Cuba Deserves A Chance

To Chart Its Own Course
Essay updated Saturday, November 22nd, 2014

Theme: It is time for democracy-loving Americans, not Batista-loving Cubans in Miami, to take charge of America's Cuban policy that the rest of the world abhors.

         Yesterday {Friday, Nov. 21-2014} Britain's top newspaper, The Guardian, used this AP photo to illustrate its latest long article about Cuba. The photo was taken in Washington in April of 1959 when Cuba's new leader, Fidel Castro, paid a 12-day visit to the United States barely three months after his Cuban Revolution had overthrown the Batista dictatorship that had been supported by the U. S. as well as the powerful U. S. Mafia. During those twelve days in the U. S. Fidel was wildly heralded as a revolutionary hero and he reveled in meeting everyday Americans, at least until Vice President Richard Nixon told him face-to-face that his revolutionary government in Cuba would be overthrown "in a few weeks." But The Guardian article this week focused not on Nixon's dire and meaningful threat but on the warm reception Fidel received from everyday Americans in April of 1959. The article liberally quoted Sheldon Shapiro who is shown in the above photo beside Fidel's right shoulder. Shapiro explained that he was with other 16-year-olds on a class trip to Washington that day when they sought out the suddenly famous Cuban rebel. Shapiro told The Guardian this week, "Fidel invited us out to Cuba. I gave him a cigar and he said, 'Thank you.'" Of course, after that visit to the U. S. in April of 1959, ever mindful of what Nixon had said, Fidel Castro returned to Cuba where, for all the 55 years since this photo was taken, Cuba and its superpower neighbor have been enemies, the governmental leaders but never the majority of Cubans and Americans.

       In other words, a handful of powerful U. S. right-wingers, like Richard Nixon, aligned with a handful of two generations of revengeful Cuban exiles, have dictated America's Cuban policy since Fidel Castro made that friendly 12-day visit to the U. S. in April of 1959. Such facts are not generally permitted in the U. S. but elsewhere, including the United Nations and its roster of foreign nations, it is permissible to present both sides of the U.S.-Cuban conundrum. For example, England's two internationally renowned media outlets -- the BBC and The Guardian -- regularly detail Cuban issues as well as U.S.-Cuban relations and they do so in a fair-minded manner whether or not the facts are pro-Cuban or anti-Cuban, pro-American or anti-American. Of course, when it comes to Cuba, the British media is on an entirely different plateau than the U. S. media. That's because Britain, despite its somewhat infamous imperialist past, never teamed with the Mafia to support a vile dictatorship in Cuba and, moreover, Britain never allowed that overthrown dictatorship to reconstitute itself, stronger than ever, on British soil. Therein lies the dichotomy.

         This week {Thursday, November 20th} Britain's top newspaper, The Guardian, used the above Reuters photo to illustrate an insightful article about Cuba written by Eugene Jarecki. He began with these words: "I had to get to Cuba, my friends urged, while Castro is still alive -- and before the whole place gets overrun by McDonald's and Starbucks. A quick trip across the island disabuses any real worry that strip malls and box stores are imminent but a certain measure of change is definitely on the way. There's something in the air -- a bit more free expression, a glimmer of innovation, a softer hand, maybe." Those were Jarecki's first three sentences in a long article that, indeed, updates the Cuban narrative fairly. His last sentence mentioned: "Cuba, left to her own devices...as it navigates into tomorrow..." As The Guardian's Eugene Jarecki and other fair-minded people around the world maintain, Cuba should be left to its own devices as it navigates into tomorrow. That means a second generation of self-serving, holier-than-thou Cuban exiles and their self-serving, parasitic sycophants should be resisted as they continue, into a sixth decade, of using Cuba to exact revenge while also continuing to view the island as a piggy-bank for rich and covetous foreigners. Such articles as Jarecki's about the island remind me that Cuba still has a fascination far out of proportion to its size, population or economy. Cuba is verily fascinating on its own but the Batistianos, the Mafiosi, and greedy U. S. businessmen made it more so. 

       A Cuban doctor working in Sierra Leone has been diagnosed with Ebola. {Photo courtesy: AP/Ladyrene Perez}. Dr. Felix Baez has been flown to Geneva by the World Health Organization for treatment. He was a part of the 165-person Cuban medical team in Sierra Leone. Cuba currently has 256 medical workers in West Africa, far more than any other nation as the fight against the dreaded Ebola epidemic continues.

         Diane Guerrero is one of America's most beautiful and most talented actresses. {This image is courtesy of www.metnights.com}. She was born 28 years ago -- on July 21, 1986 -- in New Jersey. Ms. Guerrero is also an example of why America's Cuban policy shames and mocks the U. S. democracy. 

         Diane Guerrero was interviewed this week on CNN. She cried uncontrollably during several stages of the interview. Perhaps you did too if you saw it. At age 14 she returned from school one day to find the lights on in her New Jersey home and items on the stove indicated her mother had just started to fix dinner. But neither her mother nor her father were at home. Neighbors came over to tell her they had been forcibly removed from the home by federal agents intent on deporting them back to their native Colombia. The 14-year-old Diane was terrified. She went and hid under her bed, fearing the agents would come after her. But they didn't; she was born in the U. S. and thus was a United States citizen. She survived that trauma to become a hugely successful actress. But she is still traumatized, as revealed by the CNN interview, because her parents are still in Colombia and she manages to see them only once a year. The forced separation, she said, has made her feel detached and aloof from her family, one of the reminders that produced her unabashed tears during the interview. So why is Diane Guerrero a reminder that America's Cuban policy shames and mocks the U. S. democracy? Answer: If Ms. Guerrero's parents had been Cuban they would never have been subjected to deportation. That's because the U. S. democracy is burdened by a plethora of rules and laws that pertain only to Cubans, the only people on the planet who are home free in the United States merely by touching U. S. soil. It's known as the Wet Foot/Dry Foot law that is one of the many Cuba-only features of the Cuban exile-fueled Torricelli and Helms-Burton bills that to this day make the U. S. Congress look like an undemocratic Banana Republic parliament. Diane Guerrero's parents were Colombian, making them subject to the cruelest aspects of deportation; Cubans in the U. S. are the only such immigrants not subject to such deportations. Thus, Diane Guerrero is also a reminder that no U.S.-backed dictatorship in Colombia or anywhere else other than Cuba ever got overthrown only to have that dictatorship quickly and, it seems, permanently resurrected on U. S. soil. But that, in fact, did happen to the Batista dictatorship that was overthrown in 1959 in Cuba and then allowed to reconstitute itself, stronger than ever, in nearby Miami from where, to this day, it dictates a U. S. Cuban policy that the rest of the world, including America's best friends, wholeheartedly disagrees with.

     The London-based BBC is arguably the world's most respected and most influential news organization. Last week, once again, it told its viewers and listeners how America's Cuban policy shames and mocks its democracy. The BBC report mentioned that the New York Times has in the last few weeks had no fewer than five editorials expressing the exact same viewpoint, one that is repeatedly ignored by the American people for various reasons -- most notably, stupidity, cowardice, complacency, or a lack of patriotism.

       The New York Times is arguably America's most respected and most influential news organization. The BBC mentioned five recent New York Times editorials that point out how America's Cuban policy shames and mocks its democracy. Well, BBC, make it six recent editorials. On Nov. 17-2014 the New York Times had an editorial entitled "A Cuban Brain Drain, Courtesy of the U. S." Among other points, the editorial stated: "It is hypocritical for Washington to praise Cuba's efforts in fighting Ebola while inviting Cuban doctors working abroad to defect." Yes, to appease a handful of visceral Cuban-American politicians the U. S. government, among its many other nefarious activities to hurt Cuba, is engaged in an expensive and asinine program to entice Cuban doctors serving the poorest areas of many countries to defect to the U. S. with the encouragement supposedly including cash bonuses courtesy of unwitting and uncaring U. S. taxpayers. This program referenced by the latest New York Times editorial is purely designed to punish Cubans on the island to sate the revenge and political motives of a handful of vicious, dictatorial Cuban-Americans. As the BBC, the New York Times, and other major media outlets around the world regularly lament, the U. S. Cuban policy harms the U. S. democracy far more than it harms Cuba, which...in fact...gains a lot of support and massive amounts of sympathy courtesy of the gutless, self-deprecating Cuban policy that the U. S. government, on behalf of a few self-serving Cuban exiles, began way back in 1959 and now expects the pusillanimous U. S. citizens to accept in perpetuity.  But, hey! We're gonna recapture Cuba any day now and that will end all those critical, gushing editorials in the BBC and the New York Times!

And now, the saddest of sad news...........

            .........this AFP/Yahoo News photo shows 19-year-old Maria Alvarado. She was the reigning Miss Honduras. She was scheduled to fly to London Wednesday {November 19th} to represent Honduras in the Miss World contest. But she was kidnapped and had been missing for a week as her family pleaded for her release. The very day she was to fly to London Maria's body and the body of her sister were found. They both had been murdered by their kidnappers. Honduras is a Central American country of 8 million people and it has the world's highest murder rate. It is one of many Latin American nations roiled by drug cartels, gangs, murderers, machismo, male chauvinism, and kidnappers. Throughout Latin America, including Mexico on the southern border of the U. S., drug cartels and gangs are often either aligned with or more powerful than the police and the governments. And often the victims caught in the middle, like Maria Alvarado, are the most innocent, the most beautiful and the most promising citizens of those countries.

         Miss Honduras, Maria Alvarado, was so beautiful, talented and smart that she was considered a favorite in the Miss World contest in London. A university student, the 19-year-old Maria was an excellent volleyball and soccer player. She wanted to be a diplomat representing Honduras. She almost always appeared in public wearing jeans and no make-up. But in a nation and a world riddled with crime, she is no more. Much of that crime throughout Latin America is fueled by those who consume the illegal drugs, in America and elsewhere, and by those who legally and illegally sell guns and ammunition that reach across the Mexican border down to the drug cartels and gangs. In a troubled world imperiled by thugs, terrorists, and an overflow of lethal weapons, there should be special protection for the most beautiful and most innocent among us, the women and the children. Maria Alvarado is dead. Just a teenager, she will now be Forever Young, with this photo attesting to her beauty and promise. By way of contrast, the drug users, the drug traffickers, and the gun purveyors are still alive as dominant forces. But Maria Alvarado is dead. Yes, because what her life and her death entails, the world is a less beautiful place. Thugs with guns think they rule the universe, and it might be true. At least, sadly it seems, the peace-keepers are losing.

        This AFP photo shows Honduran police questioning Plutarco Ruiz, who is second from the left. Ruiz has been charged with murdering Maria Alvarado and her sister Sofia; Maria was shot twice in the back. Ruiz took police to where Maria and Sofia were buried in shallow graves on a remote riverbank. In an earlier separate incident in murder-crazed Honduras, Ruiz's brother was killed in an AK-47 assault.

       Study this photo, taking note of the sadness in her eyes and the fear coating her face. {Photo courtesy: Beaumont Enterprise}. She needs help, at least sympathy. The number "43" painted on her cheek is in honor of the 43 Mexican students who were kidnapped and presumably murdered by a drug cartel in the southern state of Guerrero. It has been reported that six of the students were killed outright by Mexican police and the other 43 turned over to the cartel. Merely to protest shows how brave this young woman is. She feels the cartels are against her; the drug traffickers and users are against her; the gun traffickers are against her; the police are against; the government is against her; and those who don't care are against her. She has reasons to feel that way because she lives in Latin America. If we can't help her, we should at least sympathize with her and, maybe, try to improve the world she lives in and the world that Miss Honduras, Maria Alvarado, once lived in. "Miss Honduras" and the number "43" have saturated headlines this week but, soon, much of the world will forget them, making way for newer, fresher headlines.

        This couple was arrested and charged with ordering the assault against the Mexican students in Guerrero. {Photo courtesy: New York Daily News}. He was the Mayor of Guerrero and reportedly his wife was due to give a speech and he felt the students were nearby protesting the government's lack of support for their school, a protest that would have embarrassed her. The Mayor and his wife supposedly were aligned with the drug cartel that dominated the area, lending credence to what millions of Mexicans fear most -- that the government is unable or unwilling to adequately defend them against the rich and powerful drug cartels. Vigilantes, not police or soldiers, are actually fighting back in some Mexican and Honduran towns. But the odds are against both the vigilantes and many young women who are out-gunned throughout much of Latin America. This will never stop as long as there remains a vast disparity between the rich and poor as well as a lucrative market for the illegal drugs that fuel the mayhem.

Cuba, by the way, is the safest country in the Caribbean or Latin America.  

Here's a peek at Cuba today:

          Fair-minded Cuban blogger Fernando Ravsberg and the unbiased HavanaTimes.org blog this week used the above photo to illustrate an article that explains why most of the world firmly believes Cuba should be allowed to chart its own course and not have it dictated by revengeful, greedy elements in a foreign country. In the middle above is 15-year-old Rafael Botalin of Santiago de Cuba. Rafael has a very rare brain disease and urgently needed an operation. Cuba provides excellent health coverage for all its citizens but, partly due to the five-decades-old U. S. embargo against the island, Cuba does not have as much modern medical equipment as it needs. So, this week Rafael was flown to a foreign country to get the operation that hopefully will save and normalize his life. Rafael was accompanied by his mother and all the expenses are being paid by the Cuban government. Mr. Ravsberg said the family asked that the foreign country not be revealed at his time. The saga of Rafael Botalin is one that, generally speaking, Americans are not supposed to be aware of although it is typical of what happens in Revolutionary Cuba. However, to maintain its animosity against Cuba -- the embargo, labeling Cuba a "terrorist" nation, continuous expensive programs to overthrow Cuba, etc. -- the U. S. Cuban narrative has, for the most part, been dictated by two generations of Cuban exiles and their sycophants booted off the island in 1959 by the Cuban Revolution. Thus, the U. S. Cuban narrative maintains that if the U. S. allows money to reach the island it will all go into Fidel Castro's pockets or his Swiss bank accounts. {Mr. Castro has a lot of faults but greed is not one of them; he was born rich but, unlike the anti-revolutionaries, he has lived modestly all his life). Cuba spends a higher percentage of its income on free health care, free education through college, free shelter if needed, and free food if needed than perhaps any other nation, as pointed about by both the United Nations and the World Health Organization. That is done with money, or pesos, that don't go into Mr. Castro's pockets or his non-existent Swiss bank account. Cuba has the largest medical school in the world and it is famous for awarding totally free scholarships to qualified poor students, many from the United States of America. Cuba spends money on its unique Operation Miracle program whereby free eye operations have restored or greatly improved the eyesight of thousands of poor people that don't have access to such medical care in their own countries. And, yes, this week in mid-November of 2014 Cuba is spending money to make sure that Rafael Botalin has the best chance to survive a delicate brain operation in another country. As a democracy-loving American, I believe it would be alright for Americans to get their news about Cuba from sources other than a handful of self-serving, anti-revolutionary zealots. Such zealots, for example, dictate that Americans are not free to travel to one place on this planet, Cuba, to judge for themselves; such zealots, for example, dictate that only Cubans who defect from the island are home free in the U. S. merely if they touch U. S. soil. And  if those rich and powerful zealots in the U. S. had their way, Cuba would not have enough money to send young Rafael Botalin abroad for a life-saving brain operation. Such realities remind some people that the ousted Batista dictatorship in Cuba simply resurrected itself on U. S. soil, with nearby Miami -- also known as Little Havana -- as its capital.

        This is the Santa Maria Royalton Hotel in Cuba. The renowned travel site Trip Adviser has named it the #1 Hotel-Resort in the world for "all-inclusive vacations." Such accolades related to the nearby island of Cuba either surprise or shock Americans who, since 1959, have basically been told that Cuba is a "basket case that will be re-captured by nice people in a day or two." The 5-star Royalton is located in Villa Clara, Cuba, and it alone is reason enough to inspire a re-capture of the island but. somehow, the nexus between inspiration and reality has proven to be quite elusive to foreign entities that covet the island.

      Tourists to Cuba have long picked out their favorite restaurants on the island, such as Havana's La Bodeguita Del Medio. Since the first day of November, 2014,  the Cuban government has allowed residents in Miami to use their credit cards to pay for their relatives or friends on the island to feast on pre-paid and pre-ordered meals in Cuban restaurants. The new policy currently involves 43 restaurants in four provinces -- Havana {13}; Camaguey {13}; Holguin {11}; and Villa Clara {6}. Havana's La Bodeguita Del Medio is one of the world's most famous restaurants. There are replicas of the renowned Cuban restaurant today in 15 countries around the world, such as a famous one in Palo Alta, California. In 1942 a Cuban named Angel Martinez bought a small warehouse in the middle of Empedrado Street in Havana, and turned the warehouse into a restaurant he called La Bodeguita Del Medio, which means "The Little Warehouse in the Middle." It is where the famed mojita cocktail was invented. Photos today reveal that its most loyal patrons included Earnest Hemingway, Salvador Allende, Nat King Cole, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, etc. In September of 1997 a fierce bombing campaign in Havana was carried out by well-known and, to this day, well-protected  Cuban exile-Miami terrorists for the announced purpose of discouraging tourist visits to the island. Popular Cuban hotels and restaurants were bombed. One of those bombs in September-1997 went off inside La Bodeguita Del Medio. Yet, to this day it remains a prime tourist attraction in Havana.

      If you visit Cuba and dine at La Bodeguita Del Medio, you will probably want to order the restaurant's most famous invention -- a glass of mojito. I ordered it although, I swear to you, I have lived a long life without ever tasting a drop of beer, whiskey, or any other alcoholic beverage. {I don't believe in drugs}. But I purchased a mojito just to stare at it as I enjoyed my delicious meal. As I left La Bodeguita Del Medio, I gave my mojito to a Canadian patron at the next table who had noticed I had not touched the ubiquitous and rather expensive glass. She gladly accepted it after I explained that the only reason I bought it was that I was a big fan of Ernest Hemingway. She grinned and handed me a half-full glass of water. "Well then," she said, as we tapped our glasses together, "let's both toast Mr. Hemingway." She then took a hefty sip of my full glass of mojito while I obliged by imbibing her half glass of water. And that toast to Earnest Hemingway at La Bodeguita Del Medio with the Canadian lady...I never learned her name but I remember her delightful French accent...remains a fond memory of my visit to Cuba, which, by the way, was very legal and approved in 2004 by the stringently anti-Castro George W. Bush administration.

       To understand Cuba in 2014, I believe Americans need to understand this photo, which has flashed around the world this year. On the left is Yoani Sanchez, the vicious anti-Castro Cuban blogger who is the darling of anti-Castro zealots everywhere, especially in Miami and Washington where she has been greeted warmly now that Cuba allows her to leave and go around the world on anti-Castro promotional and recruiting trips.  On the right is Gordiano Lupi, a highly respected 54-year-old Italian. For six years he worked hand-in-hand with Ms. Sanchez translating her renowned blog from Spanish to Italian. Then, guess what? He had a revelation! His own website, Progreso Weekly, and other forums blared his scathing article that the international media has carried under such titles as: "Yoani Is Denounced By Her Italian Translator." Mr. Lupi is the famed translator of works by many notable Cubans, including Jose Marti, but apparently it took him six years to analyze Ms. Sanchez's motives. Now he says, "In reality, Yoani Sanchez's intention has always been to become rich and famous. The princess-blogger buzzes like a blowfly between Havana and Miami." Mr. Lupi wrote: "I confess I made a mistake, the mistake of believing in Yoani Sanchez's cause. Then I began to wonder if Yoani was not so much an agent of the CIA, as her detractors maintain." After working with her for six years, Mr. Lupi used three main adjectives to describe Yoani Sanchez: "arrogant," "mercenary," and "greedy." And you know what? I believe the same three adjectives describe most of the Cuban bloggers who operate in the United States, especially Mauricio Claver-Carone from Washington and Rob Sequin from Massachusetts. You see, the anti-Castro, anti-revolutionary cottage industry in the United States has always been drivin by two primary motivations -- Money #1 and Revenge #2. My decades-long fascination of Cuba has never been fueled by either money or revenge.  For example, I have never made a dime or a peso writing about Cuba and you'll never see an ad or a request for donations on this blog. Also, as Mr. Lupi so succinctly suggested, I don't believe Yoani Sanchez, Mauricio Claver-Carone, Rob Sequin, etc. can make similar claims. Cuba should be viewed as a country, not a piggy-bank. Holding up your hand and claiming you're anti-Castro should not automatically make you rich nor should it quickly command the undivided attention of Cuban-Americans in the U. S. Congress. 

       But it is a fact of life since 1959 that almost anyone who holds up their hand and proclaims loudly that they are "Anti-Castro!" has a good chance of becoming very rich and very famous very quickly. Ask Yoani Sanchez of Havana, Cuba. Or ask Senator Robert Menendez from Union City, New Jersey and Senator Marco Rubio from Miami. The latino.foxnews.com photo above shows Yoani Sanchez in the U. S. Congress where she was wined, dined, and celebrated by Senators Rubio and Menendez. But, tuh, far be it from me to proclaim that this trio's main claim to fame and fortune is purely because of their anti-Castro zealotry.

       This translatingcuba.com photo shows Yoani Sanchez being fawned over by a horde of male admirers on one of her anti-Castro world tours. Gordiano Lupi, the Italian translator who worked for her six years, lamented such things as the $150,000.00 she raised to start a digital newspaper in Havana because he realized that the Huffington Post and major media forces around the world were already lavishly promoting her anti-Castro blog, her anti-Castro books, her anti-Castro news conferences, and all of her other anti-Castro endeavors. Thus, Mr. Lupi wondered why she would need an anti-Castro digital newspaper that Cubans on the island would ignore? Well, I think the answer to Mr. Lupi's question is this: It's the same reason a Miami-based money-machine called Radio-TV Marti has siphoned off hundreds of millions of tax dollars every decade since the 1980s to send from Miami to Cuba radio and television broadcasts that are easily blocked by the Cuban government and thus have, for decades, been virtually unseen and indeed unwanted on the island. But, hey! Radio-TV Marti to this day continues to be the excuse to send millions upon millions of tax dollars on a greased pipeline from Washington to Miami. Mr. Lupi came to believe that his boss Yoani Sanchez readily comprehended such Cuban gravy trains. Well, Mr. Lupi, if your insightful appraisals are correct, Yoani Sanchez has merely joined an already very, very crowded club.

         Fidel Castro is now 88-years-old and unwell. The Lion In Winter will not be around forever. When he dies, how will that monumental event affect all that money all those anti-Castro zealots are making? That remains to be seen. But this much is certain: When The Lion In Winter dies, the revolution he forged will, incredibly, still be in charge of Cuba -- not Spain, not the Mafia, and not the United States. Thus, considering the billions of dollars anti-Catroism has spawned since 1959 when the Batistiano leaders fled to the U. S., it is certain that plans are already underway to determine how much money can be derived from vilifying the anti-Castro legacy. If the past five-plus decades are a clue, it will be a lot although probably not as much as when The Lion In Winter actually lived. So, stay tuned because Cuba will continue to command a fascination on the regional and world stage far out of proportion to its size, population, or wealth.

       And speaking of The Lion In Winter, back in 1963 Hurricane Flora assaulted the island and killed 1,200 Cubans. Fidel Castro responded by creating Cuba's National Forecast Center for the Institute of Meteorology. It is now recognized as one of the best in the world and hurricanes even more powerful that Flora have killed few or no Cubans. Additionally, the United States and many other nations have studied Cuba's hurricane preparedness and Cuba's highly trained 1,500-person medical unit considered the best in the world when it comes to confronting hurricanes. When Hurricane Katrina was bearing down on New Orleans, Cuba had that team of medical/hurricane experts at Jose Marti Airport begging the U. S. to allow them to go to New Orleans. The world now knows that the George W. Bush administration refused that request. The world then watched a pathetic Banana Republic-like reaction to Hurricane Katrina by the Bush government, leaving the world to wonder how many lives the Cubans could have saved in New Orleans.

       Dr. Jose Rubiera is the Director of Cuba's National Forecast Center for the Institute of Meteorology. Radio New Zealand announced this week that Dr. Rubiera has been asked by a group of Pacific islands if Cuba will assist them in preparing for hurricanes, tsunamis, and other weather-related threats. {That report indicates, unlike Radio-TV Marti in Miami, Radio New Zealand is concerned with life-saving Cuban expertise as opposed to lucrative anti-Castro endeavors that benefit a few bank accounts and political positions}.

          Margaret Chan is the Director-General of the World Health Organization. She is shown here hosting a news conference alongside Cuba's Health Director, Dr. Roberto Morales Ojeda. Ms. Chan lauded Cuba for "taking the lead in West Africa in the fight against Ebola." She added, "This is no surprise to me. Cuba has medical expertise that is the envy of far richer and far larger nations. Moreover, Cuba also stands out for devoting an exceedingly high percentage of its economy to the health needs of its own people as well as that of needy poor people in the region and the world. No, Cuba at the forefront of the Ebola crisis is no surprise."

      In the unending U.S.-Cuban conundrum, one thing is absolute: The rich and powerful Miami contingent in the U. S. Congress cannot tolerate praise for Cuba, whether it comes from the World Health Organization, Radio New Zealand, or anyplace else. For example, the Obama administration recently sent a representative to Cuba to discuss the Ebola crisis. Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart {right} from Miami was quick to excoriate President Obama for that gesture. The President of Panama recently asked...actually begged...Cuba to attend the Summit of the Americas that Panama will host next April. The President of Panama then received official rebukes, on U. S. Congressional stationery, from Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen {center} from Miami and Senator Marco Rubio {left} from Miami. The city of Miami, it seems, believes that sovereign nations like Panama do not have the right to make their own decisions when it involves Cuba. Sadly, when Miami can hide behind the skirts of the richest and strongest nation in the world, it takes rather brave nations to resist the dictates of the Cuban-Americans. However, as revealed by the yearly vote in the UN, nations all around the world believe they have the sovereign right to make their own decisions regarding Cuba without getting rebuked, or worse.

         Margaret Chan, the head of the World Health Organization, believes she has the sovereign right to express her opinions about Cuba. Therefore, in Geneva, she referenced this particular photo. It shows a Cuba doctor in Haiti in 2010 when that country was besieged by a Cholera epidemic. "Haiti and other poor areas depend on Cuban doctors and nurses because often that's the only medical attention they get and it is also of the highest quality," said Margaret Chan. My friend Tracey Eaton, a respected Cuban expert, headed the Havana bureau for the Dallas Morning News when he went to Haiti to cover the twin perils of a military conflict exacerbated by a health epidemic. Mr. Eaton reported that even the greatly admired Doctors Without Borders fled the area because of the acute danger but that the Cuban doctors and nurses miraculously and courageously stayed to take care of the wounded and/or sick Haitians. But that is exactly the type praise that infuriates a handful of the most zealous Cuban exiles who believe they alone should dictate both the Cuban narrative and America's Cuban policy. Cuba currently has over 50,000 medical personnel serving the poorest areas in about 63 countries. Recent reports have unveiled a concerted U. S. program designed to entice Cuban doctors and nurses working in foreign countries to defect to the U. S. where, unlike all non-Cuban immigrants, they are home-free when they merely touch U. S. soil. That U. S. program seems to be working because this month there are reports that 600 Cuban doctors and nurses have defected from Venezuela, presumably with lucrative "defection bonuses." The program, of course, has nothing to do with the recruitment of more Cuban immigrants nor has it anything to do with the U. S. desiring more Cuban doctors and nurses. It has only to do with the U. S. punishing and seeking revenge against Cuba on behalf of a handful of anti-revolutionary zealots. If that is not so, why not level with the American people about how their tax dollars are routinely used to hurt Cuba? For example, it was recently unveiled that a covert U. S. program hired young Spanish-speaking Latin Americans to go to Cuba to stir up descent on the island. How much did that cost and how much did it hurt the U. S. image throughout the Americas? Of course, Americans are not supposed to care and, for the most part, they haven't since 1959. Meanwhile, Americans are supposed to vilify that Cuban doctor shown above even if, as Margaret Chan so cogently pointed out, Cuban doctors like him are the only ones that seem to care about poor, sick children like these in Haiti that the World Health Organization credited Cuba with saving.

The moral of this essay:

Cuba is a sovereign nation.

Cubans in Cuba, not Miami, should chart its course.

The image of the U. S. has been hurt enough by its arrogant Cuban policy.  

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

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" 

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