Bravely Defying U. S. Blockade!!
In mid-December of 2023 it is important to carefully study the two images shown above. The bottom one dates from February of 1962 when the United States imposed a drastic EMBARGO against Cuba that was intended to starve, deprive, and make miserable Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow their revolutionary government. The top image above is an actual photo that was taken this weekend in mid-December of 2023 and it shows two popular Cuban TV journalists with smiles on their faces as they report on a HUGE CRUISE SHIP as it docks in Havana Harbor!! That is truly a huge news item because the U. S. EMBARGO SINCE 1962 has powerfully blocked tourism to Cuba because tourists visiting the island might spend money that might mitigate against the EMBARGO that is indeed supposed to starve, deprive, and make miserable Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and oeverthrow their revolutionary government. After six decades the lucrative overthrow attempts still have not overthrown the Revolution...but indeed generations of Cuban families on the island have been starved, deprived, and made miserable since 1962 by the EMBARGO.
Here, then, is the explanation about the huge cruise ship that bravely docked in Havana Harbor this weekend -- in mid-December of 2023. The ship is named "Marella Explorer 2" and it is owned by a massive cruise line that is headquartered in both Britain and Germany. This massive ship, although owned by U. S. trade partners in the UK and Germany, will not be allowed to leave Havana and then sail to any U. S. port, but otherwise the MARELLA EXPLORER 2 is bravely defying the U. S. EMBARGO merely by having the audacity to stop off in Cuba!!
This ad in mid-December of 2023 is also interesting. TRIPADVISOR is one of the world's most famed Tourist Advisors. In defiance of the U. S. EMBARGO of Cuba, even TRIPADVISOR seems at the end of 2023 to be promoting "Cuba as a prime destination for tourists."
Now study the two images above. The top one shows that Miami and Havana, two major cities that have been warring against each since 1959, are geographically close, especially for planes and cruise ships. The bottom image explains {above} that Royal Caribbean International is headquartered in Miami. But so are the other best-known worldwide Cruise Lines such as Cardinal Cruise Lines, Norwegian Cruise Lines, etc.!! They are all headquartered in ultra-rich Miami, which is also home to Little Havana, the rich and politically powerful anti-revolutionary Cuban enclave that, of course, loves the EMBARGO and other anti-Cuba politicies.
Nearby Miami/Little Havana not only has massive political power in Washsington, where the Cuban EMBARGO is headquartered, but Miami is also the headquarters for the world's top Cruise Lines, including Norwegian Cruise Lines -- which was founded in Norway in 1966 but, alas!!, it is now headquartered in Miami, which is also home to Little Havana, which is just a few miles north of Cuba's real Havana.
This Norwegian Cruise Ship -- and the massive Cardinal Cruise Lines, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, etc., are also headquartered in Miami. Since 1962 Miami has tried to block tourism to nearby Cuba..but back in the 1950s Miami wildly promoted tourism to Cuba back when tourism to Cuba was dictated by Batista, the Mafia, and rich U. S. businessmen.
In sharp contrast to the 1950s when the U. S. government and the U. S. and top U. S. businesses wildly promoted tourism to Cuba, the two images above remind us that in 2023 that the endless U. S. EMBARGO wildly singles out Cuba as the spot where tourism is blocked.
"Miami to Havana by Air & Sea" is what massive Tourism Ads {note above} touted to the money-crazed U. S. tourists flocking to Cuba back in the 1950s during the Batista-Mafia dictatorship.
This historic photo shows a pertinent example of how much money Mafia Kingpins, the Batista Dictators, and Rich U. S. Businessmen were making in Cuba in the 1950s. Above you can see Mafia Kingpin Meyer Lansky leaving one of his famed casinos with a huge satchel filled with MONEY!! If you bother to ask questions about 1950s Cuba, you will discover interesting tidbits such as the fact that Lansky opened his own most lucrative tourist hotel in Havana in 1958 even as the anti-rebels in far eastern Cuba were beginning to capture and hold key towns and cities while Che Guevara's peasant Radio Station Rebelde was broadcasting messages from captured towns such as, "We rebels will now not stop until we reach Havana and yesterday Batista broadcast in Havana that 'the rebel uprising in the Sierra Maestra region is no longer a problem.' Uh, really, Fulgencio?" Yes, Lansky opened his new luxury hotel in 1958, but on January 1 of 1959 it was in the hands of...the Rebels.
Yes, while he was leading a Rebel army toward Santa Clara and Havana, Che Guevara had also invented and daily broadcast from his Radio Rebelde, informing his rebel supporters and often taunting Dictator Batista.
Incredibly, Che Guevara's Radio Rebelde radio station helped him win the Revolution because he used it to keep his vital peasant supporters believing that the rebels "could win and we are winning with your continued support!!!" Today in December of 2023 -- as shown above -- Radio Rebelde is still a powerful radio stadium in Cuba.
Yes, as CNN reported above, the heirs of Meyer Lansky -- well aware that Miami/Little Havana leaders are massively supported by leaders in Washington -- sued to be paid for the loss of Lansky's magnificent Riviera Hotel that was "seized" by the Revolution on January 1 of 1959.
The Havana Riviera Iberostar Hotel has been magnificently renovated and is now operated by the powerful Spanish Iberostar Hotel & Resorts chain based in Madrid. It is a 5-star jewel with 21 floors and 352 rooms. Despite the U. S. EMBARGO, both of the two Spanish Hotels & Resorts chains -- Iberostar and Melia -- have a total of 42 4-star and 5-star Hotels in Cuba. They, of course, are targeted by...the EMBARGO.
This was Mafia kingpin Meyer Lansky showing off his spanking new Riviera Hotel in Havana in 1958...even though by then anti-Batista Rebels were beginning to march successfully out of the foothills of the Sierra Mountains in far southeast Cuba bound FOR HAVANA. But in the last week of December in 1958, a Rebel Army led by Che Guevara captured Santa Clara, the last big city closest to Havana...and that was when Batista, LANSKY, etc., fled Havana but expected that the United States would quickly recapture Cuba.
If you ask Google about the fascinating history of the Havana Riviera Hotel, you will find voluminous facts, such as above.
And if you ask Google, What was glamorous about 1950s Cuba? the answers, as shown above, would include: "Cuba was associated with casinos, nightclubs, and tropical beaches. American money helped provide Havana with more Cadillacs per capital than city in the world during the 1950s." WONDERFUL!! Below you can see that Smithsonian's history of Cuba in the 1950s explains such wild hedonism but ends the first paragraph shown below with this sentence: "All the while, THOUGH, a revolution brewed." Also, below you can see that Smithsonian explains U. S. dominance of Batista's Cuba in the 1950s: "By the late '50s, U. S. financial interests included 90 percent of Cuban mines, 80 percent of its public utilities, 50 percent of its railways, 40 percent of the sugar production...!!!" In other words, if you know about how rich U. S. businesses dominated Cuba in the 1950s, you will know why, since 1959, Miami and the United States loved Batista so much and hates the Cuban Revolution so much. All that explains, for example, why the U. S. spent so much time and money on the 1961 Bay of Pigs military attack and since 1962 has blocked tourism to Cuba...and why in the 1950s Dictator Batista got massive kick-backs from rich U. S. companies -- including a famed GOLD TELEPHONE!!! Uh...you can Google about that if you want to research such things as Batista gold phone!!
The ultra-fascinating history of why the Mafia-Batista-USA factions owned Cuba in the 1950s and then lost it to the Revolution is a fascinating part of the history of both Cuba and the United States. So Google your fingers a little raw in discovering about it. Mafia kingpin Meyer Lansky and his Riviera Hotel is merely one fascinating tidbit.
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