Let Cuba Be Cuba

So America Can Be America!!
{Updated: Thursday, April 16th, 2015}

        As he promised Cuban President Raul Castro last weekend in Panama at the 7th Summit of the Americas, U. S. President Barack Obama this week -- April 14th, 2015 -- proposed to remove Cuba from the U. S. State Department's Sponsors of Terrorism list. The U. S. Congress now has 45 days to block that move but it is unlikely that, even in an easily malleable and readily purchased Congress, Cuban-American zealots can amass enough veto-proof votes. Mr. Obama's decision is a necessary step towards thawing U.S.-Cuban relations that have been, to say the least, icy for decades. Cuba was first put on the terrorism list in 1982 by the Reagan-Bush administration and kept there ever since by the Bush dynasty, Cuban-American extremists, and the U. S. Congress. Such enmity towards Cuba has very sharply and adversely affected America's respect and influence throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. Mr. Obama's action yesterday is the bravest and most decent thing any American President has risked since 1959, and there will, for sure, be repercussions. There remains in the U. S. an ultra-powerful Cuban-American contingent, always bolstered by easily acquired sycophants in the Congress, that will thwart most of what President Obama plans to accomplish related to Cuba, but his bravery and decency, in a world often intimidated by powerful miscreants, crowns and targets him as America's bravest and most decent President since the 1950s.

The handshake in Panama paved the way for Tuesday's announcement.

      Josefina Vidal, Cuba's powerful and highly respected Minister of North American Affairs, made Cuba's official response to President Obama's decision to remove Cuba from the Terrorist list. Her exact statement: "The Cuban government recognized the fairness made by the President of the United States to eliminate Cuba from a list it never should have been included on, especially considering our country has been the victim of hundreds of acts of terrorism that have cost 3,478 lives and maimed 2,099 citizens."

       Both Reuters and the AP Tuesday quoted Cubans across the island as welcoming the gesture from President Obama declaring that Cuba should not be on the terrorist list. The girl on the left said, "We love peace, not terrorism." The girl on the right said, "We have never been terrorists and the U. S. knows it."

     Dana Milbank is a top columnist for the Washington Post and I believe he penned the best out of what has been a multitude of recent articles related to U.S.-Cuban relations, especially since Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro went on television in their countries on Dec. 17-2014 to announce attempts to normalize relations, and particularly since last week's Obama-Castro camaraderie in Panama. Mr. Milbank earned the top spot, maybe even a Pulitzer Prize, with his column entitled "Marco Rubio Fury Over the Cuba Shift Shows Why Obama Made the Right Move." If you Google that literary masterpiece, you, of course, can decide for yourself what makes it Pulitzer-worthy but, in my opinion, Mr. Milbank has done the best job of explaining the ridiculousness of the Cuban-American extremists who insist on dictating America's Cuban policy to whet their appetites for revenge, wealth, and politics at Cuba's expense and democracy's expense.

    The aforementioned Dana Milbank column reached its zenith when he mentioned that Senator Marco Rubio, one of Miami's multiple Cuban-American contributions to the U. S. Congress, went into rages about President Obama's plans to challenge the Cuban-exile dominance of America's Cuban policy. When Mr. Rubio was reminded that polls showed the majority of people, including Cuban-Americans, favored correcting America's failed and flawed relations with Cuba, Mr. Milbank quoted Mr. Rubio as raging, "I don't care if the polls say that 99 percent of the people believe we should normalize relations in Cuba. I don't care if 99 percent of people in polls disagree with my position. This is my position." For many, many decades America's Cuban policy has been designed solely to benefit a few miscreants -- Americans, Cubans, Cuban-Americans and Mafiosi -- while harming everyone else. Since the 1950s, and especially since the first day of January in 1959 when the Batista-Mafia leaders were chased back to the U. S. by the Cuban Revolution, the sheer impunity with which the Batistianos, aligned with sycophants such as the Bush dynasty, have dictated U.S.-Cuban relations shames both the United States and democracy.

        You may or may not agree with Dana Milbank's column entitled: "Marco Rubio Fury Over the Cuba Shift Shows Why Obama Made the Right Move." That is your prerogative. You may or may not vote for Marco Rubio to be President of the United States in 2016. That is your right too. But I believe that you should agree that even a Senator from Miami, and certainly a President of the United States, should be respectful of what "99 percent" of Americans desire. Instead of blissfully riding the coattails of the Tea Party, the Bush dynasty, Fox News, and South Florida billionaires like the Fanjul brothers and Norman Braman, Mr. Rubio should be held accountable for such things as permitting his bio to claim his parents fled the Castro tyranny in Cuba for Miami when, in reality, they fled the Batista tyranny in Cuba for Miami. And for sure, Mr. Obama should be held accountable for so boldly stating that the views of "99 percent" who oppose him on a particular issue don't count. The views where 1% percent dictate to 99% percent is not what the United States is all about, at least it wasn't prior to 1959. As Dana Milbank's column opined, President Obama evoked Rubio's "fury" by trying to inject a majority viewpoint into the enigmatic U.S.-Cuban equation.

      Even in a presidential campaign in which young fledgling Cuban-American right-wing radicals Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are official candidates, U.S.-Cuba Relations should not be a major factor in the race for the White House. America should allow Cuba to be Cuba because the U. S. democracy should not be tarnished by either out-dated imperialism or unacceptable mafiosi traces. And besides, the United States has a plethora of problems not related to Cuba. For example...........................................

       ...........this photo depicts a memorial service held recently in Denver. The girl in the white dress was Jessica Hernandez. Alone in her car, she was shot to death by policemen. She was unarmed. Three shots fired by two Denver policemen killed her. Never heard of Jessica? That may be because the national news media in the United States has become so saturated with many other instances of minority Americans being gunned down by police it is understandably hard to keep account. I mention Jessica's death, and such seemingly unending violent mayhem in the U. S., not to condemn policemen in the United States because, for sure, their job evokes danger and split-second decisions. But in particular Jessica's fate reminded me of a recent comment made by Josefina Vidal, Cuba's Minister of North American Affairs, who, by the nature of her work, is an expert on all things Cuban and American. Ms. Vidal apparently read the Denver Post coverage of Jessica's death because she mentioned it at a news conference: "I can't believe the American people put up with that. Since the revolution, Cuba has not put up with it." {4 Photos: Andy Gross/Denver Post}

     Death is final and irretrievable. These young friends of Jessica truly understand that although they don't comprehend exactly why it happened. They are holding a candle-light vigil at the spot where Jessica died and they are wearing Jessica T-shirts to honor their friend. Unnatural deaths, especially young people, should not happen and, if they do, they should be thoroughly and fairly investigated. In the United States, a lot of politicians continually rave about problems in Cuba, which is almost devoid of crime. They should, perhaps, rave a bit more about problems in their own country, at least before they throw deadly stones or lethal hand grenades at other countries.

       Young people who die unnatural deaths are remembered for happier times, like this photo of Jessica on Christmas Day 2013 when she visited Santa wearing her University of Nebraska jacket to show that she was a huge "Cornhusker" fan.

        The family of Jessica Hernandez, as this graphic indicates, was not pleased with the explanation of her death as provided by the Denver Police Department. That parallels the often-televised thoughts of many other American families. Mentioning Jessica Hernandez is not a condemnation of Denver, a beautiful city, or America, a great nation. But it is a condemnation of holier-than-thou propaganda casting aspersions on others while, perhaps, the propagandists should first be staring at a mirror and then looking inward at themselves. It was the above graphic about Jessica Hernandez that reminded me of a persistent point that Cuba's Josefina Vidal makes, a point that resonates throughout Latin America but not in sacrosanct America.

       No, young people should not die and if they do because of unnatural and unnecessary causes it should be investigated fairly. Young friends of young victims know that death is final but that's sometimes all they know. Take, for example, this young girl and her mother. They are Cubans. On Oct. 6-1976 they were waiting at Jose Marti Airport in Havana for the return of Cubana Flight 455 that had carried two dozen teenage Cuban athletes to Caracas, Venezuela, to participate in a Central American tournament. When this photo was taken, this girl and her mother had just been told that Cubana Flight 455 had crashed into the ocean and all 73 souls on board had perished. One of those souls had belonged to the beloved son and brother of this mother and sister. The mother had worried about the flight, as all mothers do. But the girl had not. Girls her age, unless it confronts them directly, don't think about such things. Although it was a Cuban civilian airplane, both the victims and the families of the deceased deserved a thorough and fair investigation. But it occurred during a period -- from 1959 into the year 2015 -- when well-trained Cuban-exile terrorists, acting with impunity from U. S. soil or U. S. embassies or military bases in Latin America, believed terror acts against Cuba were fully justified because they would hurt or overthrow Fidel Castro. Indeed, in Miami after word spread about the Cubana Flight 455 disaster, the most resounding declaration broadcast by the Miami media was: "It's the biggest blow yet against Castro!" Not exactly. While to this day Americans know little about Cubana Flight 455 or its significance, such terrorism against innocent Cubans helps explain such things as...Fidel Castro is 88-year-old and his soon-to-be legacy will impact Latin America for decades to come; and it helps explain why all Caribbean and Latin American nations today strongly oppose the U. S. embargo against Cuba, an island viewed as a victim of terrorism as opposed to being a perpetrator.

      The 73 victims of Cubana Flight 455, such as the young girl in the lower-left, have been forgotten in the U. S. but remain very much unforgotten throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. The young Cuban girl waiting at the airport on Oct. 6-1976 is now a woman. She hasn't forgotten. And, from time to time, newspapers and magazines throughout the Caribbean and Latin America still tell their readers about the first civilian airplane ever downed by terrorists in the Western Hemisphere.

     As confirmed by realms of de-classified U. S. documents, the U. S. within hours was well aware of the Cuban-Americans involved in the bombing of Cubana Flight 455 and other such anti-Cuban endeavors. Many in the Caribbean and Latin America cringed at the nexus of Oct. 6-1976 with Dec. 18-2014. On December 17-2014 President Obama announced grandiose plans to normalize relations with Cuba. On December 18-2014, the next day, the Cuban-American who will forever be tied to the bombing of Cubana Flight 455 led an anti-Obama rally in the streets of Miami. Americans are not supposed to understand that paradoxical nexus, but millions of people in the Caribbean and Latin America completely understand it.

      There are Cuban experts and there are American experts. But, for sure, there is no expert in this world who knows as much as Josefina Vidal knows about both Cuba and America. She knows about America's unique greatness and, as indicated by this photo, some of her heroes are Americans. But as a prime protector of Cuba's sovereignty, she also knows about "the darkness that courses through all that American goodness -- Batista, the Miami Mafia...Cubana Flight 455..." She believes the Cuban Revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship on the first day of 1959 was spawned not only by American greed and American imperialism but by "the counter-productive murders of young Cubans, murders that were intended to support all that American greed and imperialism on a perceived helpless island."

    Indeed there are countless black-and-white photos of the female marches that spawned the Cuban Revolution. Brave Cuban mothers took to the streets to protest the gruesome murders of their children, murders aimed at warning the Cuban people not to resist the wholesale thievery taking place on the island by Batistianos, Mafiosi, and U. S. businessmen. Such outrage as displayed here convinced Fidel Castro that...hey!..."with the total support of the female half of the population, we can win!"

       The street marches continued, especially when Fidel Castro was in a Batista prison from 1953 till 1955. The Cuban madres {mothers} didn't like the asesinatos {murders} of their hijos {children and brothers}. Had there been no such murders in Batista's Cuba, Fidel Castro would probably have been a lawyer in Santiago de Cuba and the Batistianos would still be totally in charge of the nearby island of Cuba.

    Women not only marched to tell the world what was happening in Batista's Cuba, women were the fiercest revolutionary guerrilla fighters. Study the expression, as they marched to battle, on the faces of Cuba's two greatest female warriors -- Haydee Santamaria and Celia Sanchez. In order for Batista to remain in control of Cuba, he would have had to kill women like Haydee and Celia...and he couldn't kill them all.

       This photo shows Cuban female guerrilla fighters riding into Havana right after they had chased the Batistianos and the Mafiosi to safer havens, especially the U. S. cities of Miami and Union City. On the left in this photo is the legendary Tete Puebla. Barely in her teens, she became a do-or-die warrior in the Sierra Maestra against Batista soldiers. Her inspiration: She had seen Batista's Masferrer Tigers come into her village and burn people to death in a locked shed and a gas-soaked gunny sack.

     This is General Tete Puebla today. She is a General in the Cuban army. She is still inspired. She is a kind lady but be gentle if you ask her about the Masferrer Tigers.

     Rolando Masferrer, the ruthless leader of Batista's Masferrer Tigers, chose not to hang around and fight Tete Puebla's all-female unit that was charging toward Havana in the closing hours of 1958. Masferrer reportedly escaped Havana on his getaway boat with at least $10 million in cash. He quickly resurfaced in Miami as the head of his anti-Castro paramilitary unit that got additional funding from the U. S. government, Mafia kingpin Santo Trafficante Jr., and Jimmy Hoffa, among others. Masferrer called his Miami militants the 30th of November unit. Also, it was well-known that Masferrer extorted money from Cubans in Miami "to help finish Castro." But, like other anti-Castro paramilitary units, Masferrer had no trouble with the authorities although his terrorist activities against Cuba were known to all. Masferrer was born in Holguin, Cuba in 1918. A car-bomb killed Masferrer in Miami on Oct. 31, 1975 when he turned the ignition in his car at his home. Car bombs were a specialty in Miami for years, many never seriously investigated. But it is believed that Masferrer was killed by rivals who, like him, had lofty visions of being the next leader of Cuba as soon as they could get rid of Castro and use their U. S. support to recapture the nearby island.

      This photo was taken by the legendary Cuban photographer Alberto Korda on May 1, 1960 -- barely a year after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. It highlights reminders that Cuban women, after the revolutionary war, remained at the forefront of the island's defense, making sure that the Batistianos like Masferrer and the Mafiosi such as Traffcante did not regain control of the island. In April of 2015 General Puebla and Minister Vidal are continuing the tradition of Cuban women defending Cuba.

      Therefore today -- in April of 2015 -- I believe it is fitting that a dedicated and determined Cuban woman, Josefina Vidal, is at the forefront of defending Cuba against threats poised off her shores. The murder of 17-year-old unarmed Jessica Hernandez by three police bullets in Denver, on the heels of many other such events recently in the U. S., elicited this thought from Josefina Vidal: "I believe Cuba is one of the safest places in the world today. Apart from the war-torn places around the world...Gaza, Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, Libya, and the like...American newspapers constantly remind me how unsafe U. S. cities are, even from police attacks. Therefore, I wish Americans would find it strange that so much of their tax dollars are being spent to create turmoil and dissidence on Cuban streets where otherwise there would be no turmoil or dissidence, or at least very little. Heaven forbid if a Cuban soldier or policeman even accidentally bumped someone and knocked them down and some U.S.-paid dissident got it on film and sent it to Cuban agitators in the U. S. Congress or to that channel...what is it, Fox? If so, I guess they would cease all other activity for three weeks while they were encouraging the U.S. government to attack Cuba for such a human rights violation. Are unwarranted police shootings human rights violations? I think so. I also think if a Cuban policeman intentionally bumps an innocent, unarmed person on the arm just for meanness, it is a human rights violation. The Hernandez girl in Denver? Such a thing would be an anomaly in Cuba. I want that always to be so. And I think those U. S. tax dollars aimed at creating havoc where it does not exist on this island is a ludicrous distortion of how U. S. tax dollars should be spent. Moreover, I think the rest of the world, in this digital-Smart Phone age, now understands all that."

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A Plain-talking Cuban

With Omnipotent Power

       Rodrigo Malmierca is Cuba's Trade and Foreign Investments Minister. On the island he is a decision-maker, not a figurehead with a title. Thus, his official comments Monday on the eve of this week's Summit of the Americas in Panama should be heeded because his timing was not coincidental and his authority signals that his words should be heeded. First off, he made it plain that "the historic rapproachment with the United States, while it has progressed, will depend on actions not yet taken by the United States." Malmierca was talking about two areas that the U. S. needs to more seriously confront: {1} Removing Cuba from the U. S. State Department's Sponsors of Terrorism List; and {2} frankly discussing with Cuba the return of the Cuban port Guantanamo Bay to Cuba. If President Obama is "unable or unwilling" to address those two areas, Cuba is not ready to jump "headfirst" into normalizing relations with its superpower neighbor. On Monday, Malmierca also said that Cuba must be allowed to have access to the dollar currency in trade relations. He said, "President Obama has now taken steps in the right direction but the measures he ordered are incomplete and insufficient, and do not change the essence of the unilateral measures taken by the U. S. government against Cuba. Beyond traditional goods like rum and tobacco, there are others of excellent quality that can be included in this possible exchange, such as biotechnology products." Malmierca said trade relations with the United States will be "welcomed" but the U. S. will not be accorded "special privileges." He believes the billion-dollar upgrade of the deep-water Mariel Port, 28 miles southwest of Havana, will provide Cuba with a "regional shipping hub that can handle over a million containers each year." Mexico and China are among the countries already investing in the Industrial Park that is a part of the Mariel Port while Cuba has also received about 300 other international offers. Malmierca says, "Cuba's survival as a sovereign nation is a fact. Prosperity is more problematic but it is possible in the near future, with or without U. S. support."

   When Rodrigo Malmierca speaks, Cuba's most astute friends and foes listen. He is a guiding force in the last years of the Castro rule on the island and he will be an important factor in post-Castro Cuba. He believed in the Revolution and he believes the transition to a post-Castro Cuba should forever bear "the revolutionary stamp." Malmierca was born in Havana 58 years ago. He graduated from the University of Havana in 1980. He is married with two children. He speaks fluent Spanish, English, French, and Portuguese. He has been Cuba's well respected ambassador to Belguim, the European Union, and Luxembourg. He was also Cuba's representative at the UN from 2002 to 2009. Since then he has been a key to the island's economic and political survival. In the next decade, Rodrigo Malmierca will be one of Cuba's most powerful forces. Some important Americans expect him to one day be Cuba's Ambassador to the United States but most important Cubans believe he will be more valuable as a top leader and decision-maker at home on the island in the tumultuous years that loom so ominously on the Cuban horizon.

       President Barack Obama has been very bold in trying to deal with the codified excesses of the ultra-powerful, self-serving Cuban lobby that dictates America's Cuban policy from its entrenched position in the United States Congress. However, he needs to be much bolder. President Obama very badly wants a U. S. embassy in Havana and he hopes, this week at the Summit of the Americas in Panama, the leaders of the other 34 nations will treat him kindly because of his attempts to normalize relations with Cuba, something strongly desired by all of America's Caribbean and Latin American neighbors. Yet, as Rodrigo Malmierca opined in speaking for Cuba Monday, it is apparent that Cuba itself will oppose the President's overtures if he doesn't manage to remove Cuba from the terrorism list, if he doesn't reduce financial restrictions on trade, and if he doesn't at least talk seriously about the U. S. occupation of Cuba's Guantanamo Bay.

A U.S.-Cuba Reboot? Uh, not likely.   

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Cubans Should Rule Cuba

Not Exiles and Not Foreigners
Updated: Friday, April 3rd, 2015

          CNBC, America's top business network, used this Getty Images photo this week to illustrate a major article about Cuba written by Michelle Caruso-Cabrera. It used multiple graphics and polls to show that the majority of Americans, INCLUDING MOST CUBAN-AMERICANS, support President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with the neighboring island. However, majority opinion in the world's most famed democracy has never factored into America's Cuban policy. That's includes the decision of a few to go to war in 1898 to wrest dominance of Cuba from Spain, strong-arm the lush port of Guantanamo Bay from Cuba in 1903, team with the Mafia in the 1950s to support the vile Batista dictatorship, and blunt the efforts of Democratic Presidents Kennedy, Carter, Clinton, and Obama to end or at least ease the embargo against Cuba, an embargo that has been in existence, to America's shame and democracy's shame, since 1962.

          This week Politico used this photo of President Barack Obama to highlight a major article written by Nick Gass. The article was entitled "Polls: Most Cuban-Americans Back Obama's Cuban Shift." Unfortunately, a few self-serving Cuban-Americans still have far more influence over Cuban policy than the combined influence of the U. S. President, the majority of Americans, and the majority of Cuban-Americans. 

      Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, has been the most powerful pro-embargo/anti-Cuban Cuban-American in the U. S. Congress. Till recently he was the omnipotent Chairman of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee and he has remained the top Democrat on that significant committee. Mr. Menendez is 61-years-old and has been in the U. S. Congress since 1993 and in the U. S. Senate since 2006. For years federal prosecutors and the FBI have investigated Mr. Menendez for corruption related to New Jersey, Miami, and the Dominican Republic. This week, -- April 1st -- the U. S. government indicted Mr. Menendez on 14 corruption charges, which he very heatedly denied...again.  

Isabel dos Santos. {Photo: Bruno Fonseca/EPA/Newscom}

      Isabel dos Santos at age 40 is the youngest billionaire on the African Continent. Forbes conservatively puts her wealth at $3 billion. She is her father's favorite daughter. Her father is 71-year-old Jose Eduardo dos Santos, the dictator of oil-rich/mineral-rich Angola, one of the poorest and most corrupt countries on the planet. Her father has ruled Angola since 1979; because of its vast natural resources, many countries want to do business with Angola. According to Kerry A. Dolan, the lady who tracks huge fortunes for Forbes Magazine, if foreign business tycoons want to do business in Angola, a good way to start is to deal with Isabel upfront. Much of Isabel's fortune involves Portuguese businessmen. Ms. Dolan explains the connection: "For three centuries the Portuguese extracted wealth from this mineral-rich country on Africa's southwestern coast. Almost immediately after Angola won independence in 1975, various internal factions began battling one another for the right to do the exact same things." Isabel's dad Jose dos Santos won that battle in 1979 and has maintained his power since then. Meanwhile, Isabel -- to consolidate her personal fortune -- apparently studied the Batistiano Cubans who fled the Cuban Revolution to relocate and enlarge their fortunes, especially in Miami. Ms. Dolan explained it this way: "Isabel dos Santos' formative business experience came at Miami Beach. Not the Florida city, but rather a rustic chic beach-side bar and restaurant in Luanda, Angola's capital, that tries to emulate its namesake." In other words, to amass her fortune in Angola, Isabel dos Santos very astutely studied the post-Batista fortunes of Cubans in Miami and equated that situation to the post-Portuguese situation in Angola. She studied well.

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

     .............in my opinion, this was the most pertinent photo taken on the planet this week. Photojournalist Nadia Abu Shaban was covering a camp that supposedly was a safe haven for Syrian children who have managed to survive the endless bloodshed that has killed many thousands of children and left millions more on the brink of starvation according to urgent pleas from Save the Children and the United Nations. This little Syrian girl walked up behind Nadia, who turned and aimed her camera at the child. Believing the camera was a gun, the little girl instantly raised her arms in a surrender mode. Nadia posted the photo and that explanation on Twitter. As this little girl and so many like her around the world well know, there are far two many guns and far too little compassion in far too many places around the world. This little Syrian girl is actually one of the lucky ones. If some sanity enters her life, she even has a chance to become a big girl. Based on her reaction to Nadia's camera, this child's young eyes have seen many little Syrian girls who will never have that chance.

All of which reminds me...........

      .......of the Time Magazine cover story this week: "CUBA: What Will Change When the Americans Arrive?" The 12-page article written by Karl Vick pointed out a rather unique feature of Cuba: That it is practically drug-free, crime-free, and war-free. That's quite unlike the Batista-era in the 1950s and it is quite unlike most other regions of the world today. Although they are cruelly and unfairly embargoed, Cuban children today are basically safer, healthier, and better educated than most other children around the world. Would a return of the Americans, especially the Batistianos, change that back to the hedonistic days of the 1950s? It is a question, I believe, that is well worth asking. 

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Cuba: A Past & A Present

The Great Compensation Debate
Essay posted: Monday, March 30th, 2015

    This photo was provided to the AP by Carolyn Chester of Omaha, Nebraska. It shows a rich American, her father Edmund Chester, on the left, during a friendly exchange in 1939 with his dear friend, Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. An American journalist, Chester had become associated with Batista during the first Batista dictatorship, which began in 1933. After a lucrative decade as Cuba's dictator, Batista was content to live the life of a very rich man, mostly in South Florida. But Batista's friend there, Mafia kingpin Meyer Lansky, wanted "the Mob to own its own country." Batista obliged and in 1952 returned as Cuba's dictator with Lansky the co-dictator. Batista's old friends, such as Edmund Chester, took notice. Chester soon owned radio stations all over the island and other luxurious toys such as an 80-acre farm. Chester also invested $250,000 {1950s money} in A T & T stock in Cuba. Batista, Lansky, and Americans like Mr. Chester were seemingly too busy buying up Cuba and building such things as plush new hotel-casinos that they didn't fully appreciate the rebel revolt on the eastern end of the island even as it began to fight its way westward by the beginning of 1958. Batista's first reaction to the rebel affront was sheer brutality against the peasants, including the children. He thought such brutality would discourage any resistance. The brutality, especially against children, embarrassed Batista's main supporter, the U. S. government. That finally induced Washington to stop arming Batista's army. In the last week of 1958 the rebels captured the railroad hub of Santa Clara, the signal for Batista, Lansky, and other leaders of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship to head to their getaway boats, ships, and airplanes. The triumphant rebels turned out to be serious about ending the one-sided hedonism on the island. By daylight on January 1, 1959, the lush casinos were being destroyed. Shortly, the maligned peasants were being housed in the luxurious mansions left behind by the Batistianos, Mafiosi, and Americans. And soon, much property, which the rebels considered ill-gotten, was nationalized. The rich Batistianos and Mafiosi, having shipped huge sums of money off the island, fared well as they regrouped in places like the Mafia havens of South Florida and Union City, New Jersey. Rich American businessmen booted out of Cuba, like Edmund Chester, fared less well and to this day they, or their heirs, are still trying to be compensated for their Cuban losses.

       For example, this AP/Nati Harnik photo shows Edmund Chester's daughter Carolyn this year in her Omaha home. She is holding up "Cuban Telephone Company" stock certificates that were a part of her father's huge investment in Batista-era A T & T stock. Carolyn, like many other heirs in America, believes she should recoup her father's investment. In fact, since 1959 and especially since the 1980s, Cuban-Americans have had iron grips on both America's Cuban policy and on Cuban-related laws mandated by the U. S. Congress. In that milieu, in 1996 the U. S. Congress used the Helms-Burton Law to mandate that Cuba must compensate people like Carolyn before the U. S. government can end or ease the embargo against Cuba. As the month of April dawns in the year 2015, President Barack Obama is trying to use Executive Privilege to compete with Helms-Burton but in all likelihood the current Batistiano-controlled U. S. Congress will prevail because the Congress is much more malleable {much more easily purchased}.

         From 1952 till 1959 the majority Cuban peasants lived in abject poverty while the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship helped the Batistianos, the Mafiosi, and U. S. businessmen use the island as a piggy-bank.

         The poverty of the majority peasants in Cuba during the Batista dictatorship will not likely factor into any U. S. discussions of dual compensation because, as far as Americans have been told, photos like this were not commonplace in Batista's Cuba. But yes, in Batista's Cuba this was an ignored but typical scene.

     Of course, poverty for the many amid extreme wealth for a few was only a secondary cause for the Cuban Revolution. The primary cause were brave marches like these by Cuban mothers protesting the murders of their children in Batista's Cuba. This photo explains why and how the female-fueled Cuban Revolution ousted Batista. As discussions about compensating Americans and Cuban-Americans heats up in 2015, should compensation, or at least an apology, for mothers like these at least be a consideration?

       Throughout Cuba and throughout the Caribbean and Latin America to this day, relatives and friends of the victims of Cubana Flight 455 vividly remember and deeply mourn the loss of all 73 innocent souls on that civilian airplane bombed out of the sky by a terrorist bomb, one of many unpunished terrorist acts against innocent Cubans. With former CIA operative Posada Carriles to this day a heralded citizen of Miami, many Caribbeans and Latin Americans believe it is ironic that the U. S., to appease the anti-Castro extremists, is the only nation in the world that believes Cuba should be on the U. S. Sponsor of Terrorism list. And those same people wonder if all the talk about compensation for Americans will also include some talk of compensation for the families of the victims depicted above? {Two dozen aboard Cubana Flight 455 were young Cuban athletes returning to the island after winning gold medals in the Central American Championships in Caracas. Most of the doomed young Cubans aboard Cubana Flight 455 were fencers.}

         This Cuban girl had been waiting with her mother at Jose Marti Airport in Havana for the return of her teenage brother on Cubana Flight 455. Is it too late for this girl, now a woman, to be compensated?

A Cuban remembering Cubana Flight 455.

        While the fate of Cubana Flight 455 remains an integral part of Cuba's and America's past, this Torsten Maiwald photo is more recent. This is a Cubana airliner preparing to land at Toronto's Pearson Airport.

         The U. S. embargo against Cuba has been in effect since 1962, severely harming the lives of everyday Cubans decade after decade. As indicated yearly by a vote in the United Nations, the rest of the countries around the world believe the embargo is unjustified and merely sates the insatiable revenge motive of a handful of Cuban-Americans. And if that is not so, how can the U. S. account for the yearly UN vote?  

By the way............. 

........this is the yellow hacienda in Biran, Cuba, where Fidel Castro was born  in 1926.

Today Biran is a bucolic little Cuban town 500 miles east of Havana.

       This is Fidel Castro on his last visit to his childhood home in Biran, Cuba. He was surprised to notice that a photo of him as a youth still hung on a wall. There are no monuments or statues in Cuba honoring Fidel Castro and he has never allowed his childhood home to become a shrine. His father, Angel, was a multi-millionaire farmer. But the Castro property was nationalized by Fidel, much to the chagrin of his mother Lina. When Fidel sent his older brother Ramon to tell Lina that she would have to leave because her home-place was going to be flooded to help peasant farmers, Lina fetched her .22-caliber rifle and chased Ramon off the property. Then Lina summoned Celia Sanchez, knowing Celia could over-rule Fidel, which she did as Lina requested. Greed has never been one of Fidel Castro's faults. At age 88 today, he is living out his life in a modest home in Havana; most of his severest critics, through two generations, have lived in mansions. Till his revolutionary soul-mate Celia Sanchez died in 1980, Fidel's primary home was her small apartment at Calle 11 {11th Street} in the Vedado section of Havana. Celia and Fidel also maintained an office-suite in the Habana Libre Hotel but, after repeated assassination attempts, his security detail always preferred to have him at the more secure compound located at 166 Street in the Siboney area. 

Lina Castro, Fidel's mother.

Lina Castro, shown here with her rifle and pistol, was a tough cookie.

Angel Castro, Fidel's rich father.

       This photo was taken on January 8th, 1959. Fidel Castro was making his first speech in Havana after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution when a white dove landed on his left shoulder. The dove was one of several released to highlight the speech. Camilo Cienfuegos had requested the doves. The triumph of the Cuban Revolution was sealed on January 1st, 1959 when the leaders of the Batista dictatorship fled a rebel army, led by Camilo Cienfuegos and Che Guevara, that was charging toward Havana after capturing the railroad hub of Santa Clara. Fidel and his soul-mate Celia Sanchez had taken almost a week on a dilatory trek from Santiago de Cuba on the island's eastern tip to reach the capital city of Havana in western Cuba, setting the stage for the January 8th, 1959 speech by Fidel in Havana that spotlighted the white dove. 

       This photo was taken on January 8th, 1989. It shows Fidel Castro making a speech on the 30th anniversary of his first Havana speech in 1959. In honor of the white dove that landed on Fidel's left shoulder in 1959, the white dove in this photo thirty years later was admittedly placed on Fidel's right shoulder.  It's not known how long it stayed there but it obviously was long enough for the photo to be taken. The omen of the original white dove has been debated since 1959 by pro-and-con Castro zealots. Earlier, till reminded by a reader, I had gotten the dove on his right shoulder in 1989 confused with the dove on his left shoulder in 1959. A sharp reader cleared up my lugubrious confusion. {see comments}

       This is Fidel Castro in January of 1959 when Edward R. Murrow introduced him to America as the new leader of Cuba. A 3 minute and 55 second excerpt {above} of that interview is available on YouTube.

         In 1959 when he interviewed Fidel Castro on his "Person to Person" program, Edward R. Murrow was America's top journalist. He asked Fidel, "Will you now cut your beard off? Fidel replied with these exact words: "When we fulfill our promise of good government, I will cut my beard." Mr. Murrow was taken aback by that answer. More than 56 years later, cynics will note that, to this day, Fidel still has not cut his beard.

The bearded Fidel Castro, at age 88 in 2015 -- moody and contemplative.

An historic fact from 1962.

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Miami-Cubans vs.The World

The World Is The Underdog
Updated: Sunday, March 29th, 2015

    Fumio Kishida is the Foreign Minister of Japan. This week he requested permission to visit Cuba in April. Japan is interested in investments in Cuba, particularly regarding infrastructure projects and mineral resource development. Japan's significant overture is a product of America's ongoing attempt to normalize relations with Cuba, at least in regards to easing or ending the embargo that has been in place since 1962. Because of the U. S. status as the world's economic and military superpower, nations such as Japan have capitulated to U. S. influence when it comes to Cuba. Miami Cubans have taken full advantage of that fact to dictate to the U. S. Congress and to foreign nations that any positive actions regarding Cuba are strictly verboten. President Obama's bold and sane overtures toward Cuba are now being reciprocated by other key nations, including Japan. Of course, such positive developments spawn vicious reactions from Miami Cubans who believe they alone should dictate U.S.-Cuban relations. 

       This is Pedro Luis Pedroso, one of the rising stars in Cuba. He already has an impressive title: Deputy Director for Multilateral Affairs and International Law. This week -- Thursday, March 26th -- Pedroso announced that Cuban diplomats will in Washington Tuesday to discuss the touchy issue of human rights. He said, "These conversations about human rights show that Cuba is ready to discuss any topic with the U. S., despite our differences, and from a basis of equality. There are different political systems and models for democracy. We live in a plural world and that plurality should apply to the case of Cuba as well." The U. S. wanted the human rights discussion to take place so the process of opening a U. S. embassy in Havana can proceed prior to the April 10th start of the Summit of the Americas in Panama. At Tuesday's session in Washington Pedroso will make sure that Cuba's side of the human rights equation is considered, meaning that Cuba will stress that U. S. funds and actions designed to encourage dissidents on the island "are something that no sovereign nation, including Cuba and the United States, should ever be subjected to."

        To understand the U.S.-Cuban conundrum in the spring of 2015, one needs to comprehend this Kathleen McGrory/Miami Herald photo that was taken this week in Florida's capital city of Tallahassee. It shows 38-year-old Miami-born Florida State Senator Anitere Flores, supported by other like-minded Republicans, making an impassioned speech in support of a proposal she sponsored to rebuke President Obama's plans to begin the process of normalizing relations with Cuba. Ms. Flores, a University of Florida Law School graduate, represents Miami-Dade County in the Florida Senate. Republican politicians from Miami-Dade continue to defend their decades-old dominance and control of America's Cuban policy. 

        As it happened, the very hour this week -- on March 24th -- that Miami-Dade politician Anitere Flores was holding her volatile news conference in Tallahassee, Florida, this significant lady was holding this much calmer news conference in Havana. She is Federica Mogherini, the European Union's Foreign Policy Chief. On the heels of President Obama's peaceful overtures towards Cuba, Ms. Mogherini is trying real hard to normalize relations between the 28-nation European Union and Cuba. She will even represent the EU next month at the Summit of the Americas in Panama where Cuban President Raul Castro and American President Barack Obama will be featured. In Havana this week Ms. Mogherini began her news conference with these words: "We decided to speed up the rhythm of our negotiations with Cuba, hopefully to manage to finalize the framework of our ongoing dialogue." Around the world many good people such as Federica Mogherini have, from time-to-time in the past five decades, done their best to bring a degree of sanity and decency to U.S.-Cuban relations. Unfortuantely, those efforts have failed. So will Federica Mogherini's.

EU's Federica Mogherini discussions with Cuba's Bruno Rodriguez.

The EU's Federica Mogherini and Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez.

         For two generations, Cubans and Cuban-Americans in just one small area of the United States -- Miami-Dade -- have dictated America's Cuban policy. Recent polls agree that the majority of Cuban-Americans in Miami-Dade, along with the rest of the world, want that to change, starting with the end of the cruel U. S. embargo against Cuba that has existed since 1962. But since the 1950s America's Cuban policy has been in the hands of a self-serving few, leaving majority opinions out in the cold. That won't change.

      Cuba's President Raul Castro and America's President Barack Obama will both attend the Summit of the Americas that begins on April 10th in Panama. President Obama is tired of being embarrassed at international gatherings because of the universal disapproval of America's Cuban policy. Therefore, Mr. Obama hopes his plans to normalize relations with Cuba will have progressed enough by then to impress the other 33 nations in the Americas, at least enough to spare him from the usual embarrassments. Yet, by April 10th of 2015 -- and far beyond that -- America's Cuban policy will, for the most part, remain firmly in the hands of a self-serving few. The Summit of the Americas next month will be a reminder yet again that the U. S. democracy, even bolstered by the 28 EU democracies, cannot wiggle free of Miami-Dade's grip on America's Cuban policy. Understanding such undemocratic facts of life will help you understand those competing simultaneous news conferences this week -- the one featuring Anitere Flores in Florida and the one held by Federico Mogherini in Cuba. Both were...rather insightful.

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Recapturing Cuba

Start By Capturing America!!
Wednesday, March, 2015

    Ted Cruz, the Canadian-born Cuban-American U. S. Senator from Texas, this week became the first "major" Republican to formally announce his candidacy for the office of President of the United States. My favorite brother {true story} watches Fox News and firmly believes that Ted Cruz should be elected President in 2016 with Marco Rubio Vice President, Bob Menendez Secretary of Defense, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen Secretary of State. After Ted Cruz's two terms, my favorite brother plans for Marco Rubio to begin his two terms as President. When my favorite brother imparted that opinion to me last week, I laughed and said, "But if Cruz actually wins, do you realize what will happen to poor little Cuba before dark on January 21, 2017" Without cracking a smile, he replied, "Sure. By dark on January 21st, 2017 Cuba would be wiped off the map." After that very definitive and confident reply, I didn't laugh anymore. But I recovered quickly and managed to presciently {I believe} remind my favorite brother that, "Well, after almost six decades of being unable to recapture Cuba, I guess the plan of a second generation of Batistianos is to capture America first and then re-capture Cuba." 

       Peter King is a moderate Republican who has represented New York in the U. S. Congress since 1993. After Ted Cruz's official announcement about seeking the Republican nomination for President, Mr. King expressed his outrage to CNN's Wolf Blitzer. Among other things, Congressman King said he would "jump off a bridge" if Ted Cruz actually captures the Republican nomination for President. Hopefully that won't happen but, for sure, many Americans who care deeply about their democracy share Mr. King's outrage.

        Jon Stewart is understandably outraged that Ted Cruz can even be considered "a serious" presidential candidate. Mainstream news is so consistently discouraging we need satirists, like Stewart, to make things a bit more palatable. It is, indeed, discouraging to contemplate what has happened to America's two-party political system that pits right-wing billionaire money against left-wing Wall Street money. Overwhelmed voters need a third choice, to say the least, but that is simply no longer possible.

      After Ted Cruz's official announcement about his presidential plans this week, Marco Rubio's official announcement is only a week away. In addition to being first-term members of the U. S. Senate, Cruz and Rubio have many similarities: They are both Cuban-Americans whose parents fled the Batista dictatorship in Cuba for the "freedom" of the United States; Cruz was born in Canada and Rubio in Miami. Both Cruz and Rubio got their political impetus by latching onto the coattails of the Bush dynasty, Cruz in Texas and Rubio in Miami. Both Cruz and Rubio are viciously determined to eliminate Cuba's revolutionary government and they apparently believe that the best way to accomplish that is to become Commander-in-Chief of the United States. Both Cruz and Rubio will be backed by millions of dollars, perhaps billions, from right-wing billionaires in America. Both Cruz and Rubio are Tea Party darlings. Both Cruz and Rubio can count on thousands of hours of free advertisements on the Fox News network. Of the two, Cruz -- the extreme right-winger -- is by far the smartest and by far the best orator. But Rubio -- postured as a moderate right-winger -- has by far the best chance to attain the Republican presidential nomination and he likely will get it unless his mentor, Jeb Bush, blocks his path with what is yet another presidential bid from the Bush dynasty.

     These are sad, sad days for lifelong conservative Republicans like me...and like Congressman Peter King and satirists such as Jon Stewart. If the seven men depicted above are the seven best Republican candidates to be the next President of the United States, then it is abundantly clear that America's two-party system -- Republican and Democrat -- needs more choices. U. S. politics have evolved into a money-fueled joke in which voters all too often are left with a singular bad choice -- in other words, the lesser of two evils or at the least the lesser of two incompetents or two dangerous choices. That is not what America's Founding Fathers intended. But I assure you that my favorite right-wing brother is rejoicing.

This poor Cuban, Hector Olivera, became a rich American this week.

       Hector Olivera wore #26 on his Cuban uniform. This week he received a $26 million bonus check from the Los Angeles Dodgers. His 6-year contract with the Dodgers guarantees Hector a total of $62.5 million with many more dollars if he can play Major League baseball. Hector turns 30-years-old next month and many thought his age would prevent him from getting such a bonus or guaranteed contract. Two weeks ago the Boston Red Sox signed 19-year-old Cuban Joan Moncada to a $31.5 million upfront bonus. But even nearing 30, Hector Olivera cashes in because #1 he is Cuban and Cubans who touch U. S. soil have special privileges, including bids from all 30 Major League teams while an American with similar talent would be required to accept or decline a bid from just one team, the one that drafted him; #2 all thirty Major League baseball teams in the U. S. are awash with money from television and advertising contracts; and #3 the 30 Major League teams in the U. S. seem convinced that the island of Cuba, per capita, has far more baseball talent than the 50 U. S. states have. So, with such enticements to enter the defection pipelines, even veterans such as Hector Olivera get very rich very quick, with their upfront millions guaranteed whether or not they make the Majors. Being an American is nice. Being a Cuban in America is even nicer! In America a few Cuban exiles can make laws and policies that benefit only Cuban exiles at everyone else's expense. It's politically incorrect to say that, but Hector Olivera discovered it is so.

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