Good for Latin Americans
Not So Good for Americans
For the last week of February-2013 Time Magazine produced a Special Edition, written by Steven Brill, entitled: "Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us." In minute, chilling detail it explains how medical and drug operations in the United States routinely rob Americans and their government of billions of dollars in a manner that would make Mafia kingpins like Al Capone envious. As Time points out, a trip to an emergency room or a brief stay in a hospital could and does cost the patients or the U. S. government not only tens of millions of dollars but hundreds of millions of dollars hourly! Investigative reporter Brill documents such charges as: $7 for the ink used by a pen to write an "x" next to an alleged procedure; $12 for a tiny paper cup used when a nurse gives a pill to a patient; etc.; etc. All of this, of course, occurs daily because such medical and drug operations can contribute millions of dollars to members of the U. S. Congress and candidates for the White House who, in turn, lushly create laws that allow their benefactors to rape and rob Americans at will. This past summer the U. S. Supreme Court astonished democracy lovers by allowing special interests to donate huge amounts of money to politicians, thus putting and keeping bought-and-paid-for incumbents in office for decades to do the bidding of...special interests.
This week's revelations by Time Magazine are reminders of how (1) U. S. companies such as The United Fruit Company quite legally once raped and robbed Caribbean and Latin American nations at will and how (2) The Cuban Revolution's overthrow of the U. S. - backed Batista dictatorship on Jan. 1-1959 immediately ended such practices in Cuba and later throughout the Caribbean and Latin America.
For many decades, the United Fruit Company and other U. S. companies, backed by the overwhelming U. S. military, unmercifully plundered helpless Caribbean and Latin American nations. The American people were kept in the dark and, when the gruesome facts filtered out, United Fruit Company changed its name to Chiquita. Thus, the graphic above resonates in the Caribbean and Latin America.
Above is the United Fruit ship SS Abangarez in 1945 on its way to New Orleans with its plunder.
United Fruit was headquartered in Boston but this was the facade of its New Orleans office.
John Foster Dulles {above, right} was President Dwight Eisenhower's Secretary of State from 1953 till 1959. Dulles's law firm represented the United Fruit Company and Dulles was a major share-holder. In the 1950s Dulles and other powerful right-wingers, such as Senator Joe McCarthy and Eisenhower's Vice President Richard Nixon, made political and financial hay by accusing any and every opposition of being "communist." In that manner they could be backed by the unmatched power of the U. S. military. Thus, in Guatemala in 1954 when a democratically elected government took over and vowed to end the United Fruit Company's rape and robbery of that nation, U. S. Secretary of State Dulles, on behalf of the United Fruit Company, induced the U. S. military and the CIA to assist in the overthrow of that democratically elected Guatemalan government to install a military dictatorship that would allow the United Fruit Company to continue raping and robbing the nation of Guatemala of its resources and dignity.
In 1954, the very year John Foster Dulles instigated the overthrow of the democratically elected Guatemalan government to install a military dictatorship, Time Magazine honored John Foster Dulles as its "Man of the Year." To this day, John Foster Dulles is often called the all-time most powerful and most brilliant U. S. Secretary of State because of sanitized school books and biased journalism.
Allen Dulles, the younger brother of John Foster Dulles, was Director of the CIA from 1953 till 1961 when he was fired by new President John Kennedy who commented, "If I could I would blow the CIA to Smithereens!" Kennedy had inherited Allen Dulles from the Eisenhower administration and that inheritance included CIA plans to murder Fidel Castro and re-capture Cuba. And, uh, oh yes! Allen Dulles was also a Board Member and major stock-holder of the United Fruit Company that had robbed Cuba blind before Fidel Castro booted it off the island. So, like the powerful U. S. State Department run by his brother, Allen Dulles' CIA had ample reason to over-throw democratically elected Latin American governments that were attempting to curtail foreign entities like the United Fruit Company from brutally robbing their countries at will. The CIA, the Mafia, and the State Department all hated Castro!
You can read all about Allen Dulles in Peter Grose's biography or in many other books. But a simple Google search will be sufficient. The Wikipedia bio of Allen Dulles, for example, has a major section under the title: "Involvements in Coups Against Iran and Guatemala." In Iran, the CIA teamed with British interests to overthrow the democratically elected government of Mohammad Mossadeq to put in the dictatorship of the Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi. The Shah's allowing foreign companies to loot Iran led to the Islamic Revolution that, to this day, is a huge problem for this generation of Americans. In Guatemala, the 1954 coup eliminated the still revered democratically elected President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman to make way for a military dictatorship that, thanks to kick-backs, would allow U. S. companies, like the Dulles-connected United Fruit Company, to continue to rape and rob that country blind. And -- oh, yes! -- if the U. S. military was needed to help the CIA conquests...no problem. The U. S. citizens would simply be told, "Mossadeq (or Arbenz or whomever) is a communist and his government would have started a domino effect in the region." Everyone in those helpless countries as well as history knew that was a lie...everyone, as it turned out, except us not-too-bright U. S. citizens who, for too long, were content to be kept in the dark or easily lied to. Also, all bios of Allen Dulles credit him with creating what history calls "Operation 40." In all of history, Operation 40 is one of the most vicious assassination and terrorist outfits. In the Wikipedia bio of Allen Dulles, for example, another of the major sections is headlined: "Sabotage Against Cuba: Operation 40." The sabotage against Cuba included such things as blowing up of a ship in Havana Harbor that killed 75 innocent people as well as countless assassinations and, of course, innumerable assassination attempts against Fidel Castro, the man "Operation 40" most hated.
Of course, even the mainstream U. S. media, such as Time Magazine, kept telling Americans what a great, great man Allen Dulles was. Long after the Dulles brothers were gone would insightful Americans begin to learn about what the coups in Guatemala, Iran, and elsewhere were all about; what John Kennedy's comment about blowing the CIA to smithereens was all about; what Operation 40 was all about; and what the United Fruit Company was all about. Rogues in the U. S. government, like the Dulles brothers, got most of their power not because they have access to the CIA and U. S. military to back up their greedy intentions in helpless countries but because men like the Dulles brothers had/have the power to "classify" data that will keep their actions secret "in the national interest." If and when that data is finally de-classified it becomes apparent that most of the "classified" material was hidden to protect individuals, not the nation. That's why investigative journalists such as Jack Anderson, James Bamford, Robert Parry, Gary Webb, Tracey Eaton, etc., were/are the best friends a democracy ever had because their work has been to crack the veils of secrecy that cover-up greedy acts by so-called public servants.
The Colombia-born, now 85-year-old Gabriel Garcia Marquez is generally considered the all-time greatest Latin American writer. His most famous book is "One Hundred Years of Solitude." It is based on an event in Colombia when soldiers, on behalf of the United Fruit Company, massacred up to 2,000 workers who had merely asked for better wages and working conditions.
Not coincidentally, Gabriel Garcia Marquez's best friend since 1958 is Fidel Castro.
The 85-year-old Gabriel Garcia Marquez frequently visits Havana to check on the ailing 86-year-old Fidel Castro. Gabriel Garcia Marquez says, "If it were not for Fidel Castro, I'm afraid the United Fruit Company and the CIA would still own the entire Caribbean and all of Latin America."
The great American writer Gore Vidal was born in 1925 and died on July 31, 2012. He was renowned for his patrician manner and witty aphorisms. His great novel "Dark Green, Bright Red" -- depicting the color of a green banana and red blood -- was based on the United Fruit Company's rape and robbery of Guatemala following the coup that overturned the democratically elected government. In a famous essay, Gore Vidal wrote: "When the CIA and the Mafia started really attacking Cuba in 1960, the most pertinent words a revolutionary leader ever said were spoken by Fidel Castro. In a broadcast he told the CIA, 'Cuba is not another Guatemala.' And it seems he meant it because Cuba is not another Guatemala."
The Cuban Revolution figures into this narrative about the United Fruit Company, the Dulles brothers, the CIA, coups in Third World nations, and Time Magazine's new Special Edition this week about how U. S. hospitals and drug companies literally and LEGALLY rob American citizens and the U. S. government blind. For two generations the U. S. media and the U. S. government have vilified and demeaned the Cuban Revolution as a means of justifying the rape and robbery of Cuba from 1952 till 1959 by the U. S. - backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship. But in the year 2013 all 33 countries in the Caribbean and Latin America, in unanimity, agree that, while the Cuban Revolution can be legitimately criticized for many things, it also: (1) Inspired the rest of the Caribbean and Latin America to believe that they, too, could rebel against foreign domination; and (2) Sparked a wave of nationalism throughout the Caribbean and Latin America that eventually spawned the waves of democracy that no longer could simply and routinely be overthrown by foreign powers. Today, the democratically elected Presidents of countries like Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, etc., were inspired to switch from being rebels to politicians because they idolized what the Cuban Revolution did to the U. S. in a David-vs.-Goliath fashion.
For example, that's the 20-year-old Dilma Rousseff bravely facing a military court after she tried to replicate the Cuban Revolution and overthrow a U. S. - backed dictatorship in Brazil. She spent three years in a military prison where she was unmercifully tortured. She's come a long way since then.
Today Dilma Rousseff is the democratically elected President of Brazil, the Latin American superpower.
And today...President Barack Obama wishes he and the United States had as much influence in the Caribbean and Latin America as Dilma Rousseff and Brazil enjoys. After her election, President Rousseff let President Obama kiss her but she does not let him tell Brazil what to do when it comes to the Caribbean, Latin America, or Cuba. She is a dear friend of Cuba and Fidel Castro.
In fact, President Rousseff of Brazil is amazed that the American people have "for so long allowed their own democracy to suffer so much worldwide ridicule by permitting a few Cuban exiles to rule America's Cuban policy." An interesting but not surprising comment from a powerful Latin American lady.
President Rousseff of Brazil likes President Obama of the U. S. and believes he is a "well-intentioned man." Yet, she told Cristina Fernandez, the democratically elected President of Argentina, she "felt sorry for him" because even President Obama is "not strong enough to fix or even dent the U. S. Cuban policy."
President Obama and his Secretary of State, John Kerry, both want to end the U. S. embargo of Cuba. But they can't because a handful of now second generation Cuban-Americans won't let them. Both President Obama and Secretary Kerry want to remove Cuba from the very short U. S. list of "Sponsors of Terrorism." But they can't because a handful of now second generation Cuban-Americans won't let them. President Rousseff feels sorry for the U. S. democracy because of that, and so do the Presidents of almost every other nation in the world. Inextricably linked to Cuba, it's been that way since 1959.
In the above photo John Kerry is at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville Feb. 20-2013 making his first foreign policy speech as Secretary of State. He didn't mention Cuba because he apparently did not have permission to do so from a handful of second generation Cuban-Americans.
And that's why my new hero is this superb investigative reporter Steven Brill. He wrote this week's Time Magazine Special Edition about how hospitals and drug companies literally and LEGALLY rob Americans and the U. S. government blind. As I read Brill's brilliant documentation, it reminded me of how, in decades past, the United Fruit Company literally and LEGALLY robbed Cuba and other Latin American nations blind until the Cuban Revolution began to show those nations that they could, indeed, resist.
By the way, I'm a very poor man with a low IQ but my thirst for knowledge has me paying for subscriptions to Time Magazine, ESPN Magazine, and seven other magazines in addition to USA Today. In honor of Michael Jordan's 50th birthday, ESPN Magazine this week has a book-length article about the former basketball player it says has the most recognizable name in the world. The article indicates easy endorsement money, especially from Nike, has made Jordan a billionaire who owns an NBA team, his own jet, many mansions, etc. But it was Jordan's Cuban connections that intrigued me most. In the above Jeff Haynes/Reuters photo Jordan is enjoying one of his favorite pastimes...smoking a Cuban cigar, which I thought was illegal to have in the U. S. but, remember, Jordan is a billionaire with his own jet and rich enough to have his own set of rules. The rich and powerful, you know, are different from you and me.
The Chris Weeks photo above shows Michael Jordan with his fiance. Her name is Yvette Prieto and she is Cuban-American. Unlike the Cuban cigars that Mr. Jordan also loves, she is legal and healthful.
Michael Jordan reportedly lost $168 million to his ex-wife Juanita in their divorce settlement. But he is still a billionaire, thanks to Nike, and he still has his jets, his NBA team, his yachts, his mansions, his golf clubs and courses, his truly beautiful Cuban-American finance, and, of course, his Cuban cigars. In other words, capitalism and Cuba go together like bananas and the United Fruit Company.
Fidel Castro, of course, is also famous for his love of Cuban cigars. But he quit smoking in 1984 in hopes of influencing Cuban children "not to smoke because it's not a healthy thing to do."
President John Kennedy also loved Cuban cigars.
Pierre Salinger, President Kennedy's Press Secretary, revealed in 1992 just how much his boss loved Cuban cigars. Kennedy was about to sign into law the U. S. embargo against Cuba but he told Salinger to postpone the signing until he, the President, received a box of 1200 Cohiba cigars that he had ordered from Havana, cigars that the embargo out-lawed. After getting the cigars, Kennedy signed the embargo law on Feb. 3, 1962. Notice in Mr. Salinger's right hand that President Kennedy obviously gave one of those cigars to his Press Secretary. Because it came the day before the embargo, it was a legal cigar.
Of course, even though the embargo against Cuba remains a relic of the Cold War and a symbol of why a U. S. - backed overthrown dictatorship should not be allowed to reconstitute itself on U. S. soil, rich and powerful Americans have little trouble obtaining genuine hand-crafted cigars from Cuba. Otherwise, for the most part, the embargo Kennedy signed on Feb. 3-1962 remains in place till this very day to appease a handful of Cuban-American radicals even if President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, most Americans, most Cuban-Americans, and almost all of the people around the world want it ended. So much for democracy! President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil says the Cuban Revolution "exposed the frailty of the American democracy." So did mild Cuban cigars. And so did the infamous United Fruit Company.
*************
.jpg)
