Cubans Treated Nicely

Decent Gestures Appreciated

      This photo courtesy of Alexandre Meneghini/REUTERS shows Cubans on the famed Malecon seawall engaged in topical discussions. These are exciting days in Havana. Cubans have a lot to talk about. In the next few days U. S. President Barack Obama, the Major League Baseball Tampa Bay Rays, and the Rolling Stones band will all be in Havana at virtually the same time, taxing Cuba's already overflowing hotels.

        This REUTERS photo shows three Cubans discussing the changing face of their island, according to a March 12-2016 article in The Guardian written by Ed Vulliamy and entitled "Obama and Jagger Fly In..." Because The Guardian is a leading Bristish newspaper, it has a lot more freedom to report fairly on Cuba than its American counterparts. For example, the day the Ed Vulliamy article was published, The Washington Post, which has become a right-wing propaganda machine since its recent purchase by Amazon's Jeff Bezos, published a typical anti-Cuban, pro-Batistiano article. The Post heralded all of Marco Rubio's anti-Cuban rants, including his assaults on President Obama for visiting Cuba and for not spending all his time on the island with Rubio's favorite dissidents. The Post also praised such gutless right-wing Rubio acts as shamefully blocking Roberta Jacobson's badly needed appointment as the U. S. Ambassador to Mexico because, WOW!!, Jacobson once perhaps did something that showed compassion for Cubans on the island, something Rubio and his ilk never do. By contrast, Ed Vulliamy in The Guardian can even write about enthused Cubans discussing optimistic changes on the island. For example, Vulliamy wrote in that March 12th article, "Havana is by far the safest Latin American capital; drug consumption is minuscule and organized crime of the kind known to Mexico City, Bogota or San Salvador is nonexistent." Of course, none of that was "nonexistent" during the Batista-Mafia dictatorship from 1952 till 1959, but Americans are not supposed to know that. Punishing innocent Cubans like these three with such things as the embargo may help Rubio and his ilk economically and politically in the U. S., but the rest of the world has long-since considered it pure imperialist cruelty. Thanks to Obama, many good people are trying to be kind, not cruel.

      This Alejandro Ernesto/EPA photo shows tourists in the Old Havana Square enjoying their visit and feeling quite safe, according to the March 12th article in The Guardian. If you noticed the article in the Washington Post the same day, you're supposed to believe, according to Rubio, that tourists like these will spend most of their time in Cuba watching brutal Cuban policemen pummelling innocent Cubans just for the fun of it, sort of like the Batista-Mafia thugs did back in the 1950s. Instead of resorting to Washington Post-type propaganda, The Guardian, in addition to reporting on Cuba's unique safety situation, discussed such topically exciting changes on the island as the surge in entrepreneurial ventures as well as upcoming events such as President Obama's visit, a baseball game featuring the Tampa Bay Rays, and the eagerly awaited Rolling Stones concert. The anti-Cuban zealots have failed to prevent these positives.

       The vast and lucrative Castro Cottage Industry that hides behind the skirts of the U. S. government -- as epitomized by presidential wannabees Cruz and Rubio -- is continuing to block or at least harass any and all of President Obama's decent and kind overtures to the Cuban people. Unable to prevent Obama's respectful visit to Cuba later this month, Cruz and Rubio are insisting that the President ignore everyday Cubans while lavishly boosting Cuban dissidents, which many kind and decent people believe already receive too much unseemly and tax-supported boosting from the likes of Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.

        While in Cuba, Obama plans to attend the March 22nd baseball game that will feature the Major League Tampa Bay Rays against a Cuban national team. The President's entourage will include a couple of dozen members of the U. S. Congress as well as dozens of other invited guests who presumably don't agree with punishing innocent Cubans on the island for another six decades and say it's "hurting Castro."

      Traveling with the Tampa Bay Rays to Cuba will be three magical names in American and Cuban baseball -- Derek Jeter, Luis Tiant, and Jose Cardenal. Jeter, the recently retired New York Yankee legend, was arguably the most popular U. S. player while Tiant, now 75, and Cardenal, now 72, are Cubans who each had almost two decades of stardom in the U. S. Major Leagues. Jeter, Tiant and Cardenal will hold clinics for Cuban children while they are on the island. Cubans love baseball and appreciate American kindness.

       Joe Torre is a prime reason Major League Baseball is showing so much love for Cubans on the island. Born 75 years ago in Brooklyn, New York, Joe had a legendary Major League career as a player and manager. He is now a top MLB executive. A few months ago he took some of the current Cuban stars in the U. S. Majors -- such as Jose Abreu, Yasiel Puig, etc. -- to the island where they intermingled with the baseball-loving Cuban people. Now Joe is making sure that his former Yankee shortstop Jeter as well as Cubans like Tiant and Cardenal can be Goodwill Ambassadors on the island. It is Joe that arranged for the Tampa Bay Rays to play in Havana on March 22nd. He is also embarrassed that the 30 Major League teams are depleting Cuba's baseball talent by signing even 16-year-old Cubans to huge baseball contracts. He realizes the offshoots include the dangerous defections engineered and encouraged by human traffickers and other unsavory characters. Therefore, Joe is discussing with Cuba a plan that would allow Cuban baseball players to sign with Major League teams without defecting and without being estranged from Cuban fans and even Cuba's pro leagues. Joe Torre loves and admires the way Cubans love baseball.

         Upcoming on March 25th is a free concert in Havana by the legendary Mick Jagger and his famed Rolling Stones band. It's a precious, much appreciated gift from Jagger to the deserving Cuban people.

       A Cuban named Asmani Lopez Castro {no relation to the revolutionary clan} helped finalize the Rolling Stones concert in Havana. Asmani says over 400,000 Cubans will see and hear the band's performance.

       Federica Mogherini was born 42 years ago in Rome, Italy. She now has the powerful title of High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs. For years she has chafed at the U. S. treatment of everyday Cubans in the guise of "hurting Castro." But she has been stymied about doing something about it because of America's international power -- at least prior to Obama. Taking full advantage of U. S. President Obama's historically decent overtures to Cuba, Ms. Mogherini has been working overtime on behalf of the 28 EU nations and the Cuban people. Last week in Havana she signed an agreement with Cuba aimed at normalizing Cuban and EU relations, which means reversing the add-on punitive measures of the pre-Obama, Batistiano-aligned George W. Bush administration. She said, "I hope this is a new day for the Cubans on the island. I hope we can help them breathe...and hope." She is a very kind, decent lady.

      President Obama's unique decency in regards to Cuba has opened the door wide for much more decency from caring people like Federica Mogherini, Mick Jagger and even Americans like Joe Torre.

      In the five decades prior to President Obama, the fate of Cubana Flight 455 was a typical example of America's Cuban policy. The child-laden Cuban civilian airplane was blown out of the sky by well-known and well-protected terrorists who used the convenient Miami media to herald it as "the biggest blow yet against Castro." When a brave and decent Cuban-American newsman in Miami, Emilio Milian, complained about such things, he was car-bombed. Prior to Obama, intimidated and propagandized Americans readily accepted such things and, shamefully, never held accountable politicians who supported such terrorism, a fact Miami Herald columnist Jim DeFede discovered when he wrote a brave article stressing that "Terror Is Terror" whether the innocent victims were Brits, Americans or CUBANS!! That sentiment got DeFede fired.

       Hugo Cancio is typical of the Cuban-Americans in Miami, most of whom want the Cubans on the island to be treated decently. Hugo often visits the island and tries to help everyday Cubans. He also complains that he and the majority of Cuban-Americans in Miami are not represented by Miami's contributions to the U. S. Congress -- anti-Castro zealots from Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in 1989 to the Diaz-Balart brothers to Curbelo to Rubio, but never a moderate Cuban-American like Hugo who adamantly doesn't believe that hurting innocent Cubans is justified as a means to hurt Castro "which," he says, "is the crux of Miami and Washington politics ever since 1961 when Castro was the big Bay of Pigs winner, fueling misguided anger."

       Rubio's current bid for the White House is a joke, not because he's an anti-Castro Cuban-American from Miami but because he shows no compassion for Cubans on the island, except his beloved dissidents. Despite his totally unwarranted support from right-wing billionaires, the cable news networks, and the Castro Cottage Industry, Rubio will remain unfit for national office as long as he exploits the continued punishment of innocent Cubans on the island to further his own career. His scripted speeches and rehearsed lines belie the "CLUMP! CLUMP!" of his greedy, puerile steps to the White House even before he has accomplished a single important thing and while he is focused on being pro-Rubio and anti-Cuba.

      In the next few days, a lot of good people -- like Joe Torre -- will be returning to Cuba for the sole purpose of helping, not hurting, everyday Cubans. Mr. Torre, an American baseball legend and now a top Major League executive, is shown above arriving in Cuba on December 15, 2015, at the head of an entourage that included some of the top current Cuban and American superstars in the Major Leagues. The Cuban shaking Mr. Torre's hand is Dr. Antonio Castro, who happens to be Fidel's son as well as a superb promoter of Cuban and international baseball. In a world bedeviled with turmoil, Americans need to support the decent treatments of Cubans on the island as opposed to meekly tolerating the indecency of things like the embargo and...Cubana Flight 455. Baseball diplomacy is better than revenge diplomacy.

      Joe Torre was responsible for this photo and in a few days he will be responsible for some more just like it. This one was taken in December of 2015 and shows Jose Abreu, the Cuban who is a superstar first baseman for the Chicago White Sox, conducting a clinic for Cuban children. These young boys aspire to play the game they love and, maybe, one day to become rich and famous like their idol, Jose Abreu. Joe Torre believes they deserve that chance. So do I. I don't believe they deserve to be punished by rich foreigners who claim that punishing Cuban children like these might be "a big blow against Castro."

#1: Cuba is a sovereign nation.

Some places to visit in Cuba.
Cayo Largo & Cayo Coco off the main island are superb.
And by the way:

      I think Alexandre Meneghini, the great Reuters award-winner based in Havana, is one of the planet's all-time greatest photographers. The gem above depicts two Cuban ballet stars getting some well-deserved rest after a gruelling practice session.

This Meneghini classic shows a boy trying to out-stare a pony.

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Cuba and U. S. Republicans

Right-Wingers May Lose

Photo Courtesy: Yamil Lage/Getty Images.

      The above photo was taken in Havana Friday, March 11th, 2016. It reveals why right-wingers in charge of America's Republican Party might not bring Cuba to its knees, after all.

           Federica Mogherini, the Foreign Policy Chief for the European Union, is shown holding a news conference with Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez. The 28-nation EU and Cuba had just signed an agreement to normalize relations. A little over a decade ago the EU, capitulating to America's Cuba-bashing George W. Bush administration, had essentially severed all ties with Cuba. Taking full advantage of President Barack Obama's efforts to normalize U. S. relations with Cuba, Ms. Mogherini has worked tirelessly to help the Cuban people as well as assist European nations who desire commercial relationships with Cuba. Ms. Mogherini said, "This accord opens a new chapter in the history of relations between the European Union and Cuba." Her friendly overtures to Cuba are important to the island's future.

          In the closing months of President Obama's second term in the White House, he and Federica Mogherini have teamed up to finalize ties with Cuba that they hope will be irreversible even if a right-wing Republican takes over the White House in January of 2017 to buttress the right-wingers in Congress who desire another half-century of hostility with the pugnacious nearby island. The photo above shows a 1950s convertible in Havana with side-by-side U. S. and Cuban flags on the dashboard. It's a typical sight across the island as Obama's overtures have given them hope for the future. Thanks to Obama and Mogherini, the next few days on the island will reflect that optimism. President Obama himself will be in Cuba from March 20th till 22nd. A U. S. Major League baseball team, the Tampa Bay Rays, will play a Cuban team in Havana on March 22nd. Mick Jagger and the world-famed Rolling Stones band will gift the Cuban people with a free concert on March 25th. AND THERE IS MORE. President Obama, prior to visiting the island, will announce more Executive Actions to chop down another set of right-wing barriers that prevent most Americans from freely visiting the island. Also, in the next few days major U. S. companies and enterprises will try to forge commercial ties with Cuba, and that includes A T & T, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Marriot International Hotels, and Major League Baseball. Marriott spokesman Thomas Marder said, "We are optimistic that we are going to get a green light soon from the U. S. government to have hotels under the Marriott flag in Cuba." The 30 Major League baseball teams in the U. S. have created a bonanza for human traffickers by signing just about every Cuban star, including 16-year-olds, to huge and guaranteed bonus contracts. This has encouraged a new influx of defections. But MLB is now trying to sign a deal with Cuba that would allow the American teams to sign coveted Cuban players without them having to defect.

       Yet, the best efforts of decent leaders like President Obama and EU Chief Mogherini might fall victim to either the revitalized right-wingers in the U. S. or to Cuba's labyrinthine bureaucracy that is very, very wary of trusting the imperialist nature of the United States. Since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution over the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship in 1959, Cuba has traditionally put more trust in faraway friends than the nearby United States. While many of Cuba's most important friends -- Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, etc. -- now have dire problems of their won, Cuba must engage in the coming week with the key overtures from major U. S. companies like A T & T, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Marriott International, and MLB. But it had much rather do business with Federica Mogherini.

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Republican Thugs Discuss Cuba

The Island Will Survive

The U. S. Democracy Might Not

        The Republican presidential field, now whittled from 17 down to 4, was on display in Miami last night in what seems like the 50th "debate" that, like the other 49 or so, was primarily designed to bring in ratings and revenue for the hosting networks, all in the guise of covering the "news" while actually being mere propaganda machines. The comical quartet consisted of two anti-Cuban extremist Cuban-Americans, a listless Governor of Ohio, and a billionaire businessman. Actually, the fearsome foursome being depicted as comical is very sad because the U. S. democracy is dependent on a two-party political system in which both parties are owned by the highest bidders, which basically comes down to a handful of greedy billionaires. That's why last night's jocular extravaganza in Miami merely reemphasized two already well-known basic facts: {1} The money-crazed U. S. political arena as well as the money-crazed, pundit-driven, incompetent U. S. media probably constitute the two greatest threats to the U. S. democracy; and {2} Americans hopefully are not as stupid and ill-informed as the politicians and the media believe they are.

       Last night for the first time, as illustrated by the above graphic, the topic of Cuba was highlighted in the Republican "debate" in Miami. That in itself is a joke. Two of the four presidential wannabees are bought-and-paid-for anti-Cuban Cuban-American zealots who believe that using the power of the U. S. government to punish 11 million Cubans on the nearby island will help them finish transforming the U. S. democracy into a Banana Republic resembling the Batista-Mafia fiasco of the 1950s. But the controversial billionaire businessman and the homespun Ohio governor, as captors of the lucrative Castro Cottage Industry in the U. S., are no better. Therefore, the gutless, self-serving, CNN-goaded thuggery that assailed Cuba and hailed a gutless U. S. Cuban policy on that Miami stage last night was far more detrimental to the assaulted American democracy than it will be to the equally vulnerable but seemingly more pugnacious island of Cuba. The four comics on stage in Miami last night would have made the revengeful, thieving Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano laugh but, I believe, they should make democracy-lovers weep.

And speaking of Cuba:

      Meet Yoan Moncada. He was born 20 years ago in Abreus, Cuba. He's come a long way since then, all the way to the  United States. Yoan is shown above a few months ago signing a $31.5 million contract with the Boston Red Sox. He is now rated Boston's best prospect but every penny of the $31.5 million is guaranteed and then, if he makes some base hits for the Red Sox, he will get some really serious money.

    In spring training with the Red Sox, Yoan takes turns driving either his Lamborghini Huracan or his BMW i8 to the ball park. The Lamborghini Huracan didn't dent his bank account too much but the sticker price was $399,500.00. Yoan can still be jealous of the five luxury cars that Yoenis Cespedes, the veteran Cuban outfielder with the New York Mets, has been photographed driving during spring training. Alex Vega, who owns Auto Firm in Miami, is getting rich selling expensive cars to Cuban baseball stars. Just one of the 30 U. S. Major League teams, the LA Dodgers, alone have recently guaranteed $250 million to nine young Cubans. U. S. teams are seemingly signing every Cuban baseball player who defects, including a string of 16-year-olds, which also makes a lot of human traffickers, agents, car dealers, real estate moguls, hangers-on, etc., very rich. Yoan, a muscular and speedy switch-hitter, is considered a better prospect than Miami Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton who recently got a $310 million extension to his already lucrative contract, and Moncada's Boston team is far richer than the poor Miami Marlins. Baseball players in the little Cuban town of Abreus are probably salivating over Yoan's Lamborghini Huracan, don't you think?

         In a few days, on March 22nd, a U. S. Major League team -- the Tampa Bay Rays -- will play a Cuban team in Havana. The President of the United States, Barack Obama, will be in attendance at the game. Cuba per capita is the baseball mecca. In the recent past it dominated international competition -- the Pan-Am Games, the World Baseball Classic, the Olympics, etc. But no longer. Like with its ballet superstars and its medical doctors, the Castro Cottage Industry in the U. S. siphons off Cuban talent as a means, for one thing, "to hurt Castro," which happened to be the exact reason the terrorists in Miami gave for bombing the civilian Cuban Flight 455 out of the sky in 1976. So, on the 22nd of this month it is hoped that the Tampa Bay Rays will take pity and not beat the depleted Cuban team too badly. If so, that would surely be one of the few instances Americans and Cuban-Americans have sympathized with innocent, harassed Cubans.  

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Should Obama Stay Home?

The Answer? Yes.

         REUTERS is an international news agency and that fact alone gives it a huge advantage over U. S. media outlets when it comes to unbiased or courageous reporting on Cuban issues. Also, REUTERS has a fair-minded correspondent, Marc Frank, who has spent a quarter of a century in Cuba understanding the island and its people. By contrast, almost without fail, journalists in the U. S. are far too intimidated, too politically correct, or simply too incompetent to report fairly about Cuba.

           A case in point is an article written yesterday -- March 9th -- by Marc Frank with a REUTERS dateline from Havana. It concerned a 3,000-word editorial in Granma, Cuba's state newspaper: "Cuba said it would welcome President Barack Obama later this month..." That was the opening salvo but the gist of the article added this caveat: "...but Cuba has no intention of changing its policies in exchange for normal relations with the United States." Then Frank reported that "The editorial acknowledged Obama had taken positive steps," yet, Frank went on to explain frankly that Cuba expected to be treated as a sovereign nation when it came to dealing with its own priorities and what it called "intimidation caused by the overall blockade that has been in force for more than 50 years." The Granma editorial, as reported by Frank, explained its rationale: "The United States should abandon the pretense of fabricating an internal political opposition, paid for with money from U. S. taxpayers." The sheer fact that Marc Frank and REUTERS correctly quoted Cuba's side of a two-sided issue is more than can be expected from the U. S. media, which...for example...in 1976 reported that the terrorist bombing of a Cuban civilian airplane, Cubana Flight 455, was "The biggest blow yet against Castro" while the more fair-minded international media, as well as history, registers the fact that such events and policies were/are, in fact, mostly big blows against very innocent Cubans.

  Cuba's official and updated reaction yesterday to President Obama's scheduled two-day trip to the island beginning on March 21st was in response to an unfortunate statement by White House spokesman Josh Earnest back on Friday. In a total capitulation to right-wing anti-Cuban extremists in the United States, Earnest poignantly explained that Cuba, the host sovereign country, would have no say as to who President Obama saw or what he did on the island in regards to dissidents, which Cuba believes are funded and mostly created by the U. S. government. Earnest said: "The guest list for that meeting will be determined solely by the White House. The President will meet with whomever he chooses to meet with." IF ANY OTHER NATION IN THE WORLD WAS INVOLVED, including many nations that have flagrant human rights violations, Josh Earnest would not remotely use such words. But, of course, in no other nation in this world did an overthrown U.S.-backed dictatorship flee to U. S. soil and immediately set up a situation in which it dictated America's policy pertaining to that country. That alone makes Cuba unique in the world.

     Presidential candidate Marco Rubio, not unexpectedly, was among the Miami contingent in the U. S. Congress that viciously assailed President Obama's plans to visit Cuba. Right-wing editorials in even once-great newspapers such as the Washington Post also, not unexpectedly, viciously attacked the President's impending visit and all of his other positive overtures regarding the Cuban people. Rubio, who has a lot of compassion for himself and his financial donors but none for Cubans on the island, said: "Despite concession upon concession by the United States, detentions of activists have increased." Of course, Rubio and Miami's other contributions to the U. S. Congress never have to to justify such statements nor do they ever have to defend the unending parade of congressionally funded tax dollars designed to bring about regime change in Cuba and to support Cuban dissidents.

    Berta Soler is one of the high-profile anti-government dissidents in Cuba. In the aforementioned REUTERS article, Marc Frank quoted Ms. Soler's anti-Cuban rants but it is the Cuban government's position that she and her celebrated Ladies in White are not only encouraged but also funded from Washington. On the other hand, the U. S. media refrains from presenting both sides of the issue, always emphasizing only the dissident side of that two-sided equation. For sure, well-funded and well-publicized situations can easily be concocted to provoke incidents that shed negative spotlights on authorities while displaying positive images of the perpetrators. When that's the case, REUTERS will report both sides of the issue while the U. S. media and the vast U. S. Castro Cottage Industry mentions only the anti-Cuban side of the situations. 

      
     Yoani Sanchez is the darling of the U. S. media and, as one of the world's most popular bloggers, her anti-Cuban views from Cuba are never questioned by the U. S. media. While the United States embargo still prevents everyday Americans from visiting Cuba, which might allow them to judge things for themselves, Cuba permits Yoani Sanchez to travel overseas, including Miami and the fawning U. S. Congress, to gain sustenance and apparently funding for her blog and digital newspapers before returning to Havana to express her anti-government sacrosanct but one-sided and never challenged views. 

    
      Yoani Sanchez, on her Cuba-approved visits to the United States, has stopped off in Miami to utilize Radio-TV Marti to broadcast her anti-Cuban views back to Cuba. Since the 1980s, Radio-TV Marti has swallowed up billions of U. S. tax dollars that, perhaps, could have been better spent on such things as childhood hunger in the United States instead of propagandizing Cubans to oppose their government and hopefully to overthrow it to suit Cuban exiles.

     From Miami, Yoani Sanchez went to the U. S. Congress in Washington to gain sustenance from viciously anti-Cuban Cuban-American U. S. Senators Marco Rubio and Bob Menendez. If Cuba permits Yoani Sanchez to visit anti-Cuban havens such as Miami and the U. S. Congress, perhaps Rubio and Menendez should allow everyday Americans to visit Cuba...even if it might let Americans judge the island for themselves instead of just being told what to think.

    Cristina Escobar is a Cuban who disagrees strongly with the anti-Cuban views of Yoani Sanchez, Berta Soler, and the other dissidents on the island who are so one-sidedly celebrated by the U. S. media. The 28-year-old Escobar happens to be the island's brilliant news anchor and a leader of Cuba's young-adult generation that is determined to keep Cubans in Miami and Washington from dictating the island's impending post-Castro future. Escobar, who has closely monitored the U. S. government and the the U. S. media, says, "I don't want the United States to bring me democracy. That is a project for Cubans on the island, not Cubans in Miami and Washington." By contrast...Sanchez, Soler, Rubio, Menendez, etc., believe Cubans in Miami and Washington should dictate Cuba's future. And that's a two-sided proposition that the U. S. media is either too biased or too intimidated to acknowledge. Regarding the issue of President Obama's scheduled visit to Cuba later this month, Escobar has an opinion on that subject too: "I welcome his positive overtures to Cuba and I welcome his planned visit. But if he plans to only provide further support to the U.S.-supported dissidents as opposed to supporting everyday Cubans, I believe he should stay home." Regarding the U. S. media, Escobar, while in Washington to cover the last Vidal-Jacobson diplomatic session, pointedly said, "The lies the U. S. media tells about Cuba hurts everyday Cubans the most."

       President Obama has offered many more positive gestures to help everyday Cubans than any President in America's history. But if the statements by his spokesman Josh Earnest are correct regarding his upcoming visit to Cuba, Cristina Escobar is correct to dis-invite him. After all, at a White House news conference she was the journalist who first asked Josh Earnest, "Can we expect President Obama to visit Cuba in 2016?" And after all, when it comes to the much-maligned everyday Cubans on the island, Cristina Escobar has proven conclusively that she cares for them much more than extremists Cubans in Miami and Washington or U.S.-backed dissident Cubans on the island. If Obama visits Cuba...or, say, Egypt, or, say, his hometown of Chicago...he has every right to mention human rights violations. However, to announce prior to his visit that a sovereign host country or city has no say-so as to what he does when he is there may impress imperialist bullies but it doesn't impress democracy-lovers or...Cuban journalists like Cristina Escobar.

       Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones will hold a free concert in Havana on March 25th. It's a lavish tribute to everyday Cubans. Jagger visited Cuba to arrange the visit a few months ago. And he didn't tell the Cuban government that it had no say-so about the much-anticipated concert.

A kind and respectful gesture. 

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"3" Cuban Quotations

From 1959 Till 2016

Defining the U.S.-Cuban Turmoil

#1:

Celia Sanchez: "The Batistianos will never regain control of Cuba as long as I live or as long as Fidel lives."

Explanation: Celia Sanchez was/is the most important player in the U.S.-Cuban conundrum that, from 1952 till today, has so powerfully defined both countries. Americans are not supposed to know that, but it's a sheer fact that helps define the U. S. today. Her reference to "Batistianos" depicts the remnants of the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship that the Cuban Revolution overthrew in January of 1959, only to result in the Batistiano-Mafiosi leaders quickly reconstituting their dictatorship on U. S. soil with Miami, or Little Havana, as its new capital. From January of 1959 till today, the Batistianos -- unchecked politically and economically -- have dictated the Cuban narrative in the United States, not to mention crafting an array of self-serving Cuban laws tailored to their revenge and economic motives. Vilifying Fidel Castro, the second most important figure in the Cuban Revolution, has always been a prime feature of the Cuban narrative in the U. S., but so has dismissing Celia Sanchez. That's because the Batistiano leaders in the U. S. knew that the vilification of the 99-pound doctor's daughter was/is not nearly as easy as pillorying Fidel Castro.

        Yet, from 1953 as the prime guerrilla fighter and also the most important recruiter of vital anti-Batista rebels and supplies, no one -- including Fidel Castro -- rivals Celia Sanchez as the leading player in both the Cuban Revolution and Revolutionary Cuba. The most significant quotation related to that 1952 till 2016 phenomenon was first stated by Celia Sanchez on April 27th, 1959 -- right after she and Fidel had returned to Cuba from a 12-day visit to the U. S.: "The Batistianos will never regain control of Cuba as long as I live or as long as Fidel lives." April of 1959 was a mere three months after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. Desiring friendship with the superpower U. S., Celia arranged with the U. S. State Department and the U. S. Society of Newspaper Editors to take Fidel, considered at that time as a first-class revolutionary hero in both Cuba and America, to the U. S. to inform President Eisenhower that Cuba would hold a democratic election in the fall of 1959 and the U. S. could closely monitor its honesty. But the promised Fidel-Eisenhower meeting never took place. Instead, the right-wing faction of the White House led by Vice President Richard Nixon maneuvered the decent but old, tired, and malleable Eisenhower out of Washington so Nixon could meet Fidel. Nixon famously destroyed Celia's thoughts of amity by telling Fidel that the U. S. and the Cuban exiles, already in training at Georgia's Fort Benning, would regain control of Cuba in short order, with some historians saying Nixon's timetable was "three weeks" and others maintaining it was "three months." But it was a timetable and double-cross that surprised Fidel and, most importantly, infuriated Celia. Still fuming when she and Fidel returned to Havana in April of 1959, she mandated the all-time most important sentence in Cuba's tumultuous and historic relations with the U. S.: "The Batistianos will never regain control of Cuba as long as I live or as long as Fidel lives." It is known that on at least two other documented occasions Celia repeated that precise mantra -- once to late and famed journalist Carlos Franqui and once to the still-living famed journalist/author/historian Marta Rojas.

    Celia Sanchez died of throat cancer at age 59 on January 11, 1980. The doctor's daughter had become a chain-smoker in 1953, the year she became the most important anti-Batista guerrilla fighter and recruiter. But her definitive quotation still lives: "The Batistianos will never regain control of Cuba as long as I live or as long as Fidel lives." Fidel Castro is still alive and aims to celebrate his 90th birthday on August 13, 2016. Thus, Celia's quotation still lives. While the Batistiano control of the Cuban narrative in the U. S. since 1959 dismisses the significance of the doctor's daughter, the best and most unbiased Cuban experts know better. That includes still-living Cubans who worked closely with both Celia and Fidel -- photographer-journalist-author Roberto Salas, historian Pedro Alvarez Tabio, and journalist-author-historian Marta Rojas. It also includes America's seminal Castro biographer Georgie Anne Geyer who cogently acknowledged that Celia "over-ruled" Fidel wherever and whenever she chose, which was often. Salas, in his notable book, said: "Celia made all the decisions for Cuba, the big ones and the small ones." Tabio said, "If Batista had managed to kill Celia Sanchez anytime between 1953 and 1957, there would have been no viable Cuban Revolution, and no revolution for Fidel and Che to join." And Marta Rojas told me in an email in 2005: "Since Celia Sanchez died of cancer in 1980, Fidel has continued to rule Cuba only as he precisely believes Celia would want him to rule it." Thus, to not know Celia Sanchez is to not know the Cuban Revolution, Revolutionary Cuba, and the Batistiano control of the Cuban narrative in the United States since 1959.

#2:

Josefina Vidal: "The revised plan of the Batistianos in the U. S. is to capture the White House first and then recapture Cuba." 

Explanation: For almost two decades, working in both Washington and Havana, Josefina Vidal has been Cuba's prime diplomat, expert, and decision-maker on all things American. Her current title is Minister of North American Affairs. Her brilliance is reflected in the fact that Cuba amazingly survived the determined efforts of the Batistiano-aligned George W. Bush presidency from 2000 till 2009. And her brilliance is further reflected by the startling diplomatic advances she has orchestrated in the past two years during the more decent Barack Obama presidency -- advances that include Cuba's removal from the Sponsors of Terrorism list, the opening of embassies in Havana and Washington for the first time since 1961, etc. In the meantime she is insisting on discussions regarding anti-Cuban laws that the Batistianos and right-wingers in the U. S. Congress dearly cling to -- such as the return of Guantanamo Bay to Cuba and ending the ongoing congressional funding of regime-change programs and support of dissidents on the island.

    In defense of Cuba, Josefina Vidal has necessarily emerged as the world's greatest expert on U.S.-Cuban relations, otherwise the Batistianos would be back in power on the nearby island as they were from 1952 till 1959. Taking note that two anti-Cuban and Batistiano-aligned Cuban-Americans are serious Republican presidential candidates, Vidal assessed the ominous situation with this quote: "The revised plan of the Batistianos is to capture the White House first AND THEN recapture Cuba." In all the decades since Celia Sanchez's definitive quote, Vidal's appraisal of the current Batistiano-influenced political situation in the U. S. takes second place regarding the survival of Cuba as a proud sovereign nation.

#3:

Cristina Escobar: "I don't want the United States to bring me democracy. That is a project for Cubans on the island, not Cubans in Miami and Washington."

Explanation: Because of the control of the Cuban narrative in the U. S. by the Batistianos, Americans are not supposed to know Cristina Escobar nor are they supposed to understand the third most important quotation that defines U.S.-Cuban relations today, the quote depicted above. Celia Sanchez's quote defined Cuba from 1959 till 2000 while Josefina Vidal's quote and Cristina Escobar's quote have defined Cuba from 2000 till today. Anyone unfamiliar with those three quotations does not have a clue as to how a small island nation has pugnaciously held off the imperialist designs of the world superpower, which happens to be a close neighbor, since the 1950s. Escobar at age 28 is a truly brilliant news anchor in Cuba and the region. Beyond that, she is the leader of the young adults on the island who are determined to shape Cuba's impending post-Castro future. That determined young generation on the island is well aware that the next Republican administration in Washington, whether led by Cruz or Rubio or someone else, will most likely brutally try to suppress their love of sovereignty. Yet, in the mold of Celia Sanchez and Josefina Vidal, Cristina Escobar boldly says: "I don't want the United States to bring me democracy. That is a project for Cubans on the island, not in Miami and Washington." Cuba's ultra-powerful and nearby enemies have failed to recapture the prized island because they have grossly underestimated Celia Sanchez, Josefina Vidal and Cristina Escobar. Of course, IF SOME REAL OR EVEN SELF-PROCLAIMED CUBAN EXPERT HAS A BETTER EXPLANATION, I SURE WOULD LIKE TO HEAR IT.

  2016 HAS REPLACED 2015.

AND CUBA IS STILL CUBA!!

HOW ABOUT THAT?

The superstar catalysts are Celia, Josefina, and Cristina.

See, it's still Cuba. Amazing!

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Why Cuba Can't Win

The Batistianos Still Rule

Photo courtesy: Justin Solomon/CNBC.

       This photo was used to illustrate a March 6th-2016 CNBC article written by Denise Garcia. It's entitled: "U.S. Cuba Thaw Not Yet A Boon For Business."

             The excellent update by NBC's business network explained why, regardless of advances in relations taken by President Obama, a mere handful of the most revengeful Cuban-Americans in the U. S. Congress still very easily dictate America's Cuban policy -- even if most Americans, most Cuban-Americans, and most people worldwide oppose this long-standing usurpation of the U. S. democracy. In the CNBC article, Denise Garcia pointed out that, in reaction to Obama's Cuban detente, Cuba has recently zoomed from "150,000 to 500,000 start-ups," an effort designed to bring more Cubans into the fast-changing island's economy. Then Ms. Garcia wrote: "Ironically, Cuba migration has reached crisis proportions despite the promise of a new relationship with its decades-long antagonist. According to Pew research, the number of Cubans who entered the U. S. after December 2014 spiked a dramatic 78 percent in a year, with thousands more currently streaming eagerly across Central America and Mexico to enter the United States."

       An endless passel of U. S. laws -- such as the "Wet Foot/Dry Foot" debacle concocted in the U. S. Congress by a handful of revengeful anti-Castro Cuban-Americans -- are eternal appendages to America's Cuban policy. That's because it is easy for one Cuban-American in, say, Miami to easily get a few right-wingers in the U. S. Congress to pass whatever laws they want. In fact the 535-member Congress is so incredibly dysfunctional that one anti-Castro zealot from Miami, Mario Diaz-Balart, can slip a tiny bill into a must-pass, veto proof large bill that blocks a major plan by President Obama to help Cuba. And, all the while, the easily propagandized and out-of-the-loop U. S. citizens are not told that Diaz-Balart's wealthy father was a key Minister in the Batista dictatorship, nor are U. S. citizens allowed to decide for themselves how greedily self-serving such tactics are for a few and how discriminatory and harmful they are to everyone else. Further indicating how conveniently dysfunctional Congress is, anther anti-Castro Zealot from Miami, Sentator Marco Rubio, can all alone demean democracy by blocking Roberta Jacobson's appointment as the perfect and much-needed Ambassador to Mexico only because the petty and revengeful Rubio resents Ms. Jacobson's positive diplomacy related to Cuba. All the while, Diaz-Balart and Rubio never have to be concerned that the gutless, incompetent, and intimidated U. S. media will hold them accountable for besmirching the U. S. democracy to sate their vile Cuban agenda, of which the "Wet Foot/Dry Foot" law is merely one of many.

        Wet Foot/Dry Foot is a colossal and puerile effrontery to America and democracy. Designed by the Batistiano-fringe of the U. S. Congress, it grossly encourages Cubans on the island to defect to the U. S. and, as indicated above, once their toes touch U. S. soil, they are home free with instant welfare. All other would-be migrants in the entire world are discriminated against by Wet Foot/Dry Foot, which would be comical if it were not so harmful to the worldwide image of democracy and the United States. Gross discrimination very grossly demeans democracy.

        The aforementioned CNBC article said that since Dec.-2014, when President Obama announced his plans to normalize relations with Cuba, there has been an absolute tsunami of Cubans leaving the island to become instant Wet Foot/Dry Foot legal residents in the U. S. and instant welfare beneficiaries, whether they need welfare dollars or not. Such Cubans mistakenly believe that Obama, before he leaves office in January, just might end Wet Foot/Dry Foot, which only the right-wing Congress can do. And, it appears, most of the defecting Cubans don't deserve special privileges from economic or other standpoints because they reportedly are paying human traffickers up to $15,000 per person to orchestrate the journey, which supposedly starts with an expensive flight from Cuba to either Costa Rica or Panama and then the long land route up through Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Belize to finally reach Mexico where, unlike every non-Cuban migrant, they are home-free with instant benefits. The three countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras are not only destitute but devastated by gangs and unimaginable crime, but migrants from such countries, because they are not Cubans, are immediately detained and almost always deported, including children whose loving mother's have willingly and dangerously pointed them to the U. S. border because of a slightly better chance of surviving the journey than surviving in their crime-infested native countries. Of course, Americans are not supposed to consider the extreme anti-democratic and discriminatory injustices of such Cuban-dictated laws. In fact, Americans for many decades have been programmed to grimace when extremists in the U. S. Congress -- such as Bob Menendez of New Jersey and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Miami -- repeatedly remind the U. S. media about how many Cubans are fleeing the island for the freedoms of America. Naturally, Americans, rendered unable to think for themselves, are not supposed to be smart enough or brave enough to calculate non-Cuban would-be migrants -- from, say, Honduras or from, say, England or Canada -- might also flee their countries for U. S. soil if there were a plethora of U. S. laws enticing them while discriminating against everyone else.

          Speaking of the controversial Senator Bob Menendez from New Jersey, the aforementioned CNBC article typically quoted the anti-Castro zealot regarding his anti-Obama rants. He told CNBC: "We've seen multiple steps that have shifted leverage to the Cuban regime: Travel, finance and commerce regulations have been eased, Cuba has been removed from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list and an embassy has opened. However, since these sweeping changes started in December 2014 Cubans have been beaten, arrested and repressed at higher rates than ever before." Of course, the mainstream U. S. media is not about to counter such statements with unbiased observations. If so, people like Menendez might have to back up such rhetoric with some facts and, moreover, might even...WOW!!...have to finally justify all those Congress-funded regime-change programs and the endless Congress-funded schemes designed to boost and, many believe, create dissidents on the island, hopefully with video showing Cuban police mistreating their often-staged anti-government activities. Meanwhile, the Mafia havens of Miami and New Jersey currently have five unchallenged Cuban-Americans fashioning Cuban laws and dominating the Cuban narrative in the U. S., with that being a reminder that, in January of 1959, many top Batistianos fled the Cuban Revolution for the much safer havens of Miami and New Jersey. Senator Bob Menendez, New Jersey's contribution to the Congress, is still being severely investigated for his alleged unsavory connections to controversial individuals in Miami and the Dominican Republic, but pillorying Cuba and supporting Cuban dissidents is how he gets big headlines in the U. S. media.

        And speaking of the Havana-born Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: She has been entrenched in the U. S. Congress from Miami since 1989 when Jeb Bush was her obligatory Campaign Manager. From a Cuban family of anti-Castro zealots, Ros-Lehtinen has viciously assailed Cuba from Day One as the first of a string of Congress-bound Miami Cuban-Americans aligned with the Bush dynasty. At the moment, of course, Ros-Lehtinen's prime focus is on blocking or turning back any and all of President Obama's positive gestures for the Cuban people. She particularly is trying to undermine President Obama's scheduled visit to Cuba set for March 21st and 22nd, and she might well yet block it. John Kerry, Obama's Secretary of State, was scheduled to visit Cuba prior to Obama but Kerry has canceled his plans because of pressure from Ros-Lehtinen, Rubio, Menendez, Curbelo, Cruz and the other anti-Castro zealots. Kerry was lambasted with orders to either stay home or go to Cuba and celebrate only the Cuban dissidents. Kerry decided to stay home. Obama might too, and probably he should. Obama's chief spokesman, Josh Earnest, is now declaring that Obama, on his visit to Cuba this month, will not allow Cuba to decide who he sees. In other words, like Kerry, Obama has been intimidated by Ros-Lehtinen and her Cuban-American cohorts in Congress. They consider Cuba to be a Batistiano-like U. S. colony, not a sovereign nation. And, of course, only a sovereign nation, according to Ros-Lehtinen, should be allowed to influence who visiting heads of state will see when they visit the island. 

       While the mainstream U. S. media has neither the guts nor the integrity to hold Cuban-American anti-Cuban extremists accountable, that is not the case with America's leading democracy-lovers like Sarah Stephens. She is the Founder and Executive Director of the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas. Each Friday her Cuba Central blog on the CDA website is the best weekly review of U.S.-Cuban relations. This past Friday -- March 4th -- Ms. Stephens called Ros-Lehtinen to task for assailing the now-canceled Kerry visit to Cuba and ridiculing the upcoming still-scheduled Obama visit to the island. Ms. Stephens wrote: "Small wonder that fierce critics like Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen could barely contain their excitement upon hearing that an advance trip by Secretary of State John Kerry was cancelled due to disagreements between the governments on the subject of human rights." The influential Ms. Stephens has often accompanied friendly Congress members and business executives to Cuba, and she has greatly influenced President Obama's attempts to normalize relations with the island. But she is abundantly aware of the wealth and power of a handful of anti-Cubans in Miami, New Jersey, and the U. S. Congress, all who benefit from bellicosity towards Cuba. She is understandably concerned that Secretary of State Kerry and President Obama will continue to cave in to what she euphemistically calls "fierce critics" of anything the United States does to show even a modicum of respect and decency to the long-maligned Cubans on the island, including the Cubans who have no intention to be lured by the discriminatory Cuban laws that any person who respects democracy believes should either be ended or be available to non-Cubans as well as Cubans. However, as long as the U. S. Congress is firmly in the grips of a handful of remnants from the long-ago Batista dictatorship, anyone who remotely advocates Cuban sanity in the U. S. -- from John Kennedy to Barack Obama with brave journalists like Emilio Milian and Jim DeFede in between Kennedy and Obama -- is in dire jeopardy. Sarah Stephens, the greatest Democracy-loving Cuban expert in Washington, believes the majority, not a self-serving few, should impact America's hateful Cuban policy.

        Easily malleable Americans have been programmed to believe that all Cubans on the island yearn to risk their lives to take advantage of lush Wet Foot/Dry Foot-type lures to reach U. S. soil and escape dire repression on the island. That is simply a lie perpetrated by Cuban-American extremists and their subservient U. S. media. Cristina Escobar, the island's 28-year-old superstar news anchor and an influential leader of Cuba's young-adult generation, made headlines puncturing such lies when she was in Washington to cover the last Vidal-Jacobson diplomatic session. Beyond the six questions she asked Josh Earnest at a White House news conference, Escobar's most quoted sentence in Washington was: "The lies the U. S. media tells about Cuba hurt everyday Cubans the most." Recently she told American journalist Tracey Eaton, "I don't want the U. S. to bring me democracy. That is a project for Cubans on the island, not Cubans in Miami or Washington." {Check the Eaton-Escobar videos on YouTube}. Escobar welcomes the scheduled visit of President Obama later this month but she firmly maintains, "If his main purpose is to have photo-ops with the U.S.-created and U.S.-backed dissidents on the island, he should stay home." A fierce advocate for "everyday Cubans," Escobar challenges Americans who believe all Cubans on the island, goaded by unique financial and citizenship lures, yearn to defect to the U. S. If you check her English or Spanish comments on YouTube, or go online to check her Cuban and regional newscasts, you'll notice that she is Cuban to the core and she yearns to stay and defend Cuba. "Many real Cubans like Jose Marti," she remembers, "fought to the death on Cuban soil to attain sovereignty. The Cuban Revolution in 1959 finally attained that precious goal. If there are Cuban defectors or other Americans who doubt my generation on the island will not fight for our sovereignty, they will be surprised. We might lose to the more powerful Americans like Marti lost to the Spanish, but the point is...like real Cubans, we will fight."

        As a superb broadcast journalist and as the leader of Cuba's twenty-something generation, Cristina Escobar speaks to and for many Cubans on the island. The mainstream U. S. media routinely uses a patchwork quilt of lies in a relentless cadence to make sure that the anti-Cuban dogma in the U. S. pillories Cubans on the island and misrepresents the views of Cubans like Cristina Escobar. Perhaps that's why Ros-Lehtinen, the Diaz-Balarts, Rubio, etc. so staunchly defend such anti-democratic U. S. laws as...Wet Foot/Dry Foot that endlessly exist atop other such anti-democratic U. S. laws as...the one that makes everyday Americans the only people in the world denied the freedom to visit Cuba. Why? Surely if Americans got to know Cubans like Cristina Escobar, Cuban-Americans like Ros-Lehtinen, the Diaz-Balarts, Rubio, Cruz, etc., might not be able to dictate the Cuban narrative in the U. S. or...maintain all those anti-Cuban laws in the U. S. Congress that resemble a Banana Republic, not a democracy. If Americans are repeatedly fed Ros-Lehtinen rants, perhaps they should also be subject to a few basic beliefs of Cristina Escobar...such as these: "I don't want the U. S. to bring me democracy. That is a project for Cubans on the island, not in Miami and Washington." and "The lies the U. S. media tells about Cuba hurts everyday Cubans the most."

In other words:

      There are two sides to the red, white and blue U.S.-Cuban conundrum. Cold War-era Ileana Ros-Lehtinen represents America's side and modern-day Cristina Escobar represents Cuba's side. Americans and Cubans, I believe, have a right and a civic duty to be able to fairly judge which is the more honorable and the most decent side.

And by the way:

         This is the greatest political cartoon I noticed this week. It reflects the disintegration of the Republican Party, a major development considering that America's political system is a two-party affair. I myself was a conservative Republican until it was usurped by right-wingers and Batistianos. Having said that, I am still surprised at what is currently transpiring. The leaders of the Republican Party are currently telling the American voters stop voting for Donald Trump and vote for who we tell you to vote for or we will overturn your vote!! I must confess I never thought the American people would allow that to happen to their democracy. This calamity has surely become calamitous! 

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