Cuba and the American Mafia

From The 1950s Till Today
Sunday, November 16th, 2014

      She may look more like a reticent Miss Congeniality than a fierce lioness but Josefina Vidal, Cuba's Minister of North American Affairs, is a key reason the island of Cuba is surviving as a sovereign nation, against implacable odds, this deep into the 21st Century. At the conclusion of a news conference in Havana, almost as an aside, she was asked by a candid French journalist, "Really, Ms. Vidal, how much longer can the revolution last? I mean, Fidel is now 88-years-old. When he's gone..." She cut off the Frenchman in mid-sentence, curtly replying, "When he's gone we'll have his legacy. In his life-time he beat the thieving Batistianos who were backed by the strongest nation in the world, the United States, and by the strongest criminal organization in the world, the Mafia. And in his legacy we will still have him as a ballast. Tell your readers in Paris that this is not a normal revolution. Keeping the Mafia off the island will keep inspiring us. If we have surprised you for over sixty years, you will be equally surprised in the next six or ten decades."

      Josefina Vidal, whose expertise now constitutes Cuba's main defensive mechanism, has always defined the Cuban Revolution and Revolutionary Cuba as the good guy against the bad guy and to her the bad guy is also known as "the Mafia." To comprehend how Ms. Vidal stays abreast of vital topics, she, for one thing, knows how to Google for information. And for another thing, she has an eclectic taste when it comes to newspapers and books. On her desk recently a journalist noted several American and British newspapers and one book. The book, interestingly enough, was "Daughter of the King" by Sandra Lansky.  

  This is one of the most fascinating books published in 2014 and, I believe, it is a must-read for anyone fascinated with the Cuban Revolution, Revolutionay Cuba and/or U.S.-Cuban relations since the 1950s. Sandra Lansky is the only daughter of Mafia kingpin Meyer Lansky. She is quite frank about gangland upbringing, which included her close relationships with other Mafia figures; the famed murder of Bugsy Siegal in Las Vegas, for example, was reportedly ordered by Meyer Lansky from his headquarters in Cuba, and Sandra called Bugsy "Uncle Bugsy." As an awesomely beautiful gangland daughter, Sandra also had close, even intimate, relationships with such notable entertainers as Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. She massively loved Dean Martin and in the book she graphically described how the virile Mr. Martin made love to her six times one eventful night. My fascination with her book is purely based on my fascination with the Cuban Revolution, which I think says a lot more about the United States than it says about Cuba. Sandra Lansky's book about her father reinforces that belief. If Meyer Lansky had not risen to the top echelon of the Mafia in the United States, there probably would never have been a Cuban Revolution because there likely would never have been a second Batista dictatorship in Cuba beginning in 1952. As the fame "Godfather" movie and even some very brave historians have pointed out, Meyer Lansky and Fulgencio Batista were living opulent lives in South Florida when Lansky mentioned to Batista that he had always wanted the Mob to own its own country. Lansky, the Jewish Mafia kingpin, and his buddy Lucky Luciano, the Italian Mafia kingpin, had already stashed away plenty of money, as had Batista from his first Cuban dictatorship in the 1940s. Batista knew he still had enough money and enough friends in Miami, Washington, and Havana to easily pull off a second dictatorship in Cuba. So, as a favor to his friend Meyer Lansky, that is what happened in 1952. The book by Sandra Lansky is copious with hints about how and why Batista, Lansky, and Luciano teamed to fulfill Lansky's dream of the Mafia owning its own country -- Cuba! That dream was fulfilled, sternly but briefly, in the 1950s, but Cuba's reaction still reverberates strongly today.

    In her book, the very beautiful Sandi Lansky Lombardo mentioned that one of her father's proudest possessions was a book given to him and personally autographed by two of America's greatest military leaders in World War II. That comes as no surprise to democracy-loving Americans who are not too pleased that, from the 1950s onward, powerful Americans in the military, the CIA, the U. S. Congress, and even the Republican White Houses have facilitated unsavory characters ruling Cuba in the 1950s and unsavory characters since 1959 trying desperately to regain control of it. Meyer Lansky's autographed military book referenced by Sandra obviously was a result of the U. S. government and many historians giving too much credit to Luciano, Lansky, and the Mafia for their help in defeating the vile German, Japanese, and Italian dictatorships in World War II. A young New York prosecutor, Thomas Dewey, had Luciano safely locked up in prison on a 55-year sentence. Using Lansky as a middle-man, the U. S. government secured Luciano's release using the excuse that Luciano, even from prison, was the top Mafia boss and the Mafia controlled the vital New York waterfront that supposedly was very susceptible to German U-boats. A freed Luciano supposedly saved the New York waterfront! Then when the U. S. and England had plans to attack Italy and Sicily, Luciano supposedly paved the way by utilizing the American Mafia's vast knowledge of Italy and Sicily although the fiendish Italian dictator Mussolini, not wanting any internal competition to his Fascist regime, had wiped out the Mafia in Italy and Sicily, killing most of the Mafia leaders and imprisoning the rest. After the World War II victory, as a means of thanking Luciano and Lansky, the U. S. made sure the Mafia leaders were released and many of them quickly resumed control of huge swaths of both Italy and Sicily once again, causing decades of the bloodiest days in Italian history when even top government officials and judges were routinely murdered. After the war, the U. S. didn't return Luciano to that New York prison but did insist that he never return to the United States. But back in Mafia-infested Italy, Luciano soon dominated the world's heroin trade and other lucrative rackets. Then in 1952...Lansky, Luciano, and Batista saw an opportunity for the Mafia to take over its own country -- Cuba! 

      Beginning in 1952, this graphic aptly illustrates the three kingpins in the brutal, thieving Batista dictatorship in Cuba. Front and center is Sandra's father Meyer Lansky. That's the U. S. government's pal Lucky Luciano on the upper-left and Washington's dear friend Fulgencio Batista on the upper-right. The Mafia focus that had been in New York, New Jersey, Chicago, and Las Vegas shifted to Havana! Cuba was viewed as such a luscious tropical paradise and piggy-bank that Lansky, Luciano, and Batista permitted other U. S. Mafia kingpins -- Carlos Marcello of New Orleans, Santo Trafficante of Tampa, Sam Giancana of Chicago, etc. -- to also share in the shady loot being created in Cuba from massive drug, prostitution, and gambling endeavors. Also, to keep the U. S. government happy, rich American businessmen -- after kick-backs to the Batista thugs -- also partook in the fleecing of Cuba. Meanwhile, ships heavily loaded with drugs made regular runs from Havana to Miami, New Orleans and other major U. S. ports. And all the while the U. S. government and U. S. citizens ignored not only the theft of the nearby island's resources and dignity but also the extreme brutality of the powerful Batista dictatorship against innocent Cubans who remotely objected to what was going on. The U. S. government, in fact, provided the military hardware that made Batista's dictatorship powerful. And, yes, many U. S. citizens flocked to the island repeatedly to spend their dollars on gambling, prostitution, drugs, money-laundering, and other nefarious enterprises.

    There are two things that make the Cuban Revolution unique: #1 It was the first revolution forged by massive street marches undertaken by outraged mothers who objected rather strenuously to the senseless and heartless torture and murder of their children, as reflected by this and many other photos; and #2 it is the only revolution that overturned a U.S.-backed dictatorship. Batista, Luciano, Lansky, and other Mafia kingpins didn't stand and fight the rebels storming toward Havana on the last days of 1958 and by New Years Eve in 1959 cash-laden airplanes, ships, and boats hurriedly vacated the island for safer havens, especially nearby Miami. There had already been enough money stashed in Swiss and U. S. banks to overwhelm even U. S. cities as large as Miami in Florida and Union City in New Jersey. And at Fort Benning in Georgia the U. S. already had a secretive operation known as the Army of the Americas in which the U. S. trained and armed soldiers and police from U.S.-friendly dictatorships. So, Fort Benning was where the most passionate anti-revolution/anti-Castro Cubans ended up...including Jorge Mas Canoso who would become the richest and most powerful Cuban-exile as well as Luis Posada Carriles who would become the most infamous Cuban-exile/CIA terrorist. All of that resulted from a female-powered revolution started by Cuban mothers who objected to what Mafia thugs like Meyer Lansky was doing to their island. Since 1959 two generations of those who fled the Cuban Revolution have dictated the basic Cuban narrative in the U. S. as well as the basic Cuban policy in the U. S. -- both of which, by the way, have had as their prime priorities the overthrow of Revolutionary Cuba and, presumptuously, the return of a Batista-type rule. Politically correct or thoroughly intimidated historians and journalists, for the most part, are not sources of truth regarding the Mafia dominance of the U.S.-friendly Batista dictatorship in Cuba. Thus, Sandra Lansky's 2014 book about her Mafia kingpin father Meyer Lansky provides more insight into U.S.-Cuban relations since the 1950s than most orthodox media sources provide because she was perhaps more honest and less intimidated.

     This photo {courtesy of Sandra Lansky} shows the Lansky family. That's Meyer Lansky standing on the right. His wife Ada is sitting beside their daughter Sandra. Sandra's two older brothers are standing to the left. In her book Sandra reveals deep affection for her family, including her father, but also divulges intimate knowledge of his criminality. The book includes photos of several notable murder victims whom she had known as "uncles" and she is aware that her father has been accused of ordering or condoning some of those murders. At one point Sandra mentions that she and her father were joined in a restaurant by the sensational Italian entertainer Frank Sinatra. who was known to envy Mafiosi kingpins such as Lansky, Luciano, and Giancana. A nervous Frank spilled a drink all over Sandra and then anxiously recoiled when he noticed her father's facial reaction, a descriptive look but one which clearly scared the fawning Sinatra, amusing Sandra. That tidbit from Sandra's book coincided with the fact that millions of Americans far less famous than Sinatra also considered Mafia kingpins celebrities, not criminals. Such accolades, however, were not how those Cuban mothers who actually started the Cuban revolution viewed Lansky and the rest of the American Mafia.

          Based on her book, the love of Sandra's life was the A-list entertainer Dean Martin {Photo courtesy Sandra Lansky}. She not only was enamored with his sexual prowess, as she vividly explained, but also impressed by how often he desired to see her, including the morning after they had made love six times. He repeatedly begged her to accompany him on out-of-town singing and movie gigs. But he never asked her to marry him and she seems to believe that was only because of who her father was. Sandra had been married as a teenager but as a beautiful woman she was disappointed she did not become Martin's wife.

       But Sandra Lansky did become Mrs. Vincent Lombardo. {Photo courtesy: Sandra Lansky}. He was on the fringe of the Mafia when she fell in love with him, after reluctantly conceding she would not become Mrs. Dean Martin, but Meyer Lansky laid down a rule: If Vince was to marry his daughter, he must never again have anything to do with the Mafia. Sandra said Vince made that solemn promise to her father, and kept it.

      This photo shows Italian Lucky Luciano, on the left, with his shorter Jewish friend Meyer Lansky. This was in New York during the early stages as they were solidifying their Mafia credentials, Lucky as a street thug and Meyer as a more cerebral thief. Lucky went go on to become the most powerful figure in Mafia history, renowned as the organizer of organized crime. Meyer was #2 in the Mafia because he was Lucky's financial guru and prime strategist. After the U. S. government bailed Lansky out of his 55-year prison sentence in New York {because the U. S. allegedly needed the Mafia's help to win World War II}, Cuba suffered mightily from the fact that the world's top gangster had the opportunity to plague Cuba during the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship in the 1950s as did his prime partner Meyer Lansky, who also didn't have much trouble from the U. S. government either before or after the Batista turmoil that roiled Cuba.

      Lucky Luciano was born Salvadore Lucania in Lercara Friddi, Italy, on November 24, 1897. By then it was becoming known that the Italian Mafiosi could make much more money in the U. S. than in Italy. No Mafia figure ever had as much power as Lucky Luciano. In 1998, in fact, Time Magazine named Lucky Luciano to the Top 20 of the most influential American "builders" of the 20th Century. Al Capone, Vito Genevesse, Carlo Gambino, and a few others earned well-known Mafia fame and infamy but they all took their orders from Lucky Luciano. After World War II, Luciano actually lived only briefly in Cuba but he still called the major shots, pun intended, for the Mafia exploitation of Cuba and its other enterprises. Luciano died of a heart attack at the Naples International Airport in Italy on January 26, 1962. He had gone to the airport to meet American movie producer Martin Gosch concerning a film about his life. After massive funeral processions in Italy, Luciano's body was flown to the U. S. and he was buried at St. John's Cemetery in Queens, New York. The eulogy was spoken by Carlo Gambino, whom Mafia experts consider the only other man to approach the Mafia power held by Luciano. But Carlo was a distant #2.

        As this photo {courtesy of Sandra Lansky} shows, Meyer Lansky lived in Miami long after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and long after the death of Lucky Luciano in 1962. This photo was taken of "Daddy" -- Meyer Lansky -- in Miami in 1972 with two of his best friends. Sandra wrote in their names.

       This photo was taken of Meyer Lansky in 1958 in Havana, the last year he was in Cuba before fleeing the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959, first for the Bahamas and then back to Miami. Lansky was caught by surprise by the startling revolutionary triumph. He had, for example, just spent $18 million dollars to build the plush 440-room Habana Riviera Hotel/Casino and that venture alone had earned him $3 million in profits the first year it was open. Meyer Lansky was born Meyer Suchowijansky in Grodno, Balarus, on July 4, 1902. He died of lung cancer on November 15, 1982 in Miami Beach at age 80. He has been depicted in many movies, including the 1980's Robert Redford film "Havana." But the most famous movie depiction of Lansky was in 1974's "The Godfather II" in which the Hyman Roth character was based on Lansky. Lee Strasberg played Hyman Roth and right after the movie aired Strasberg got a phone call from Lansky congratulating him on his performance. Roth's most famous line in the movie was Lansky's real-life exclamation, "We are bigger than U. S. Steel!" The U. S. government once estimated that Lansky was personally worth $300 million and tax evasion charges were considered but never stuck. Even his daughter Sandra admitted he put cash away in other people's names. And Lansky invested in legitimate businesses. But after he died, a grand-daughter said he had only left $36,000 behind.

          This is the scene in "Godfather II" in which Lee Strasberg {as Lansky} lays that "We are bigger than U. S. Steel" line on Al Pacino. Pacino, as the "Godfather" star, had taken $2 million in a satchel to Havana to invest in the Mafia casinos. But the Pacino character changed his mind when he saw a rebel die killing a Batista enforcer on a street in Havana, showing that the rebellion had reached the capital city.

Meyer Lansky is buried in Mt. Nebo Cemetery in Miami.

      This iconic Life Magazine photo shows Meyer Lansky leaving his spanking new Habana Riviera Hotel carrying a satchel that reputedly contained $200,000. In 1959 Fidel Castro famously booted Lansky out of Cuba. In 1970 Lansky fled to Israel because he felt some heat from the IRS related to alleged unpaid taxes. But when she was informed of Lansky's criminality, Israel's Prime Minister Golda Mier famously kicked him out of Israel. But in his long career with the Mafia, Meyer Lansky was welcomed in Batista's Cuba and also welcomed in the United States, especially the Mafia havens of New York, Union City, and Miami.

      

      There are many excellent books about Meyer Lansky and the American-based Mafia ransacking the nearby island of Cuba back in the 1950s. "A Caribbean Mob Story: The Mafia in Havana" by Enrique Cirules that features Meyer Lansky on the cover is one of the best. 

       But Josefina Vidal also likes "Daughter of the King: Growing Up In Gangland" by Sandra Lansky, the only daughter of Meyer Lansky. Sandra indeed provides special insights into the U.S.-Mafia nexus that resulted in their combined support of the Batista dictatorship in Cuba, an adventure that spawned the even more adventurous Cuban Revolution, which in turn gave birth to such calamitous events as "The Bay of Pigs Attack," "The Cuban Missile Crisis," "The Terrorist Bombing of Cubana Flight 455," "the U. S. Embargo Against Cuba," and other mammoth depictions of the contentious U.S.-Cuban relationship since 1959. Because she lived some of the U. S.-Cuban nuances first-hand, Sandra Lansky casts some bright lights on both American and Cuban history that others, including historians and scholars, have not been afforded. Sandra, for example, had insight on such things as the Mafia assassination of her friend Ben "Bugsy" Siegel because the decision to order that notorious hit supposedly was made at a meeting in Havana of top Mafia bosses, including Meyer Lansky. Later, Meyer Lansky famously said, "If it had been left up to me, Ben Siegel would still be alive." His comment was interesting. So is his daughter's book.

Of course, if you want to be entertained as well as enlightened about Cuba and the Mafia, you should read "Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba and Then Lost It to the Revolution" by T. J. English. It's a bit less sanguine and a lot more impervious than Sandra Lansky's book but equally mischievous and authentic. T. J. English crafted four enticing components -- Cuba, sex, politics, and organized crime -- into one sure-fire New York Times best-seller, reaffirming Cuba's fascinating pugnaciousness.

"How Cuba and the Mafia Ended Up In Miami"

"How Tony Montana Fled Cuba for Fame, Infamy, and Fortune in Miami" 

******************************

  

Marco Rubio's Plan To Recapture Cuba

And He Might Pull It Off
Thursday, November 13th, 20 14

        This Channel 4/CBS/Miami photo shows Republican U. S. Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona {on the left} and Democratic U. S. Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico holding an important news conference in Havana Tuesday {November 11th}. Of the 100 members of the U. S. Senate, Mr. Flake and Mr. Udall are easily the two bravest and most sensible when it comes to a Cuban policy that they believe has harmed the image of the U. S. and democracy for far too long. Senators Flake and Udall had just met with Alan Gross, the American who has served four years of a 15-year prison sentence in Cuba. Mr. Gross is now 65-years-old and unwell. Senators Flake and Udall want him home with his family in Maryland; so does Cuba, which will never back off its conviction of Mr. Gross for secretly bringing spy equipment to the island. However, Cuba has repeatedly let it be known that the island wants to "negotiate" Mr. Gross's release. Josefina Vidal, Cuba's Minister of North American Affairs, believes the Obama administration wants to cooperate in those negotiations but has been unable to do so because the hard-line Cuban-Americans who dominate America's Cuban policy prefer that Mr. Gross remains incarcerated in Cuba so the issue can repeatedly be used to assail Cuba. Senators Flake and Udall seem to agree with Ms. Vidal. So do all other informed, unbiased sources. For example, the current Cuba Central posting on the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas website quotes a prime anti-Castro zealot as saying, "let him rot," meaning Mr. Gross. In fact, Mr. Gross's family and lawyer have blamed the U. S. government for not doing more to accept Cuba's offers to "negotiate" and Mr. Gross's family and lawyer have blamed the U. S. for sending him on a "dangerous, covert mission" that the U. S. knew broke Cuban laws. The Associated Press article written by Michael Weissenstein about Senators Flake and Udal being in Havana included this paragraph: "USAID {the program that sent Mr. Gross on his missions to Cuba} is preparing to end risky under-cover work in hostile countries. The new policy follows an AP investigation this year into work by the development agency which set up a Twitter-like social network in Cuba and secretly sought to recruit a new generation of dissidents on the island while hiding ties to the U. S. government. The AP found USAID and its contractor concealed their involvement in the program by setting up a front company, routing money through Cayman Islands bank transactions, and fashioning cover stories." In other words, the Nov. 11-2014 Associated Press article about Senators Flake and Udall being in Cuba reflects and parallels how the Gross saga aligns with most other Cuban exile-inspired efforts to undermine Cuba with piles of unending tax dollars funding "risky under-cover work" that is "concealed" from the American people by "routing" the money through foreign banks, etc. And then, of course, when such things are revealed the American people are repeatedly misinformed -- whether it be the "Bay of Pigs" attack, "Brothers to the Rescue" airplanes dropping leaflets over Havana, recruiting non-Cuban Latinos on "Twitter-like" missions to Cuba to stir up dissidents, sending Mr. Gross on what his wife and lawyer called "dangerous" missions to Cuba, etc. All the while, Americans are supposed to get the Cuban narrative only from two generations of Cubans booted off the island 55 years ago and, even more remarkably, kept off the island for all these decades. The fair-minded Associated Press article about the fair-minded Senators Flake and Udall being in Cuba on Mr. Gross's behalf will surely be swamped by unfair and unbalanced anti-Cuban extremists.

       The petite doctor's daughter, Celia Sanchez, was the incomparable guerrilla fighter and revolutionary leader most responsible for defeating the Batista-Mafia dictatorship, only to see it resurrect itself on nearby U. S. soil. She once told famed journalist Carlos Franqui: "You scribes give us rebels far too much credit. Most of it should go to the stupidity and cowardice of the rich criminals we chased to Florida."

      Today the Cuban who keeps the sharpest eye on covert action from the U. S. designed to overthrow Revolutionary Cuba is Josefina Vidal, Cuba's Minister of North American Affairs. She is the one who would like to "negotiate" Mr. Gross's release "if we can only find someone with the courage and decency to discuss it." Ms. Vidal also has stated that her prime duty is "To always be alert, watchful, to detect provocations against us designed to create a reaction that can then be twisted and used against us." She cites the Miami-based Brothers to the Rescue planes as a provocation, as well as the ongoing Alan Gross saga.

     Cristina Fernandez is the democratically elected President of Argentina, which is still a sovereign country. She belongs to the rather large contingent of Latin American presidents who are Cuba's friends and also admirers of Fidel Castro. For that reason, she is tired of "Miami and Union City Cubans in the U. S. Congress forever punishing any country that treats Cuba decently." A couple of weeks ago, President Fernandez called in a U. S. diplomat and angrily pounded her fist down at a newspaper article about "U. S. Senator Marco Rubio, Republican from Miami, calling for strong U. S. sanctions against Venezuela and Argentina." Then President Fernandez flashed the head-line to the embarrassed American, saying sarcastically, "Do you people still have a democracy over there or do you just let a few Cubans dictate everything?" And so, From Celia Sanchez to Josefina Vidal to Cristina Fernandez, the beat goes on!!  

       This Carlos Barria/REUTERS photo was used to illustrate the changing demographics in South Florida. The caption read: "A Puerto Rican flag is held by Miami residents at the Calle Ocho Festival in Miami." Calle Ocho {8th Street} is renowned for being the epicenter of Little Havana in the heart of Miami, and the heartbeat of anti-Castro fervor since 1959. The article pointed out that Puerto Ricans "have been migrating by the thousands to Miami...the largest exodus from that island U. S. territory since World War II." There are now 1.0 million Puerto Ricans in Florida compared to 1.3 million Cubans. Only Brooklyn and the Bronx in New York have larger Puerto Rican communities than Florida. Puerto Ricans are not viscerally anti-Cuban. In fact, all recent polls reveal that the majority of Cuban-Americans in Miami now favor normalizing relations with Cuba, putting them on the same page with the region and the rest of the entire world.

Yet, the three most hard-line and most entrenched members of the U. S. Congress from Miami -- Marco Rubio, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and Mario Diaz-Balart -- continue to mostly dictate America's Cuban policy, which remains two-fold: {1} To overthrow Cuba's Revolutionary government; and {2} to punish any and all sovereign nations that even remotely show favoritism or sympathy toward the besieged island. At long last, it appears time to alter America's hedonistic, self-indulgent treatment of Cuba that shames the U. S., especially throughout Latin America. The Summit of the Americas in April in Panama may be a starting point.

      Although I am a lifelong conservative Republican, I strongly supported liberal Democrat Barack Obama in both of his successful bids to become President of the United States. For one thing, I was/am appalled that the Republican Party has been hijacked by Fox-Koch-Tea Party-Cuban right-wingers. For another thing, I was misled by candidate Obama regarding some of his prime promises -- such as correcting at least some of the disasters created by the two-term, right-wing George W. Bush presidency. Cuba, for example, is a foreign country and the U. S. policy regarding Cuba since the 1950s has mocked and shamed the U. S. democracy as much or more than any long-term cancer has ever afflicted the U. S. government. Mr. Obama, as a campaigner, promised sanity in regards to a Cuban policy that has been dictated for six decades by two generations of self-serving and self-indulgent Cuban exiles from the vile U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship that got overthrown in 1959 only to resurface on U. S. soil -- namely Miami and Union City and then Washington. In 2014 I and others believe President Obama has failed democracy by not doing more to resurrect the U. S. by extracting as much as possible from the clutches of right-wingers like the Bushes and Cuban-Americans such as the Diaz-Balarts, Ros-Lehtinen, Menendez, Rubio, Cruz, etc. And now, six years into his two-term presidency, it appears President Obama will actually try to use his executive authority to combat some of the evils of the bought-and-paid-for U. S. Congress, which actually has a much lower approval rating than the president's dismal 40%. Now that the congressional elections are over and the right-wing Republicans have control of both houses of Congress, President Obama will use the last two lame-duck years of his presidency to try to enhance his legacy by bringing a bit of decency and sanity to the right-wing disasters he was saddled with. He has, for example, promised two very decent members of the U. S. Congress -- Kathy Castor of Florida and Jim McGovern of Massachusetts -- that, between now and the Summit of the Americas next April in Panama, he will diligently use executive authority to sanitize, as best he can, America's Cuban policy. He is  aware that the rest of the world more and more demands that action. Removing Cuba from the State Department's Sponsor of Terrorism list? Yes, he has the executive power to do that although the vast majority of the 535-member U. S. Congress is either bought-off or scared-off by extremists when it comes to Cuba. Trading 3 Cuban U. S. prisoners for one American in a Cuban prison? Yes, he will attempt that. Of course, the vast cottage industry of visceral Cuban-American extremists will go ballistic if and when he tries to bring even a pittance of sanity to U.S.-Cuban relations, but President Obama in the coming months will risk it. His low approval rating and the total right-wing dominance of the U. S. Congress will restrict but not totally restrain his efforts to improve relations with Cuba. He will not be able to normalize those relations in the next two years but, at long last, he will try to smooth away some of the cruelty and insanity while caressing some principles of democracy when it comes to the neighboring, still sovereign island that should be allowed to set its own course and not have it dictated from abroad by a few self-serving extremists from the Miami-Union City-Washington triangle.

        The Washington-based, democracy-loving Center for Democracy in the Americas is the best place to visit Online to learn about the incredible hedonism, ineptitude, and cruelty of America's Cuban policy. Each Friday the CDA Website features its "Cuba Central" blog that is authored by the CDA's Executive Director Sarah Stephens, one of America's greatest and most respected democracy lovers. The headline for her November 7th "Cuba Central" segment was: "After the Deluge: Is There Hope President Obama Will Act On Cuba?" {The word "Deluge" referenced the November 4th congressional elections}. Each Friday the Center for Democracy in the Americas updates the world on the un-democratic manner in which the United States, since 1959, has permitted a handful of anti-Castro Cuban-American zealots to dictate America's Cuban policy, which the rest of the Americas, in unanimity, openly and fervently oppose.

      The November 7th "Cuba Central" segment on the "Center for Democracy in the Americas" Website referenced the above photo to illustrate why a few self-serving Cuban dissidents should not be able to hide behind the unchecked might of the U. S. government to dictate a Cuban policy that serves a few and harms the many. The photo above shows Senator Robert Menendez from Union City sitting directly across from famed Cuban dissident Yoani Sanchez, who now can travel around the world lambasting Cuba before returning to the island. Sitting directly across from Senator Marco Rubio from Miami is extreme Cuban dissident Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo. The fact that Senators Menendez and Rubio never seem interested in discussing the topic of Cuba with less biased, democracy loving experts -- such as Sarah Stephens at the Center for Democracy in the Americas -- is not lost on observers who view America's Cuban policy as the reason America's influence and image in the Caribbean and Latin America has plummeted to startling depths. But do Senators Menendez and Rubio really care? And will they even address that question?

       Senator Marco Rubio from Miami and Senator Robert Menendez from Union City are now the two most powerful Cuban-American zealots in the U. S. Congress. With Cuba being a foreign country, both Rubio and Menendez, quite naturally, are key members of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee. In fact, Menendez is the Chairman. The Torricelli Bill and the Helms-Burton Act -- both rammed through the U. S. Congress by ultra-powerful Cuban-Americans and their sycophants -- currently dictate that the U. S. government provides ultra-punishment not only to Cuba but to foreign nations and companies that show or display even a hint of sovereign sanity regarding Cuba. For example, the blistering letters on U. S. Senate stationery that berated the President of Panama for having the audacity to invite Cuba to the Summit of the Americas in Panama in April typically shamed the U. S. democracy and reflected why America's Cuban policy is hated by every Caribbean and Latin American nation. But Mr. Rubio and Mr. Menendez don't seem to care about that, nor do they seem to mind how much of their time and energy is devoted to insanely assaulting Cuba and its friends, time and energy that perhaps U. S. senators should be devoting to real American problems, especially Miami and Union City where crime, corruption, and an obscene disparity between the rich and poor are especially prevalent. But after reading those blistering letters bullying the sovereign President of Panama and taking note of recent efforts by Cuban-Americans in the U. S. Congress to punish-threaten-sanction Cuba's friends, especially Venezuela and Argentina, it appears Senators Rubio and Menendez believe their entrenched positions in the U. S. Senate are primarily vehicles whereby punishing and maybe recapturing Cuba are top priorities. Rubio, eagerly campaigning for the 2016 presidency, is totally convinced that his extremely harmful Cuban tactics -- harmful to millions of innocent Cubans and to the sacred U. S. democracy -- will not cost him many votes on his path to capturing the White House in 2016. And sadly, he's probably right in this money-crazed democracy.

      This photo of U. S. Senator Marco Rubio is courtesy of AP Foto/The Telegraph Herald/Jessica Reilly. It was used to highlight a major AP article that flashed around the world, especially via Fox News Latino, within hours after the Republicans had annihilated the Democrats and captured both branches -- the Senate and House of Representatives -- in the U. S. Congress. The AP article had a dateline from, of all places, Bogota, Colombia because, for whatever reason, that's where Senator Rubio was apparently campaigning for the 2016 U. S. presidency while the 2014 congressional elections were playing out. The article was entitled: "Marco Rubio Says Republican Gains In Senate Will Breathe New Life Into Venezuela Sanctions." Mr. Rubio seems convinced that the Republican -- meaning right-wing -- control of Congress will give him and a handful of other visceral anti-Castro Cuban-Americans from Miami and Union City an excellent chance for the ultra-rich and ultra-powerful Batistianos to, regain control of Cuba, something that, amazingly, has eluded them since the leaders of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship were booted off the island by the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959. Within hours of the Republican triumphs in the November elections, Senator Rubio anxiously revealed his focus in the long-standing bid to re-capture Cuba. Americans, two-thirds of whom didn't bother to vote and three-thirds of whom don't care about Cuba, much less the U. S. democracy, will not decipher the meaning of that Rubio headline. But the majority of Latin Americans do and, to them, the hidden meaning of the headline could have been more accurately entitled: "Marco Rubio Says Republicans' Election Victory Could Hasten the Re-Capture of Cuba." Now why is that so? I'm glad you asked. Since 1959, many efforts to re-capture Cuba have failed...such as the attack at the Bay of Pigs; hundreds of documented assassination attempts against the now 88-year-old Fidel Castro; history's longest and cruelest economic embargo by a powerful country against a weak country; murderous and unchallenged terrorist attacks against innocent Cubans such as the bombing of Cubana Flight 455; terrorist attacks against Cuban-Americans like the car-bombed Miami newsman Emilio Milian who spoke out against unchecked hard-line Cuban exiles; etc. Even hiding behind the skirts of the world's economic and military superpower, the Batistianos, for going on six decades, have still been unable to re-capture Cuba. However, the actual AP headline above reflects the latest scheme to re-capture Cuba and that is by sanctioning, assailing, and punishing Cuba's primary friends in the region -- such as Venezuela, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Boliva, etc. Earlier this year, for example, Senator Rubio sponsored in the U. S. Senate legislation targeting Venezuela that didn't quite succeed even in a bought-and-paid-for U. S. Congress. But, as indicated by the aforementioned AP article, Rubio now is confident, after the mid-term election, his punishment of Venezuela will be supported by both houses of  the right-wing Congress. In recent months there have been countless other moves by the Miami and Union City Cuban-Americans in Congress to assail as many of Cuba's friends as possible. That includes official harangues against the President of Panama for inviting Cuba to the Summit of the Americas that will be held in Panama in April; calls from anti-Castro zealots in the U. S. Congress to punish Argentina apparently because President Cristina Fernandez is a great admirer of Fidel Castro and, like most other Latin American leaders, not too fond of the Miami Cubans; the Castro-loving female Presidents of Brazil and Chile, prior to their recent re-elections, complained about the fervent support their opponents got from Miami; the Castro-loving male Presidents of Bolivia, Venezuela, Argentina, and Ecuador have all recently been quoted in Latin America media as having their personal security enhanced because of perceived threats from anti-Cubans in the U. S. In that milieu, the AP article revealing Senator Rubio's first major thoughts after the Republican triumph in the November congressional elections will not be taken lightly in Latin America because Rubio confirmed what was already known, which is: The current strategy of the Miami-Union City anti-Castro elements to regain control of Cuba is to siphon off the island's remaining supply lines -- that is, the primary support it receives from other nations in the region, nations that, beginning in the 1980s, were hopeful that democracy and respect for sovereignty had replaced, once and for all, the plethora of U.S.-backed dictatorships in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, etc. The triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 inspired hope for the region, but even the tight embrace of democratic elections has again been lessened by the sheer fact that the overthrown Batista dictatorship in Cuba merely fled to nearby Miami and soon refurbished itself on U. S. soil, namely Miami, Union City, and Washington. That refurbishment elevated Cuban millionaires to Cuban-American billionaires in an America where democracy has increasingly become vulnerable to rich special interests. And so, when it comes to U.S.-Cuban relations in November of 2014, that is where we are. The AP headline on November 5th revealed the latest Batistiano strategy to regain control of Cuba: Cut off the remaining supply lines to Cuba from countries friendly to the besieged island so the people on the island will be vulnerable to being recaptured. 

     Senator Marco Rubio is campaigning hard to be President of the United States beginning in 2016. He might make it. He was born 43 years ago in Miami and has been in the U. S. Congress only since 2011. He made it all the way to the U. S. Senate with his bio making the obligatory claim that his parents escaped the tyranny of Castro for the freedom of Miami. Then it was revealed that his parents actually escaped the tyranny of Batista well before Castro chased the Batistianos off the island. But in an era in which ad agencies easily obliterate facts, who's counting? If Rubio gets the Republican bid for the presidency, he might well beat the presumed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton...for these reasons: The minuscule approval rating of Democratic President Obama's two terms; and monumental Hillary Clinton flaws such as her age and the many Clinton dynasty scandals that stretch from Arkansas to the White House to Wall Street. Also, if Jeb Bush decides not to compete for the 2016 presidency, billions of Bush dynasty dollars could flow to Rubio...in a presidential election that will be predicated by billions of freely cascading, very dark dollars. Also, refurbished and very rich right-wing propaganda machines such as Fox News, the Tea Party, and the multi-billionaire Koch Brothers stand ready and eager to promote Marco Rubio for President in 2016, blinding the helpless U. S. citizenry with a tsunami of noxious television ads. 

       So, yes, Marco Rubio -- whose parents, uh, escaped the tyranny of the BATISTA DICTATORSHIP FOR THE AWESOME FREEDOM OF MIAMI -- may well be President of the United States on January 20th, 2016. All of Cuba's best friends in Latin America are already cognizant of the unchecked power of a few anti-Castro zealots in the U. S. Congress. Those Latin American nations believe that, if Mr. Rubio captures the White House in 2016, it will be equivalent to the Batistianos CAPTURING the United States before they RE-CAPTURE Cuba. Those Latin America countries, of course, are presuming that Mr. Rubio's concerted efforts as a Senator to cut off Cuba's supply lines in the next two years will not bring the pugnacious little island to its knees. Yet, a right-wing Cuban-American like Rubio {or Ted Cruz} as President aligned with a right-wing Republican Congress likely would, many Latin American nations believe, overwhelm Cuba, militarily and economically. "President Marco Rubio!" Are you ready for that, America? Cuba and Latin America are afraid it will happen...as early as 2016. And you know what? They have a right to be afraid.

The President in 2016 should be from Tampa, not Miami!!

     Kathy Castor was born in Miami but she represents the much saner city of Tampa in the U. S. Congress. There are 535 members of the U. S. Congress and Ms. Castor has more guts than the other 534 combined, as reflected by her extremely brave efforts to normalize relations between the U. S. and Cuba. Recently she said, "I agree with the abysmally low approval rating of our Congress." She is an anomaly in that she actually represents the best interests of her constituents, not special interests and not a handful of rich and powerful anti-Castro Cuban-American zealots in Miami and Washington. She is, to put it mildly, quite unique in the modern pantheon of American politics because she is a member of the U. S. Congress who is neither bought-and-paid for nor easily intimidated. That means she is a unique human being.

              On October 26, 2014, the Tampa Bay Tribune -- the major newspaper in Congresswoman Kathy Castor's district -- featured a major article that acutely illustrated why she is unique in the U. S. Congress when it comes to courage, common sense, and democracy-loving patriotism. The article was written by the Tampa Bay Tribune's Paul Guzzo and entitled "UN Vote on Cuba Embargo Again Pits U. S. Against World." Mr. Guzzo pointed out that "key U. S. leaders pay the numbers no heed." He was, of course, referencing the bought-and-paid-for or intimidated "leaders." Kathy Castor is not a member of those clubs. Therefore, she paid heed to the yearly UN vote {188-to-2} that reveals how drastically the rest of the world -- with the lone exception of bought-and-paid-for U.S.-dependent Israel -- opposes the U. S. embargo of Cuba. Congresswoman Castor told Guzzo, "If you look at the UN vote, you realize that the U. S. is the outlier on the issue. It is time we recognize this and do more to bring the two nations together. America and Cuba have so much to gain by turning the page on these Cold War policies. And all of our friends in the hemisphere are in favor of that happening." Congresswoman Castor realizes that only Congress can lift the embargo, something that was predicated when some very high-priced right-wing lawyers made that a feature of the infamous Helms-Burton Bill. "But," she told Mr. Guzzo, "the President does have the power to make decisions that can chip away at the embargo's goal of separation, such as taking Cuba off the U. S. list of State Sponsors of Terrorism." Cuba is on the very short list {along with Syria, Iran, and Sudan} of Sponsors of Terrorism because the inclusion of Cuba sates the always prevalent revenge and financial motives of a few self-serving Cuban-Americans and their sycophants. For example, keeping Cuba on the list enables unrepresented Cuba to be sued in Miami courts for huge sums of money even on far-fetched claims, and much of the money is easily collected from the U. S. Treasury or from frozen Cuban assets, such as perpetual money due Cuba from telephone communications between the two countries. Democracy lovers like Congresswoman Castor are rightfully ashamed about Cuba being unfairly listed as a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but I bet that your representative in the U. S. Congress -- if it is not Kathy Castor -- has neither the integrity nor the courage to even comment on the issue.

      Although she was born in Miami and represents Tampa in the U. S. Congress, Kathy Castor is brave enough and patriotic enough to stand up and proclaim that America's Cuban policy has been crafted by and for a handful of two generations of visceral Cuban-American politicians and businessmen, in conjunction with a handful of their easily procured American sycophants, while vastly punishing the majority of Cubans and Americans. As she was again quoted in the aforementioned Tampa Tribune article, Congresswoman Castor points out that the entire Western Hemisphere, in unanimity, opposes the U. S. policy regarding Cuba. Her passion regarding Cuba is two-fold: her love of democracy and her desire to benefit her constituents in the Tampa area. Because of her, direct flights from Tampa to Cuba have drastically increased. The Tampa Tribune article also pointed out that Tampa has "the closest U. S. deep-water port to Cuba"  and therefore tens of thousands of Tampa residents would see "trade benefits if the embargo is lifted." Because of Congresswoman Castor, Tampa's Florida Aquarium is concluding a partnership in coral reef research with Cuba's National Aquarium of Havana; a delegation from the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce traveled to Cuba in 2013; this year Jose Ramon Cabanas Rodriguez, Chief of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, attended a Tampa Chamber event as a special guest of Ms. Castor; etc., etc. And because of her, many other prominent citizens of Tampa also are eager to voice their acute objections to America's Cuban policy that is designed to sate the revenge, financial, and political motives of a few at the expense of the many. Cuba long ago tired of being an imperialist piggy-bank.

      Albert A. Fox Jr. is another brave and patriotic resident of Tampa, Florida. He is the founder of the Tampa-based Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy Foundation. The aforementioned Tampa Tribune article included a pertinent quotation from Mr. Fox. He said: "The rest of the world mocks us for calling Cuba a terrorist state. It diminishes the importance of the terrorist list. We are losing respect in the eyes of the world because of it." Of course, since the 1950s, benefactors of a soiled and brutal Cuban policy have cared very little about the U. S. being mocked or diminished or un-respected because of a Cuban policy that benefits only a few extremists. The Tampa Bay Tribune article quoted Marco Rubio, the U. S. Senator from Miami, and Mauricio Claver-Carone, the richly funded Washington-based anti-Castro lobbyist and blogger, expressing their extremists but usually uncontested views on Cuba. However, the Tampa Bay Tribune and the nearby St. Petersburg Times are two newspapers in Florida that actually tell both sides of the U.S.-Cuban conundrum. Thus, not only did the Tampa Bay Tribune article by Paul Guzzo feature the sane and sensible pro-democracy views of Congresswoman Kathy Castor but also quoted other brave, informed souls such as Albert A. Fox Jr. Wow! Tampa, Florida is a courageous American city!

        Carlos Mendoza is Costa Rica's representative to the United Nations. Costa Rica is the democracy-loving Central American nation of 4.6 million hearty and well-cared-for souls. Mr. Mendoza, reflecting the views of every Latin American and Caribbean nation, made one of the most riveting speeches at the UN on Oct. 28-2014. That was when the entire world fulfilled its yearly condemnation of the Batistiano-fueled U. S. embargo of Cuba. Mr. Mendoza called it a "genocidal economic blockade" designed to "infringe upon the lives of masses of innocent people to exact revenge or financial or political gain for a deposed minority." At the UN Mr. Mendoza, like many other Latin American leaders, referenced the infamously de-classified U. S. document known as "Foreign Relations of the United States; Volume VI, Cuba." That de-classified U. S. State Department document spelled out the original purpose of the economic blockade of Cuba in the early 1960s in these exact, haunting words: "To weaken the economic life of Cuba to bring about hunger and desperation" for the purpose of inflicting "serious bodily or mental harm" on the Cuban people for the purpose of causing them to overthrow their Cuban government, suggesting that after they did so that the wealthy U. S. government would then make sure they did not starve or lack for essential needs. Yes, since the early 1960s the embargo has seriously attempted to starve and deprive the Cuban people on the island to appease a few rich and powerful Cuban exiles in the United States. Cuba's survival for almost six decades, considering the unmatched power of the U. S., has amazed Latin America even more than the amazing triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Of course, Senator Rubio and his colleagues get away with dismissing that UN vote and the words of direly concerned democracy-loving people such as Carlos Mendoza. All the while propagandized Americans are not supposed to have any knowledge of or opinions about such things as the de-classified "Foreign Relations of the United States, Volume VI, Cuba" document. For that and other equally shameful reasons, Mr. Rubio may become President of the United States in 2016, which would greatly enhance his goal of slicing the remaining supply lines to Cuba from decent, democracy-loving nations like Carlos Mendoza's beautiful little Costa Rica.

       As a guerrilla fighter and leader, Celia Sanchez is easily the all-time most important Cuban revolutionary figure. {Fidel Castro, I think, would rank #2 on that pantheon and Jose Marti, who died on Cuban soil fighting against imperialist Spanish soldiers, would be #3}. But Celia Sanchez is clearly #1.

        The speech at the UN by Costa Rica's Carlos Mendoza in October of 2014 reminded me of the proclamation Celia Sanchez laid down, both verbally and in writing, shortly after she became the prime decision-maker in Revolutionary Cuba on January 1, 1959. Her stern, prescient edict resonates today even more profoundly than it did in 1959: "The Batistianos will never regain control of Cuba as long as I live or as long as Fidel lives." Celia Sanchez died of cancer at age 59 on January 11, 1980. Fidel Castro is 88-years-old and unwell but still alive. He likely will not be alive on January 20, 2016, when the next U. S. president will be inaugurated. But the Revolutionary Cuba that Celia Sanchez forged will neither starve nor crumble during Fidel Castro's lifetime. Thus, even if Marco Rubio and his ilk eventually cut off all the life-saving supply lines to Cuba, that proclamation will, amazingly, have to be historically judged as having survived the test of time. And that is why Cuba, not a U. S. Cuban policy propped up by the likes of Marco Rubio, has the support today of every nation in the Caribbean and Latin America as well as every nation in the world except U.S.-dependent Israel. Yes, the 99-pound doctor's daughter from Media Luna, Cuba, is an historical giant in a world mostly constructed by and for greedy, power-hungry males. Capturing Miami and Washington was easy for the Batistianos. Re-capturing Havana has proven to be something else altogether even as the 55-year effort has so drastically harmed the image of America in the eyes of much of the world. Celia Sanchez would understand and be proud of the unanimity in the UN. Marco Rubio gets to dismiss it only because the American people have not and do not hold two generations of American Batistianos responsible for what Carlos Mendoza and the other UN representatives so emphatically did once again on October 28, 2014. To say that the U. S. is isolated regarding Cuba is an understatement.

        This photo combo is courtesy of REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/Mary F. Calvert. It is typical of the montages flashing around the nation because media outlets such as the New York Times, NBC News, etc., are busy predicting and heralding this duo as the American presidential candidates in the fast approaching 2016 campaign. Although it is politically incorrect to say so {because it bespeaks of billions of capitalistic dollars overflowing the already flooded ad tsunami}, Democrat Hillary Clinton vs. Republican Jeb Bush would enhance the downward spiral of the U. S. democracy, making a mockery of what the Founding Fathers prescribed and crafted for it. For one thing, both Clinton and Bush are bought-and-paid-for by special interests; that is precisely why they have the billions of dollars necessary to attack the American public with a vast array of noxious television ads. For a second thing, the Founding Fathers, in their infinite wisdom, never intended for their democracy to be usurped by familial dynasties or monarchies. Clinton's claim to fame revolves around her husband's, former two-term Arkansas governor and two-term U. S. President Bill Clinton. The vast sums of money from their Arkansas and White House days can easily purchase the best P. R. promoters to overcome a myriad of Clinton scadals -- from the Rose Law Firm and Whitewater scandals in Arkansas to the Vince Foster suicide and Monica Lewinsky scandals in the Clinton White House. To demonstrate how easily purchased political dynasties such as the Clintons are, when the married Bill Clinton was actually having sex with the intern Monica Lewinsky, he actually received and answered a phone call from the Fanjul sugar monopoly in Miami {which, of course, began as a sugar mononoply in Cuba prior to the Cuban Revolution}. It turned out that the Fanjul brothers were interested in President Clinton making sure the vast and controversial sugar subsidy was continued to further enrich the already incredibly rich and extended Fanjul family of Miami/Fort Lauderdale. But the Clintons being purchased politically by such campaign contributors as the Fanjuls is minuscule compared to the economic and political ties that bind the Bush political dynasty to the richest counter-revolutionary Cuban exiles that fled the Cuban Revolution two generations ago, way back in 1959. Thus, as the ad-fueled, money-crazed presidential election now gets underway, it is a fact that a Clinton, a Bush, and a Rubio are considered serious candidates while far more decent and talented public servants like Kathy Castor are not.

       Bob Schieffer was born 77-years-old in Austin, Texas. In the last five decades he has carved out a brilliant career as a commentator and anchor for CBS News. He still anchors that network's venerable Face the Nation news program on Sunday mornings. On Sunday, Nov. 2-2014 -- two days prior to the congressional elections -- Mr. Schieffer closed with a sad lament about how special interest money has purchased both the Democratic and Republican parties, the two parties in America's two-party political system. Thus, Americans are targets of relentless, noxious ads leading up to every election. Most Americans don't even bother to vote, choosing not to have to decide between the lesser of two evils. Mr. Schieffer -- with tears in his sad, aged eyes -- closed that commentary by stating, very correctly, that the bought-and-paid-for U. S. political disaster "shames all of us." Of course, Mr. Schieffer knows that it doesn't shame the few who have bought it nor the few who have sold it. But, as Mr. Schieffer so cogently said, it should "shame" the rest of us who love democracy and who, for example, do not believe that a revengeful, self-serving Marco Rubio should be able to use the awesome might of the U. S. government to punish sovereign nations that are friends with Cuba. After so many other vile attempts to regain control of Cuba have failed in the last two generations, Rubio's strategem of cutting off the remaining supply lines to Cuba by assailing other innocent nations should "shame us all," especially those who love democracy the most. When I watched Bob Schieffer's teary lament on Face the Nation, I was reminded anew that the Cuban Revolution says a lot more about the United States than it say about Cuba.

******************************