Cuba: Awaiting A Siege

Starting Jan. 20-2017??

      Apathetic Americans who have sat back and meekly allowed only a handful of extremely biased Cuban-Americans to dictate a disastrously self-serving and undemocratic Cuban policy for six decades need to know this young man. His name is Lazaro Manuel Alonzo. He is a talented broadcast journalist in Cuba -- well-educated, opinionated, and an integral part of the young adult-twentysomething generation on the island that apparently appear ready to pay any price to maintain Cuba's independence as a sovereign nation, a status it has had -- for better or worse -- only since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution over the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship on the first day of 1959. Since then, Batistiano-Mafiosi factions aligned with the most right-wing elements of the Bush dynasty have controlled the U. S. Congress to create extreme pro-Cuban exile/anti-Cuba laws that still exist and were designed to regain control of Cuba decades ago. Such a cruel, undemocratic and discriminatory policy currently has a unanimous 191-to-0 condemnation in the United Nations, a denunciation of America's democracy that Americans are not supposed to be smart enough, brave enough or patriotic enough to even react to. In Cuba, that surprises Lazaro Manuel Alonso...and now even alarms him. "Cuba's fate in the near term," he says, "will depend on my generation of Cubans." He grinned softly, sardonically, before punctuating his words. "With Trump in a few weeks becoming Commander-in-Chief in America, my generation on the island might be faced with capitulating or losing to a much more powerful force or doing the patriotic thing...even if we lose." 

       This White House photo concerns young-adult Cubans on the island like Lazaro Manuel Alonso. It also thrills Cuban-Americans in the U. S. Congress and elderly Cuban exiles in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood who never managed to eliminate Fidel Castro but still long to regain control of the island in their decades-long and fervent desire to reverse the Cuban Revolution. The photo above shows President Barack Obama in the White House talking on the phone after having discussed a few key issues...one being Cuba...with key staff members. Lazaro and other young Cubans lament that President Obama's two-term presidency is about to end and a Republican president, Donald Trump, will soon return to a siege mentality towards Cuba. In the above photo, that's Ben Rhodes and Susan Rice sitting closest to President Obama's desk. Mr. Rhodes and Ms. Rice have greatly influenced President Obama's monumental efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, a sane and brave effort to help besieged Cubans on the island and to help America's worldwide image, which currently is taking a 191-to-0 pounding in the UN because of its cruel and abhorrent Cuban policy. Instead of democracy-loving, decent advisors like Mr. Rhodes and Ms. Rice, President-elect Trump has already revived a huge stable of Bush-era anti-Cuban benefactors and zealots such as Mauricio Claver-Carone, Otto Reich, Roger Noriega, John Bolton, etc. as his advisors on Cuba. Hopeful...now fearful...everyday Cubans, as well as America's democracy lovers, have noticed.

      Among everyday Cubans who fear a Trump replacing an Obama as U. S. President are Julia de la Rosa and her husband. In the past 18 months, thanks to President Obama slicing deeply into America's Draconian and Batistiano-directed policies, Julia and her husband have built a Bed and Breakfast business in Havana that now has 17 well-paid employees. The San Francisco-based Airbnb has driven customers to hundreds of Cuban start-ups like Julia's. She and her husband had plans to continue growing their business, till tweets and remarks by President-elect Trump made them fearful. Julia and 100 similar entrepreneurs signed a letter delivered in Washington earlier this month, on Dec. 7-2016, thanking President Obama and begging...yes, begging...President-elect Trump "not to turn your back on us." And then Julia told Nikki Abrego of Fox News Latino these sweet but haunting words: "I hope that President-elect Trump recognizes how much these Obama changes helped Cubans like us. We want to improve our relations with the U. S. and think about a decent future and about what our two countries can accomplish together." American citizens should study those words, a decent Cuban couple thanking outgoing President Obama for helping them start a very successful business but having to beg the incoming Trump presidency for their sovereign right to maintain and grow their business that already employs 17 everyday Cubans.

      Americans also, I believe, have a right to know who Marta Elisa Deus Rodriguez is. She is a smart, well-educated Cuban who loves Cuba dearly. But she went to Spain to start her successful accounting business. Spain, you see, has not been embargoed or besieged or targeted by the superpower United States since 1962. But, with new horizons opening up on the island by a brave and decent President Obama, Marta moved back to her beloved Cuba and quickly established a thriving accounting firm. She was among the 100 new Cuban entrepreneurs who, on Dec. 7-2016, thanked President Obama and begged...yes, begged...President-elect Trump "not to turn your back on us." On Dec. 7th Marta told Reuters, "I now run three businesses in Havana and I want to grow all of them. That's why I hope the new American administration does not change Mr. Obama's policy." Four Cubans now work full-time in one of Marta's Havana offices.

       With a drastic increase in tourism thanks to President Obama, well over 10,000 Cuban homes and private restaurants have already been renovated or built by newly successful Cuban entrepreneurs. The four young women above are now happily and gainfully employed by an expanded paladar, which are popular restaurants in private homes that many tourists flock to. President Obama has drastically increased the amount of money that Cuban-Americans can send to relatives or friends in Cuba...now well over $3 billion a year...and this has helped finance entrepreneurial businesses. President Obama has also greatly increased the excuses for Americans to travel to Cuba although the Batistiano-directed U. S. Congress still unforgivingly and undemocratically maintains a decades-old law that means everyday Americans are the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba, apparently a law designed to prevent Americans from making their own judgments about the island as opposed to Batistianos themselves totally controlling the U. S. narrative in the U. S., a narrative that says that the four young Cubans shown above shouldn't have the right to work for a successful entrepreneur in Havana, Cuba.

  The letter, the plea, from 100 new Cuban entrepreneurs. 

"Please, President-elect Trump, let us work in our own country." 

       This photo -- courtesy of Doug Mills/The New York Times -- shows U. S. President-elect Donald Trump at a Carrier air conditioning factory where he touted his job-saving as a billionaire businessman. Juxtapose this photo with the one right above it regarding the letter 100 new Cuban entrepreneurs begged Trump to allow them to continue their successful start-up businesses in Cuba. Americans are programmed to ignore that letter but the rest of the world does not. Decent, totally honest young entrepreneurs in a sovereign nation asking the next U. S. president to let them continue to grow and hire more everyday Cubans to work for them? What if, for example, entrepreneurs in Spain asked Russia for permission to continue their businesses? Would the American people and the U. S. government find that objectionable? What if, for example, President Trump told Russia to get out of Crimea and the Ukraine, or told China to stop putting military bases on disputed islands in the South China Sea? President Trump won't do that for two reasons: {1} Russia and China are far too big and strong; and {2} Russia and China would quickly remind President Trump about the equally disputed U. S. occupation of Cuba's Guantanamo Bay, which is complete with an unwanted U. S. military base. Americans who don't comprehend those two answers also don't comprehend the world's unanimous 191-to-0 repudiation of its Batistiano-directed and decades-old Cuban policy.  

        This billboard in Cuba registers the fact that today in the United Nations not a single nation in the entire world agrees with America's Cuban policy, and that includes every single one of America's best friends and, of course, also includes all of America's worst enemies who continually exploit the UN result in their anti-American endeavors. Yet, in a shameful commentary on America's democracy, a handful of extremist Cuban-Americans and a mere handful of sycophants in the U. S. Congress can maintain decade-after-decade the embargo-blockade that, in essence, is more anti-American than anti-Cuban. But, obviously, not enough Americans give a damn and...obviously...the revenge, economic and political benefactors of America's zero-to-191 Cuban policy couldn't care less about how it harms America...or decent young Cubans like Lazaro, Julia, Marta, and others in their own sovereign nation.

     This image of Cubans and Americans as "Good Friends" pleases President Obama and democracy-lovers all around the world, but it appears to drastically dis-please a handful of hardline Cuban-Americans who, incredibly, can use the U. S. Congress to dictate, with a not-so-secretive bit of heinous chicanery, their self-serving biases to the rest of America's 320 million people and the world's 7.5 billion people.  

         On the other hand, this quintessential Carlos Latuff image appears to be the one that an omnipotently powerful handful of Cuban-Americans love in defiance of unanimity worldwide. A democracy that can't address this issue is not the democracy that emerged from World War II as history's all-time most respected government and/or democracy. It can be argued that the precipitous dip to a 191-to-0 international condemnation of America's Cuban policy is the only thing that can get a unanimous vote in the fractious United Nations and, more significantly, lingers poignantly as proof that World War II's GREATEST GENERATION of Americans has evolved into what now can be labeled -- by a measure of 191-to-zero -- as the WORST GENERATION of cowardly and unpatriotic Americans. If that is not true, then stand up and defend the Carlos Latuff image depicted above. I'll wait while you gather all of your rebuttals.

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TWO Reconfigured Nations

Legacies of the Cuban Revolution!

      This photo is courtesy of Jorge Davila Miguel and El Nuevo Herald. It inspired the title of this essay -- "Two Reconfigured Nations" -- because it reminded me that the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959 reshaped two nations, Cuba and the United States. This photo on Dec. 18-2016 illustrated Mr. Davila's insightful article entitled "Las Batallilas de Miami" -- "The Miami Battles." It chronicles to this day the fierce divergence of opinions about Cuba that exists among impatient Cuban-Americans in Miami, Florida.

        As an extremely influential journalist, Jorge Davila Miguel regularly reports on U.S.-Cuban issues -- primarily Havana vs. both Miami and Washington -- for CNN's Spanish network as well as newspapers such as El Nuevo Herald and blogs such as Fernando Ravsberg's Letters from Cuba. In the aforementioned article Mr. Davila had just returned from Cuba where he covered the aftermath of Fidel Castro's death before returning to Miami where he confronted, as always, the ubiquitous emotional and sometimes physical battles spawned by the everlasting reactions to the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba that the Cuban Revolution shockingly overthrew. It reshaped Cuba with six decades of anti-American Castro rule but may have reshaped America even more, especially Miami's Cuban dominance first and then Cuban-exile dominance of the U. S. Congress relating to luminous anti-Castro laws that rile the entire world and negatively affect America's international image, as reflected by the current 191-to-0 condemnation vote in the United Nations. Two generations of Cuban-Americans have flourished financially and politically, particularly after forming what many consider an unholy alliance with the Bush dynasty. Assassination attempts, military and terrorist attacks, and even history's longest and cruelest economic embargo have failed to overthrow Revolutionary Cuba even though the myriad of unending attempts have been launched by and/or from the world's superpower. In his Dec. 18th article, Mr. Davila wrote, "President-elect Trump is the great white hope of Cuban exiles. The great hope number 13, it is worth underlining." The number 13 references the number of presidential administrations, counting the two-termers, that Revolutionary Cuba has stubbornly, ever miraculously, survived. Mr. Davila mentioned a recent poll by Florida International University that said 52% of even Miami Cuban-Americans supported two-term President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. But Mr. Davila dismissed the poll as "A survey war" and seemed to indicate, as illustrated by the photo of the two combatants, that a Hot War may yet evolve to dissolve the issue, once and for all, as the volatile Trump is about to replace the peace-minded Obama as President and Commander-in-Chief. In any case, Jorge Davila Miguel understands the pulse and rhythms that are freshly emanating forth from Havana, Miami and Washington at a very pivotal juncture -- the death of Fidel Castro juxtaposed against the imminent Obama-to-Trump transition. When Mr. Davila speaks, I listen. I also believe that his photo depicted at the top of this post speaks volumes about a renewed urgency in Miami to finally get a resolution for the Castro problem that has tormented them for the last six-decades of Fidel Castro's 9-decades of life, a life that was ended by old age, not by his enemies.

       As the crucial year of 2016 winds down to a precious few days, the one-star red-white-and-blue Cuban flag flies over the beautiful but troubled island, which remains a pugnacious bastion against the ominous threat of dictation as represented by a red-white-and-blue American flag emblazoned with fifty stars.

       The two young Cubans above are wearing anti-blockade/anti-embargo T-shirts to stress their slogan "Cuba Es Nuestra" -- "Cuba Is Ours." But it may not be for long unless their generation of young adults on the island are willing to fight for it, politically and otherwise. There will be a test of their resolve. And, whether they realize it fully or not, that test, pitting them as dire underdogs, is right around the corner.

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Obama's New Cuba

Alarms Right-wing Extremists!!

Especially the Bush-Batistiano Alliance

      This photo is actually courtesy of the White House, President Barack Obama. It shows the President late at night studying a report from his staff, perhaps an update from Simone Leiro on his brave and monumental efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. Notice the lone candle-like light at his back.

      One of President Obama's key staffers in helping him shape his Cuban overtures is Simone Leiro. She is a native of Chapel Hill, North Carolina but graduated from New York University. Yesterday -- Dec. 17-2016 -- was a big day for Simone because it was the second anniversary of the day her boss, Mr. Obama, announced to the world his plans to normalize relations with Cuba. At the White House celebration of the anniversary, Simone represented Mr. Obama and she did so proudly as one of the architects and defenders of his heroic Cuban policies. A Miami Herald article written by Patricia Mazzei and Nora Gamez Torres shamefully mocked and ridiculed the White House celebration with such derisive comments as, "And once out of office, Obama intends to remain involved in Cuba matters as a private citizen...hardliners are certain Trump will reverse Obama's approach entirely." Such articles from a once-great newspaper remind us that, since the 1959 triumph of the Cuban Revolution, Miami's Little Havana is the capital of the transplanted Batistiano dictatorship. The Miami Herald article also derisively mentioned that an unnamed and unknown "female" Obama aide would stay on till March to assist the new Trump administration. We can inform the Herald that the unknown female has a name -- Simone Leiro.

      A few days ago, prior to yesterday's 2nd anniversary celebration, Simone Leiro brought Cuban entrepreneurs to Washington to testify how Obama's policies have helped thousands of Cubans to become successful entrepreneurs -- such as Julia de la Ortega, the happy lady shown above. They lavishly praised Obama and pleaded with the incoming Trump administration to "Please, don't turn your back on us." The U. S. media, as usual, mostly ignored the Obama praise and the pleas to Trump, apparently to appease the Batistianos, but the White House.gov website provided Julia's quotes: "We now run a real bed and breakfast with 10 bedrooms and have 17 people working with us as we provide services 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Now we are starting a small taxi service as transportation requests have increased. Thanks to the new times, we can right now even come to the United States to buy pieces to restore our eight American cars." 

      Another new Cuban entrepreneur basking in Obama's brave kindnesses is Fanny Acosta. She owns Casa Randy, a now thriving Bed & Breakfast in Centro Habana. Her enemy, the Batistiano-directed U. S. Congress, maintains the embargo that severely punishes everyday Cubans as well as everyday Americans, who have long been the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba. But Obama sliced into wicked congressional laws with Executive Powers and greatly increased the excuses for Americans to visit the island -- including now the first U.S.-to-Cuba commercial airplane flights and cruise-ship traffic since 1961. Also, Obama greatly increased the amount of money Cuban-Americans can send to Cubans, enabling many of them to own their own businesses that now take advantage of the Obama-generated increase in tourism. Fanny says, "Mr. Obama gave my family a new life." But Fanny is nervous. She's being told that the incoming U. S. president, Trump, will take away her "new life." At the moment, judging by his early transition team that includes Mauricio Claver-Carone and John Bolton, it appears Trump plans to do exactly that.

        Major American companies -- ten airlines, the top three cruise operators, Starwood-Marriott Hotels that now manage three renovated Cuban hotels, Google, Verizon, T-Mobile, Airbnb, TripAdvisor, etc., etc., are now making money on Cuban ventures thanks to Obama. The pending Trump reversals are expected to happen but reactions and fallouts will not be miniscule. U. S. companies like TripAdvisor and Airbnb, for example, are listing and helping to book customers for Julia, Fanny and over 10,000 other Obama-inspired Cuban entrepreneurs. The anticipated Trump reversals would once again enhance a Cuban policy that sates the revenge, economic and political appetites of a miscreant few while punishing everyone else, including powerful U. S. businessmen like Steven Kaufer who don't like to be punished by miscreants mocking the U. S. democracy and resulting in a 191-to-0 condemnation of the U. S. in the United Nations.

      A well-known Cuban-American businessman in Miami, Hugo Cancio, attended the Dec. 17th second year anniversary celebration at the White House. Like most Cuban-Americans in Miami, Hugo Cancio supports President Obama's decent Cuban policies. He also complains bitterly about "the opinions of the majority of Cuban-Americans in Miami are not represented by our politicians, the local politicians and the politicians that are elected from here to the U. S. Congress. Why doesn't the U. S. media wonder about such things?" 

      The U. S. media only stresses the opinions of anti-Cuban extremists. The photo above shows Hugo Cancio expressing his opinions to Cristina Escobar, the island's superb young broadcast journalist.

       While the U. S. media is apparently not allowed to air Hugo Cancio's views although they represent the opinions of most Cuban-Americans, U. S. business executives seeking relations with Cuba continually knock on Hugo's door, call and text him constantly and, as above, even confront him on the streets.

        Vermont's patriotic veteran United States Senator Patrick Leahy attended yesterday's second anniversary celebrations of President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. Leahy has long been one of America's most powerful politicians and one of the most vocal advocates for a decent Cuban policy. The U. S. media often solicits his opinions on various topics...except Cuba. Cuban topics in the U. S. media, with rare exceptions, are reserved only for anti-Cuban extremists. Meanwhile, Senator Leahy is embarrassed by "the startling unanimity of the UN vote denouncing our Cuban policy, but I understand it."  

       Bush-anointed anti-Cuban zealots like John Bolton shamefully use the media to denounce great Americans like Senator Leahy for either showing some respect for everyday, totally innocent Cubans or for being ashamed about how much America's Cuban policy belittles America and democracy in the eyes of the entire world. The U. S. media is not interested in sane Cuban opinions from people like Senator Leahy but afford bullies like John Bolton all the air-and-print time they desire. The media almost always refers to Bolton as "the former U. S. Ambassador to the UN," assuming Americans are too stupid to know the truth. Bolton was a recess appointment by the anti-Cuban President George W. Bush. Fully knowing that such a right-winger would not get approved by the Senate, Bush, of course, removed him at the UN prior to letting the Senate, back from recess, vote on the appointment. By not pointing out such things in boosting the likes of Bolton, the media is simply lying and such lies -- INCREDIBLY -- have President-elect Trump considering Bolton for Secretary of State, Under Secretary of State, or Ambassador to Cuba...any of which might start a war in the Caribbean and which would continue to mystify Americans like Senator Leahy.

     This photo shows the day President Bush named John Bolton the U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stood by in silence. Yes, it happened...but remember it was only a "recess appointment" because no way would Bush allow Bolton to be subjected to Senatorial approval. Yet, word is that Trump might try to get Bolton approved to a key position by the Republican Senate or to a key anti-Cuba position that doesn't require Senate approval. Either way, both Cuba and America would be screwed. In between Republican administrations, people like Bolton, Reich, Noriega, etc., make tons of money as consultants, but that's better than actually being in the U. S. government. 

      U. S. Congresswoman Kathy Castor was born in Miami but, as Hugo Cancio says, Miami only sends anti-Cuban zealots to the U. S. Congress. Kathy Castor represents the Tampa-St. Petersburg area in the U. S. Congress and she attended the Dec. 17th celebration at the White House on the second-year anniversary of President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, which Kathy Castor has long advocated.

      On behalf of harassed innocent Cubans on the island as well as her constituents in the Tampa area, the American economy and America's worldwide image, Kathy Castor has always worked bravely and tirelessly for a sane and decent Cuban policy that would "benefit most Americans and most Cuban-Americans."  

       The visceral Miami Cubans in and out of Congress are demanding that Trump halt all of President Obama's Cuban overtures. The photo above shows Havana-Born Ileana Ros-Lehtinen waiting her turn as she watches Havana-born Lincoln Diaz-Balart put up his halt sign. Ros-Lehtinen has been in the U. S. Congress from Miami since 1989 when Jeb Bush, paving the way for his two-term Governorship of Florida, was her Campaign Manager. The aforementioned Miami Herald article about the Dec. 17th second-year anniversary of President Obama's normalization plans for Cuba, of course, stressed Ros-Lehtinen's scathing comments: "Hopefully with President-elect Trump and a new administration, we may be in a position to reverse some of the damage inflicted on the cause of freedom and democracy in Cuba." Yeah, right. The Havana-born Ros-Lehtinen is awash with family-connected hatred of the Cuban Revolution, as is the Havana-born Lincoln Diaz-Balart whose father Rafael was a Minister in the ousted Batista dictatorship. 

      Lincoln Diaz-Balart was followed to the U. S. Congress by his younger brother Mario. Without ever mentioning that their father was a Minister in the Batista dictatorship and then the rich and powerful founder of the first anti-Castro paramilitary unit in Florida, the White Rose, the U. S. media allows the Diaz-Balarts to say anything about Revolutionary Cuba with never an iota of a challenge.

     This CBS-TV photo was taken during the 41-minute news conference in Miami on Nov. 26-2016 that celebrated the death of Fidel Castro while wilder celebrations were taking place outside on the streets of Miami. Left to right are: Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Carlos Curbelo, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and Mario Diaz-Balart. I though the most interesting moment came when Ros-Lehtinen at the rostrum turned and congratulated Lincoln Diaz-Balart for "writing" some of the laws in the Batistiano-infringed U. S. Congress that continue to infuriate all the nations of the world as well as great Americans like Obama, Leahy, Castor, Cancio, etc.

        A Cuban policy dictated by a Bush-ordained Castro Cottage Industry in the United States will continue to promote anti-Cuba zealots like Miami's incumbent Senator Marco Rubio to Congress or, maybe, soon to the White House. A U. S. democracy that can't correct this abomination is a U. S. democracy that gets a 191-to-0 condemnation in the United Nations and gets a strong denunciation from most Cuban-Americans.

      Meanwhile, it's been exactly two years and one day since President Obama, on behalf of the innocent Cubans and the United States of America, announced gigantic plans to normalize relations with Cuba.

     President Obama, live on Cuban television, assured the Cuban people that "Cuba does not need to fear a threat from the United States." Unfortunately, that statement only resonated with Cubans during Mr. Obama's two terms as President and Commander-in-Chief. It surely didn't apply to the two-term Bush presidency that preceded Mr. Obama's and it surely doesn't apply to the Trump presidency that will follow.

       Cuba's young and influential broadcast journalist, Cristina Escobar, has been a huge supporter of President Obama's two-year effort to normalize relations with her island. She thinks the Republican Congress and the Republican Trump in the White House "will turn back all that progress and goodness with barely batting an eye." In the above photo, Escobar is studying a script just before airtime in Havana.

An anti-Obama Cuban-American demonstrator.

      This photo shows Cristina Escobar making history by becoming the first Cuban to ever ask a question at a White House news conference. She asked President Obama's White House spokesman Josh Earnest six questions, including this one: "Will the regime-change programs continue?" Josh Earnest gave her a diplomatic answer but she knows the real answer: As long as the American people allow an exceedingly unpopular, Batistiano-directed U. S. Congress to dictate America's Cuban policy, the world will vote 191-to-0 against it and Congress will continue vast pipelines of tax dollars flowing to Miami and even to Havana to eventuate a regime-change while, in the meantime, enriching and empowering a select few Cuban-Americans and their sycophants. Cristina Escobar says, "Even Cubans of my generation know all about long-ago Batista and Mafia brutality and pillaging on a beautiful island. I hope and believe the bulk of my generation will stay and defend what deserves to be defended. I know the odds against us remain high and the allure of Miami is strong, but our strength is the Cuban love for independence. I hope that never leaves us."

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New Cuba, Old Cuba

Coexisting With America!!
{Saturday, December 17th, 2016}

      This photo reflects the new Cuba as it continues its eternal efforts to try to coexist with its colossal northern neighbor -- the United States. My friend Tracey Eaton took this photo this week -- Dec. 13-2016 -- about 22 minutes before he boarded American Airlines Flight 801 from Charlotte to Havana. Notice that the departure was right on time and took 2 hours and 28 minutes to reach Havana. It was a very historic flight because American Airlines has just begun the first commercial flights from U. S. soil to Havana since 1961 after JetBlue Airlines had earlier begun U. S. flights to other Cuban cities. Now a host of other U. S. airlines are set to make commercial flights to Cuba from major U. S. cities -- four in Florida but also Atlanta, New York, Houston, Los Angeles, etc. It's all a product of President Obama's brave efforts to wrest Batistiano-like dictation of America's Cuban policy from a Batistiano-dictated U. S. Congress. Obama has already paved the way for cruise lines to make regular trips to the island; he has sharply increased the excuses for Americans to legally visit the island; he has made it possible for Cuban-Americans to send in excess of $3 billion a year to Cubans on the island, enabling many of them to become entrepreneurs; and the influx of tourism...well over 3 million in the past year...has veritably overwhelmed the new Cuba that Americans like Tracey Eaton can much easier fly into, easing the Batistiano-directed congressional law that has long made Americans the only people in the world not free to go to Cuba. But now there is a new Cuba, which still has to deal with the old Cuba, which is much too profitable in the U. S. to go away quietly.

      This Cuban-American gentleman represents the old Cuba. His name is Antonio Rodiles and the photo above shows him on CBS TV this week lobbying powerfully against President Obama's sane and decent overtures to Cuba. His fervent hope is that incoming President Donald Trump will erase all of the Obama gains and then, I guess, recapture Cuba on behalf of a handful of rich and powerful, now second-generation Cuban-Americans. That recapturing thing would be somewhat akin, I reckon, to the Batista-Mafia rule from 1952 till 1959 when the victorious Cuban Revolution reconfigured Cuba and America by keeping Havana as the Cuban capital but creating Little Havana in Miami as the Batistiano capital on U. S. soil. In addition to his CBS gig, I also noticed this week that Rodiles took his anti-Castro/pro-Batistiano zealotry to...the Voice of America, the Heritage Foundation, the Miami Herald, etc., etc., etc. And remember, other rich and powerful anti-Castro/pro-Batistiano lobbyists -- Mauricio Claver-Carone, Roger Noriega, Otto Reich, the Diaz-Balart brothers, Ros-Lehtinen, Rubio, Cruz, Curbelo, even John Bolton, etc. -- are also in overdrive preparing for the Obama-to-Trump transition on January 20th. Note that the aforementioned names all seem to have sprung up from the roots of the Bush dynasty and, after the 8-year Obama hiatus, all seem to be lavishly salivating over the impending let's finally recapture Cuba Trump presidency.

     This Roberto Kollum-El Nuevo Herald photo shows Antonio Rodiles making a threatening speech in Miami this week. At least, the Miami Herald's very first sentence in its long article about the speech said Rodiles "warned" President-elect Trump not to go easy on Cuba. The article, which you are welcome to dial up, quoted Rodiles as saying, "The Cuba regime is never going to be a friend of the U. S, never going to be a friend of the democratic world. The main focus needs to be on real change, a regime change in Cuba." If history is any judge, such warnings must be heeded whether the U. S. presidents are Democrats or Republicans. Since the Eisenhower administration in 1959, all Republican presidents have sought to bring about what Rodiles called "a regime change" in Cuba, without success. Let's see...assassination attempts, military attack at the Bay of Pigs, terrorist acts that included hotel and airplane bombings, and Batistiano-directed laws in the U. S. Congress designed to starve and deprive Cubans on the island for the purpose of having them create a regime change. Declassified U. S. documents from 1962 confirm that the starve and deprive motive created the embargo against Cuba that has been in existence since 1962 because only the Batistiano-directed U. S. Congress can eliminate it. Mr. Rodiles, of course, never mentioned that the majority of Cuban-Americans support President Obama's decent and sane Cuban overtures. He also, of course, never mentioned that the entire world -- via a 191-to-0 UN vote -- drastically opposes the cruel and inhumane policies that he advocated in the above Miami speech. So, how can a handful of lobbyists such as Antonio Rodiles maintain, decade after decade, a Cuban policy in the world's greatest democracy that most Americans, most Cuban-Americans and the entire world opposes?? In the eyes of the world...note the UN vote...the U. S. democracy is not strong enough to correct a Cuban policy that so drastically diminishes the images of the U. S. democracy around the world. And the primary culprits, in my opinion, are not benefactors like Mr. Rodiles. The primary culprits are the American people who sit back on their comfortable asses and refuse to defend their great nation and their great democracy against a domestic problem that might be more dangerous to America than all the foreign anti-American entities combined.

      A key antagonist to the Castro Cottage Industry is Ben Rhodes, which also connotes his concern about how America's Cuban policy denigrates the images of the United States and democracy around the world. Mr. Rhodes is a key National Security Advisor for President Obama and he is the prime architect of Obama's brave and historic efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. Considering the ageless hold Cuban hardliners have had on the U. S. Congress and its bevy of anti-Cuban but pro-Cuban exile laws, Mr. Rhodes has crafted many of the Executive Orders that sliced deeply into the congressional dictates of a Cuban policy that has the current 191-to-0 condemnation in the United Nations. He is proud of what has been accomplished, such as the reopening of embassies in Havana and Washington for the first time since 1961; commercial airline flights and sea cruises from the U. S. to Cuba for the first time since 1961; and a drastic easing of the U. S. embargo against Cuba that has shamefully been in effect since 1962. Ten U. S. airlines -- Alaska, American, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, Silver, Southwest, Spirit, Sun, and United -- now have regularly scheduled commercial flights to Cuba for the first time since 1961. Three major cruise lines - - Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian -- are now setting sail for Cuba for the first time since 1962. San Francisco-based Airbnb is now assisting over 8,000 Cuban private homes in renting out rooms to help alleviate the Obama-Rhodes influx of tourism. TripAdvisor is now helping paladares {home restaurants} and regular Cuban restaurants with pre-arrival listings. Starwood Hotels and Resorts, owned by Marriott International, has sharply renovated and now manages three key Cuban hotels. Ben Rhodes has had a direct hand in those and many other negotiations, but he knows the clock is ticking on the two-term Obama presidency with President-elect Donald Trump threatening to "reverse" such advances that have already helped millions of Cubans on the island and portend to help millions of U. S. workers and businesses. Mr. Rhodes says, "We'll use the remaining times till January 20th to continue trying to help Cubans on the island and American business interests while also, we think, trying to improve America's regional and international images. We will make our case to the incoming Trump administration and also directly to the public. We've done everything we could to show that our new approach works much better than the old Cold War one."   

      This Reuters photo shows Ben Rhodes holding the White House news conference that announced President Obama's trip to Cuba back in March, a truly historic and courageous visit that marked the first time a sitting American president had visited the island since Herbert Hoover in 1928. Today -- Dec. 17-2016 -- President Obama and Ben Rhodes will host an event in the White House to mark the two-year anniversary of the day when President Obama first announced his plans to normalize relations with Cuba.

      President Obama's bold Dec. 17-2014 Cuban announcement.

      This photo will always be an integral part of the Obama-Rhodes legacy in their historically decent and courageous efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. The photo was taken in March aboard Air Force One and it shows President Obama and Ben Rhodes looking out windows as the presidential plane flew low over Havana. With Republicans having control of both chambers of the Batistiano-infringed U. S. Congress and Trump's incoming Republican White House already being laced with extreme anti-Cuban advice from the likes of Claver-Carone, Bolton, Noriega, Reich, and six Cuban-Americans in Congress, it appears likely that the decent and sane Obama-Rhodes efforts will be largely reversed, meaning that the U. S. Cuban policy will revert back to starkly benefiting a roguish few while also starkly harming everyone else, not to mention a return of the extreme harm a Batistiano-type Cuban policy does to America's and democracy's worldwide images. Yet, Mr. Obama and Mr. Rhodes should be saluted for what they have done and for what they tried to do in regards to America's Cuban policy that deservingly gets the 191-to-0 UN denunciation.

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Cuba's Fate, What Now?

Peace...or War?

       Study this photo. It speaks loudly, and more than a thousand words. If you are an American and you read a thousand words in the U. S. media about Cuba, or listen to a thousand words on network television, you are willing to be propagandized and lied to about U.S.-Cuban relations -- where they have been and where they are going in the closing days of 2016 as President Obama's two-term presidency draws to a close to make way at the start of 2017 to the presidency of Donald Trump. From Cuba's standpoint, going from a decent and respectful Democrat president to an unknown but suspiciously indecent Republican president, is the equivalent of going from Peace to War. If that sounds too harsh or too much of an exaggeration, I believe it's because you do not comprehend the pulse or the rhythms of Cuba. Aspects of the Obama government will speak the truth; unfortunately, there are no aspects of the U. S. media that has either the courage or the integrity to tell you the truth about Cuba. Typically for the U. S. media, America's largest newspaper -- USA Today -- sends a visceral anti-Castro Cuban-American Alan Gomez --  back-and-forth from Miami to Cuba for the purpose of spewing lies and distortions; in recent days, Mr. Gomez has told his readers that all of Cuba's 11.2 million citizens are wildly happy that Fidel Castro has died and are joyous over the prospect that an incoming Republican president aligned with a Republican dominance of Congress will quickly in 2017 restore the Batistiano-Mafiosi rule to Cuba. Maybe, maybe not. Have you studied the photo above? That's Cristina Escobar. She is a superbly talented broadcast journalist in Cuba...bilingual, well-educated, healthy, married, awesomely intelligent and pure Cuban. It is highly likely that young adults on the island, twentysomethings like Cristina, will predicate Cuba's fate going forward...either that or the incoming U. S. Commander-in-Chief will have to annihilate them because Cristina's Cuban-based love for Cuba easily matches the U.S.-based Batistiano's hatred of Revolutionary Cuba. In the above photo, Cristina had a lot to ponder -- including Obama, Trump, and the impact of Fidel Castro's death. In Washington and in Havana Cristina, as a journalist and as a Cuban, has laid down her two prime mantras: {1} "Cuba's fate is up to Cubans on the island, not Cubans in Miami and Washington;" and {2} "Journalists in Cuba have more freedom to tell the truth about the U. S. than journalists in the U. S. have to tell the truth about Cuba." The nearby world superpower has the capacity to dismiss or wipe out Cristina's views and plans for Cuba -- especially with a Republican president, a Republican Congress, and an incompetent or cowardly U. S. media. Cristina understands that, but it's not likely to deter her. She seems to possess Celia Sanchez-type Cuban grit.

       This photo shows Cristina Escobar and her co-anchor Lazaro Manuel Alonzo on a very tough day as they reported on the death of 90-year-old Fidel Castro. Americans are told by the U. S. media that there is no lingering sadness over the passing of the island's revolutionary icon, but Cristina and Lazaro didn't try to hide their acute sadness. In the U. S. only the most anti-Castro zealots -- Alan Gomez, Boris Sanchez, the Diaz-Balart brothers whose father was a key Batista Minister chased to Miami, etc. -- are allowed to use the U. S. media to propagandize against Revolutionary Cuba. Cuba even allows the three most famed dissidents on the island to fly back-and-forth to Miami and Congress where they continually get refurbished to return to Cuba and try to unseat the government or cause mayhem that puts it in a bad light -- and them in a good light as patriots, not Castro Cottage Industry benefactors. When U. S. journalists go to Cuba, they don't have the freedom to ask important young Cubans like Cristina and Lazaro what they think, and they are important not just as talented journalists but as young adults who care deeply about Cubans on the island as they try to chart a sovereign nation in which greedy and revengeful miscreants hiding behind the skirts of the world's superpower can't eternally use Cubans as pawns and guinea pigs.

        After their live broadcasts on November 26th about the death of Fidel Castro, Cristina and Lazaro still shared their heartfelt grief. Propagandized Americans belittle them that right, or sanctimoniously maintain that these two young Cubans are not as smart as they are or have not had the insight and clarity about the Batistianos, the Mafiosi, and the Revolution that they have. It is for those reasons that Cuba's post-Fidel fate should reside solely in the hands of young Cubans like Cristina and Lazaro, not a few foreign thugs.

      This photo of Cristina Escobar reflects the sadness she feels over the death of Fidel Castro. The exceedingly rich and always unchallenged Diaz-Balarts in Miami and Washington don't believe Cristina in her own sovereign country should have the freedom to feel sad over the death of the Cuban rebel famed for chasing the Diaz-Balarts and other Batista-connected "saints" to Miami and Washington two generations ago. But I think she deserves her opinions, and I say that not just because I respect her and 11 million other innocent Cubans on the island but because, most of all, I respect the U. S. democracy that has taken...and continues to take...a terrible hit from a Cuban policy mostly dictated by rogues in shameful defiance of decent Americans like President Obama. With unanimity, that recent 191-to-0 vote in the United Nations agrees wholeheartedly with me and I believe it is an undemocratic shame that many Americans don't. Cristina Escobar: "Cuba's fate is up to Cubans on the island, not Cubans in Miami and Washington."  

       Great Cuban patriots died on Cuban battlefields fighting for what young Cuban patriots Cristina Escobar and Lazaro Manuel Alonzo believe in today -- sovereignty and independence for their island.

      For the last 70 of his 90 years, Fidel Castro ended up as the most successful fighter for Cuban sovereignty, a fact that will eternally make him a pariah and his legacy an historical blight for his enemies, but just a few weeks before he died the 191-to-0 vote in the UN supported his Cuba, not America's Cuba. 

      If indeed Cuba's fate is up to Cubans on the island, not Cubans in Miami and Washington, the island's future should in the hands and hearts of young Cuban patriots like Cristina Escobar and Lazaro Manuel Alonso, not a few American and Cuban-American rogues who get away with dictating to Americans such absurdities as...0 is a larger number than 191. TRUST ME, it's not. 191 is larger than zero. Really!!  

Cristina Escobar: Night-out with two good friends. 
They like their Cuba, and they have a right to.

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