Cuba Reacts to Trump

With Acute Uneasiness!!

          The election of Donald Trump as the next President of the United States has shocked the entire world, and that especially includes the island of Cuba. Trump is a Republican and he will have a Republican Congress to support many of his policies -- including Trump's vow, at least when he was campaigning in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood, that he would "reverse" all of President Obama's historic overtures to Cuba and even put Cuba back on the debilitating Sponsors of Terrorism list. President Obama's many positives related to Cuba bypassed the Republican Congress and were simply executed via brave, astute and decent Executive Actions. The easiest thing for an incoming President, such as Mr. Trump, to do is to devise Executive Actions that would erase those of his predecessor. In regards to Cuba, that is what President Trump might do in keeping the promises he self-servingly made in Miami's Little Havana.

       Within minutes after the early Wednesday confirmation that Trump would be the next U. S. President, Cuba was writing an announcement in its state newspaper, Granma, that it was going on alert with military exercises across the island. Considering the meager strength of the Cuban military compared to superpower America's, many scoff at the announcement but not those who remember Cuba's do-or-die and victorious Revolutionary War in the 1950s or its do-or-die defense at the Bay of Pigs in 1961 or its pugnacious survival even against the U. S. embargo first imposed in 1962 and still existing to this day.

      The best and fairest international journalist reporting on Cuba is Sarah Marsh of London-based Reuters. Her article after the Trump victory revealed that everyday Cubans support the government taking a military tone in reaction to the impending Trump presidency. A 39-year-old Cuban engineer, Tomas Gonzalez, told Sarah Marsh: "We'll brace to what is coming. With Trump, I reckon we are headed back to the era of George Bush." Since 1952 everyday Cubans are well aware that every Republican administration in the U. S., especially the three Bush presidential terms and the Bush dynasty's anti-Cuban assaults dating all the way back to George H. W. Bush in the 1950s have forced Cuba into a "defensive posture." Sarah Marsh reveals that with the Republican Trump replacing Mr. Obama, Cuba is returning to a warlike footing.

       In an earlier recent Reuters article Sarah Marsh used the above photo to report that everyday Cubans, shown installing a Fidel Castro montage on his 90th birthday, will always support the Castro legacy because of his revolutionary fervor on behalf of a sovereign Cuba. Meanwhile, the U. S. media is obligated to inform the American people that all Cubans on the island hate Castro and agree with the Republicans, the CIA and the Cuban-exiles in Miami's Little Havana who have vowed to overthrow the revolution and tried a record number of times to assassinate Castro. While there are a small number of anti-Fidel dissidents on the island, and a larger number of U.S.-backed dissidents, the majority of Cubans support the revolution and very much fear a Republican President, like Donald Trump, in the United States.

      This is the Cuban embassy in Washington, newly opened for the first time since 1961 thanks to President Obama's Executive Orders, with the corresponding U. S. embassy in Havana reopening shortly after the historic ceremony in Washington made this building a busy embassy. Beyond officially establishing diplomatic relations, President Obama has greatly eased trade restrictions related to Cuba as well as making it easier for more Americans to actually visit the island, including U. S. traffic on the first cruise ships and commercial airplane flights allowed to dock or land in Cuba for the first time since 1962.

      A few days ago -- on Oct. 26-2016 -- Samantha Power, the U. S. Representative to the UN, made this speech explaining why, for the first time, the U. S. refused to support its own Congressionally mandated Cuban embargo, in effect since 1962. Ms. Power used one sentence to say that the U. S. "still had differences" with Cuba but she used many sentences to applaud Cuba, citing such examples as Cuba's emphasis on free and good educational and health opportunities for its people; Cuba's empowerment of women; Cuba's world-class low infant mortality rate; and Cuba's eagerness and willingness to rush to the aid of people threatened with disasters such as the Ebola crisis in Africa or natural calamities in Haiti. If interested, you can go online and study the entire transcript or video of Samantha Power's UN speech on Oct. 26th. When the U. S. refused to support its own embargo against Cuba, the international vote announced to the world was 191-to-0 against the embargo, the glaring worldwide unanimity that the U. S. Congress and a few hardliners in Miami's Little Havana insist that the U. S. democracy totally dismiss.  

       As a billionaire businessman Donald Trump opposed the embargo and other odious aspects of America's right-wing Cuban policy. But while seeking Florida's often pivotal 29 electoral votes, Trump went to Little Havana in Miami and promised to "reverse" President Obama's overtures to Cuba and to "return" Cuba to the debilitating Sponsors of Terrorism list. After his cowardly, condescending promises in Little Havana, the above photo showed some powerful pro-Trump supporters demonstrating on Little Havana's famed 8th Street, Calle Ocho. All that is interesting because the majority of Cuban-Americans even in Miami support Obama's efforts to normalize relations with the island. It is also interesting to note that Miami since 1989 only sends incumbents like Ros-Lehtinen, Diaz-Balart, Rubio, and Curbelo -- all anti-Castro zealots -- to the U.S. Congress -- apparently confirming that the majority of Cuban-Americans who happen to be moderates with concern for Cubans on the island and the 191-to-0 UN vote are not eligible or represented.

In March President Obama visited Cuba.

      On his historic trip to Cuba, as shown by this photo and quotation, President Obama went on national television in Cuba and told the Cuban people: "Cuba does not need to fear a threat from the United States." UNFORTUNATELY, what the decent President Obama meant was that Cuba does not need to fear a threat from the United States UNLESS there is a Republican Commander-in-Chief and also a Republican-dominated Congress. AND UNFORTUNATELY, BEGINNING ON JANUARY 20-2017 THE UNITED STATES ONCE AGAIN WILL HAVE BOTH A REPUBLICAN COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF AND A REPUBLICAN-DOMINATED CONGRESS.

Therefore, within minutes of Wednesday morning's confirmation that Republican Donald Trump had been elected the next President of the United States, Cuba's state newspaper was preparing an announcement telling its people that the Cuban military was being put on alert and military exercises would commence.

Meanwhile, everyday Cubans cherish President Obama's efforts to normalize Cuban relations on friendly terms that would benefit Americans, Cubans, and the world. The above photo was taken by Ramon Espinosa for the Associated Press on Wednesday, Oct. 9th-2016, the morning Cubans learned Donald Trump had been elected President of the United States. The photo shows Cuban actor Armando Ricart fixing breakfast in his Havana home. Note the huge Cuban flag on the left and the equally huge American flag on the right. They reveal Armando's hope for friendly U. S. relations. With President Obama about to be replaced by a Republican Commander-in-Chief, Armando's hopes are not as realistic as they were prior to Wednesday.

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Cuba and PRESIDENT TRUMP

What It Means for Cuba?

Donald Trump: 45th U. S. President!!

       On this trip to Miami, long-shot presidential contender Donald Trump shamefully stood before a huge Brigade 2506 poster and promised anti-Castro zealots that, as President, he would turn back all of President Obama's positive efforts to normalize relations with Cuba and that he would put Cuba back on the Sponsors of Terrorism list, an act that alone would induce Cuba to not cooperate with any normalization process. Brigade 2506 was the CIA-backed Cuban-American unit that attacked Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in April of 1961, solidifying the Castro legend because Fidel raced to the frontlines and led the startlingly successful defense. Did Trump actually mean what he said in Miami in front of that Brigade 2506 banner? Maybe.

        Prior to this capitulation to hardliners in Miami, Donald Trump the big businessman had said, "Fifty years of a failed policy regarding Cuba is fifty years too much." As President and as still an unabashed businessman, Trump might revert back to that saner position instead of the self-serving comments in Miami. He knows many, many U. S. businesses want to cut deals related to Cuba -- with U. S. cruise lines, airlines and others already involved. Also Trump as President will hopefully not ignore polls that show even most Cuban-Americans favor closer ties with Cuba and the recent UN vote reveals worldwide unanimity -- 191-to-0 -- against the U. S. embargo of Cuba that has sullied the images of the U. S. and democracy since 1962.

   Donald Trump's pro-Brigade 2506 speech in the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami may or may not define his Cuban policy as the most improbable President in U. S. history. We'll have to wait and see, but Cubans on the island would have preferred a 3rd Obama-like term that Hillary Clinton would have represented. 

       More than any other person, Sean Hannity -- the Fox News anchor and the Radio Talk Show superstar -- has shocked the world by putting Donald Trump in the White House as of January 20, 2017. Neither I nor any other American, almost without exception, believed Hannity could do it. Tired of the extreme anti-Trump bias from all other U. S. broadcast networks and all major U. S. newspapers, for the last few weeks I have, for the first time, watched Hannity on Fox. I smiled...actually laughed...the other night when I watched Hannity insist that Trump would be "the next President of the United States and I will tell you why." He proceeded to tell us, as I continued to laugh. He said, "The extremely biased U. S. media...including CNN that I call the Clinton News Network...will end up putting Donald in the White House. Forget the pundits. Forget the polls. Forget all the talk about Hillary getting almost all the black votes, almost all the Latino votes, and almost all the female votes. When the biased media pilloried Trump supporters as being nothing but ignorant, uneducated, biased white men, I told Donald myself that 'I now know you will shock the world by getting elected President of the United States.' I started out as a construction worker but I have made millions on talk radio and as a top Fox anchor the last 21 years. I said, 'Mr. Trump, just save me a big role in your administration.'"

Yes!!!

I think Sean Hannity put Donald Trump in the White House.

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Election Day USA

Cuba and the World Watches!!

          Today -- NOVEMBER 8TH, 2016 -- is election day in the United States of America. The money-crazed, almost unending presidential election process in the world's greatest and strongest democracy has not only dragged on-and-on month-after-month but also year-after-year. That, of course, mindlessly punishes Americans as the great political cartoonist Dave Chappatte so aptly illustrates with the above gem. The endless election cycle, unique to America, allows more time for powerful entities -- including the mainstream U. S. media -- to partake in the financial windfalls by raking in ungodly amounts of political ad dollars. The mindless election process in the U. S. also...even more sadly...reflects the deleterious impact of the once sacrosanct Supreme Court, which in 2010, many democracy-lovers believe, pounded a huge nail in democracy's coffin when it ruled that multi-billionaires could make unlimited political donations, essentially allowing 20 or so multi-billionaires to purchase the basic tenets of the U. S. democracy, largely demeaning the voting power of masses of individual, non-rich Americans. That money-crazed effect has been exacerbated by a vast deterioration of the mainstream U. S. media, which has evolved more into powerful propaganda machines instead of the providers of unbiased news coverage. So, go back to the top and re-study Dave Chappatte's brilliant political cartoon that defines the reaction of most Americans helplessly fed-up with their money-crazed political system and the media propaganda machines that, incredibly, merely pretend to be unbiased news gathering sources. The combination of a money-dominated election and a propaganda-based media will end up with an elected President tonight but later it might evolve into violence or even some form of a revolution, which this democracy does not deserve.

         The almost endless money-crazed race to the White House finally ends today and will elect as President of the United States either Hillary Clinton, from the extremely flawed and many-believe corrupt Clinton dynasty, or Donald Trump, the extremely flawed and totally unqualified billionaire businessman. Never before have the two top presidential contenders been so unpopular, a fact that displays to the world the fallibility of a two-party political system in which, this time more than ever before, both candidates are considered to be bought-and-paid-for, although less so for Trump, which is a big reason he will lose.

      A two-party political system that produces two extremely UNPOPULAR presidential candidates is surely in dire need of a process that gives American voters more than the choice of the lesser of two evils.

       Graphics such as this -- depicting Clinton and Trump as "the least popular candidates of all time." -- are surely not ringing endorsements for the U. S. democracy, which for over two centuries was surely the greatest form of government ever devised but now one that is becoming fragile and very vulnerable.

           And now, With all that being said, later tonight the Republican Donald Trump will project a glum, downtrodden countenance while the Democrat Hillary Clinton will exude a broad and all-encompassing smile. Trump, the unqualified businessman, will surprise many people with how many votes he actually gets because he at least represents change. But the deeply flawed Clinton will easily stroll the electoral path to a decisive victory. As the 2000 election revealed when Al Gore got more popular votes but George W. Bush won with the most electoral votes, the U. S. democracy -- the world's greatest -- is far from perfect, a fact made indelible in the eyes of many by a two-party bought-and-paid-for system and a mainstream media that has turned into propaganda machines instead of unbiased news gathering organizations.

      When all is said and done sometime tonight, Hillary Clinton will be celebrating her victory as the newly elected President of the United States, instantaneously making her the most powerful person in the world, even more omnipotent than the lame-duck, out-going, two-term President, Mr. Obama, that she will replace.

      And so, later tonight Hillary Clinton will make history as the first female President of the United States. It is, of course, time that the U. S. democracy followed democracies like England, Australia, South Korea, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, etc., etc., in electing a female President. Women tend to be less corrupt, more decent and less war-mongering than males. Yet, the first U. S. female President, Mrs. Clinton, will take over the White House with unique baggage relating to the Clinton dynasty's well-earned reputation for corruption -- dating back to the Whitewater and Rose Law Firm scandals as the political kingpins, Hillary and Governor Bill, in Arkansas decades ago and continuing right up to the present moment, after two White House terms, with unending controversies related to the Clinton Foundation's alleged and notorious solicitations of untold millions of pay-for-play dollars from Wall Street and even foreign billionaires. Thus, more Clinton history beginning in the White House on January 20th, 2017 might well be made in fighting off continuous corruption charges fueled by endless streams of more revelations.

       As the newly elected U. S. President later tonight, Hillary Clinton's euphoria may well be short-lived. That is not wishful or hopeful thinking. For the sake of America and democracy, I wish her well. I was a lifelong Republican until the Bush dynasty's alliance with the Batistianos and Mafiosi related to Cuba ended my Republicanism for good. Yet, I believe what will now be a third term in the White House for the Clinton dynasty may be as devastating for the U. S. democracy as the three terms of the Bush dynasty, with more to come if Jeb can resurrect his political career or if his dangerously ambitious son George P. down in Texas keeps lassoing tons of political dollars from right-wing billionaires who now have, thanks to a Supreme Court ruling and a biased media, clearance to purchase even the cherished U. S. presidency. Yet, like millions of other democracy-loving Americans, I was left during this elongated presidential cycle to support the lesser of what I believe to be two evils -- Mrs. Clinton over Mr. Trump. Mrs. Clinton will at least endeavor to continue the sane, brave, and decent overtures President Obama has made in regards to Cuba. Even as the 191-to-0 vote in the United Nations revealed that NO NATION IN THE ENTIRE WORLD, even including the United States itself, supported the vile, decades-old American Cuban policy, Trump and his running mate Mike Pence traipsed to Little Havana in Miami to assure a handful of still-revengeful anti-Castro Cuban-Americans that, once in the White House, they would "turn back" all of Obama's positive Cuban overtures and "return" Cuba to the State Department's "Sponsors of Terrorism" list, supposedly only to appease a few revengeful zealots fully anxious to hurt millions of innocent Cubans to avenge their losses to the Cuban Revolution. Rogues like Trump and Pence, flagrantly vowing to ignore the unanimity of world opinion not to mention the opinions of most Americans and most Cuban-Americans, do not deserve to be near the White House. My hope, as a democracy-loving American, is that President Hillary Clinton will surprise us all and end up proving she indeed deserves to the first female President of the United States.

 And speaking of Cuba: 

         I like this photo taken by Alberto N. Jones and used courtesy of Havana Times.org. It shows a happy Cuban lady walking down the main, sparsely traveled highway running down the heart of Playa Guardalavaca in Banes, Holguin Province, Cuba. When I was in Cuba, I remember this street and other happy Cubans who don't have many expensive material things but seem to make the most of being happy, carefree and resilient. The Revolution hasn't made them wealthy, certainly not with the half-century-old U. S. embargo, but my observances on the island educated me to the values of almost crime-free and drug-free lifestyles as well as a population blessed with totally free essentials such as health care and college educations along with free food and shelter if needed. So, this happy, friendly Cuban resonates with me.

And by the way: 

       Yesterday -- Nov. 7, 2016 -- Janet Reno died in Miami at age 78. She was the first female Attorney General of the United States, serving in that capacity from 1993 till 2001 for President Bill Clinton. In 1994 she made a controversial decision to end a congressional investigation into the Clinton Whitewater Scandal dating back to Clinton's two terms as Governor of Arkansas.

       But Janet Reno is most remembered for this iconic photo that shows a federal officer, under Reno's orders, rescuing 6-year-old Cuban Elian Gonzalez from Miami and Fort Lauderdale anti-Castro zealots and Cuban-American politicians. Elian was returned to his father and they flew to Cuba in April of 2000.

        When the 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez returned to Cuba, it was a major victory for the island's revolutionary icon Fidel Castro.

         Elian, shown here on the right with one of his close friends, grew up happy, well educated and a Castro disciple in Cuba.

      Elian and his father in Cuba. Elian's mother drowned in the Florida Straits after putting the 6-year-old Elian on an inner- tube, which saved him till he was rescued near shore by fishermen.

Elian with his fiancee Ilianet Escano.

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Cuba's Economic Adjustments

A Work in Progress!!

       One of Cuba's rising female stars is Wendy Miranda. That's Wendy in the center in the above photo. She will play a large role in the island's economic adjustment to a Vietnamese or Chinese financial system that embraces key aspects and elements of...uh...CAPITALISM. The Mariel Port Economic Zone -- 28 miles southwest of Havana and 95 miles southwest of Key West, Florida -- has been carefully crafted to be a hub of Cuba's economic viability on the heels of President Obama's startling detente with the island and as a preamble to a post-Castro future for the island, a mortal reality brought about by the advanced age of the Castro brothers -- 85 for Raul and 90 for Fidel. In little more than a year Raul has announced he will turn the presidency over to the 56-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel, which doesn't mean the Castro influence or legacy will end but, more realistically, just change gears. As long as right-wing Republicans in Miami and Congress largely dictate a U. S. Cuban policy that now gets a 191-to-0 disapproval rating in the United Nations, the Castro legacy will remain a powerful force on the island, whether or not the Republican right-wingers ever succeed in destroying Revolutionary Cuba and regaining control of the island. The Diaz-Canel rule, scheduled to begin early in 2018, will bring with it an array of young, bright, well-educated Cubans...like Wendy Miranda. Wendy is already the dynamo in charge of vital economic decisions related to the absolutely essential foreign investments in the Mariel Economic Zone, an ultra-modern, strategically located port recently the recipient of a billion-dollar upgrade before Cuban-supporter Dilma Rousseff's impeachment as President of Brazil, where she has been replaced in what she calls a "coup" engineered by "U.S.-and-Miami-friendly political patsies." Cuba today is known for such things as surviving the U.S.-backed Mafia rule of Cuba in the 1950s, the Bay of Pigs military attack in 1961 after the Cuban Revolution booted the Mafia to Miami, the U. S. embargo first imposed in 1962 to starve the island to enduce it to overthrow Fidel Castro, and the very brief 2002 coup in Venezuela that Latin Americans still blame on the Bush administration's prime, still viable anti-Cuban stalwarts Otto Reich and Roger Noriega. Wendy Miranda, as I will explain later in this essay, has emerged as a major force in Cuba's economic future. Americans are not supposed to know her, at least until the anti-Cuba propaganda machine can vilify her. That vilification has, in fact, started because she emerged as a prominent Cuban during the just-concluded 34th 4-day International Trade Fair in Havana attended by a record 73 countries and 3500 exhibitors hoping to do business in Cuba, including many mostly disappointed U. S. companies.

      The Business Enterprise Editor at the Miami Herald is Mimi Whitefield. She, of course, writes frequently about Cuban vilification. Her November 5th, 2016 article on Cuba's International Trade Fair was prefaced with this screaming headline: "CUBA SAYS NO TO OBAMA-PROMOTED PLANS TO ASSEMBLE SMALL TRACTORS ON THE ISLAND." Her first words in the article were: "When President Barack Obama visited Cuba in March he said that a small Alabama company that makes tractors would be the first U.S.-company to build a factory here {in Cuba} in more than 50 years. That was jumping the gun." Then Ms. Whitefield from Cuba proceeded to tell her readers, the choir in Miami and supposedly all across the United States, about how the terrible Cuban government had double-crossed both President Obama and the company in Alabama that thought it was going to build little tractors in its Mariel factory that Cuba badly needed. Because of the international effect of the U. S. embargo, in place since 1962, there are still Cuban farmers who use oxen to pull out-dated plows and other farm equipment. So, the tractor factory in Cuba was considered, by President Obama and other decent people, as an antidote to that draconian offshoot of the embargo, which a couple of weeks ago got a resounding 191-to-0 denunciation at the UN. But one revelation from the Trade Fair was that Cuba has denied permission for the Alabama company to build tractors in Cuba. Ms. Whitefield and other usually unchallenged anti-Cuban propagandists in the U. S. used that denial by Cuba to insinuate as usual that any negative related to Cuba is always Cuba's fault and never the fault of the powerful forces in Miami trying desperately, after all these decades, to recapture Cuba. 

        And that brings us back around to Wendy Miranda, the young Cuban who made the decision to keep Cleber, the Alabama factory, from building tractors in Cuba. The photo above shows Wendy explaining things a few days ago in front of a Muriel billboard at the Cuban Trade Fair. Working under Muriel's leader, Ana Teresa Igarza, such decisions, as it turns out, are Wendy's. And her decision regarding Cleber was a sound one as her rationale explains: "As a chief engineer at Mariel, I was excited about the tractor factory from Alabama building machines here that Cubans need. Then I discovered that the Alabama factory was using 1940s technology that they would use here. The 1940s preceded the Cuban Revolution and that is not the technology I want for Mariel. I want advanced technology, not 1940s technology. I have on my desk right now projects using modern technology in tractor building from Japan, China, Belarus and France. With such options, I believe Cleber's 1940s technology is not what I want for Mariel." Cleber itself admits it uses 1940s technology to build its tractors in Alabama. So, did Wendy Miranda make a good decision to deny it a factory at Mariel. Fair-minded Americans -- like Mr. Obama -- would probably agree that she did.

        This photo shows Saul Berenthal in front of his proud Cleber exhibit at the just-concluded 34th Cuban Trade Fair. Saul was born in Havana and came to the U. S. with his family in the 1960s. He understands Wendy Miranda's denial of the factory he planned to build at Mariel. He said, "Cuban-Americans like me still want to bridge the gap between our two countries. I have contracts from foreign countries for the tractors we build in Alabama and I still plan, hopefully, to sell them in Cuba because I believe they will help Cuban farmers. Our tractors are small but strong, cheap but effective. The 1940s technology that we use I will not deny but when the modernity is factored in as we have displayed here, they are good, affordable tractors for Cuba." 

YES, the Alabama-built Cleber tractors are exactly what Saul Berenthal says they are -- small, strong, good, and affordable. But they are built with 1940s technology using modern material and techniques. For her ultra-modern Mariel Port Economic Zone, Wendy Miranda wants both modern technology and modern material...and she says she has such offers from companies in France, China, Japan, and Belarus. So, should Wendy Miranda's decision to deny Cleber a factory at Mariel be mocked even by the Miami Herald?

        This photo shows Wendy Miranda being interviewed at the Cuban Trade Fair in the first week of November-2016 about the vitally important Mariel Economic Zone. In the interview she explained why she denied the U. S. company, Cleber, to build a tractor-making factory at Mariel. She also said she hoped Cuban farmers could replace their oxen with some of the Cleber tractors that she said are "good from what I have seen." She also explained that: "I welcome U. S. companies at Mariel if I think they are fair to us and can compete with other companies from nations that have always been our friends. For example, I want the great cancer institute based in Buffalo, New York to join us in a Mariel factory that will produce adequate quantities of the cheap, or free, life-saving cancer drug that Cuban scientists developed and that Buffalo's Roswell Cancer Institute wants to provide for Americans. I want Roswell to have its impact at Mariel. Unilever is a Dutch company that makes many consumer products sold in the United States and around the world -- like shampoos, toothpaste, and such. Unilever is already building a big factory at Mariel that will employ at least 300 Cubans. If Unilever was an American company with very similar proposals, I would have welcomed it just as readily."  

        In this photo the big guy in the white shirt  is Paul Polman, the CEO of the Dutch company Unilever that is currently building a $35 million factory at Cuba's Mariel Port. It will soon employ 300 Cubans to manufacture soaps, shampoos and other products. Wendy Miranda approved that deal because "it will help Cubans working there who will be making the products and Cubans who use them. About 300 Cubans will work there to start and more as the company expands, which I think it will." And, yes, Wendy Miranda would have approved the deal if it had been an American company and not a Dutch company. In regards to the Miami Herald berating Cuba for denying Alabama-based Cleber a factory to build its tractors at the Mariel Port, Wendy Miranda believes she now has much better offers from France, China, Japan and Belarus.

       A young Cuban hydraulic engineer, Yanelis Tellez, was born in Mariel and she longs for the day when "Cuba can be Cuba and unleash its potential free of U.S. foreign dictation." The Mariel potential, she says, "will help Cubans and the Caribbean so much if a few evil Cubans in America will not continue to dictate America's Cuban policy against the best interests of Cubans and Americans. The world representation at the UN understands this with a 191-to-zero support for Cuba against U. S. imperialism," Yanelis adds, "Cubans on this island and not the worst of the Miami Cubans need to decide what Cuba is now and will be in the future."  

       Cuba's overall boss at the Mariel Port is Ana Teresa Igarza. She says, "Wendy and I are anxious to do contracts with U. S. companies so close to us if they show respect for Cuba, which many of them are doing." 

       Mr. Obama's 8-years as the twice-elected U. S. President are almost up. He has been the only U. S. president since 1898 with both the guts and the ability to actively treat Cuba fairly, but he's only partially successful because of a hostile 535-member U. S. Congress where Cuban policy is dictated by a few self-serving Batistiano-Mafiosi loyalists now well into a second generation of trying to plunder Cuba while cowardly hiding behind the apathy and cowardice of U. S. citizens and the power of the U. S. military. 

        President Obama -- above at the Grand Theatre in Havana on March 22nd, 2016 -- bravely and honorably declared "a new day" for U.S.-Cuban relations that would benefit "most Cubans, most Americans and most citizens of the world." But back in the U. S. to close out his two-term presidency, Mr. Obama has realized that the U. S. democracy has become more money-driven than voter-driven, evidenced by two extremely unpopular presidential contenders -- Republican Trump and Democrat Clinton -- in a bought-and-paid-for two-party system that is sorely in need of a third or fourth alternative to the current bought-and-paid-for two-party system in which Americans must choose the lesser of two money-crazed evils.

           This photo shows U. S. President Barack Obama back in March on his historic visit to Cuba meeting very uncomfortably with anti-Castro Cuban dissidents. It is clear that his discomfort resulted from the generally accepted premise that much of the loud but relatively little dissidence on the island is lushly sponsored and eagerly encouraged by anti-revolutionary elements in the United States of America.

          President Obama's eight-year reign as U. S. President will soon end. His approval rating is currently an amazing 55%. His predecessor, pro-Batistiano stalwart George W. Bush, left with a typical 27% approval rating after spending 8 years in the White House trying to use American power and influence to regain control of Cuba. Obama's brave and positive overtures to Cuba have improved his approval rating as he prepares to leave office, but such things as the incredibly flawed U. S. Congress being able to maintain the embargo against Cuba into a 6th decade reveals to the world, as evidenced by the latest 191-to-zero vote in the United Nations, a weakening and money-crazed U. S. democracy in Washington, one that tomorrow -- Nov. 8th-- will elect an extremely flawed candidate -- Mrs. Clinton -- over the also flawed Mr. Trump.

         Meanwhile, this map shows the location of the Mariel Port 28 miles southwest of Havana. Its ultra-modern, deep-water renovation means it can handle far larger ships than Havana can and its economic zone is vital to Cuba's future. The coordinator of projects there, Wendy Miranda, told Sarah Marsh of REUTERS this week: "We have been growing gradually but surely. We have 19 firmly signed ventures at Mariel. Four are joint ventures while the rest are 100 percent foreign owned or Cuban owned." Ms. Miranda's goal is to finalize about $9 billion in initial contracts and then add about $2 billion in new deals each year. Asked about a Miami Herald headline that said "Cuba Says No to Obama-Promoted Plans to Assemble Small Tractors on the Island," Wendy Miranda said, "I am eager to work with U. S. companies that equal or exceed other offers. The Alabama owners of the Cleber tractor company admit its 1940s technology is not as good as four other nations are offering us for tractor-building at Mariel, but I am still interested in the small but good Cleber tractors built in Alabama. That's why Cleber had a good exhibit at our Trade Fair in Havana this week."   

Cuba's ultra-modern, deep-water Mariel Port.

Highways leading to Mariel are being widened and repaved.

 This gorgeous little Cuban girl is no one's enemy. 
She doesn't deserve punishment from the U. S. embargo.

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