30.5.20

Can Cuba Survive COVID and Miami

PROBABLY, But...!!!
     The most honest and fair-minded journalist in Miami regarding Cuba is Hatzel Vela at Channel 10, the television station that stationed Hatzel in Cuba in 2017. Today Hatzel's report is entitled: "CUBA BANKS WELCOME U. S. DOLLARS AS PANDEMIC'S IMPACT ON TOURISM CAUSES FOOD SHORTAGES." Cuba, to combat the Coronavirus pandemic, has shut off tourism, which is one of the absolute lifelines for the island's economy. Also, it also is apparent that the Counter Revolutionary extremists in Miami-Dade County, Florida, are taking advantage of Cuba's struggle with COVID-19 and the Trump administration's genocidal Blockade to, finally, retake control of Cuba from the Cuban Revolution, which overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship on January 1, 1959, and, somehow, has managed to resist the U.S.-backed efforts of the ultra-powerful Miami Cubans for over six decades.
     In Miami-Dade County, Dr. Andy Gomez is one of the top experts focused on Cuba's economy, and Dr. Gomez apparently believes COVID-19 and the Trump-backed Miami Cubans will finally doom Revolutionary Cuba.
     Today this is Dr. Andy Gomez's precise assessment about Cuba trying to survive the combined might of COVID-19, the Miami Cubans, and the Trump administration in Washington: "It is certain that the Cuban economy is in shambles, and it's going to get worse and the pandemic has had a lot to do with it."
      As of today -- May 30th, 2020 -- above is Cuba's statistical update on the impact of COVID-19 on the island's 11.4 million people. Recently, Cuba has gone 7 straight days without a death from COVID-19 and one death in the past 24 hours has pushed the overall total of "fallecidos" {"deaths"} to 83. The statistics are daily posted on island-wide television and on Social Media complete with details about every single new death or the new confirmed cases, enabling Cubans to update or dispute the stats if they know of anyone in their neighborhood that should be listed. Yes, Cuba now has a handle on the ongoing pandemic but there are food shortages on the island as the genocidal aspects of the Miami/Trump Blockade is beginning to seriously impact everyday Cubans, as the following three photos showing Cubans scrambling for food attest.
    The two prime architects of these vivid genocidal aspects of the Trump administration's assault on Cuba are Miami-controlled Cubans named Marco Rubio and Mauricio Claver-Carone.
    The fact that ONLY self-serving, vicious USA Cubans such as Rubio & Claver-Carone are allowed to affect Cuban policy in the USA mocks the Democracy that America's Founding Fathers envisioned in 1776. And in the tumultuous year of 2020 when Rubio & Claver-Carone can use the unique economic and military power of the United States to orchestrate food and deprivation genocide against masses of Cubans on the island shames both the United States and Democracy FAR MORE than it shames struggling Cubans in Cuba. And the greatest shame of all is that zealots like Rubio & Claver-Carone are unchecked as the mainstream media in the U. S. and pusillanimous generation of American citizens allow it to happen. And, yes, this is the same media and the same citizens who sanctimoniously denounce even hints of genocide by other superpowers such as China and Russia.
     There, of course, are great investigative journalists such as Andy Kroll who are neither unafraid nor bought-off when it comes to the likes of Rubio & Claver-Carone using the power of the United States to commit genocide Cubans in Cuba. Andy Kroll's article that originated in Mother Jones, for example, is entitled: "How A Crew of Hardliners Hijacked Donald Trump's Cuba Policy." By doing so, of course, Rubio & Claver-Carone also HI-JACKED America's Democracy and its international reputation for decency.
     All Republican administrations since the 1950's have been tightly aligned with the Batistianos in Havana and, since 1959, in Little Havana. But the current Trump administration is the only one that has openly and totally approved Batistiano-approved genocide on masses of Cubans on the island. In 2020 Americans are not supposed to ponder what that means for innocent Cubans nor what it means for America. And that pertinent fact makes some Democracy-lovers worry about Little Havana someday taking over America...AND NOT JUST THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.
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28.5.20

A USA Passion: Starving Cubans

A Few Heartless Miami Zealots Prevail!!
      Today -- May 28th, 2020 -- the unconscionable disgrace of the U. S. genocide against masses of Cubans on the island continued unabated, shaming Democracy-lovers around the world but mightily pleasing a handful of heartless Cuban-Americans basking unchecked in Miami, Newark, and the U. S. Congress while also saturating the Trump White House. In a world beset with major problems, Reuters today reported that much of the Trump administration was absorbed with continuing to starve Cubans in Cuba to induce them to overthrow their government and finally, after going on 7 decades, to allow the Little Havana Batistianos to regain control of the island they lost to the Cuban Revolution way back on January 1, 1959. So today Reuters reported:
          "The United States today imposed a cap on charter flights to Cuba at 3,600 per year, the U. S. Transportation Department said on Thursday, as President Trump's administration moves to curb the Cuba government's access to revenue.
        "The Department said on Thursday it will award about 3,250 of the flights for the 12 months ending May 31, 2021, to Swift Air LLC and World Atlantic Airlines.
        "Some 624,000 Cubans living abroad visited their homeland in 2019, of which a record 552,800 were from the United States."
     The genocidal Cuba Policy of President Trump is unique and reflects the iron grip that a few Batistiano-type Cubans have on the Republican Party. That should be alarming for Democracy-loving Americans and Cuban-Americans because the U. S. has a money-crazed Two-Party political system -- Democratic and Republican -- and it could evolve into a One-Party system, much like the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship in Cuba during the 1950's. Prior to Trump's amazing election in 2016, Democratic President Obama had been the only U. S. president since the 1950's to have the guts to try to really combat the Batistiano-Mafia dictatorial influence on either Cuba or the United States. And Obama had worldwide support to try to normalize relations with the Cuba and end the stifling Batistiano-imposed Embargo against Cuba that had started back in 1962. In his last gallant year as President, in 2016, Obama's herculean effort to end the Embargo got unanimous international support -- 191-to-0 -- in the United Nations. But the world's strongest DEMOCRACY was/is not strong enough to react to such UNANIMITY OF OPINION when the issue is Cuba.
     As President, Donald Trump has essentially taken an oath to Little Havana in Miami that he will be the president who will recapture Cuba for them. Thus, Trump has refashioned the greed-obsessed 6-decades-old Embargo into a genocidal Blockade. Yet, obviously because there have always been enough Cubans on the island who detest a return of the US-backed Batistianos, both the 6-decades-old Embargo and Trump's genocidal Blockade, so far at least, has been unable to recapture Cuba for the Batistianos.
     Considering the one-star Cuban flag to be a Batistiano flag, Trump has gone far above even all previous Republican presidents to bow totally to the dictates of the Little Havana-based Batistiano Cubans. For example, not even tightly Batistiano-aligned President George W. Bush activated Title 3 of the Batistiano-written and sacrosanct Helms-Burton Act because even Bush considered Title 3 to be too genocidal to impose on masses of Cubans on the island. But Trump in 2019 activated Title 3, apparently because he believes the Batistianos in Little Havana will reward him with Florida's crucial 29 Electoral Votes in this November's presidential election.
    Of course, only a few Cuban-American extremists in Little Havana and in Congress want the Superpower United States to impose an economic hardship on Cubans on the island and, surely, most Cuban-Americans don't want the United States to commit genocide against Cubans on the island. Most Cuban-Americans supported Obama's brave decency towards Cuba, not Trump's gutless indecency. Yet, back in the 1950's the U. S. democracy was not strong enough to prevent the United States from teaming with the Mafia to support the brutal and thieving Batista dictatorship in Cuba. And, in 2020, the U. S. democracy is not strong enough to prevent a handful of rich and powerful Batistianos from dictating total Cuban policy to another Republican president.
     Among the Cuban-Americans who want the United States to treat Cubans on the island with decency and to engage sanely with them is Frank Del Rio. As the President & CEO of the powerful Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line, Frank wholeheartedly supported President Obama's decency towards Cuba, including eager hopes by all U. S. businesses, especially in Florida, to engage with Cuba. Frank was so overjoyed that Obama had allowed cruise ships to sail from Miami to Cuba for the first time since 1962 that he cried when, while sailing at the front of one of his own cruise ships, he saw Havana coming into view. Great, decent Cuban-Americans like Frank Del Rio, however, do not have input into influencing Cuban relations whenever a Republican president is in the White House. And, sadly, both the American people and the mainstream U. S. media in the United States are too afraid of Little Havana to say or to do anything about this affront to America and to Democracy.
     Born in Cuba, Frank Del Rio's Norwegian Cruise Line is headquartered in Miami. Like most Cuban business leaders in Miami, Frank Del Rio craves doing business with Cuba.
     After Obama opened up business to Cuba, Frank Del Rio, in the above interview with Richard Quest of CNN, said, "We all have known that, if it was opened up by the U. S. government, Cuba would be the biggest destination in the Caribbean." But punishing Cuban-Americans, Americans, and everyone else, a handful of powerful Batistiano Cubans in Miami can thwart even powerful Cuban-Americans like Frank Del Rio.
      This was the emotional news conference in Miami that Frank Del Rio held just before he took one of his Norwegian Cruise Line ships to Cuba during the Democratic Obama administration. But Republican Trump's administration in 2017, controlled by a handful of powerful Counter Revolutionary Cubans, immediately began to end any commerce that might positively affect Cuba's economy, even if such commerce greatly helped thousands of decent and powerful Cuban-Americans such as Frank Del Rio.
    In all Republican administrations since the 1950's only lifelong Counter Revolutionary Cubans like Mauricio "Berserk" Claver-Carone are permitted to make Cuban decisions. Just how berserk is Claver-Carone when it comes to recapturing Cuba for Little Havana? When Little Havana's Marco Rubio persuaded Trump to put Claver-Carone in control of America's Western Hemisphere affairs, Claver-Carone's own hometown newspaper, the Naples {Fla.} Daily News, wrote an article entitled: "A CLOSER LOOK AT THE MAN ADVISING TRUMP ON CUBA." It said, "As a boy when Mauricio Claver-Carone played football at Bishop Moore Catholic High School in Orlando, if you ever mentioned Fidel Castro he would go berserk, according to Claver-Carone's close friend Farlan Bailey who graduated with Claver-Carone in 1993." Of course, all of his adult life, Mauricio Claver-Carone has remained "berserk" in his endeavors to recapture Cuba for his pals and mentors in Little Havana. Incredibly, in every Republican administration only "berserk" self-serving Counter Revolutionaries like Mauricio Claver-Carone are allowed to make decisions for the United States of America when it comes to Cuba.
  When President Trump pointed to Mauricio "Berserk" Claver-Carone and put him in total charge of America's Western Hemisphere Affairs only because Cuba is in the Western Hemisphere, Democracy took a huge hit in the United States. And, of course, that is vastly exacerbated by the fact that both the American people and the mainstream U. S. media {including the extreme left-wingers who detest Trump} are often simply too afraid to even discuss this dire affront to AMERICA and to DEMOCRACY.
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cubaninsider: cubaninsider: Rubio's Caribbean War

cubaninsider: cubaninsider: Rubio's Caribbean War: cubaninsider: Rubio's Caribbean War : Unless  Sanity & Decency  Arise !!      This Iranian ship   Fortune  has now entered Venez...

27.5.20

U.S. Media Distorts Cuban News

It Must Be APPROVED By Little Havana?
    This week -- on May 26th, 2020 -- the massive New York Times had a major editorial entitled: "America Is Obsessed Witih Cuba. But What Do We Know About Its CITIZENS?" Interesting. The answer to the ? is...not much, unless Americans are allowed to have the freedom to go to Cuba and see it for themselves, which Counter Revolutionary zealots headquartered in Little Havana {Miami} and in the U. S. Congress deny or greatly restrict so as to keep control of the U. S. narrative about how GREAT the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship was in Cuba prior to 1959, till it then was chased to nearby Miami by the Cuban Revolution, and how TERRIBLE Revolutionary Cuba has been for all of these last 6+ decades. White the revolution changed Cuba drastically, it has changed the United States even more. That's because, while still supported massively by the world's economic and military Superpower, the Batistianos have, incredibly, not been able to recapture the island. Yet, they have grown incredibly richer with U. S. tax dollars and with U. S. laws, such as Helms-Burton, that they have been allowed to write themselves. In that milieu, after a revelatory visit to Cuba as a Democracy-loving American, I take the latest New York Times editorial about Cuba as evidence that even the extreme left-wing mainstream media in the U. S. is much too afraid to write honestly about Cuba because it simply is too afraid of Little Havana. That includes the New York Times, which began publishing on Sept. 18th, 1851, and for well over a century was a prime and influential news source. Recently, its undying determination to overturn the 2016 election of President Trump reveals the Times has evolved into a slanted purveyor of propaganda, the same as NBC, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, and the Washington Post...a conspiratorial group of media left-wing extremists that control about 90% of the U. S. media, with the other 10% largely consisting of right-wing extremists that are just as dangerous but not nearly as powerful. THEREFORE, when you can no longer depend even on the iconic New York Times, Americans must realize they no longer can trust their media, which since 1776 had been a cornerstone and pillar of the U. S. democracy. So the New York Times this week posits that "America Is Obessed With Cuba" even as many other dangers such as a pandemic, global warming that is rising oceans to drastic levels, proxy wars, and threats of more proxy wars, etc. While the NY Times this week headlines about America's obsession with Cuba, it is not courageous enough to speak the truth, which is this: Little Havana ZEALOTS Remain Obsessed with Cuba While The Rest Of America Is Obsessed With COVID-19 And A MYRIAD Of Other Issues. However, the mammoth NY Times May 26-2020 editorial about Cuba would have been honest and courageous if it had pointed out that Little Havana's decades-old obsession with recapturing Cuba has reached deep into the bowels of the U. S. democracy, even threatening to consume it in the manner hungry buzzards consume a newly discovered carcass.
AND SPEAKING OF THE MEDIA, in the Western World there are four major News Agencies: New York-based AP; London-based Reuters; Paris-based AFP; and Madrid-based EFE. The best News Agency in the world is Reuters. Being based across the Atlantic in London, Reuters is competent enough and courageous enough to report concisely and honestly about Cuba.
    If you are an American and Little Havana will not allow you to visit Cuba to judge it for yourself, Reuters News is your best source for knowing what is happening on the island and how it impacts the USA, which is prodigious although HOW PRODIGIOUS is not reported by the U. S. media. But Marc Frank, Sarah Marsh, Nelson Acosta, and other Reuters journalists courageously report from the island, without indulging in either pro-Cuban or anti-Cuban propaganda. Today -- May 27, 2020 -- Marc Frank sent this article around the world: "Online Shopping Highlights Cuba's Inequality In Time Of Coronavirus." With his usual very precise insight and honesty, Marc Frank today gave us unbiased insight such as..."The pandemic has halted tourism in Cuba, slowed remittances and increased shipping costs...decisive government action has reduced new coronavirus cases to less than 15 per day...the Cuban state is seeking to encourage online shopping...yet many Cubans simply cannot afford the services...the government began setting important consumer goals for either dollars or the local equivalent, the convertible peso..."
     As a respected author regarding revelations about Cuba, Marc Frank as a journalist works for London-based Reuters, which means he has the freedom to write insightful and honest articles about Cuba. In my opinion, U. S. journalists should have the same FREEDOM that the great Marc Frank has...but Little Havana has the power not to allow that in the USA.
      In 2020 Cuba has the right to have Havana as its capital city. But the United States doesn't have the right to have Little Havana ACTING as its capital city or to continue ASPIRING to be the capital city of the United States.
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24.5.20

cubaninsider: Rubio's Caribbean War

cubaninsider: Rubio's Caribbean War: Unless  Sanity & Decency  Arise !! Chart update courtesy of  Forbes Media .      This Iranian ship   Fortune  has now entered V...

23.5.20

cubaninsider: Rubio's Caribbean War

cubaninsider: Rubio's Caribbean War: Unless  Sanity & Decency  Arise !!      This Iranian ship   Fortune  has now entered Venezuelan waters loaded with oil for Venezue...

Rubio's Caribbean War

Unless Sanity & Decency Arise!!
Chart update courtesy of Forbes Media.
     This Iranian ship Fortune has now entered Venezuelan waters loaded with oil for Venezuela that defies U. S. sanctions and warnings. Four more Iranian oil-ladened ships are several days behind the Fortune.
     Venezuelan fighter planes like these hovered around the Fortune once it reached Venezuelan waters although U. S. planes and warships are also in the area.
     But the Fortune has already been welcomed to Venezuela and, at least for now, it is in peaceful waters.
     Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who has a $15 million U. S. bounty on his head, said, "We don't know what the United States will do but we know what we have to do to survive. We need Iranian refined oil short-term and we need to upgrade our oil refineries to produce all the oil we need. The things we need to live are things we will fight for...to the end if it comes to that."
       This map shows that what some are calling Rubio's Cribbean War could still start in the next forty-eight hours. Six Iranian ships with oil bound for Venezuela are scheduled to be arriving in Venezuelan waters by Sunday or Monday, May 24th and 25th, in defiance of U. S. warnings and sanctions against both Venezuela and Iran. On the map you can follow the path of the five ships from Iran to Venezuela, with the Fortune in the lead followed by Forest, Petunla, Faxon, and Clavell. Fortune is dangerously close to a Venezuelan port now.
     Venezuela's Defense Minister, General Vladimir Padrino, repeated again this weekend that there will be war if the U. S. tries to block the passage of the Iranian ships. General Padrino said, "The United States, perhaps, has the power to starve us to death with sanctions and blockades and it, perhaps, has the military firepower to annihilate us. But we have international law on our side even if much of the world is too afraid of the United States to admit such things. If we or any country is not allowed to have consenting trade with another willing country, we must fight to preserve that right or we must meekly surrender and become a slave to the objective country. Venezuela, and I assume Iran, will choose to die fighting rather than to meekly surrender to any greedy and criminal nation that seeks to either make us slaves or to eviscerate us"
   If Indeed Rubio's Caribbean War starts in the waters off the northern coast of Venezuela, the first shots will likely be fired from the powerful U. S. naval force already patrolling the area or be fired by Venezuelan forces directed by General Padrino. If that happens, Iran's Nour News Agency reports this weekend that U. S. interests in the Middle East will quickly "be targeted with problems equal to or above the problems our ships will be facing in the waters off the Venezuela coasts." Like Venezuela, Iran is beset with massive domestic obstacles as well as stifling U. S.  sanctions. In other words, both nations are in dire and drastic shape, and their desperations are seemingly ready to boil over as the five Iranian oil ships near Venezuela ports. Ironically, Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the entire world, but the nation's refineries are in  bad shape. But Iran, also in defiance of U. S. sanctions and warnings, has recently flown 17 planeloads of engineers and equipment to Venezuela to repair the refineries so they can return to refining Venezuela's heavy crude oil into petrol. All the oil in the five Iranian ships would be USED UP in Venezuela within a few days but getting the refineries back in productive shape is, in the long run, even more important. General Padrino said this week, "The U. S. criminals are determined to make sure that we do not regain the capacity to refine our oil, and that fuels the U. S. determination to provoke war in the region."
     For weeks now the U. S. has had a powerful contingent of warships and planes, including these P-8 Poseidon vessels, in the waters off Venezuela. It appears this weekend that the words of Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino will be  the most important and germane words or actions, but there are others who have chimed in as well.
      Venezuela's Ambassador to the United Nations, Samuel Moncada, said, "If the United States blocks the Iranian ships from reaching Venezuela, it is an act of war."
       The President of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, said, "If the U. S. presents any problems to our ships now heading to Venezuela, there will be war. If the U. S. wants us to starve or to die, we deserve the right to die fighting."
       Speaking for the U. S. State Department, Morgan Ortagus,  a close Rubio ally, said, "Venezuela looted nine tons of gold to pay Iran for the oil." Ummmm...? Really?
    Powerfully supported by Miami and Washington as Venezuela's President, opposition leader Juan Guaido said, "Maduro looted nine tons of gold to pay Iran for the oil. And 17 illegal Iranian plane trips have landed in Venezuela with engineers and material to restore Venezuela's oil refineries."
      Miami's pick as Venezuela's President, Juan Guaido, needs Washington's help to oust President Nicolas Maduro as Venezuela's leader. And at the moment he has it.
    Miami's anti-Cuban Counter Revolutionaries believe that Maduro's removal and Guaido's takeover in Venezuela must TAKE PLACE before Donald Trump's first term as U. S. President ends. The next presidential election in the U. S., pitting Trump vs. Joe Biden, is fast approaching in November.
     From the beginning, Juan Guaido and the opposition forces in Venezuela have depended on Miami's and Little Havana's Marco Rubio as their U. S. conduit for desired regime-changes in Latin America. Rubio, of course, is blindly concerned with ANTI-Cuban/PRO-Miami regime-changes throughout Latin America. Guaido in Venezuela, of course, agrees with Rubio on that score. Americans might pay dearly for their agreement.
     And so...Rubio and his buddy Guaido are almost surely affixed on this map, or one like it, this weekend. If Rubio's Caribbean War starts in the next few days it likely be when the Iranian ship Fortune gets a little closer to Venezuela. As you can see above, it's almost there. Will a powderkeg or peace ensue?
     So far, for the past two years, Guaido and Rubio mostly used their Smart Phones to plot the regime-change in Venezuela. As the war now seems much more plausible, I think we can assume Guaido and Rubio will also monitor the results on their Smart Phones too. Meanwhile, of course, others will be fighting and paying for Rubio's Caribbean War{Maybe for a long time}.
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cubaninsider: "The Country That Raped Me" (A True Story)

cubaninsider: "The Country That Raped Me" (A True Story) : Note : This particular essay on  Ana Margarita Martinez  was first ...