cuba. But long after Trump & Bolsonaro are historical footnotes, their two powerful nations will still be trying to recover from the weird circumstances that made such men the leaders of the world's strongest nation and Latin America's strongest nation.

Rubio's Cuban excuse: Venezuela.

    Every regime-change in Latin America involving the United States of America -- from 1953 till 2019 -- has supposedly been for the purpose of bringing Liberty and Democracy to those nations. But if that were so, how is it that popular democratically elected Presidents like Allende were killed so murderous U.S.-friendly dictators like Pinochet could make a few rich Americans richer?????

     In 1952 right-wing thugs in the Eisenhower administration sicced the highest echelon of the Mafia on Cuba. In 1959 the Cuban Revolution chased the brutal-thieving Batista-Mafia dictators off the island all the way to Little Havana in Miami. Into the 7th decade since 1959, NBC/MSNBC and the rest of the extreme left-wing media in the U. S. is trying desperately to execute a coup to dethrone the Trump presidency without waiting for a democratic process to do it. And YET, not even NBC/MSNBC has the guts or the integrity to report on Trump's most egregious wrong, which is turning America's  post-Obama Cuban policies back over to a mere handful of Counter Revolutionary extremists. Thus, not even the rich and powerful left-wing media in the U. S. is journalistic enough to challenge the self-serving Little Havana-based Cuban zealots...so, as shown above, NBC/MSNBC and its ilk allow Havana-born anti-Cuban benefactors to dictate the pro-Batista/anti-Revolutionary propaganda just like the conservative and right-wing media in the U. S. does. Therefore, I believe, one of the lessons America's Cuban insanity should have taught us includes the disastrous transition of America's media from a vital news gathering source to a disastrous propaganda machine.

     And so, on this first day of February, an unqualified President leans down to get his Cuban and Latin American instructions from a lightweight politician from Little Havana: "Venezuela first, then Cuba. But why not also make regime-changes in Nicaragua and Bolivia too. They are Cuban allies, you know. Don't worry. Russia won't interfere and no one else scares us." Yes, Rubio has clearance from both the troubled Trump and the gutless U. S. media to get his Latin America War for the purpose of presenting the island of Cuba back to his cronies in Little Havana. After that, in all likelihood, the ashes will still be warm and bloody as the gutless mainstream U. S. media scrambles to tell its viewers and readers all about THE GREATEST FAILURE of a predictably failed President and THE TOTAL INSANITY of allowing a lightweight little miscreant act as the puppeteer Commander-in-Chief of a world-renowned military.

AND BY THE WAY:

      Rubio's unchecked Cuban obsession today reminds me of perhaps the all-time best quote related to America's Cuban policies. Penelope Purdy was the top Latin American expert and Editorial Writer at the Denver Post when she wrote: "America's Cuban policy for all these decades has been conducted with the IQ of a salamander." No sane person can disagree with that comment about "America's Cuban policy..."

       Yet, the brilliant quotation by Penelope Purdy is not totally fair to Salamanders. After all, these little guys can be assumed to be smarter and more decent creatures than those who have "conducted America's Cuban policies for all these decades," to quote Penelope Purdy.

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A VENEZUELAN Prediction

For Wednesday-January 30th TODAY!!
{Updated: A Sad Prediction}

     The photo above shows Venezuela's Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez at the podium on Friday-January 25th, surrounded by top Generals and Admirals, vowing loyalty to President Nicolas Maduro. But I believe Lopez is about to cave in and support the U.S.-backed and self-avowed President Juan Guaido, eliminating Maduro. Lopez will, I believe, accept amnesty. He fears facing international charges and the fact that Canada is among the nations siding with the U. S. position has tilted Lopez's flip-flop. The military was Maduro's last hope...and Lopez has concluded that neither Russia nor China will sufficiently support his Venezuelan military against U.S. forces.

     I am abundantly aware that change in Venezuela is both inevitable and badly needed. However, the quartet above -- Trump-Rubio-Pompeo-and-Bolton -- SHOULD NEVER be perceived as the prime perpetrators of the Venezuelan changes. Their extreme anti-Cuban biases and greed should rule them out and allow more decent humans to predicate Venezuela's immediate fate. But if this quartet is perceived as the key instigators, which appears possible, the ashes of the everlasting aftermaths will be especially bloody and far bloodier than necessary. It appears that Rubio-led war-mongers are awaiting some pretext, or excuse, to launch the military equation that will oust Maduro, with U. S. forces in both Colombia and Brazil primed. The New York Times has a major article  written by Peter Baker and Edward Wong entitled: "On Venezuela, Rubio Assumes U. S. Role of Ouster-in-Chief." And that's a tragedy. A smarter, more decent, and less biased person than Rubio is sorely needed in Washington to delicately direct America's inclusion in the Venezuelan process. But that's why, taking advantage of Trump's myriad of unquenchable problems, that Rubio has incredibly maneuvered extreme anti-Cuban war-mongering zealots like Bolton and Pompeo into his mouthpieces regarding Western Hemisphere operations. In other words, God Help the Western Hemisphere and what remains of the American democracy.

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Tornado Destroys MUCH of Havana

An Historically Cruel Hit!!
{Updated: Wednesday, Jan. 30th, 2019}

     A stunned Cuban woman standing outside what was her Havana home, now totally demolished by the tornado as were many others.

    Most Cuban-Americans are good people who care about both Americans and Cubans on the island. However, since 1959 ONLY a handful of Counter Revolutionary extremists, and their easily acquired greedy sycophants, have dictated America's Cuban policies and America's Cuban narratives. Therefore, when DECENT Cuban-Americans tried to start a Go Fund Me program to help Cubans on the island overwhelmed and devastated by the tornado, the handful of indecent rogues were quick to end the bold and decent effort. So, if you will, read the above refusal of Go Fund Me to allow those decent Cuban-Americans to help the Cubans direly victimized by the tornado. In 2019 for the U. S. democracy to continue to allow RUBIO, THE DIAZ-BALARTS, CLAVER-CARONE, REICH, MENENDEZ and a few others of that ilk to dictate such an endless, cruel, inhumane, and genocidal policy shames America, and these miscreants obviously know that and simply don't care. For almost 200 years the U. S. democracy was strong enough to prevent such shame in its name, but not since 1959. And, folks, 1959 was six decades ago. Think ABOUT IT.

     Among the majority very decent Cuban-Americans is Dr. Arturo Lopez-Levy who has taught at five U. S. universities and is a superb Latin American expert and author. He supported the DENIED Go Fund Me effort to help Cuban victims of the devastating tornado. On his Facebook page Dr. Lopez-Levy mentioned the "gang" he deems responsible for such endless cruelty against innocent Cubans.

    The Associated Press/Ramon Espinosa photo above shows a stunned Cuban girl cradling her little puppy as she is mesmerized by the damage caused by Monday's historic tornado that has devastated much of Havana. Winds reported to be 200 mph ruined homes and everything in their paths. As of Tuesday morning 4 deaths and at least 195 serious injuries were reported. Cubans had not seen a tornado like this in 8 decades!! As the Trump administration allows only anti-Cuban extremists like Marco Rubio to "strangle Cuba once and for all," recovering from this devastation may be a hopeless proposition. Cubans realize that Rubio has no compassion for this little girl or her little puppy, just for the economic and political rewards he can immediately squeeze out of the Trump White House and a mainstream U. S. media that is much too afraid to challenge Miami extremists.

     After the worst tornado in at least 80 years tore into Havana in the wee hours of Monday -- Jan. 28th, 2019 -- this International Business Times photo shows devastated homes and downed power lines as Cubans began viewing the debris near daylight on Monday morning.

       Cuban journalist Rosy Amaro used photos like this taken by the great Yamil Lage to show some of the urgency after the tornado hit Havana. Rosy said, "The maternal hospital Daughters of Galicia in Havana was strongly hit by the tornado. The images of the moment of evacuation of mothers and babies are here."

A rescued baby in Havana.

    This AP/Ramon Espinosa photo shows Cubans who had tried to salvage a few things from their tornado-demolished homes. They were taking these belongings to a bus that was waiting to transfer them to a shelter. In the past 8 decades no tornado has ever done this much damage to hurricane-prone Cuba.

       Coastal prone zones of Havana were flooded and residents like these tried to go inland to some safer havens in the capital city.

    At 1:20 A. M. on Monday morning -- January 28th, 2019 -- my friend in Havana, Rosy Amaro, took time to send me this exact message from Cuba to the USA: "My dear Rich. My family and me are fine. My Havana was affected by a tornado. But we are fine." It was the first I had heard about the tornado. As a democracy-loving American ashamed of America's insanely cruel Batistiano-driven Cuban policies, I am deeply proud that Rosy knows how much I care about her safety and the safety and well-being of her 5-year-old Mariana.

       Almost a sleepless night in Havana for Rosy and Mariana Monday night -- Jan. 27, 2019. I hope they feel much safer and happier three days later. At 3:20 A. M. back on Monday morning, Rosy told me she had gotten Mariana to sleep, saying, "Yes, Mariana is sleep. I'm gathering information and I'm working at home." Rosy is first a mother and then a top journalist on the island.

     As of very early Monday morning -- Jan. 28th, 2019 -- Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel had toured the tornado damage in Havana and updated Cubans on television and on his Twitter page. As you can see he reported at that time that "3" Cubans had died and "172" had been injured according to early accounts. Diaz-Canel is the white-haired man in the tan jacket at the scene in the above photos.

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U. S. CRAVES Mariel Port

But Cuba Prefers Vietnam's Offer!!

    Since Jan. 1-1959 Counter Revolutionary Cubans in the USA have craved regaining control of Cuba but in January of 2019 more-and-more U. S. business executives would settle for just claiming, or at least having a piece of, Cuba's magnificent Port of Mariel, which is located about 30 miles southwest of Havana. {See Mariel on the above Map}.

      Even the top executives at ports in southern Florida, many of them Cuba-friendly Cuban-Americans, are extremely envious of Cuba's Mariel Port, and for good reason: It'll be WORLD-famous soon.

     This map spotlighting the Port of Mariel with the red circle shows the extreme strategic location of Cuba's prized port. But beyond its location, it is a state-of-the-art deep-water port that has been in operation since 2014 fully capable of handling huge ships that pass through the newly widened Panama Canal. Mariel has 702-meters of modern decks, 4 massive cranes, a 27-hectare container yard, etc., etc. The McGraw Center of Business Journalism says Mariel can handle 824,000 containers a year and has a capacity to easily move past a million a year. In addition to the United States, other world powers -- especially China, Vietnam, and Russia -- covet Mariel...and guess which nation has already carved out a niche with its own ultra-modern Industrial Park at Mariel?

     This map illustrates Vietnam's belief that the Mariel Port is about to become one of the most important ports in the world. Since winning the Vietnam War and uniting it as a Communist country, Vietnam has been a major trading partner with the U. S. and has been wildly congratulated by visits from Presidents Obama and Bush. Vietnam used the map above to point out that "if and when the USA relaxes its embargo against Cuba, Mariel the next day would become one of the world's most important and valuable ports. Its location and its technical advances would assure that."

    In what Cuba calls its Mariel Economic and Investment Zone, Vietnam's vast Viglocera Real Estate Company is building its own magnificent Industrial Park that will not only cater to offices, restaurants, hotels, houses, etc., but stress all aspects of "Mariel's current trade as well as the unlimited commercial potential it entails."

   Savvy when it comes to U. S. and international trade, Charles Alistair Baker is the General Manager of the Mariel Terminal. Mr. Baker says, "In 2018 we moved 349,000 tons of container material but we had the capacity to move 800,000 and also have the capacity to sharply increase that." Mr. Baker knows the USA craves Mariel.

     The Executive Director of the Mariel Economic Zone, Ana Teresa Igarza says, "If you look at the map and also check our facilities, anyone will comprehend its potential. Companies being established in the Zone have a permanent and direct connectivity with the world of trade. It connects East-West shipping routes for trade with the Gulf ports and the East Coast of the USA. The Vietnamese development is the major investment at the moment but we have signed agreements as well as impressive offers from many more. I have been asked about the USA and I will repeat that I would love to consider...to balance...such offers on totally even terms with any others. I have certainly discussed this with enough Americans who fully realize how beneficial it could be to American ports and to American commerce if we were friends, not enemies."

The Port of Mariel.

The Port of Mariel.

The Port of Mariel.

The Port of Mariel.

     The left-handed Ana Teresa Igarza is a very sweet lady and she happens to be the boss at Cuba's magnificent Mariel Port. She is anxious to sign deals with foreign investors, including American companies.

     Cuba-friendly Frank Del Rio is one of the ultra-rich and ultra-powerful Cuban-American businessmen in Miami. He is the President and CEO of the omnipotent Norwegian Cruise Lines. Like most Cuban-Americans, Frank yearns for normal relations between the USA and Cuba. When the decent and brave President Obama, at least prior to Trump, did his best to normalize U.S.-Cuban relations, Frank rejoiced and he unabashedly cried when he spotted Cuban land from the bow of one of his huge commercial ships as it legally neared Havana. When decent and powerful Cuban-Americans like Frank Del Rio are virtually voiceless during Republican administrations in Washington...while pipsqueaks like Marco Rubio dictate policy...most decent Cuban-Americans, like Frank, and all Americans, like me, have every right to shed tears for their country and  for their precious democracy.

     AND NOW...study this map of Cuba AND REMEMBER that the title of this essay is: "U. S. CRAVES MARIEL PORT." Notice that on the southeastern tip of Cuba is the lush, controversial United States Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. And notice on the northwestern tip of Cuba, just southwest of Havana, is the Mariel Port. In 1903, after the U. S. had gained dominance over Cuba because of the 1895 Spanish-American War, the U. S. simply stole plush Guantanamo Bay from Cuba...simply because it could. Now in January of 2019 the U. S. wants to steal plush Mariel Port from Cuba...simply because with Brazil's help it can. Americans since 1903 have been programmed to believe that Guantanamo Bay was legitimately acquired from Cuba; Americans in 2019 will be programmed to believe that the theft of Mariel Port is "to help the Cuban people." Such incredible lies related to U.S.-Cuban relations are effective for one reason: We Americans...through 3+ generations since 1952...have been the most ignorant, the most undemocratic, and the most cowardly generations in American history. And if that's not true, I would surely like for some smarter and braver American than me to explain to all of us WHY that is not so.

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V