Why U.S. and Cuba Fight

Because It Benefits A Few

       If it were left up to these two women, the acute animosity that has existed between the United States and Cuba for decades could be ended by this time tomorrow. That's Roberta Jacobson on the left. She is the top U. S. diplomat in the State Department when it comes to Cuba and Latin America. That's Josefina Vidal on the right. She is Cuba's top diplomat when it comes to the United States and North America. Both of these brilliant ladies believe wholeheartedly that Cuba and the United States should be good neighbors and key trading partners, not bitter enemies. They talk frequently, sometimes face to face, and those are the sentiments they sincerely express to each other. Thursday of this week -- May 15th, 2014 -- Josefina Vidal flew from Havana to Washington to meet once again with Roberta Jacobson, this time for Cuba -- as it typically does -- to explain to the U. S. why it arrested four Miami residents on April 26th that Cuba believed were on the island to sabotage military bases. As with hostile airplanes from Miami flying over Havana, Cuba prefers that the U. S. itself be aware of terrorist threats against the island emanating from U. S. soil so, hopefully, the U. S. will do something about it. In addition to discussing the four newly arrested Miami visitors, Jacobson and Vidal again this week discussed the saga of Alan Gross, the American imprisoned in Cuba that both women would like to have back in his Maryland home instead of serving a 15-year sentence on the island after being charged and convicted of spying. Ms. Vidal believes the U. S. is unwilling to seriously negotiate Mr. Gross's predicament because such things as his continued imprisonment benefit a handful of anti-Castro elites in the U. S. who, through two generations, have thrived on U.S.-Cuban belligerence. The fact that Ms. Jacobson again this week invited Ms. Vidal to Washington indicates the two women are in concert with each other and share opinions regarding U.S.-Cuban relations.

       Roberta Jacobson -- a Brown University graduate -- is a fine lady, a brilliant diplomat, and Western Hemisphere expert since 1982. As America's most important official regarding Cuban matters, she should be afforded the wherewithal to negotiate sanely and decently on issues that affect most Americans and most Cubans. But she can't because for six decades U. S. relations with Cuba have been dictated by a handful of miscreants who benefit economically, politically or revengefully from U.S.-Cuban hostility. 

       Josefina Vidal is a fine lady and a brilliant diplomat. As Cuba's most important official regarding U. S. matters, she should be afforded the wherewithal to negotiate sanely and decently on issues that adversely affect most Americans and most Cubans. But she can't because for six decades miscreants who benefit economically, politically or revengefully from U.S.-Cuban hostility have dictated that sanity and decency applied to U.S.-Cuban relations would not align with all the benefits they derive from the status quo. 

       Josefina Vidal is willing and anxious to fly to Washington on a moment's notice if she and Roberta Jacobson believe discussing Cuban and American issues will even slightly ease the belligerence between the two countries. But the ongoing tragedy for Cuba, the U. S. and the region is that a few self-serving war-mongering elites, not Vidal and Jacobson, have firm grips on America's Cuban policy. That accounts for perpetrating hostility between the two neighbors decade after decade, generation after generation.

      Since 1959 U.S.-Cuban relations have been dictated solely by a handful of Cuban-exile elites and a handful of their influential and self-serving sycophants. Meanwhile, the majority that could have impacted that travesty has been either too unconcerned or too intimidated to weigh in on the issue.

 These two women are trying to negotiate sanity and decency into U.S.-Cuban relations.

They should be allowed to proceed.

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Founding Fathers Craved Cuba

And the Craving Still Exists
But first..........

      ........this Willow Haven Outdoor photo caught my eye. The brave, lucky couple is standing on their favorite rock in Norway. It is wedged in an alpine crevice of the Kjerag Mountain range.

Meanwhile.............

      .......meet Colonel Alejandro Castro Espin. He is the son of Cuban President Raul Castro and the late revolutionary heroine Vilma Espin. On Tuesday of this week Alejandro led a Cuban delegation to Moscow. He personally signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Russian Security Council and tentatively agreed to a Russian-Cuban pact relating to a joint use of space for peaceful purposes. The "Voice of America" website quoted Alejandro as saying, "Russia and Cuba need an effective cooperation tool to respond to sensitive issues. The memorandum may define priorities for cooperation to ensure effective security on both sides." (UMMMMmmm...?}

     After all these years, the indomitable Thomas Jefferson remains celebrated as America's greatest and most important Founding Father. He was born in Shadwell, Virginia in 1743 and died on July 4th, 1826. He was the principal author of America's Declaration of Independence and the President of the United States from 1801 till 1809, among his myriad of momentous, incomparable achievements.

     To this day, even apart from his Declaration of Independence masterpiece, Thomas Jefferson is America's most quoted person. In the last years of his life, he had a fixation on...CUBA! No kidding. In 1820 Mr. Jefferson wrote: "Cuba is the most interesting addition which could ever be made to our system of states." Later in 1820 Mr. Jefferson wrote this salient suggestion to Secretary of War John C. Calhoun: "The United States ought, at the first opportunity, to take Cuba." 

      Beginning on July 12, 1900 this poster saturated America in remembrance of Thomas Jefferson's burning desire that the United States should one day "take Cuba." As you study this poster, note that in the lower-right portion there is the celebration in July of 1900 of the "American Rule in Cuba." This, of course, was shortly after the United States, to sate its craving for Cuba, had provoked and then easily won the Spanish-American War in 1898, providing the U. S. with control of Cuba once and for all...except, of course, when the Cuban Revolution astoundingly changed things in 1959. The two men prominently featured in the center of this poster are William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. McKinley was President of the United States from 1897 till 1901 when he was assassinated six months into his second term. Teddy Roosevelt was then President for two terms from 1901 till 1909.

     In 1898 America's most prized warship was the ultra-modern USS Maine. It had been built in Philadelphia and commissioned in 1895. In 1898 President McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt, a naval officer, were extremely proud of this ship. So were America's two most powerful newspaper moguls -- William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. McKinley, Hearst and Pulitzer also had two primary goals: {1} They wanted Cuba; and {2} they wanted Teddy Roosevelt to succeed McKinley as President when McKinley's second term ended. They knew that could happen if Teddy became a military hero, even a fabricated one. They also knew that Spain, which owned Cuba, was too weak and far too extended to put up a fight if the U. S. could come up with a pretext {excuse} to attack! What if, uh, we sacrifice the USS Maine and, uh, a few young sailors? No problem. President McKinley, goaded by William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, ordered the USS Maine to sail to Cuba and dock in Havana Harbor on a, uh, good-will mission.

BOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM..... 

    On February 15, 1898 a powerful explosion in Havana Harbor blew the USS Maine to bits. The terrorist bomb killed 258 people, mostly young American sailors. The top officers, perhaps not coincidentally, were reportedly partying on shore. The U. S. had its pretext to declare war on Spain, using the war-cry "Remember the Maine!" to garner approval from the duped American people. Of course, from 1898 till the present, the American people have continued to be duped regarding Cuba.

     It was well known that the last thing Spain would do is blow up America's prized ship in Havana Harbor to provoke a war it couldn't possibly win. Spain, well aware of America's desire for Cuba and also aware that the U. S. had an insurmountable military edge, had been bending over backwards to pacify President McKinley's war-mongers, including Hearst and Pulitzer. But to seal the deal America's newspaper moguls plastered provocative articles, like the one above, all across the nation. Note the headline "THE MAINE WAS DESTROYED BY A SPANISH MINE." It is much more likely, of course, that the U. S. blew up its own ship as a pretext for the Spanish-American War although some historians believe it was an accident.

    President McKinley sent Teddy Roosevelt to win the easy Spanish-American War in Cuba. Hearst and Pulitzer sent their top reporters -- and even famed artist Frederic Remington -- to Cuba to make sure Teddy got the lion's share of the credit for winning the war. The pretext worked perfectly -- at least for the rich people who stayed home but not for democracy nor all those young sailors aboard the docked USS Maine. The easy victory in 1898's Spanish-American War finally made the U. S. the dominant power over Cuba. And posters like this claimed that Teddy led the brilliant charge up "San Juan Hill" to bravely win the decisive battle of the war. The paid propagandists for Hearst and Pulitzer overwhelmed the American people although, in fact, San Juan Hill was no more than an ant hill in military terms. But the American people were not in Cuba to see that; what they saw was propaganda like this poster. And soon thereafter, McKinley was assassinated and, indeed, Teddy Roosevelt was President for the next eight years, making sure he took good care of his rich pals -- especially Hearst and Pulitzer. And -- oh, yes! -- the U. S. had replaced Spain as the imperialist power in charge of Cuba, just the way Mr. Jefferson had dreamed in 1820!

      If you do a Google search of "Propaganda of the Spanish-American War" you will be directed to a long, insightful article that begins with this sentence: "The Spanish-American War (April-August 1898) is considered to be both a turning point in the history of propaganda and the beginning of the practice of yellow journalism." Study the graphic above and you will begin to understand how America's fixation to dominate Cuba has, since 1898, adversely affected the U. S. democracy. The U. S. reasons for provoking the Spanish-American War were abominable, made more so by the fact that, once it dominated Cuba, democracy for the island was never a priority. For many of the same reasons that Pulitzer and Hearst prompted the Spanish-American War, 54 years later -- in 1952 -- the U. S. teamed with the Mafia to support the wicked Batista dictatorship in Cuba! All along the way, U. S. citizens who could have brought sanity to U.S.-Cuban relations have been either too ignorant, too intimidated or too unpatriotic to defend the Jeffersonian principles of democracy. 

      The fate of the USS Maine is merely a chaotic tidbit in the pantheon of U.S.-Cuban history. But it is a big tidbit. And it brings us back to Thomas Jefferson. Yes, Mr. Jefferson -- as proven by the actual quotations at the top of this essay -- longed for the day when America would take Cuba. That day came in 1898 with the treaty that ended the Spanish-American War. The unfathomable treaty, by the way, was signed in Paris with no Cuban in attendance. That fact as well as the rest of the aftermath of the Spanish-American War, I believe, would have made Mr. Jefferson weep. I believe the quotation above, which he made in 1816, reflects that feeling. While Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase and his championing of Manifest Destiny revealed his desire for a gluttonous America, most of all he loved democracy although he owned slaves and fathered children by the beautiful slave Sally Hemings. Once the U. S. obtained dominion over Cuba, Mr. Jefferson would have expected democracy to take hold on the island. He was wrong. The U. S. decided that rich Americans could best be served in Cuba by having U.S.-backed dictatorships to sanction their pillaging in exchange for kick-backs. By 1952 the U. S. even teamed with the Mafia to thrust upon Cuba the ultra-thieving, ultra-brutal Batista dictatorship. The quote above suggests that Mr. Jefferson would have been appalled that the Spanish-American War, started with the deaths of those young sailors, was at the behest of "moneyed incorporations" such as the wealthiest newspapers that backed Teddy Roosevelt back in 1898.

     By the way, this is considered the best likeness of Sarah "Sally" Hemings, the beautiful slave girl at Monticello. She had six children by Thomas Jefferson, four of whom survived long enough to eventually gain their precious freedom.

    This Jeffersonian quote also could be associated with U.S.-Cuban relations, which Mr. Jefferson surprisingly was obsessed with. In Batista's Cuba in the 1950s, the Cuban people feared their dictators; in the U. S. since 1959, Americans seemingly have feared objecting to Cuban-American dictates by the transplanted Batistianos. Mr. Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, best defined tyranny and liberty with the quote above. Does this quotation explain why the American people have been fearful of criticizing such things as the American theft of Guantanamo Bay in 1903, the bombing of the civilian Cubana Flight 455 in 1976, etc.?

       Mr. Jefferson would likely say that the U. S. support of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba {1952-1959} marked America's departure from democratic ideals.

           But the transplanted Cuban Mafia in Miami would probably have saddened him more.     

      Mr. Jefferson's fascination with Cuba, tyranny, and liberty -- I think -- is best defined by this quotation. That's why I have repeated it as a coda to this essay in which I am merely trying to state two facts: 

{#1}

The Cuban Revolution says a lot more about the United States than it says about Cuba.

{#2}

 And so does the terrorist bombing of Cubana Flight 455!

Thomas Jefferson would have wanted Americans to react sanely to both events.

And if that is so, he would have been acutely disappointed.

     In a democracy when the majority of citizens are either too duped or too scared or too uninformed to participate, a handful of self-serving cretins can take full advantage. That's why the bombing of the USS Maine in 1898, killing scores of young Americans, should not have been allowed to benefit the alleged perpetrators. And that's why the bombing of Cubana Flight 455 in 1976, which killed scores of young Cubans, should not have been allowed to benefit the alleged perpetrators. And that's why, from 1898 till today, the island of Cuba says a lot more about superpower America than it says about Cuba itself.

      The Founding Fathers, particularly Thomas Jefferson, intended for the people -- not the government and not a few looters -- to have the power in America's democracy. That simple but majestic principle worked wonderfully from 1776 through 1945 when the Greatest Generations of Americans courageously defended Democracy. But then...in 1947 the secretive CIA was formed and in 1952 the U. S. teamed with the Mafia to support the wicked Batista dictatorship that pillaged Cuba, creating the Cuban Revolution that in 1959 booted the Batista-Mafia dictatorship out of Havana...all the way to Miami, as it turned out. As the above graphic illustrates, Power to the People was a great concept...as long as the People had the courage, the will, the intelligence and the patriotism to manage it. Those four qualities need to resurface.

       Frank D. Roosevelt, America's only four-term President, saved Democracy in 1945 just before he died. That ties him with Abe Lincoln as America's all-time greatest President because Lincoln had saved Democracy in 1865 just before he died. The quotation above indicates that Franklin D. Roosevelt understood the essence of Democracy. But since 1945 America has not been guided by a Franklin D. Roosevelt...or an Abe Lincoln. Therefore, amazingly, a neighboring island -- Cuba -- says more, to a significant degree, about the U. S. Democracy than the U. S. says. The "real safeguard of democracy," to quote FDR, "is education." Americans since 1898 have gotten their education regarding Cuba from a handful of war-mongering, proselytizing, propagandizing plunderers who benefit from the turmoil and hostility that results from constantly targeting the island. FDR, I believe, would recognize the demise of that democratic "safeguard" as related to Cuba. Unfortunately, FDR is not around to deliver one of his "fireside chats" in defense of both America's sacred Democracy and mankind's common Decency.

 Thus, to the rest of the world, this is how America's lustful craving of Cuba appears.

      This Friday Barbara Walters, 84, concludes her remarkable television career. She acknowledges that one of the highlights was being driven on a tour of Havana by Fidel Castro on June 6th, 1977.

         On May 1, 2014 -- the month Barbara Walters retired -- the 87-year-old Fidel Castro, although very ill and confined to his Havana home -- was the dominant figure at Cuba's May Day Parade, as this Reuters photo indicates. After his passing, his image and legacy may be even more pronounced, largely due to the excesses of his enemies before and after the Cuban Revolution, which will forever bear his stamp.

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Miami and Havana Still At War

With No End In Sight
{Saturday, May 10th, 2014}

     Photos are worth a thousand words, at least. The one above might make you cry, but it is worth studying. Torero Alvaro Munera was one of the world's best and highest paid bullfighters. But in the midst of a fight, he collapsed from remorse. Even though he had plunged a sword very painfully deep between the bull's shoulder blades, he could not get the gentile beast to fight him. After he collapsed and sat in a very vulnerable position on the cement, the taunted bull did not take advantage of his plight. Instead, the animal seemed to offer him sympathy. After this true event, Alvaro Munera retired as a matador and now spends his life as a powerful opponent of bullfighting. His is a lesson, I believe, we all should learn from and heed in a troubled world where many people acquire money and fame by administering pain to those who are more vulnerable. This matador at least had a conscience.

    The logo above identifies a travel agency in Argentina. This week it paid the United States millions of dollars because it allegedly violated provisions of the U. S. embargo against Cuba. Last week a travel agency in Holland paid millions of dollars to the U. S. for allegedly violating the same provisions. Yes, foreign companies such as "Despegar" regularly pay the fines because the United States is the world's economic and military superpower and such global companies need to comply in order to exist. Of course, Americans are not told exactly what is done with such gifts to the U. S. Treasury, nor should they. Americans since 1959 have accepted draconian laws dictated by a handful of exiles from Cuba's Batista-Mafia dictatorship, which was overthrown -- with justification -- way back in 1959 by the Cuban Revolution. Since then, Miami's war to recapture Havana has been waged not from Cuban soil but from U. S. soil and paid for by U. S. tax dollars. In the process, exiles freely dictate their own self-serving ideas of democracy. This war from U. S. soil also targets other sovereign nations, such as Argentina and Holland in the past week. Primarily to further the six-decades-old quest to starve and recapture Cuba, the U. S. regularly fines international banking giants hundreds of millions of dollars, which are ponied up just as small companies like Despegar pony up millions of dollars. Most Americans, including Cuban Americans in Miami, oppose the Embargo. Moreover, each October at the United Nations the entire world registers its strong opposition to the Cuban embargo. Yet it has persisted since 1962, shaming Democracy to benefit only an unconscionable few. Thus, the majority of good people need to be remorseful, like the bullfighter.

      Despite all of these facts that the Argentine company was just saddled with, Barack Obama is the 11th consecutive U. S. President that has, either willingly or unwillingly, been forced to march to the tunes {above} dictated by a handful of two generations of Cuban exiles and their sycophants. For almost six decades, those facts have been illustrated on a daily basis by such things as the U. S. punishing foreign sovereign nations to comply with American laws dictated by a few self-serving exiles trying to regain control of a nearby island that, for seven centuries, was ravaged by domestic and imperialist scavengers. 

        It is an uncontested fact that Miami has targeted Havana on a daily basis since January of 1959, the month the Cuban Revolution overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship. It is also well known that Havana, while stubbornly maintaining its sovereignty, has chosen to remain on the defensive because it did not desire to provoke the incomparably powerful United States into an all-out military attack. Moreover, it has always been apparent, in Cuba's eyes, that the rich and powerful forces that regrouped in Miami have continued to have the support or at least the tacit approval of the U. S. government, both its unmatched treasury and its omnipotent military. A news conference this week -- May 7, 2014 -- in Havana revealed that to this day, after all these decades, the Miami vs. Havana war is still very much ongoing.

       Any American who has not read Ann Louise Bardach's seminal book -- "CUBA CONFIDENTIAL: Love and Vengeance in Miami and Havana" -- probably does not have a clue as to what has transpired between Miami and Havana since 1959 till this very day. Ms. Bardach, better and braver than anyone else, has explained in minute detail how the improbable victory of the Cuban Revolution created a Cuban government-in-exile that possessed, from U. S. soil, both the extreme motivation and the presumed wherewithal to quickly recapture Cuba. Ms. Bardach also explains how the Cuban government-in-exile, headquartered in Miami, spread its tentacles to Washington with the help of politicos such as Richard Nixon, the Bush dynasty, Robert Torricelli, Jesse Helms, Dan Burton, etc. In that manner, as accurately depicted by Ms. Bardach, the Cuban government-in-exile has been able to craft its own laws and dip into the U. S. treasury whenever it chooses. Yet, with no holds barred and with overwhelming and unchecked forces, the Cuban government-in-exile has been unable, for going on six decades now, to recapture Cuba. Ms. Bardach, in many books and essays, is also the very best at explaining why all that is so.

      Andrea Rodriguez is an excellent journalist stationed at the Associated Press bureau in Havana. She covered a major news conference this week -- May 7th -- at Cuba's Ministry of the Interior. Her report flashed around the world, starting with this sentence: "Four Cuban exiles from Miami are being held for planning 'terrorist actions' against military targets on the island." Ms. Rodriguez identified the four men as Jose Ortega Amador, Obdulio Rodriguez Gonzalez, Raibel Pacheco Santos and Felix Munzon Alvarez. Ms. Rodriguez added: "The Cuban ministry said it was reaching out to U. S. authorities to investigate." The AP article also indicated that Cuba has turned over information to the U. S. regarding who Cuba believes "masterminded" the plot and, interestingly enough, the masterminds, according to Cuba, were Santiago Alvarez, Osvaldo Mitat and Manuel Alzugaray of Miami -- three well known men that the AP said were "linked to perhaps the best known militant exile, Luis Posada Carriles, whom Cuba and Venezuela have sought to prosecute for a 1976 airliner bombing that killed 73 people..."

       To this day, memorials like this in Cuba and elsewhere in the Caribbean and Latin America pay tribute to the 73 victims aboard the bombed Cubana Flight 455. Luis Posada Carriles, a highly trained CIA explosives expert, has openly admitted to terrorist acts against Cuba, including a hotel bombing in Havana that killed an Italian tourist. In a famous New York Times interview conducted by Ann Louis Bardach, Posada Carriles admitted his part in the bombing of Cubana Flight 455 but later recanted that admission.

          Luis Posada Carriles to this day is a celebrated and very free citizen of Miami. Peter Kornbluh's U. S. Security Archives uses many declassified U. S. documents that tie him to terrorist acts against Cuba. Investigative journalist Tracey Eaton secured the above declassified document in which question #10 from the U. S. to Posada Carriles was: "Have you EVER advocated...the overthrow of any government by force or violence?" In his own handwriting, Posada Carriles answered: "Many times." The Associated Press article this week reported that two famous Miami Cuban exiles -- Santiago Alvarez and Osvaldo Mitat -- that long have been "linked" to Posada Carriles were also blamed by Cuba yesterday for the latest terrorist plot. The AP said: "Santiago Alvarez and Mitat pleaded guilty in 2006 in the United States to conspiracy after an informant tipped the FBI that a large cache of weapons, including machine guns and a grenade launcher, was being moved from an apartment Alvarez owned. A subsequent search of a storage area at the apartment revealed more weapons and thousands of bullets. Another arms cache was found in the Bahamas, including C-4 plastic explosives, which prosecutors claimed was linked to Alvarez. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison and Mitat got a two-year sentence. Contacted Wednesday, Santiago Alvarez denied involvement in any plot and said he did not know the detained men. He said he rarely speaks to Posada Carriles and only sees Mitat occasionally. Posada Carriles declined to comment." {Exact quotes, Associated Press, 05-07-2014}

      Cuba maintains that some 3,500 Cuban civilians have been murdered or severely maimed by Cuban-exile terrorist acts directed from Miami -- terrorism that includes shootings and bombs as well as machine-gun and cannon fire from both airplanes and speed boats. The lady speaking above is Nancy Pavon. When she was a teenager, she was in a coastal fishing cabin that was strafed by cannon-fire from two huge speed boats that then had a media-covered celebratory docking back in Miami. Two people were killed. Nancy lost a leg, which means she was one of the luckier victims of persistent terrorism against Cuba.

         Speaking for the U. S. State Department this week, Jen Psaki told the Associated Press, "We have seen the statement by the Cuban Ministry of Interior. We don't have any further information at this time. The Cuban government has also not been in touch with us yet on these cases." However, Cuba -- according to the AP -- had indeed provided data to the U. S. and asked "U. S. authorities to investigate." In the past, the U. S. government -- including instances of aircraft from Miami intimidatingly flying over the Cuban mainland -- has confirmed Cuba's cooperation in seeking U. S. help in such matters. {AP quotes from 05-07-2014}

         The May 7th AP article said that "Posada Carriles declined to comment" about this latest alleged plot against Cuba. However, his longtime powerful lawyer, Arturo Hernandez, did respond. That's Mr. Hernandez on the left of Posada Carriles in the above photo. Mr. Hernandez told the AP yesterday: "We categorically deny that Luis has absolutely anything to do with this or has any knowledge of any of these individuals who were allegedly arrested in Cuba." {Associated Press quotes from 05-07-2014}

      The above photo shows Luis Posada Carriles being honored at a function in Miami. In the famous New York Times interview conducted by Ann Louise Bardach, Posada Carriles graciously thanked the Bush dynasty's favorite exile Jorge Mas Canosa, the Cuban American National Foundation, and the American taxpayers for the training and support they provided him over the years in his war against Castro.

SINCE 1959 THE POSADA CARRILES WAR HAS INVOLVED ALL AMERICANS.

       Fidel Castro and Luis Posada Carriles have been mortal enemies since 1959. Fidel was born on August 13, 1926 in Biran, Cuba. Luis was born on February 15, 1928 in Cienfuegos, Cuba. Now Fidel is ill at age 87 in Havana; Luis is ill at age 86 in Miami.  When one of them dies or when both of them die, will Miami's war with Havana finally end? Not likely. A war that reaps money, power and revenge for generational remnants from an old dictatorship won't stop even when its two most famed antagonists die. It will be left up to some distant generation to turn off the spigot that two generations have allowed to fester like an untreated cancer that was very treatable if post-World II Americans had respected their democracy more.

{Two U. S. generations supported first Batista in Cuba and then the Batistianos in America}

But Democracy deserved that support.     

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Cuba's Great Friend Has Died

Fidel Castro's Best Friend

        Gabriel Garcia Marquez {Photo: Ulf Anderson/Getty Images} died Thursday -- April 17, 2014 -- at his home in Mexico City. He was born on March 6, 1927 in Colombia. He won the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature and his 1967 classic "One Hundred Years of Solitude" established him as Latin America's greatest writer. The New York Times rated him in a quartet that included Tolstoy, Dickens, and Hemingway.

   Gabriel Garcia Marquez's best friend was Cuba's revolutionary icon Fidel Castro. As reflected in his books, Gabo, as he was affectionately called, mortally hated U.S.-backed dictators -- especially Pinochet in Chile, Batista in Cuba, and Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. But he admired true nationalist rebels who desired sovereignty for their countries as opposed to being "false warriors" seeking personal wealth or power. In his keen judgment, Cuba's Fidel Castro fit that bill. Gabo sponsored a school in Havana where he was once asked, "Is Fidel your best friend?" He laughed, then said: "Fidel is actually #2. My wife Mercedes is #1. And she rates Fidel #1 and me #2." Asked why he and Mercedes rated Fidel so high, he said: "Fidel was born rich but cared about the poor, the majority, not about money. Only his enemies accuse him of being money hungry or power hungry. I am not his enemy so I know better, and thus have no reason, like them, to lie. His enemies were and are the ones who crave personal money and power." The New York Times pointed out that Gabo often showed Fidel drafts of his yet-to-be published books. Once, as he returned a draft to Gabo, Fidel said, "I thought I hated Trujillo the most. But maybe you did."

      Fidel Castro is 87-years-old. Gabriel Garcia Marquez was also 87 when he died Thursday. A Castro intimate said, "Gabo's death makes this the second saddest day of Fidel Castro's life. This one hurt."

Fidel Castro's saddest day was January 11, 1980 -- the day Celia Sanchez died.

The photo above shows the two revolutionary soul-mates in 1957.

This {UPI} photo shows Gabriel Garcia Marquez in 1962.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez in 1972. {AP photo}

At his home in Colombia in 1982. {Getty Images photo}

Fidel and Gabo in Havana March 4, 2000. {Reuters photo}

With wife Mercedes in Colombia in 2007. {AP photo}
They got married in 1958 and had two sons, Rodrigo and Gonzalo.
She remains one of Fidel Castro's dearest friends. 

Outside his Mexico City home on his birthday -- March 6, 2014. {AP photo}

As a legendary writer, he {center} was treated like a rock star throughout Latin America.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

March 6, 1927 - April 17, 2014

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