How Fidel Beat Batista

Fidel Idolized Mariana Grajales

           Mariana Grajales is remembered today as "The Black Progenitress of Cuban Independence." No one loved Cuban independence more than she did, although she never lived to see her beloved island attain the sovereignty she craved. Mariana was born on June 26, 1800. She died November 23, 1893 in Kingston, Jamaica. She had dedicated her long life to helping Cuba gain independence from Spain. Within three years after her death, Mariana's two legendary sons -- Jose and Antonio -- both died on Cuban battlefields fighting Spanish soldiers. Despite the efforts of Mariana and her sons, Cuban rebels never defeated Spain's imperial domination although they were instrumental in weakening Spain and making it easy prey for the United States in the 1898 Spanish-American War. Also, it is worth mentioning that Mariana's lifelong dream was not in vain. During the Cuban Revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship on January 1, 1959, Fidel Castro named an all-female fighting unit "The Mariana Grajales Brigade." Those female warriors played a vital role in Cuba's revolutionary triumph to create Cuban independence.

         Jose Maceo, the son of Mariana Grajales, was born on February 2, 1849 in Oriente Province, Cuba. He died on July 5th, 1896 leading his rebel army against the Spanish at the Battle of Lomo del Gato.

      Antonio Maceo, the most famous son of Mariana Grajales, was born in Santiago de Cuba in 1845. He died on December 7th, 1896, leading his rebel unit against the Spanish in the battle of Punta Brava. Cuban lore still remembers the dashing Antonio Maceo as "The Bronze Titan" and "The Son of Mariana Grajales."

"La Patria ante todo" means "The Homeland first and foremost."

        After the deaths of Mariana Grajales and her two famed sons in the 1890s just prior to the Spanish-American War, it was the Cuban Revolution that crowned their eternal fame as great Cuban patriots. The rebel uprising against the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship in the 1950s was, from its outset, a female-powered revolution. Thus, it was fitting that Fidel Castro named an all-female fighting unit "The Mariana Grajales Platoon." With do-or-die warriors such as the teenage Tete Puebla, the Mariana Grajales unit was nonpareil in its determination to defeat every force the dreaded Batista dictatorship threw against it.

        By the time Tete Puebla and the Mariana Grajales Women's Platoon had fought their way from the eastern end of Cuba to the western end, Tete admitted she was disappointed that, when they arrived in Havana {above}, the Batistiano leaders had all fled to safer havens, such as Miami. In the above photo, that is Tete Puebla on the left. She, Eloisa Ballester, Lilia Rielo and the other Mariana Grajales warriors had hoped to have "the sweet chance to sight Batista, Lansky, and Masferrer at the end of our gun barrels," as Tete would later say. She considered Fulgencio Batista and Mafia kingpin Meyer Lansky the "decision makers" and Rolando Masferrer their "hired killer." As a teenager, Tete had witnessed the infamous Masferrer Tigers come to her village and burn helpless victims to death in gas-soaked gunny-sacks. Instead of staying in Havana to fight her, Masferrer fled with a reported $10 million in cash and quickly formed an anti-Castro paramilitary unit, one of many well-funded anti-Castro armies in South Florida.

       This photo shows Rolando Masferrer -- Batista's most famous enforcer-killer -- safely on U. S. soil in 1961 as a multi-millionaire determined to recapture Cuba. His quickly formed paramilitary unit in South Florida was his opening salvo. Wikipedia states: "In December of 1960 the Miami Herald reported that Masferrer's paramilitary unit was 'polishing their killing skills at a ranch in Florida owned by billionaire Howard Hugues. In the 1960s Masferrer plotted and accumulated weapons to invade Haiti to have a base, free of U. S. law, to attack the Castro government of Cuba, which had foiled direct attempts by Masferrer boats to land." But Masferrer and other vicious exiles had support, not restrictions, from the U. S. government. Into the 1970s, after many massive efforts to recapture Cuba, Masferrer still believed it would happen and he was primed to return to the island, with the U. S. government's blessing, as Cuba's new dictator. But he had a few even richer and more powerful Cuban-exiles competing for that honor...including Jorge Mas Canosa and Rafael Diaz-Balart, both of whom have been depicted as Miami billionaires. Rolando Masferrer was born in Holguin, Cuba in 1918. He died in Miami on October 31st, 1975, when he turned the ignition in his car and it exploded because of a bomb apparently planted because of the internecine warfare about who would be the next Cuban leader...as soon as the U. S. helped overthrow Fidel Castro. Rolando Masferrer's army unit in Cuba -- the army that turned the teenage Tete Puebla into a do-or-die guerrilla fighter -- is known to history as "The Masferrer Tigers" in English and "Los Tigres de Masferrer" in Spanish. Since 1959 Americans have been given a sanitized version of Batista's Cuba but history registers the truth tied to what Batistianos like Masferrer did in Cuba and what they did, or tried hard to do, in the U. S. after 1959. 

           This photo was taken in 1958 at a political rally supporting the Batista dictatorship in Cuba. On the left is Rodolfo Masferrer and on the right is his more infamous brother Rolando Masferrer. In the middle with the holstered pistol is Rafael Diaz-Balart. All three fled the triumphant Cuban Revolution in January of 1959 and all three soon had powerful paramilitary units in nearby South Florida lashing ferociously back at Cuba. Tete Puebla, the teenage guerrilla fighter who helped defeat Batista and his U.S.-backed henchmen, has remained on the island since 1959 defending Cuba against a return of the Batistianos. {NOTE: Two of Rafael Diaz-Balart's sons, Lincoln and Mario, have been elected to the U. S. Congress from Miami as vicious anti-Castro zealots, a reminder that two generations of massively motivated and very powerful forces on U. S. soil have remained determined to defeat Fidel Castro and his very stubborn revolution}.

          Yes, after chasing Rolando Masferrer to Miami, the still massively motivated Tete Puebla remained a prime defender of the Cuban revolutionary victory. Today Tete is a General in the Cuban Army. The above photo was taken earlier this year when Cuban journalist Arleen Rodriguez was preparing to interview General Puebla on the nightly Round Table news show. Ms. Rodriguez prepped for the interview by reading a biography and autobiography about Tete, the books she is holding in her left hand. The female-powered aspect of the Cuban Revolution is generally unknown to Americans who have been force-fed the villainy of Fidel Castro and force-fed the sanitizing of Batista, Lansky, and their primary enforcer -- Rolando Masferrer. In 2015, with President Obama orchestrating the first real thaw in U.S.-Cuban relations since 1959, you might finally have a chance to visit Cuba. If so, ask General Tete Puebla what she thought of Rolando Masferrer and the Batistianos. Tete is a sweet, gentle lady but don't anticipate a sweet, gentle reply when she's asked about Rolando Masferrer. If you research their history, you'll understand that.

      And so, there you have the unvarnished and unabashed reasons Fidel Castro did the impossible by beating Fulgencio Batista although Batista was backed by the strongest criminal organization in the world, the Mafia, and by the strongest nation in the world, the United States. He defied history and out-smarted his enemies by fully utilizing the most maligned, the most neglected, and the most motivated half of the Cuban population, the female half. The stratagem resulted from Fidel's remembrance of Mariana Grajales, the mother of the fighting Maceo brothers whom Fidel idolized. The rest is history...and topicality! As a teenage guerrilla fighter in the 1950s, Tete Puebla helped carve out that history. As a General in the Cuban Army today, she is also topical. In the ceremony depicted above that honored her, Tete reached across the table to shake Fidel Castro's hand right after he said, "There is no greater Cuban, past or present, than Tete." Still holding his hand, she replied, "I am what I am because of my love for Cuba, you, and Mariana Grajales." And Tete is a Cuban legend...not quite as renowned as Fidel, but close. In fact, real close!! In September of 2015, General Tete Puebla continues as a living symbol of how Fidel Castro did the impossible -- first, defeating the U.S.-and-Mafia-backed Batista dictatorship and then living to celebrate his 89th birthday on August 13, 2015. Fidel Castro managed to accomplish those two feats because, way back in the 1950s, as an admirer of the patriotic Mariana Grajales, he utilized the most maligned half of the Cuban population, the female half, in his underdog but successful David vs. Goliath fight against Batista.

       Linda Pressly is a top documentary producer/reporter for the BBC. A couple of years ago Ms. Pressly called me from London because she was doing a documentary on Celia Sanchez. Ms. Pressly had read my 2004 biography on Celia as well as the all-time most-read post on my Cubaninsider, the one entitled: "Celia Sanchez & Fidel Castro: At Work & Relaxation." Ms. Pressly ended up calling me five times from London and when she told me she was flying to Cuba to finish her documentary on Celia Sanchez, I immediately said, "Make real sure you talk to General Tete Puebla. She fought tenaciously with Celia in the Sierra Maestra. After the revolutionary victory, Tete and Celia remained close till Celia died of cancer on January 11, 1980."

       Linda Pressly indeed talked at length with General Tete Puebla about Celia Sanchez. In the BBC documentary, Ms. Pressly used the above photo that shows Tete Puebla with her dear friend Nidia Sarabia.

          The best decision Fidel Castro ever made once he decided to fight the Batista dictatorship was to let Celia Sanchez be the prime decision-maker in both the Revolutionary War and Revolutionary Cuba. Americans are not supposed to believe that, but those still interested in the truth do believe it.

         From 1953 till her death from cancer in 1980, no one -- including Fidel -- was as important as Celia Sanchez was in winning the war against Batista and in defending the island against the counter-revolutionaries who regrouped, more powerful than ever, on U. S. soil. Not to believe that is to fall victim to the fact that the counter-revolutionaries have dictated the Cuban narrative in the U. S. since 1959.

So now you know............

        .....................three vital things about the Cuban Revolution: {1} How Fidel Castro beat Fulgencio Batista; {2} why the transplanted Batistianos have failed since 1959 to recapture the island; and {3} what allowed Fidel Castro to celebrate his 89th birthday this summer in Cuba. Such important Hows, Whys, and Whats all relate to Fidel's admiration of Mariana Grajales, who urged her two famous sons to fight to the death against imperialist Spain. That knowledge of Cuban history induced Fidel to form the all-female Mariana Grajales Platoon to fight and defeat Batista's vastly superior armies because of superior motivations -- such as the teenage Tete watching some friends being burned alive and the doctor's daughter Celia blaming Batista for the legal rape-murder of 10-year-old Maria Ochoa in a casino-hotel upstairs bedroom. It turned out, as Fidel astutely calculated, that Batista's soldiers were not nearly as motivated as Cuba's much-maligned females such as...Celia Sanchez and Tete Puebla.

And by the way...............

        ................meet this modern-day Cuban revolutionary. The photo is courtesy of AP/PETA. The young rebel's name is Lydia Guevara. She is the granddaughter of Che Guevara, the Argentine doctor who, you may recall, played a key role in the Cuban Revolution. Lydia's revolution, unlike her granddad's, is not against Batista or the Batistianos. On her strategically placed ammunition belt, those are carrots, not bullets. Lydia's revolution is to promote vegetarianism. Check out those carrots!

           This photo, by the way, shows Fidel Castro and Che Guevara in the early days of Revolutionary Cuba. The baby girl Fidel is holding is Aleida Guevara, the first of four children Che had with his second wife Aleida March, who was a guerrilla fighter in the Cuban Revolution. Che had divorced his Argentine wife, the notable Hilda Gadea, in 1959 to marry Aleida March, who forever remains loyal to the revolution.

           This AFP photo shows Dr. Aleida Guevara, the daughter of Aleida March and Che Guevara. Born in Cuba in 1960, she is now 54-years-old and a highly respected medical doctor on the island and she also speaks at international forums, including recent ones in London, Paris, Moscow, and Vancouver. 

 

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Obama Wavers On Cuba

He Feels Pressure From Zealots
Sunday, September 6th, 2015

        On July 1st of this year President Barack Obama made the above statement at a news conference in Washington. It was a continuation of his breakthrough announcement on December 17, 2014, that he planned to normalize relations with Cuba. Since then, incredibly, the U. S. and Cuba have functioning embassies in their two capitals for the first time since 1961, the year of the Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba and the year an unending series of other attempts to regain control of Cuba commenced. In his historic efforts since December 17th, President Obama has shown more guts and more decency in regards to Cuba than was displayed by any of his ten presidential predecessors. Since 1963, or since the last days of the John F. Kennedy administration, all Democratic presidents -- Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama -- have tried to curb the animosity towards Cuba and get on the path to normalization with the neighboring island. But Kennedy, Carter, and Clinton...after making decisions toward normalization...were all blocked off or scared off by the visceral minority that, since the 1950s, has insisted on dictating an atrocious Cuban policy that, in the eyes of the world and especially North America, shames the U. S. and democracy. That is what Mr. Obama was alluding to in the above quotation about beginning "a new chapter with our neighbors in the Americas." You see, President Obama cares about America's image. However, a minority of Cuban-Americans and their self-serving sycophants, such as the endless Bush dynasty, could care less. And, unfortunately, it appears the same forces that scared off Presidents Kennedy, Carter, and Clinton are now beginning to have the same effect on the brave and decent President Obama. I'll explain.

        The U. S. has within its legislative arsenal something called "The Trading With The Enemy Act" that dates back to 1917 and then, in 1963, was expanded to more severely punish unfriendly nations by banning trade with them. By the 1980s the Bush dynasty had anointed anti-Castro zealot Jorge Mas Canosa as the leader of the most vicious wing of the Cuban exiles still seeking to counter the Cuban Revolution, which had chased most of them to Miami in 1959. Canosa was advised to replicate the omnipotent Israeli lobby, AIPAC. Thus, Canosa created The Cuban American National Foundation. It's omnipotence soon rivaled AIPAC, especially when it came to total dominance of the U. S. Congress on all things related to Cuba. Canosa found no problem securing whatever support he needed in Congress...from the likes of Robert Torricelli, Jesse Helms, Dan Burton, etc. What resulted was an incredible array of U. S. laws such as The Torricelli Bill, The Helms-Burton Act, Wet Foot/Dry Foot, The Cuban Democracy Act, The Cuban Adjustment Bill, etc. By whatever name, such laws were designed to drastically enrich and empower a few anti-Castro zealots while also supporting an endless array of regime-change programs, all of which were supported by tax-payers who were/are too ignorant, too intimidated, or two unpatriotic to object. Along the way, the anti-Castro zealots leaped on The Trading With The Enemy Act as an additional way to punish Cuba and empower themselves. To do that, it was a simple matter of putting and keeping Cuba on that designation along with putting and keeping Cuba on the State Department's Sponsors of Terrorism list. With exceptional bravery, President Obama removed Cuba from that Terrorism designation prior to the opening of embassies in Havana and Washington this summer. However, that only angered the anti-Castro zealots more than ever, making them determined that Obama, in the closing months of his two-term presidency, doesn't remove Cuba from The Trading With The Enemy list. Study the above graphic and the one below.

         The reason it is so important to the anti-Castro zealots to keep Cuba on the Trading With The Enemies list is obvious: That designation enables the U. S. to maintain its incredibly long list of sanctions against Cuba even as, for the first time since 1961, the two nations have reopened embassies in the two capital cities. On the above graphic, dated Jan. 10-2012, you can see Cuba listed along with Burma {which is now Myanmar}, Iran, Sudan, Syria, "etc." The "etc" is important because a fairly intelligent American might consider a long list of countries -- Russia, China, etc. -- as enemies, competitors, or threats. BUT NOT CUBA! Cuba is not an enemy, Cuba is not a competitor, and Cuba is not a threat to the United States! But Cuba's uniqueness since the 1950s is two-fold: {1} In 1959 it became the only nation in history to overthrow a U.S.-backed dictatorship; and {2} it marks the only time in U. S. history that an overthrown U.S.-backed dictatorship was allowed to reconstitute itself on U. S. soil complete with the support of the U. S. government in trying to regain control of the island. The fact that those attempts, now decades old, have failed does not diminish the fact that dozens of expensive regime-change programs remain active and dozens of U. S. laws, such as Trading With The Enemy, continue as tools designed to demolish Revolutionary Cuba so as to, presumably, at long last allow a handful of a second generation of anti-Castro zealots to regain control of the island, which, of course, would then once again be "U.S.-friendly," just as the brutal, thieving Batista-Mafia regime was.

        The Trading With The Enemy stumbling block appears to be the tool that anti-Castro zealots will use to trip up President Obama's much-heralded detente with Cuba. Even with the opening of embassies and other advancements toward normalization of relations, the U. S. law based on the Trading With The Enemy statue remains as the basis for the embargo and other domineering acts against Cuba. President Obama has just a few more days...till September 14th...to decide whether Cuba should remain on that list. Mr. Obama is a brave and decent man. He, unlike his enemies, is concerned about how, decade after decade, America's salacious Cuban policy has adversely affected the image of the U. S. and democracy in the eyes of the world. Yet, indications are that Mr. Obama has neither the courage nor the decency to remove Cuba from the Trading With The Enemy designation. If he fails to do so between now and September 14th, there are key people in Cuba who have worked positively with him in recent months who will begin to think less and less of the reopened embassies in Havana and Washington. September 14th is very important to them.

Obama at least tried to improve U.S.-Cuban relations.

But in the end, he too will fail.

A few anti-Castro zealots will prevail, as always.

When it comes to Cuba,

3 Miamians can easily over-rule 300 million Americans.

        President Obama, sandwiched helplessly between a rock {Ted Cruz} and a hard place {Marco Rubio}, deserves plaudits for trying to bring sanity and decency to America's Cuban policy. The fact that he will fail is not his fault. It is the fault of the American people who have neither the courage nor the patriotism to support a brave and decent approach to Cuba. So, as the montage above shows, Ted Cruz has reason to chortle and Marco Rubio has reason to smile. Their dictation of a failed and obscene U. S. Cuban policy will continue long after Obama leaves the Oval Office.

         Sarah Stephens is the Founder and Director of the Center for Democracy in the Americas based in Washington, D. C. She is, beyond doubt, one of the five greatest American experts on U.S.-Cuban relations...with the other four, in my opinion, being Wayne S. Smith, Julia E. Sweig, Anne Louise Bardach, and Peter Kornbluh. But because they are America's five best experts on Cuba, don't expect to see them on your favorite U. S. news programs, which cater only to visceral anti-Cuban propagandists such as Nick Castellanos, Ana Navarro, Alan Gomez, Jose Diaz-Balart, Jorge Ramos, etc. Sarah Stephens, on her CDA website, each Friday writes the Cuba Central segment, which is each week's best summation of U.S.-Cuban news. This past Friday, September 4th, one of her most pertinent sentences was: "U. S. policy toward Cuba is often used as a classic definition of insanity." No sane, unbiased person can dispute those words. But thanks, Sarah Stephens, for repeating them.

Photo of the week:

      On Saturday, September 5th, a young Syrian mother and her baby were all smiles in Salzburg, Austria. They were at a train station with permission to travel through Austria and Hungary to reach their destination, Germany. Earlier this week the photo of the 3-year-old Syrian boy whose body had washed ashore went viral around the world, touching hearts. This mother and baby received clothes, food, candy, and toys to make their journey from their war-torn homeland more palatable. Humanity in a war-crazed world is more important than ever. This young mother and her baby, and others like them, received some humanity this weekend. This Associated Press photo was taken by Kerstin Joensson. The baby's joyous smile is precious, heart-warming, and appreciated; and so is the prideful smile of the young mother.

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Businesses vs. Cuban Extremists

Capitalism May Save Cuba

        Akin Gump is America's largest lobby firm. America's capitalist engine, largely fueled by lobbyists, accounts for much of the nation's incomparable economic, military, and political power. Well, Akin Gump has opened a unit to advise companies looking to invest in or expand to Cuba. It reflects the fact that the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, most U. S. companies and businesses, and most Americans want President Obama's positive overtures to Cuba to be expanded to the U. S. Congress where the antagonistic U. S. policy regarding Cuba has been easily codified and dictated by a few Cuban-Americans and easily acquired sycophantic scoundrels. Akin Gump will begin to lobby Congress and seek to ease export restrictions tied to the U. S. embargo...such as telecommunications devices, freedom for all Americans to travel to Cuba, and freedom for ships to travel freely between the two countries.

       Akin Gump has just hired Anya Landau French as a key adviser in its new pro-Cuban unit. She has orchestrated dozens of research and business trips to the island.

     The latest Breaking News concerning Marco Rubio's anti-Cuban rants against anyone advocating sane relations with Cuba finds him in Puerto Rico today -- September 4th -- campaigning for money and support to enhance his presidential bid. Puerto Ricans are U. S. citizens but can't vote in presidential elections but the vast number of Puerto Ricans in two key states -- Florida and New York -- could be influenced by Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico. Rubio's anti-Cuban rants have actually cost him some support in his home area -- Miami's Little Havana. Rubio has spent most of his first-term in the U. S. Senate running for President and begging every right-wing and Jewish billionaire for donations; meanwhile, of the 100 Senators he is #100 for actually being on hand to vote. Mr. Rubio is a veritable money machine. 

       In Puerto Rico today for just $2,700 you can get a photo with Senator Rubio; for a mere $1,000 you can attend a luncheon. Puerto Rico is broke and begging for bankruptcy because it can't pay its debts or provide certain necessary services to its people. Yet...as always...a few rich people in the poorest of places can purchase political influence. That's why the minority rich get richer and the majority poor get poorer in a money-crazed system that Rubio excels in. Fund Raisers should not be more important than championing what's best for the majority of Americans, Cuban-Americans and Puerto Ricans. In the U. S. Congress, governing takes a backseat to constant campaigning for money, as epitomized by presidential aspirant Rubio. 

      Meanwhile, on the island of Cuba this week this Yamil Lage/Getty Images photo was used to illustrate a major article in Granma, Cuba's top newspaper. It shows a teacher working with her kindergarten class as she gets her students tuned to learning the English language. Cuba's prosperity, or at least its survival, is geared to more peaceful relations with the United States, a viewpoint that is a product of two recent developments: {1} President Obama's Herculean efforts to normalize relations with the island, and {2} deteriorating economic and political situations in key pro-Cuban Latin American nations -- including Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, and Argentina. Against all odds, Revolutionary Cuba has survived since January of 1959. It plans to survive a while longer. That's why this week an emphasis on teaching the English language in Cuba is pertinent. "Un buen movimiento?" "A good move?" "Si." "Yes!" 

    This Jamil Lage/Getty Images photo updates what's happening in Cuba. This lady had decorated her bus with an image that highlights the U.S.-Cuban handshake with a reminder, from the fist-waving bearded rebel, that Cuban sovereignty-independence will defiantly survive the emerging detente with its northern superpower neighbor. This lady is an entrepreneur, one of about 400,000 new ones on the island. The famous "$20 a month" dictum is a bit out-dated. Cubans, always resilient, are excited.

 Key West, USA, is ninety miles from Cuba.

 These flags now fly at newly opened embassies.

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Cruelty Of U.S. Cuban Policy

The Innocent Suffer
As The Perpetrators Cash In

        Arnold Diaz was born in 1949 in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from Florida State University and then got his Masters in Journalism at Northwestern University. He is an award-winning investigative journalist now winning awards at WPIX-TV in New York City. This week -- on September 1, 2015 -- Mr. Diaz filed a report entitled: "Women Flagged By Treasury Department After Writing 'Cuba' On Check." You should use that data to google the video report. Why? Because it reveals how today and everyday since 1959 totally innocent Americans have suffered from a U. S. Cuban policy dictated by two generations of the remnants of the overthrown Batista-Mafia dictatorship whose leaders, after being ousted by the Cuban Revolution, quickly restructured the dictatorship on U. S. soil in South Florida. The aforementioned report by Arnold Diaz, in addition to the excellent video on PIX11.com, features this exact print report:
            "With all the talk about the United States normalizing relations with Cuba, Claire Martin was excited to see an article in the New York Times Travel section about a Cuban cruise. A Canadian Company was offering Americans a week-long trip to Cuba. Claire, 89, from Riverdale, the Bronx, contacted her friend and traveling companion Nancy Edelstein, who was anxious to go with her on the cruise.
               Nancy sent in the $500 deposit for the two women.
            Claire, who banks electronically with Chase, sent a check to Nancy for half the deposit, $250 dollars. She filled in Nancy's name and address and wrote in 'Cuba' in the memo section as a reminder of what the check was for. She had no idea the problems it would cause.
            The day after sending the check, Claire got a call from Chase asking her why the word Cuba was on the check. Claire explained that it was reimbursement for a deposit on an upcoming trip. She was told that referencing Cuba might be associated with the Cuba Sanction and appears on a designated black list by the U. S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.
              A Chase spokesman told Claire 'the funds are in a JP Morgan Chase blocked account and they can't release it because it's been impounded by the Federal Government.'
            Claire and Nancy have to apply for a Treasury Department license to prove they qualify for a Cuba trip. Even though the United States is loosening relations with Cuba, Americans cannot travel there unless they are part of one of 12 categories of authorized activities.
           Claire says she never expected to be put through such an ordeal just to qualify for the cruise to Cuba. She never thought writing the word 'Cuba' in a memo line on a check would trigger a red flag. 'I hate to use the reference big brother is watching,' she said. 'But I think it is very unfair.'"
                 Of course, everything about America's Cuban policy since 1959 has been "unfair" to millions of Americans. It is a policy dictated all these decades by the leading remnants of two generations of the deposed leaders of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba and it is a policy designed to get revenge on Revolutionary Cuba while also greatly enriching and empowering a handful of Cuban-American extremists at the expense of everyone else, including non-extremist Cuban Americans. 

          To read the exact words quoted above, check the WPIX website of New York City's Channel 11. It's where you can also view Arnold Diaz's video report in which the 89-year-old Claire Martin expresses her shock at being traumatized this week -- the first week of September, 2015 -- by a cruel and insane U. S. Cuban policy that dates back to January of 1959, the month the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba was overthrown by the Cuban Revolution, only to have the brutal, thieving Batistianos and Mafiosi flee to the U. S., primarily Miami, where, still with the support of the U. S. government, the equivalent of the Cuba-based Batista-Mafia dictatorship emerged on U. S. soil. Beginning in the early 1960s, efforts to recapture Cuba included numerous assassination attempts against Fidel Castro, the military attack at the Bay of Pigs, etc., etc. By the 1970s, like Havana in the 1950s, Miami had become the world's most violent drug-infested city. And throughout the 1970s an unending series of terrorist acts against innocent Cubans and innocent tourists in Cuban hotels roiled headlines, highlighted by the bombing of the child-laden civilian airplane Cubana Flight 455 in which 73 innocent souls were murdered. When a decent Cuban-American newsman, Emilio Milian, complained about such atrocities, he was car-bombed. By 1989, after tightening its already tight alignment with the Bush dynasty, Miami hardliners began to win seats in the U. S. Congress, soon resulting in vicious pro-Cuban exile and anti-Cuban laws such as The Torricelli Bill and the Helms-Burton Act. Such laws codified extreme discriminatory practices favoring Cuban exiles at the expense of everyone else. All the while, since the 1980s, the U. S. Congress has funded dozens and dozens of lucrative laws that to this day grossly enrich Cuban-Americans while, secondarily, assaulting the island of Cuba with an endless series of "democracy" and "regime change" programs. Along the way, when Jim DeFede, the top columnist at the Miami Herald, famously wrote a column excoriating Cuban-American members of Congress for their unconscionable support of the most well-known Cuban-American terrorists in Miami, DeFede was fired, affecting, like the Milian car-bombing, how intimidated journalists cover Cuban issues. One result is that even middle-of-the-road media outlets such as CNN and USA Today use only vicious anti-Castro "journalists" such as the Miami-based Alan Gomez and Ana Navarro and Havana-born revenge-and-money seekers such as Alex Castellanos as their so-called "Cuban experts," never utilizing the unbiased and far more expert opinions of, for example, the five U. S. journalists-authors -- Wayne S. Smith, Julia E. Sweig, Anne Louise Bardach, Peter Kornbluh, and Sarah Stephens -- who know the most about U.S.-Cuban relations. So, in this first week of September in the year 2015, a top New York City television station -- WPIX -- presented a scintillating report on a totally innocent, 89-year-old woman named Claire Martin being assaulted and traumatized by a U. S. Cuban policy that, since 1959, has been designed to enrich and empower a handful of two generations of Cuban-Americans while harming everyone else. Of course, the last two generations of Americans have not had the guts or the patriotism to complain about such things as the terrorist bombing of a child-laden Cuban airplane, so in September of 2015 don't expect this generation of Americans to complain about the typical mistreatment of Claire Martin this week. 

But........................

        ............Arnold Diaz should be applauded this week for having the integrity and the courage to report on the shame...Shame...SHAME of a shameful U. S. Cuban policy that showered opprobrium, vilification, obloquy, invective, ignominy and vituperation...everything except decency...on 89-year-old Claire Martin of Riverdale, New York. If there were more American journalists such as Emilio Milian, Jim DeFede, and Arnold Diaz, Americans today would not be cowered into refrains such as, "It's terrible when terrorists blow up a civilian airplane loaded with children, except...uh, of course...if its a Cuban plane." I've praised Milian and DeFede for having the guts and decency to report fairly and sanely even if the topic is Cuba. So, I would like to congratulate Arnold Diaz this week for emulating those two great journalists.

Arnold Diaz

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Vidal vs. The Bushes

Is It A Do-Or-Die Proposition?
Updated: Tuesday, September 2nd, 2015

       Because America is the world's undisputed economic and military superpower, the current presidential campaign in the United States concerns everyone. And no one more so than Josefina Vidal. She is Cuba's Minister of North American Affairs. That title aside, she is Cuba's most important person when it comes to Cuba's most important issue -- its relationship with the United States. Ms. Vidal is not only Cuba's prime diplomat on all things American, she is also the island's key decision-maker regarding the United States. Thus, her opinions and appraisals of the ongoing U. S. presidential sweepstakes have talismanic and cataclysmic ramifications, certainly for Cuba and perhaps even for the United States. If that strikes you as being an hyperbolic exaggeration, then I suggest you take time to study Josefina Vidal's astute evaluation of the U. S. presidential race: {1} If a Democrat wins the election, the Obama-directed thaw in U.S.-Cuban relations will continue on positive notes; and {2} if a Republican wins the election, Cuba will consider itself on a war-footing beginning in January of 2017. The vast disparity between those two extremes, the difference between war and peace, is not one that Vidal takes lightly and her views are not ones that should ever be discounted by Americans. A simple but highly significant fact is this: Vidal knows more about U.S.-Cuban relations than any living soul. If that were not so, U. S. and Cuban flags would not now be flying at newly opened embassies in Havana and Washington; and if that were not so, the Miami Cubans in the Little Havana neighborhood and the U. S. Congress would have certainly regained control of Cuba during the two-term George W. Bush presidency {2000-2008} that preceded Mr. Obama {2009-2017}.

       Vidal keeps a close eye on the polls that tally the shifting sands and attitudes related to the Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns. She, like all foreign analysts, is astounded that presidential and congressional elections in the U. S. primarily involve so much special interest money that the so-called democratic process is bought-and-paid-for now and into the future by a handful of individuals and corporations. Further, she is astounded that even capitalism gets away with dictating that such campaigns drag on month after month after month, subjecting...actually punishing...Americans with endless streams of political ads and punditry, but Vidal has lived in Washington and realizes that ad agencies, television stations, and other self-serving entities have their paid lobbyists who make sure the money-making aspects of political campaigns are contiguous, with one beginning as soon as the other ends. Vidal also understands why less than half of the Americans eligible to vote actually vote in national elections: Everyone realizes that one vote/one person is becoming meaningless when a few billionaires can so easily predicate the outcome, perpetrating a process whereby the richest 1% overwhelms the 99% that includes the upper-class, the middle-class, and the poor. Having said that, Vidal is stunned by what she is seeing in the polls: At long, long last, it appears that this generation of Americans -- young adults and millennials  -- have finally grown tired of a bought-and-paid-for U. S. Congress and a bought-and-paid-for presidential process.

        Josefina Vidal, Cuba's expert on all things American, expected the 2016 presidential campaign in the U. S. to be a foregone conclusion -- the Democrat Hillary Clinton against the Republican Jeb Bush. That's because the money-crazed electoral process favors dynastic successions because, let's face it, such candidates have had more time to sell their services and policies to the highest bidder, including foreign interests utilizing obscene speaking and consultancy fees. With unlimited donations from Wall Street and other billionaires, Clinton and Bush had the money and the last names needed to wipe out all contenders, right? Well, maybe not. In this first week of September, 2015, polls show that maybe...just maybe...Americans are concerned enough to try to recapture their democracy from dynasties and special interest money. That surprises Americans who might now consider voting. It certainly surprises Josefina Vidal whose interest is even more of a life-and-death proposition: She things if Clinton or any Democrat wins, U.S.-Cuban relations will continue to improve; but if Bush or any Republican wins, she thinks little Cuba will end up in a David-vs.-Goliath war with big America. So, the election might well determine if Americans can reclaim the portions of their democracy stolen by dynasties and special interests. Moreover, it might well determine if the island of Cuba is forced to engage in a war it is not capable of winning. At least, that's the opinion of Josefina Vidal, the Cuban whose job it is to predict such things. Her island depends on her being right.

       One thing Josefina Vidal did not predict is that Donald Trump and Ben Carson, in this first week of September, would have strong leads in the Iowa and New Hampshire polls ahead of Jeb Bush and the other 15 Republican candidates. But the revelation pleases Vidal immensely. She believes the Trump and Carson bandwagons are flourishing because they are perceived as non-politicians, indicating that Americans have grown tired of bought-and-paid-for politicians who cater and answer only to the billionaires who buy them and keep them in office as entrenched incumbents, year after year and decade after decade. Trump is a billionaire businessman who supposedly doesn't need to sell out. Carson is a doctor and, to his advantage, a non-politician. Vidal's reaction to the August 31-Sept. 1 polls: "It's a long process but I hope I continue to be wrong. Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the U. S. Declaration of Independence, said that a democracy needs a revolution every 20 years to correct or straighten out imperfections. Perhaps that is what I am seeing in the U. S. now, not a military revolution but an election-cycle revolution."

      To be honest, I thought Vidal was blowing smoke with that reference to Thomas Jefferson, and I was literally born within sight of Mr. Jefferson's Monticello home in Virginia. But, on second thought, I never knew Vidal to blow smoke before so I googled Thomas Jefferson quotes. Sure enough, Vidal was correct. Jefferson made the reference in a long letter to his friend William Stephens Smith dated "Nov.-13-1787."

            Meanwhile, as Josefina Vidal is verily surprised that non-politicians Trump and Carson are leading the polls in the Republican presidential sweepstakes, she is equally as surprised that an elderly socialist Independent Senator running as a Democrat, Bernie Sanders, 73, has mightily narrowed a 60-point deficit down to single digits in his contest against a slumping and equally surprised Hillary Clinton. Vidal gleefully detects "the same general reasons," meaning potential American voters may have finally grown to detest bought-and-paid-for politicians, especially ones of a dynastic nature. Bernie Sanders is an old renegade who has long believed that Wall Street crooks should be in prison "for legally stealing billions of dollars and routinely paying just a pittance in fines, which mocks our democracy each day of the year."

       Josefina Vidal, on her last diplomatic mission to Washington, admitted she was surprised that Elizabeth Warren was "not in the presidential race." So are millions of Americans who have signed petitions begging her to run. Presumably this summer Vidal read this Time Magazine that profoundly asked, "Who's Afraid Of Elizabeth Warren?" Well, all the presidential contenders are afraid of her and so are all of the billionaires, especially the denizens on Wall Street, who are busy buying them up. Warren, a first-term Senator from Massachusetts, turned 66 back in June and she's feisty and robust. Vidal now thinks Warren could win the Democratic bid for the presidency and then probably beat the Republican nominee in November, 2016.

        Elizabeth Warren is a dynamic speaker whose words resonate with the vast majority of Americans even as they blister the ears of the rich, greedy cretins she feels are unfairly afforded the opportunity to "buy democracy as easily as buying another yacht." Please, Ms. Warren! Will you reconsider not running?

        Through all the twists, turns, nuances, trials, tribulations, and machinations of America's convoluted and polluted political system, Cuba's keen observer, Vidal, believes a handful of elderly billionaires {Photo courtesy of The Washington Times} will get their wish and put a Republican in the White House in January, 2017. Shortly thereafter, Vidal expects that, amidst the cold ashes of President Obama's detente, Cuba will be obliged to defend itself. No, she doesn't expect to win such a scenario but "we are willing to be judged, as we have been judged for many decades, by how much we will sacrifice in defense of our sovereignty."

         Two first-term U. S. Senators -- Marco Rubio from Florida and Ted Cruz from Texas -- are prime threats to Jeb Bush's bid for the Republican presidential election. That's despite the fact that Rubio was a Jeb Bush protege in Florida and Cruz was a George W. Bush protege in Texas. Both Rubio and Cruz are darlings of the Tea Party, Fox News, and a significant array of right-wing and Jewish billionaires. And both Rubio and Cruz are Cuban-Americans will a visceral hatred of Fidel Castro and Revolutionary Cuba. To outsiders, it would appear that the last people Josefina Vidal would want as President are Rubio and Cruz. To insiders, however, it is known that the last thing Josefina Vidal wants is for another Bush in the White House. "Most...I said most, not all...of the pain and suffering of everyday Cubans," she says, "relates to the Bush dynasty, not just beginning with the CIA directorship in 1976 but beginning, as we know, in the 1950s."

          There are many people -- especially the very, very rich -- who prayerfully hope for a continuation of the Bush dynasty. There are also many people who dread such a domination of the American democracy.

       This photo dates back to October of 1992 when the Bush dynasty and a lot of sycophants in South Florida believed that Revolutionary Cuba was doomed with the demise of the Soviet Union. Cuba almost was doomed, but not quite. It's been that way for a long time...almost, but not quite. Polls show that most people in South Florida, even in Miami's Little Havana, favor ending the embargo and allowing Cubans on the island to breathe...and even to thrive. But not the Bush dynasty. For sure...no, not the Bush dynasty.

         This photo shows the latest Bush presidential candidate, Jeb, at a news conference with Mel Martinez, one of the long-time most ultra-powerful Bush-aligned Miami Cuban-born politicians. Right behind them are the Diaz-Balart brothers -- Havana-born Lincoln and Miami-born Mario. Both Diaz-Balart brothers made it to the U. S. Congress from Miami, largely because their father, Rafael Diaz-Balart, was a Minister in Cuba's overthrown Batista dictatorship and then became one of Miami's richest and most powerful anti-Castro Cuban exiles. It is interesting to note that Mel Martinez and the other most powerful Miami Cuban-Americans favor Jeb Bush over Marco Rubio, who is one of their own, in the current presidential campaign. That says something about the Bush ties to the most hard-line Cuban-Americans.

        In the many months leading up to Americans going to the polls in November of 2016 and voting for their next President, Jeb Bush will be interviewed hundreds of times on cable television. He will be asked a lot of softball questions because cable television needs a lot of talking-head politicians and tough questions would discourage their cooperation and appearances. So rest assured he will not be asked such pertinent questions as, "Jeb, could you explain to the American people your associations with Orlando Bosch? Specifically, did you ask your father, when he was President and you were cementing your political career in Florida, to pardon Mr. Bosch? And would you explain why, and have you regretted the pardon?"

        A lot of well-known and well-respected American journalists and authors, such as Russ Baker, have been dismayed over the secrecy attached to the Bush dynasty, which began in earnest in the 1930s with Prescott Bush and is expected to continue with George Prescott Bush, the son of Jeb Bush who recently got elected to the powerful position of Land Commissioner in Texas. A website connected to the "Family of Secrets" book by Russ Baker provides many documented facts that, perhaps, Americans should know.

        In any case...an interested Cuban named Josefina Vidal is quite aware that Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Jeb Bush are prime Republican candidates to be President of the United States. Rubio and Cruz are Cuban-American anti-Castro zealots but...the possibility she most dreads is....a President Jeb Bush!!

          Meanwhile, Josefina Vidal and most Cubans on the island -- along with most Americans, most Cuban-Americans, and most people around a war-torn and troubled world -- strongly desire a continuation of improved relations between Cuba and the United States. May sanity, after all these decades, finally prevail.

Vidal reminds me of Robert Frost:

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