A Fresh Glance at Cuba

 An Island in Flux 
 {Updated: Tuesday, July 19th, 2016} 

        Josefina Vidal is Cuba's top minister in dealing with U. S. issues and normally she is tough but also quite poised and diplomatic. But sometimes in exasperation she throws up her hands in disgust. Yesterday was one of those days. Ecuador, more disgusted than Vidal, has deported 75 Cubans back to Cuba. They were among the thousands of Cubans and their traffickers taking the expensive air-land route to the Mexican border where Cubans who touch U. S. soil, and only Cubans, are awarded instant residency with instant benefits totally unavailable to all non-Cubans. "The U. S. Wet Foot/Dry Foot law related to Cubans is a joke," Vidal fumed, "but all other nations have never laughed at it. For heaven's sake! Instead of mocking the U. S. and democracy for another six decades, perhaps the Batista take-over of the U. S. Congress should be challenged by Americans interested in preserving their nice democracy!"

      Americans know but may not recognize this young Cuban. It's Elian Gonzalez. He's now 22-years-old and he has just graduated from college. Yes, at his graduation he sported a beard. His idol is Fidel Castro. He read a speech at his graduation and noted that Fidel turns 90-years-old "in less than a month." He also said, "I want him to know that my classmates and I will fight from whatever trench the revolution demands." After the ceremony, he said: "In my case, I like to study and in my free time I go out with my brothers, my friends. I enjoy swimming and I like baseball. What young Cuban doesn't like baseball? I like music and I read a lot. Fidel still sends me very nice books."

      This is the Elian Gonzalez photo that will forever be seared in history. In 1999 in the Florida Straits his mother drowned trying to reach the United States but saved 5-year-old Elian's life via a final motherly gesture by putting him on an inner tube, which drifted near Florida where he was rescued by two fishermen. For months a tug-of-war for Elian's custody gripped the world with his father and Cuba battling anti-Castro Cuban-Americans who had control of him, defying the U. S. government till U. S. Marshals, as depicted above, rescued a frightened Elian who was flown back to Cuba on June 28, 2000.

        This photo was taken in July of 2001 in Elian's hometown of Cardenas, Cuba. The six-year-old Elian is shown smiling at and listening intently to Fidel Castro who has remained in close touch with Elian. To this day Castro equates the return to Cuban soil of Elian with his victory at the Bay of Pigs in 1961.

       This is Adrian Morejon. He was born just 17 years ago in a very poor Cuban town. He is now a multi-millionaire. The San Diego Padres wrote him an $11 million dollar check as a signing bonus. In fact, the Padres wanted Adrian so badly that, after giving him an $11 million check, they had to give Major League Baseball another $11 million check as a penalty for over-spending on "international players" such as the teenage Adrian. It's a microcosm of the U.S.-Cuban conundrum that has left Cuba very, very poor while reminding the island of nearby gluttony.

       American baseball scouts spotted Adrian Morejon as a left-handed pitcher for Cuba's 15-and-under Mayabeque team. They then fawned over him at the 15-and-under World Cup in Mexico.

      Cuba is an absolute gold mine for producing baseball players. The pipeline of Cuban stars defecting to the U. S. creates a lot of instant millionaires -- the players and, in many cases, their traffickers, some of whom have imprisoned the players till they got their share of the huge bonuses. Embargoed for over a half century by the U. S. government, the Cuba-to-the-U.S. baseball pipeline is reminiscent of the 1950s when the rape and robbery of Cuba was on Cuban soil by the U.S-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship. Since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the rape and robbery of Cuba has taken place off the island. Of course, propagandized Americans accepted the Batista-Mafia rule of Cuba in the 1950s and now accept the U. S. Congress's dictation of Cuba. But if you're a baseball prospect, the upfront million-dollar bonuses are indeed real money.

          Fidel Castro's all-time favorite baseball player was Yulieski Gourriel, shown here with the island's revolutionary legend. The operative word this weekend is was. Yulieski last played in Cuba in 2015 and this weekend he is signing a $47.5 million contract with the Houston Astros in the money-crazed U. S. 

       For over a decade Yulieski Gourriel was Fidel's and the country's most beloved baseball player. That was so because of his talent and his refusal to defect and become an instant multi-millionaire in the U. S., which craves Cuba's baseball stars. Yulieski is now 32-years-old. The $47.5 million contract with Houston is totally guaranteed even if he never gets a Major League base hit. He will be paid $3.5 million the rest of this season and then in the next four seasons his guaranteed salaries will be $14 million, $12 million, $10 million and $8 million.

     This photo shows Yuliesky Gourriel {on the left} and his brother Lourdes when they decided to leave Cuba and become multi-millionaire baseball players in the United States. The guaranteed $47.5 million Houston has given Yuliesky realizes his dream. But Lourdes will get far more. The even-more-talented Lourdes is just 22-years-old, ten years younger than Gourriel. The Houston Astros have already announced that they will bid "highly" for Lourdes against the other 29 MLB teams. Lourdes said, "I've been beside Yuliesky all my life. I would love to be with my brother in the Houston Astros organization."

       Major League baseball in the United States is already awash with Cuban stars, such as Yoenis Cespedes, the 30-year-old outfielder with the New York Mets. Wikipedia says Yoenis is being paid $17.5 million this year but that is outdated. USA Today correctly says Yoenis is being paid exactly $27,328,046 this year by the Mets. He is a free agent at the end of the season, meaning all 30 Major League teams can bid for Yoenis Cespedes this coming winter.

      This is a rich young Cuban named Yoan Moncada. He is a speedy 21-year-old switch-hitting second baseman in the Minor League system of the Boston Red Sox. He is currently rated the best baseball prospect in the world. Boston gave Yoan a guaranteed $31.5 million signing bonus -- a bonus, not a salary. And the Red Sox wouldn't think of taking a $250 million offer for Yoan today.

         28-year-old Cuban lefthander Aroldis Chapman is the lights out closer for the New York Yankees. Before Boston gave Yoan Moncada that $31.5 million signing bonus, the largest in baseball history had been the $16.25 million signing bonus the Cincinnati Reds gave Chapman in 2010. Chapman too is a free agent at the end of this season and all 30 teams can bid for him, the only man on the planet with fast balls up to 105 miles-per-hour. There are pitchers who don't have 105 mph fast balls -- like Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke, and David Price -- who are making in excess of $30 million per year on long-term, guaranteed contracts. With the island of Cuba being a baseball mecca, no wonder U. S. teams salivate over getting Cubans to defect. And if you study the above bonuses and salaries, it is also no wonder that even the most loyal Cuban, Yulieski Gourriel, has finally capitulated to those Yankee dollars.

         The red dots on this map reflect the six Cuban cities that will soon be getting commercial flights from American Airlines. Till President Obama intervened, they had not been allowed for over half-a-century. 

       The co-founder of MEDICC, Gail Reed, is one of many American medical experts yearning for U.S.-Cuban medical cooperation when and if the U. S. Congress ever lifts the ancient embargo of Cuba.

       The democracy-loving Congresswoman from California, Barbara Lee, has always fought tenaciously to get the U. S. to normalize relations with Cuba. Congresswoman Lee is second from the left in this photo that includes three young doctors. She was impressed with Cuba's Latin American hospital that provides totally free educations to poor foreign students who are only asked to return and, at least for a time, serve their home areas. Ms. Lee was instrumental in persuading the Cuban government to include Americans.

       One of the gracious Americans who have graduated from Cuba's Latin American School of Medicine is Dr. Lillian Holloway. Back home now as a skilled U. S. doctor, she doesn't owe Cuba a single penny.

Dr. Lillian Holloway.

      This Getty Images photo shows the beautiful Cuban Port of Cienfuegos. As you can see on the map at the top of this report, Cienfuegos is one of the Cuban cities that will soon have U. S. commercial airplane flights for the first time in half a century. Cienfuegos is also now one of the stops for U. S. cruise ships.

       Cienfuegos is in south-central Cuba, northwest of the gorgeous colonial city of Trinidad. West of Cienfuegos is a beautiful, historic beach called Playa Giron. Americans know it in English as the Bay of Pigs and in Spanish as Bahia de Cochinos, the site of a surprising Cuban military triumph in April of 1961.

Tourist love the beach at Playa Giron, the old battle site.

Playa Giron now has a very beautiful hotel.

The Playa Giron museum reminds visitors of the battle.

       Tourists who visit Playa Giron will be reminded that Fidel Castro, when he realized the U.S.-Cuban exile attack would be at the Bay of Pigs in April of 1961, rushed to the frontlines and led the successful defense.

       But today -- as Fidel Castro nears his 90th birthday on August 13th and as President Obama bravely believes Americans have a right to visit Cuba -- this is the peaceful beach tourists will find at Playa Giron.

And speaking of baseball:

       This is Melissa Mayeux. She is French and now 17-years-old. She doesn't speak English or Spanish but she is the only female in history who has been put on the list that makes her eligible to be signed by a Major League baseball team. If you Google her name and watch the videos of her and listen to what MLB scouts say about her, you'll understand why. She is a brilliant defensive shortstop and a powerful hitter.

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Cuba Adjusts Its Government

 Coping With Financial Crisis 

       Cuba's Minister of Economy and Planning, Marino Murillo, has been fired although he remains on the powerful Council of Ministers. The 55-year-old Murillo had been Cuba's economic boss since 2011. Last week he reported that Cuba's economy will improve just 1% in 2016 as opposed to 4% in 2015. He partially blamed low oil and nickel prices as well as a sugar short-fall due to weather conditions. But he didn't deny that the dire political and economic problems in Venezuela and Brazil are roiling Cuba's economy and might lead to power blackouts in the second half of this year as Cuba's tourism reaches new heights.

       Marino Murillo's daughter, Glenda, made headlines in 2012. She showed up at the Mexican border in Laredo, Texas. When her foot touched U. S. soil she immediately became a legal resident with financial and political benefits not available to non-Cubans. Her boyfriend lived in Hialeah, Florida, and she also had Cuban relatives in Tampa. Murillo's daughter Glenda is reminiscent of Fidel Castro's daughter Alina.

     Marino Murillo's successor as Cuba's Economy Minister is Ricardo Cabrisas. He is a long-time power in Cuba and is one of the country's six Vice Presidents. The Cuban economy has always been his forte.

      This photo shows Ricardo Cabrisas, in the right-front, signing an economic agreement with Rudolf Scholten, the head of Austria's Central Bank. Cabrisas is a strong advocate for economic diversity.

       This photo shows Ricardo Cabrisas signing an economic agreement with Finland. The reason Cabrisas has replaced Murillo as the island's chief economic expert is because of what the above two photos reflect -- namely Mr. Cabrisas' urgent belief that Cuba needs to diversity its economy. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990 influenced Cabrisas and now the dire political and economic problems in Venezuela and Brazil alarms him. Moreover, as a catalyst of Cuba's revolutionary Old Guard, Cabrisas is not convinced that the U. S. will continue to embrace President Obama's historic efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. He believes the Miami-based anti-Castro contingent will overwhelm Obama's overtures.

        This photo is courtesy of REUTERS and Alexandre Meneghini. It was used to highlight a major Reuters article written by Sarah Marsh yesterday -- July 14, 2016. The article is entitled "Oxfam Urges U. S. to End Embargo on Struggling Cuba." Oxfam is an international confederation of 18 organizations working in 90 countries to alleviate poverty. The lady is Winnie Byanyima. She is Oxfam's director. The opening sentence of the aforementioned article is: "The director of Oxfam broke the global and agency's longtime silence on the U. S. trade embargo of Cuba, urging the American Congress to lift it 'sooner rather than later' given the island's mounting economic woes." Winnie Byanyima told Reuters, "Cuba needs to engage in the global economy and the embargo cuts them out." She also lauded Cuba's "very equal society," hinting such equality might be one reason the U. S. government so strongly opposes the Cuban government. Using the exact title listed above, you can easily access that entire article. Reuters is Britain's internationally respected news agency and, unlike the U. S. media, it covers Cuban stories such as the pertinent Winnie Byanyima comments.

Oxfam is in the fight against the U. S. embargo of Cuba.

       Cuba's very elusive but very necessary efforts to become "Good Friends" with its superpower neighbor just off its northern shores will always impact every aspect of Cuba's existence. The 1959 Cuban Revolution that ousted the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship finally gave the island sovereignty after five centuries of being under the yoke of imperialist powers -- especially Spain and, following the 1898 Spanish-American War, the United States. However, the victorious revolution in 1959 had one particular devastating effect: It chased the richest and most powerful Batistianos and Mafiosi to U. S. soil. That resulted in rampant tax-funded military and terrorist attacks against Cuba, assassination attempts against Cuban leaders, and a vast array of pro-Batistianos/anti-Cuba laws easily rammed through the U. S. Congress, especially since the 1980s when the Reagan-Bush administration anointed Jorge Mas Canosa the leader of the Cubans-in-Exile and, as documented by historian Julia E. Sweig, advised Canosa to study and replicate AIPAC, the Israeli lobby. As the haunted graphic above indicates, most Cubans and most Americans want to be "Good Friends." However, that would mitigate against the revenge, economic and political motives of a select and powerful few in Miami, New Jersey and Washington. And thus...it will not be allowed to happen, disappointing America's best friends but pleasing America's most virulent enemies around the world. 

And by the way:

       Charles Blow was born 45-years-old ago in the Deep South -- a small town in Louisiana. He is now a very powerful Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times and he is ubiquitous on television news programs. In reference to America's police-civilian and civilian-police killings, Mr. Blow's column yesterday very bluntly accused Americans of sharing responsibility for such murders because they meekly, cowardly and callously allow the gross inequality between America's haves and have-nots -- such as billionaire black sports heroes being lavished with more billions of easy dollars in corporate endorsements while most blacks live in poverty without hope or jobs...or a dime from endorsements. Mr. Blow's column yesterday was entitled: "Blood On Your Hands, Too." He cogently wrote: "Interpersonal and systemic racism are only part of the equation. There is also class conflict between those who are better off and those who are not."

Mr. Blow is a black liberal; I'm a white conservative. We agree. 

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Unending Congressional Hypocrisy

Fuels Vast Cuban Industry 

Benefits A Few, Harms Everyone Else

"4 Lawmakers Move To Block U. S. Flights To Cuba" 

      That was the glaring headline in the Miami Herald yesterday. Since January of 1959, the self-serving minority that insists on dictating America's Cuban policy has always found it easy to align with their necessary sycophants in the U. S. Congress or in Republican presidential administrations.  That's what the above headline represents. As a significant part of President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, ten major U. S. cities and 8 major U. S. airlines have been approved to schedule the historic first commercial air service to Havana in over half-a-century. Additionally, six other airlines have been approved to fly to nine other Cuban cities. The flights could start as early as September. But, like every positive gesture regarding Cuba from the Kennedy presidency to Obama's, a powerful handful of Cuban-Americans with their easily acquired congressional or Republican acolytes...please notice I didn't say conspirators...are anxious to block the commercial flights to Cuba. The "4" referenced by the Miami Herald:

         ***John Katko of New York.

          ***Michael McCaul of Texas.

         ***Henry Cuellar of Texas.

        ***Richard Hudson of North Carolina

         Of the Miami Herald's quartet, John M. Katko was named as the leader of the congressional bunch bent on stopping the commercial flights to Cuba. He alleges "safety" as his prime reason and, incredibly, he supported that liminal ragout excuse by stressing that Cuba was "only recently" removed from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list. Such statements are made, I believe, in the belief that Americans are too stupid or too intimidated to judge such things for themselves. Yes, President Obama recently removed Cuba from that list because it was the right thing to do and because the vast majority of people in the U. S. and worldwide didn't believe Cuba belonged on the list and was on it just to whet the appetites of the anti-Castro zealots, many of whom took advantage of the listing to sue unrepresented Cuba for whatever they wanted to sue it for in Miami courtrooms. As far as I know, Mr. Katko is not overly concerned about unquestioned U. S. commercial flights to China, Vietnam, Russia, Saudi Arabia, etc. Of course, none of those countries ever teamed with the Mafia to support a thieving, brutal, and cowardly dictatorship that was overthrown by the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and has, amazingly, been a sovereign nation since then with a 191-to-2 yearly vote in the UN denouncing the U. S. Cuban policy. Also, I assume Congressman Katko conveniently dis-remembers when a civilian Cuban airplane was blown into the ocean.

But the families of Cubana Flight 455 victims still remember.

Cubana Flight 455 was bombed by terrorists Oct. 8, 1976.

                For many years Mary Murray has been the excellent Caribbean and Latin American reporter for NBC News. Unlike most of the U. S. media, she has reported very fairly even on Cuban issues. One of her NBC News reports still online is entitled "Cubans Seek Justice for Alleged Airplane Bomber." She was, of course, referencing Luis Posada Carriles who to this very day is a heralded citizen of Miami, Florida.

           This photo is used courtesy of the aforementioned NBC report by Mary Murray. It shows Carlos Cremata holding a photo of his father and mother when he was a little cowboy in Revolutionary Cuba. On Oct. 6-1976 his father was in the cockpit of Cubana Flight 455 along with pilot Wilfredo Perez and co-pilot Miguel Espinosa. The passengers included two dozen teenage Cuban athletes as well as some small children of their coaches. The heart-wrenching report by Mary Murray featured Carlos Cremata as a microcosm of the pain that still lingers from the terrorist bombing of historic Cubana Flight 455.

       When the nations of the world vote 191-to-2 each year against the U. S. embargo of Cuba, it is perhaps time for both the U. S. media and the U. S. people to have the courage, the compassion, and the competence to admit that the U.S.-Cuban conundrum is a two-sided, not one-sided, story. In other words...that UN vote should be factored into the equation...along with Batista, the Mafia, paramilitary units in Florida, the Bay of Pigs, Cubana Flight 455, the embargo, punishing everyday Cubans, etc.!!

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2 Major Cuban Problems

Low Birth Rates and... 

Pending Power Outages

       This photo was taken by Daniel Berehulak in Havana a few months ago. It illustrated a major article in the New York Times that blared this interesting and very ominous headline: "In Cuba, An Abundance of Love But A Lack of Babies." The caption said this pregnant young woman was waiting outside a hospital in Havana. The insightful article pointed out: "Since the 1970s the birthrate in Cuba has been in free fall, tilting population figures into decline. Cuba already has the oldest population in all of Latin America. In Cuba, women are free to choose as they wish, another legacy of the revolution, which prioritized women rights."  

       This photo -- taken by Daniel Berehulak for the aforementioned NY Times article -- shows a young Cuban couple planning to marry but not planning to have children because of the weak Cuban economy, which has been afflicted for the past half-century by the U. S. embargo. The caption said the young woman, Claudia Rodriguez, has had two abortions. Health care, including abortions, are totally free in Cuba and the article pointed out that "young couples speak openly about abortions and lines at clinics often wrap around the building." Cuba's population hovers around 11 million but it is dropping due to myriad reasons -- the weak economy that perpetuates abortions, U. S. laws that entice Cubans with financial and residency lures that are not available to non-Cuban immigrants, etc. Despite freely providing the abortions, the Cuban government, as reported by the NY Times, now strongly encourages Cuban women to have children.

          This New York Times photo was used -- on July 12th, 2016 -- to highlight a fine article written by Victoria Burnett and entitled: "Amid Grim Economic Forecasts, Cubans Fear a Return to Darker Times." Ms. Burnett wrote: "Addressing members of parliament last week, Cuba's economy minister, Marino Murillo, said the country would have to cut fuel consumption by nearly a third during the second half of the year and reduce state investments and imports." Cuba imports most of its food and also invests much of its economy in providing free education and health care as well as free or greatly subsidized food and shelter.

        Cuba's economic boss, 55-year-old Marino Murillo, says the island's economy grew by just 1 percent in the first half this year compared to 4 percent last year. He said, "Our export income and fuel supply has dropped and that has placed us in a tense economic situation." Mr. Murillo acknowledged that weak oil and nickel prices combined with a weak weather-related sugar harvest has "contributed to our woes." 

       The Deputy Director of Granma, Cuba's state-run newspaper, Karina Marron is always one of the best sources for insight and perspectives regarding issues in Cuba. Ms. Marron, addressing a journalism seminar recently, candidly warned that Cuba's economic problems are so serious that impending blackouts caused by power outages could result in street protests. She said, "We are facing a perfect storm. Sirs, this country cannot take another '93 or '94." She was referencing the early 1990s when the collapse of the Soviet Union created dire financial problems for Cuba, including some blackouts and street protests.

       When Karina Marron speaks, she is speaking for the Cuban government as well as to the Cuban people. The "perfect storm" she mentioned relates to her equating current economic and governmental problems in Venezuela and Brazil with the Soviet problems back in the 1990s. Brazil's Cuba-loving President Dilma Rousseff has been impeached and Venezuela's Cuba-loving President Nicolas Maduro is barely holding on. Rousseff, Maduro and Marron all believe that anti-Cuban right-wingers in Miami and Washington are fueling or at least exacerbating the dire political problems in Venezuela and Brazil, situations that deeply and purposely reverberate back to Cuba. And Karina Marron believes that, despite historic Cuba-friendly efforts by President Obama, the right-wingers in Miami and Washington "can and will" blunt much of the "lifelines and good-will" that Obama is trying to provide to Cuba. Karina Marron's comments were not meant for publication but the journalism students she spoke to have spread them far and wide via the social media. And Karina's assessment is Cuba's assessment: The current economic problems in Cuba, Brazil and Venezuela are at least partly due to the stranglehold that the small but powerful Anti-Cuba Cottage Industry in Miami and Washington has on America's Cuban policy, which is the quintessential Catch-22 dilemma. Many millions of good people, like Obama, have tried to correct it but even in the world's most famed democracy they have failed because of the self-serving power of a roguish right-wing minority. The Obama administration wants to improve Cuba's economy so as to prevent an even larger influx of Cubans to America's shores; but the right-wing benefactors in Miami and Washington want to destroy Cuba's economy for their own personal desires. The fact that the imbroglio is an endless standoff is in itself a Catch-22 classic that continually reminds the world of America's imperfections.

In other words:

        Cuba is still Cuba and this is so despite the historic-heroic efforts by President Obama to normalize relations with the island, which means he is trying in vain to loosen the iron grip that revengeful Cuban exiles, since the overthrow of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in 1959, have had on America's Cuban policy. The New York Times reminds us of two currently overwhelming Cuban problems -- an alarmingly low Cuban birth rate and impending blackouts due to power outages. And an astute, well-informed Cuban -- Karina Marron Gonzalez -- reminds us that right-wingers in Miami and Washington are fully capable of continuing to dictate to Obama and to democracy a pernicious Cuban policy that has benefited them since 1959.

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