Cuba Hardliners Fight Back

Bush-era Rewards Still Massive 
{Updated: Friday, Jan. 27th, 2017}

        This is the entrance to Port Everglades just north of Miami, Florida. Earlier this week a Crowley container ship entered the port to drop off a load of Cuban charcoal, the first such legal shipment from Cuba to the United States in half-a-century. Also this week, top trade officials from Cuba had Obama-orchestrated scheduled meetings with top port officials in Florida, including Port Everglades, in the hopes of signing additional mutually beneficial deals. But yesterday -- Thursday, Jan. 26th, 2017 -- the South Florida-Orlando Sun Sentinel wrote: "In light of the threatening tweets by Governor Rick Scott, ports in Broward and Palm Beach counties canceled plans to sign an agreement for cooperation with the National Port Administration of Cuba." 

         As long as self-serving political thugs like Florida Governor Rick Scott are allowed to dictate America's Cuban policy, the United States will deserve the humiliating 191-to-0 condemnation of its Cuban policy by all the nations of the world. {That unanimity vote was cast in the United Nations}. And as long as pusillanimous, unpatriotic Americans allow a handful of thugs like Rick Scott to endlessly perpetrate America's cruel, self-deprecating Cuban policy, the majority of Americans themselves will be most to blame for not having the courage or the intelligence to stand up to a thuggish minority like Scott.

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          In addition to promotional brochures like this, my last two issues of Time Magazine have included full-page color ads by Pearl Seas Cruises promoting its "exclusive 10-night voyages to fascinating Cuba."  

      The free brochures and the costly Time Magazine ad feature this map delineating the seven Cuban cities the luxurious cruise ship Pearl Mist will visit after it leaves the Port of Miami in nearby Florida.

This Pearl Seas map highlights Miami-to-Cuba commerce.

The Pearl Seas cruises to Cuba are not cheap.

      Of course, when companies like Pearl Seas Cruises, above, sign commercial contracts to do Obama-orchestrated business in Cuba for the first time in half-a-century, it is to make money and, as a capitalist offshoot, to create jobs in both countries. SOUNDS LIKE A GREAT TESTIMONY FOR SANITY, CAPITALISM AND DEMOCRACY, right? Wrong!! To the lucrative Castro Cottage Industry -- which originated in South Florida way back in 1959 when the overthrown U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship regrouped -- such mutually beneficial commerce with Revolutionary Cuba is to be blunted by whatever means is necessary. While regaining control of Cuba, despite superpower support from the U. S., has not materialized, the revenge, economic and political rewards for the Castro Cottage Industry have been incredibly valuable to a small but very select group of hardliners...and their primary sycophants such as the self-serving Bush dynasty.

         The Governor of Florida is Rick Scott and he obviously likes his job. This week Mr. Scott loudly announced that Florida ports who do business with Cuba will lose state money. Earlier this week, thanks to former President Obama's brave efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, a shipload of Cuban charcoal arrived in Fort Lauderdale. And this week a high-level Cuban trade delegation is meeting with port officials from Palm Beach County and Broward County. From Florida to Washington -- with the Trump White House now aligned with the long-established Batistiano dictation of America's Cuban policy in the U. S. Congress -- the Cuban hardliners in South Florida, although a distinct minority of Cuban-Americans -- easily control enough politicians to pull the Cuban strings now that their nemesis, Mr. Obama, is out of the White House.

       The majority of Cuban-Americans in South Florida, like outspoken Hugo Cancio, strongly supported President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. Hugo is shown above during a Reuters interview {The intimidated United States media normally interviews only fiercely anti-Cuban hardliners}. But Hugo, a Miami businessman who often visits his native Cuba, wonders aloud why Cuban-Americans like him are "under-represented or not represented at all" when it comes to politics in Florida and Washington.

        The Executive Director of the Port of Palm Beach, Manny Almira, is one of many Cuban-American executives in South Florida anxious to do business with Cuba after former President Obama bravely opened doors that had been tightly closed for over half-a-century. The Cuban-born Manny Almira, in fact, hoped to sign a lucrative deal with high-level Cuban trade visitor Ana Teresa Igarza this week. But Manny, of course, was not surprised that Governor Rick Scott threatened to severely punish him if he did so.

     This seminal photo reflects how the Castro Cottage Industry headquartered in South Florida got a permanent nexus in the U. S. Congress. The photo shows Jeb Bush forming a halo over the head of a giddy Ileana Ros-Lehtinen after Jeb, as her Campaign Manager, guided her successful Congressional bid in 1989. Born in Havana and long connected to the most vicious anti-Castro zealots in Miami, Ros-Lehtinen has remained a top-flight anti-Cuban Congresswoman ever since...with lots of unending Bush-connected company from the likes of Rubio, the Diaz-Balart brothers, Curbelo, etc. When Jeb ventured to Florida in the 1980s to further his political career and his bank account, he knew how to become Florida's two-term Governor but -- like his Cuban-exile aligned brother George W. and father George H. W. -- Jeb had his eyes trained on the White House, a plan that included his unique nexus with counter-revolutionary Cubans.

       With the mighty Bush machine and the omnipotent Castro Cottage Industry supporting him, Jeb Bush was the early favorite in a 17-person field to win the Republican presidential nomination. Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen and other Miami anti-Castro zealots, of course, strongly backed Jeb although his primary contender was Cuban-American Marco Rubio -- the U. S. Senator from Miami that the Havana-born Ros-Lehtinen had mentored. But first Bush and then Rubio got unceremoniously demolished by non-politician Donald Trump because American voters longed to get shed of bought-and-paid-for established Washington politicians. For the same reason...plus a few others...Trump shocked the world by winning the presidency after a heated battle with Democrat Hillary Clinton from the money-crazed Clinton establishment. With the Bush and Clinton dynasties blunted, at least temporarily, President Trump, the billionaire businessman and showman, seems to have tightly formed an alliance with the Bush dynasty regarding poor little Cuba.

       On television news programs in the United States, is seems that only counter-revolutionary Cuban-Americans -- or their supporters -- are afforded airtime. Cuban-Americans like Hugo Cancio have noticed.

       Cuba's brilliant young news anchor, Cristina Escobar -- when she was in Washington to cover the last Vidal-Jacobson diplomatic session -- stated firmly, "Broadcast journalists in Cuba have more freedom to tell the truth about the U. S. than broadcast journalists in the United States have to tell the truth about Cuba." 

        If you watch the above Tracey Eaton interview of Cristina Escobar on YouTube, you will hear her say such things as, "I don't want the U. S. to bring me democracy. That is a project for Cubans on the island." A bilingual student of United States-Cuban history, which was her thesis at the University of Havana, Cristina is aware that in 1952 the U. S. teamed with the Mafia to back the brutal Batista dictatorship. 

        On a trip to Miami, Trump apparently tried to convince the elderly survivors of Brigade 2506 that, as President, he would fulfill their long-standing dreams of regaining control of Cuba. Brigade 2506 was the lushly funded, CIA-trained and U.S.-backed Cuban-exile unit that attacked Revolutionary Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in April of 1961. The smashing defensive victory for Fidel Castro at the Bay of Pigs, an attack initiated by a fierce bombing assault, solidified Revolutionary Cuba's stubborn sovereignty to this day, although the remnants of Brigade 2506 and their supporters have remained counter-revolutionary powers in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood ever since. For example, the first six anti-Cuban zealots Trump named to his nascent presidential Transition Team would probably have been the first six chosen by Brigade 2506:

Mauricio Claver-Carone

Jose Cardenas

Robert Blau

John Barsa

Yleen Sarmiento de Poblete

Mercedes Viana Schlapp

           If you take time to Google the above names, you will find backgrounds with recurring themes about products of the counter-revolutionary Bush dynasty and/or aides to Ros-Lehtinen and the Diaz-Balarts.

       The Bush dynasty's most vicious anti-Castro Point Man was Havana-born Otto Reich. Between Republican administrations, people like Reich generally form very lucrative consultancy firms, such as Otto Reich Associates. But with a Republican in the White House, they magically and majestically resurface as public figures -- often as primary appointees or advisers. And President Trump has already been advised.

         This photo shows Cuban President Raul Castro making the major speech at a session of Caribbean and Latin American nations held in the Dominican Republic this week. The speech was carried live on state television in Cuba and throughout much of the region. It also made print headlines because President Castro used it to send his first clear and direct message to President Donald Trump: "Cuba as a sovereign nation needs friendly relations with the United States and we will continue to work toward that end. But Cuba will never sacrifice or negotiate away one iota of its independence, its sovereignty." Raul Castro turns 86 later this year. He is very tired. His only two brothers -- Ramon and Fidel -- died in 2016 in their 90s. And 2017, by his own declaration, will be his final year as the leader of Cuba. He anticipates a non-Castro successor, probably non-revolutionary 56-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel, a strong education and student advocate.

Already on the island of Cuba, young adults like Jennifer Bello Martinez have carved a niche to hopefully make sure that they, not Miami and Washington, predicate the future of their island. Jennifer is the leader of the high-profile Federation of University Students, a 94-year-old organization that has always been at the forefront of fighting for Cuban independence. Jennifer and the FEU worship Fidel Castro's legacy. She will tell you all about the martyred University of Havana students -- Jose Antonio Echeverria, Fructuoso Rodriguez, Joe Westbrook Rosales, Jose Machado Rodriguez, Juan Pedro Carbo Servia, etc. etc. -- who were gruesomely murdered by Batista assassins such as Colonel Esteban Ventura Nova because they were early supporters of the rebel lawyer named Fidel Castro. When such murders did not quell but instead fueled the pro-Fidel Castro FEU fervor, Batista closed the University of Havana...but still sent out death squads after the still-survivng student leaders. Jennifer, today's student leader, will also tell you that Fidel Castro "till he became too ill to leave his home, spent his favorite hours talking to FEU students." And today, as the leader of the FEU, Jennifer Bello Martinez says, "If U.S.-sanctioned Cubans in Miami and Washington want Cuba back, they will find us at both the forefront and at the rearguard of the Cuban resistance."

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Cuba-U.S. Trade

Another Historic Step Forward!

     This AP photo was taken yesterday -- Tuesday, Jan. 24-2017 -- at Florida's Port Everglades. The Crowley Maritime Ship K-Storm had just arrived from Cuba with two containers each loaded with 20 tons of charcoal made from the island's Marabu weed. It is the first legal shipment from Cuba to the United States in 55 years. The long-burning, sweet-smelling Cuban charcoal is considered among the world's best and it is made from a woody plant once considered a nuisance but now as charcoal it's a saleable product.

       Port Everglades is located on Florida's southeast coast just north of Miami. This last week of January-2017 it has become a vocal point to test how the new Donald Trump administration in Washington will deal with former President Barack Obama's historic efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. Yesterday's delivery of the Cuban charcoal to Port Everglades reflects one of Obama's last major attempts at re-establishing trade between Cuba and the U. S., which had -- prior to Obama -- been totally illegal because of the U. S. embargo against Cuba that has existed since 1962. Later this week, a top-level Cuban trade delegation will be at Port Everglades eager to sign more agreements with the nearby Florida port.

       The Director of Business Development for Broward County, Jim Pyburn, is typical of business leaders in South Florida begging the Trump administration not to end the commercial ties with Cuba that President Obama so bravely and historically forged. Jim Pyburn hailed yesterday's shipment of Cuban charcoal to Port Everglades. He said, "It's an opportunity for new jobs all down the road. It's something we can enjoy and build on, and hopefully help the Cuban people as well as South Florida workers." Jim Pyburn also looks forward to welcoming the Cuban delegation to Port Everglades this week. He said, "We are very excited for such a high-level trade group to come here. They will find us eager to discuss mutually beneficial commerce." 

      The Cuban delegation at Port Everglades is led by Ana Teresa Igarza. She is the General Director of Cuba's most important commercial enterprise, the refurbished Mariel Port Development Zone that comprises the island's most modern deep-water port and 11,367 acres of commercial land 28 miles southwest of Havana. Ana said, "If we can get past blockade restrictions that have existed for five decades, the Cuban people and the American people, especially in close-by Florida, will be so much better off." 

       Another fast-rising female star in Cuba, Tania Vazquez Garcia, is also a key member of the Cuban trade delegation now on U. S. soil and eagerly anticipating successful meetings with Port Everglades' officials. Tania is Cuba's Minister of Foreign Trade and Investments. She said, "The Obama officials I have worked with influenced me greatly by displaying sincere interest in helping everyday Cubans. I hope that sincerity continues beyond Mr. Obama to benefit Cubans, Floridians and other Americans. With trade and commerce, we can help each other but with Cold War animosity we can be hurtful to each other too." 

     South Florida has hundreds of Cuban-American business executives, such as Manny Almira, who agree wholeheartedly with Ana and Tania, the two key Cuban trade officials visiting Port Everglades this week. Manny, born 59-years-ago in Cuba, is the Executive Director at the Florida Port of Palm Beach and he savors commerce with Cuba. He says, "Trade and friendly relations between neighboring nations is far better than embargoes and hostilities. Most Cuban-Americans in South Florida want an end to the embargo. All business people I know want it to end. Workers in Cuba and in South Florida need commerce, not embargoes." 

       This photo shows four key officials in the two-term Obama administration that worked tirelessly to bring sanity and decency to America's Cuban policy, a right-wing Batistiano-directed policy that on Oct. 26-2016 attained a 191-to-0 denunciation in the United Nations. Right to left above are: President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, National Security Advisor Susan Rice and U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power. But this Democratic quartet of democracy-loving Americans left office on January 20th and their Republican replacements are...in a word...scary. And that is particularly true for Cuba.

      Newly installed United States President Donald Trump and his most important cabinet pick, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, have both vowed to reverse President Obama's monumental steps toward normalizing relations with Cuba. In other words, Trump and Tillerson apparently intend to put U.S.-Cuban relations back in the hands of a few hardline Cuban-Americans and their self-serving sycophants, much to the dismay of most Americans, most Cuban-Americans, all nations in the world, and particularly to the chagrin of almost all Cuban-American business leaders, such as Manny Almira. Not only has Trump replaced John Kerry with Rex Tillerson but he has replaced people like Susan Rice and Samantha Power with extreme anti-Cuban zealots like Mauricio Claver-Carone and Nikki Haley. But it is now Secretary of State Rex Tillerson who might loom as the biggest threat to sane and decent relations between the United States and Cuba.

         Rex Tillerson was the ultra-rich CEO-Chairman of the world's biggest oil company, ExxonMobil, and now he is one of the most controversial and most powerful figures in the new Trump administration.

       Americans are aware of Rex Tillerson's abiding friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but probably not as aware as they should be. This week the London-based The Guardian newspaper blared this headline: "LEAK REVEALS REX TILLERSON WAS DIRECTOR OF BAHAMAS-BASED U.S.-RUSSIAN OIL FIRM." The sub-headline was: "Documents from Tax-Haven Will Raise More Questions Over Suitability of Donald Trump's Pick for U. S. Secretary of State." So, going from Obama-to-Trump also means going from...Kerry to Tillerson, Rice to Claver-Carone, Power to Haley, etc. What all that means for Cuba, South Florida, America, Russia, and the world remains to be seen. But if the handshake above is as deeply embedded in the newly configured White House as it seems to be, and in the future of the already fragile relations between Cuba and the U. S., it might be time to at least start to batten down the hatches.

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Cuba Adjusts to Trump

With Surprising Overtures!
{UPDATED: Tuesday, January 24th, 2017}

        This AFP/Yamil Lage photo proves that Cuba has not yet given up on a coexistence with President Donald Trump's America although, in stark contrast to the former Obama presidency, the Republican Trump now also has a Republican-dominated Congress, a combination that many believe will doom Revolutionary Cuba once and for all. But Saturday, January 21-2017 -- the day after Trump's inauguration -- a delegation of port and maritime officials from Cuba arrived in the United States to stress the mutual benefits that would result from U.S.-Cuban trade. The visit was arranged by the outgoing Cuba-friendly Obama presidency but this visit has not been canceled by the incoming Donald Trump administration, at least not immediately. 

       Later this week and into the first week of February, the newly arrived Cuban delegation is scheduled to venture to Port Everglades, which is owned by Broward County, Florida. Port Everglades is a major seaport and is a gateway for cruise vacations and other international trade and travel, especially to the Caribbean where Cuba is the largest and most populated nation. Cuba, despite its renowned hostilities with America, is desperate for the U. S., even beyond the friendly Obama presidency, to end the U. S. economic embargo of Cuba, a stifling impediment that has existed since 1962. The Cuban delegation now on U. S. soil will try to convince the Trump presidency that the entire world, by a 191-to-0 vote in the United Nations, wants the embargo ended. And in the next two weeks, unless booted out of the U. S., the Cubans will remind the U. S. and Florida governments that the financial connections of Port Everglades in Florida with Cuba's Port of Mariel would provide extremely logical peaceful and economic opportunities for both countries.

       Cuba's Port of Mariel is located 28 miles southwest of Havana. As the above Voice of America map shows, the proximity of Mariel to Port Everglades, Miami, Key West and Tampa would make for an extremely easy trade relationship between Cuba and the U. S....if Florida and Washington politicians would allow it.

        The Port of Mariel is by far Cuba's best deep-water port, able to accommodate much larger ships and many more containers than the ports in Havana and Santiago de Cuba. Mariel received a billion-dollar refurbishing largely funded by Brazil before the recent coup-like impeachment of Brazil's two-term Cuba-loving President Dilma Rousseff. Cuba has largely based its financial survival on the Economic Development Zone associated with Mariel. Spain, Russia, China, Vietnam, France and other nations have or are in the process of negotiating deals with Mariel but that is in limbo pending how the nascent Trump presidency reacts to the major advances the Obama administration made in trying to normalize relations with Cuba. Thus, if allowed to proceed in these next two weeks, the Cuban delegation now on U. S. soil will make a pitch to connect Port Everglades and other Florida ports to Cuba's prized new port of Mariel.

       As the above photo indicates, back in the 1950s when the U. S. backed the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba, the ports in Florida did MORE BUSINESS WITH CUBA THAN ANY NATION IN THE WORLD. But in 1959 the Cuban Revolution overthrew Batista. In April of 1961 the U. S. and the Cuban exiles tried to regain control of Cuba with the famously failed Bay of Pigs attack. After that, beginning in 1961 and codified in 1962, the U. S. imposed the economic embargo on Cuba that exists to this day but, incredibly, has not brought Revolutionary Cuba to its knees AND NOW Cuba wants to renew its ties to the Florida ports.

        This very important Cuban-American is Manny Almira. He was born in Cuba 59 years ago. Manny is the Executive Director of the important Florida Port of Palm Beach and he covets a renewal of trade with Cuba, his native country. For the last few years...first with President Obama's administration and now Trump's, Manny has worked fervently and feverishly for his Port of Palm Beach to have trade connections with Cuba's nearby and refurbished Mariel Port. It would have happened if President Obama had remained in office a little longer. And now if the Republican Trump's administration blocks Manny's hopes and dreams, it will severely hurt the Port of Palm Beach's future plans. Manny only recently returned his Palm Beach port to profitability. While a few hardline anti-Cuban forces in Miami and Congress supposedly can dictate Trump's Cuban agendas, most of the Cuban-Americans in South Florida want to normalize relations with Cuba and that includes many powerful Cuban-American businessmen like Manny Almira in Palm Beach.

       The leader of the Cuban business delegation in the U. S. till February 3rd is Ana Teresa Igarza. She is the General Manager of the Mariel Economic Zone. Ana is one of the many women with powerful roles in fast-changing Revolutionary Cuba, and it appears that her star is getting brighter with each passing day.

       Last week, Tom Donahue, the President of the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, was back in Cuba. He told Cuban President Raul Castro that he is urging major U. S. companies such as General Electric and Procter and Gamble to sign "major deals with Cuba." Businessman-President Donald Trump may be impressed.

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The 2 Sides of Cuba

Both Sides Are Pertinent!

     To know a 31-year-old Cuban named Elaine Diaz Rodriguez is to know that there are two sides to Revolutionary Cuba {1959-2017}. Elaine is a journalist on the island, and a good one. She is Editor-in-Chief of the Havana-based independent news digital magazine Periodismo del Barrio. More so than U. S. journalists who report on Cuban issues, Elaine writes copiously about Cuban positives and negatives. Yes, she has been "detained" by Cuban authorities because of her fair-minded journalism. But she also has the integrity and guts to write about Cuba's revolutionary positives, separating her from much-better-funded, foreign-backed counter-revolutionary journalists and dissidents such as...Yoani Sanchez, Laura Pollan, El Sexto, etc. Therefore, to not know Elaine Diaz today is to not know both sides of Revolutionary Cuba.

      For the last couple of decades, Fernando Ravsberg has been the most respected journalist reporting from and about Revolutionary Cuba. Like his disciple Elaine Diaz, Fernando covers both sides of the enigmatic Caribbean nation. His blog -- "Cartas Desde Cuba" {"Letters From Cuba"} is the best Cuban blog, with many of his articles getting international coverage. He has also written for the BBC, NY Times, etc.

    So, when Fernando Ravsberg writes about Revolutionary Cuba, people read and heed -- or at least they should. For example, his Oct. 26-2016 article -- still online -- was entitled: "The Cuban Government's Communicative Strategies." He wrote: "In 1990, it was impossible to work without credentials. Today, there are Cubans working for the world's largest newspapers without having to ask anybody for permission. New blogs are created everyday that inform Cubans, from Cuba, about a country that doesn't appear in government media. We are told stories with the freshness of somebody who lives immersed in Cuban life and who doesn't have to ask for permission to write or authorization to publish their work." That Ravsberg-documented fact-of-life in today's Revolutionary Cuba is not-supposed-to-be-known in the United States, one key reason I maintain that the Cuban Revolution says a lot more about the United States than it says about Cuba. Two generations of counter-revolutionaries from the Batista-Mafia dictatorship have controlled the U. S. narrative about Cuba, assisted by an intimidated or largely incompetent U. S. media as well as vast and hugely funded counter-revolutionary propaganda machines such as the blog Capitol Hill Cubans, Washington Times, Breitbart News, Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, etc. If you depend on any such sources for your Cuban updates, you will soon be believing that Revolutionary Cuba spends most of its time torturing, imprisoning, and murdering its citizens...and if there happens to be a pre-arranged staged photo or video showing a Cuban soldier or policewoman restraining a dissident, ALL THE BETTER! Revolutionary Cuba is one of the world's safest nations but WHEN IT IS NOT SAFE Americans need to get such reports from the BBC, Reuters, or other top non-American news outlets. Or from Fernando Ravsberg or...Elaine Diaz.

     This photo shows Elaine Diaz...she's second from the left...and other Cuban journalists just before they were arrested-detained in Guantanamo City, which is just outside Guantanamo Bay. In the aforementioned Fernando Ravsberg article, he referenced that detainment but also told both sides of the story.

         Elaine Diaz and the other four detained journalists were earnestly covering the severe devastation, as depicted above, caused by mighty Hurricane Mathew in Guantanamo Province in October of 2016.

      Even U. S. journalists have pointed out that the U. S. and other nations should study Cuba's rescue efforts during natural calamities, such as the effects of Hurricane Mathew depicted above. It is generally accepted that Cuba's rescue operations are the best, even "amazing" according to one NY Times article related to Hurricane Mathew. Cuba only briefly "detained" Elaine Diaz and the other Cuban journalists and then explained it did so "only because rescue operators complained that journalists were interfering with their important work," which is shown above as the rescuers rescued old and young Cuban civilians.

      To be sure, as a fair-minded Cuban journalist Elaine Diaz complained about being detained in Guantanamo City but she also presented the other side of the story, which was the government's desire to have the rescuers do their work without interference. Agreeing with the fair-minded Fernando Ravsberg, Elaine Diaz -- with the above quotation -- confirms that Cuba has an "independent press" that can be "in opposition to the government." She is also well aware that in the United States there are newspapers, all three cable news operations and right-wing operations such as Capitol Hill Cubans, Breitbart News, etc. that wouldn't dare report on both sides of two-sided Cuban stories but only on a badly slanted negative side.

      An excellent speaker, Elaine Diaz as well as Cuban journalists such as counter-revolutionaries like Yoani Sanchez travel to the United States and other nations and then return to do their work in Cuba. So the well-educated Elaine Diaz is well acquainted with American journalism and American politics. This historic week, Elaine's primary article was entitled: "Dear Donald Trump: A Letter From Cuba." She concluded her long letter with these exact words:

                    "It is your duty, Donald Trump, as the President of the United States of America, to represent all of your citizens and not only a couple of politicians who keep speaking on behalf of the Cuban people without having ever set foot on the island.

                    "It is my president's duty to represent all Cuban citizens, even those who have left the country for economic or political reasons.

                 "Both leaders {Raul Castro and Barack Obama} have spoken loudly: We want relationships, we want embassies, we want the negotiations to keep going, we want to reach an agreement in every area and we are open to dialogue. We want people to be close, not far. We want to build bridges, not walls." 

             Those words in quotation marks above are the exact words that closed Elaine Diaz's long letter/advice this week to America's new President, Donald Trump. Elaine Diaz represents the emeging power of independent journalism on the island of Cuba and she understands the rhythms, hopes and dreams of her fellow citizens. When she disagrees with the government, she says so. And when she agrees with the government, she says so...not as a counter-revolutionary but as a journalist. In 1976 the top Cuban-American journalist in Miami, Emilio Milian, was car-bombed after he voiced opposition to such terrorist acts as the bombing of the civilian Cuban airplane Cubana Flight 455. American journalists today who are too afraid to address such things as the car-bombing of Emilio Milian and its aftermaths are, of course, unafraid and even anxious to assail Revolutionary Cuba for far less violations of human rights.

        So Americans who don't want to know who Elaine Diaz is and who want to only get their Cuban news from the likes of Breitbart News or Capitol Hill Cubans, fine. Meanwhile, with a ready passport and American options galore before her, Elaine Diaz is intent on remaining in Cuba as an independent journalist telling both sides of Cuban stories. At the same time, study the graphic above that depicts who Elaine Diaz is: The HUGE U.S.-Cuban handshake; a plea for Restoring Diplomatic Relations between the two neighboring nations; and a smiling photo of a hopeful Elaine Diaz. As a journalist and as a human being, she is a cut above the minority of Cuban-Americans and Americans who want to destroy Elaine Diaz and her Revolutionary Cuba even as their salacious motives and policies create a resounding 191-to-0 condemnation of America's Cuban policy in the United Nations. As Elaine Diaz suggested this week in her letter to U. S. President Donald Trump, he has a plethora of American problems to deal with before he mounts his anticipated regime-change schemes in Cuba. The last U.S.-backed Cuban government -- the 1952 to 1959 Batista-Mafia dictatorship -- may be forgotten in America but Elaine Diaz won't forget it.

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Cuba Thanks Trump

Hours Into His Presidency!

     Cuba's Ambassador to the United States, Jose Ramon Cabanas, has lavished praise on President Donald Trump for the respect he accorded Cuba on his January 20th inaugural day. Mr. Cabanas took to his Twitter page with comments such as: "Cuba invited for the first time in many years to an inaugural ceremony at Capital Hill." The well-respected Cabanas' ambassadorship in Washington relates to former president Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, such as reopening embassies in Washington and Havana for the first time since 1961. But, unlike other ambassadors, Mr. Cabanas believed he would not be accorded a front-row seat at Trump's inauguration. That belief was based on Trump's transition team including rich and powerful Bush-era anti-Cuban zealots such a Mauricio Claver-Carone, Otto Reich, etc. as well as cabinet appointments such as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who says he would return Cuba to the Sponsors of Terrorism list, and U. S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, who testified at her hearing that, among other things, she wanted Cuba removed from the UN's Human Rights Council. President Trump himself, of course, had vowed to "erase" Obama's long list of positive Executive Orders regarding Cuba.

       In his other Twitter-laced praise of President Trump, Cuban Ambassador Jose Ramon Cabanas included this photo and a video of his excellent seat at Trump's inaugural. A major article in USA Today on inauguration day -- January 20th -- was entitled: "THE TRUMP PARADOX: For All His celebrity, There's A Lot We Don't Know About Our New President." Trump most of all is President now but for his previous 70 years he was all-business, born and bred. His astonishing election related to Americans desperately trying to "drain the swamp" in Washington of establishment politics and his lavish promises to emphasize jobs for Americans. Well, Obama's friendly overtures to Cuba have already created thousands of jobs in major industries such as airlines, cruise ships, hotels and even construction...with the potential of creating many more Cuba-related jobs. If Claver-Carone, Reich, Haley and their ilk make the Cuban decisions in the Trump presidency, U.S.-Cuban relations will plunge to the depths of the Florida Straits, perhaps with bloody offshoots. But if the business-man Trump -- "The Paradox" -- makes the Cuban decisions, perhaps not.

    The head of the Center for Democracy in the Americas, Sarah Stephens, also seems to have been caught off-guard by President Trump's kind treatment of Cuba on his inaugural day. One of America's most forceful advocates for a sane, Obama-like Cuban policy, Sarah Stephens late on January 20th wrote: "Thinking back to the Obamas leaving aboard the Marine Corps helicopter, it was nice to see a core accomplishment of his Cuba policy alive and well after the transfer of power. Restoring diplomatic relations put Cuba's Ambassador back into the diplomatic corps, and foreign diplomats attend ceremonies like the Inauguration." Sarah Stephens was also happily surprised this week when Mr. Trump named his final cabinet appointment.

      This 70-year-old gentleman is Sonny Perdue, the wildly popular Governor of Georgia from 2003 till 2011. President Trump's final pick for his cabinet was to appoint Sonny Perdue Secretary of Agriculture. The appointment means that, for the first time in 30 years, there will be no Hispanics in a White House cabinet. Moreover, Sonny Perdue has always been one of America's strongest advocates for normal trade with the nearby island of Cuba. In 2010 as Governor of Georgia, Sonny Perdue led a huge delegation of farmers and businessmen to Cuba promoting trade with Cuba. And Sonny Perdue has influenced former President Obama's positive vibes related to Cuba and, apparently, he will be a force in Trump's cabinet to stand up to Bush-era anti-Cuban zealots such as Mauricio Claver-Carone, Otto Reich, John Bolton and Nikki Haley.

       This photo is courtesy of Jim Wyss and was used to highlight his major article in the Miami Herald related to Donald Trump's inauguration as America's President. The article is entitled: "A Cuban Doctor Ponders Life Stranded Between Policies and Politics." The 26-year-old Elisabet Casero shown above was a Cuban dentist working in Venezuela, one of tens of thousands of well-trained Cubans who perform medical work in the poorest areas of foreign countries such as Venezuela and Brazil. It is a primary source of income for Cuba. The George W. Bush presidency, in its never-ending goal of starving the Cuban government, mandated what is known as the "Cuba Medical Professional Parole Program." The program lavishly encouraged Cuban medical personnel to enter U. S. embassies and defect to the U. S., supposedly with rewards over-and-above the Cuban-only "Wet Foot-Dry Foot" immigration laws that also applied only to Cubans...at least until President Obama this month of January used an Executive Order to end both the Medical Paroles and Wet Foot-Dry Foot. Thus, like thousands of other Cubans headed to the U. S. border with Mexico, Ms. Casero is now "stranded" south of the border instead of being home-free with benefits the moment her foot would have touched U. S. soil. The aforementioned article in favor of Wet-Dry Foot, the Medical Paroles and all other Bush-era laws and policies is related to undermining Cuba. It reflects the reaction of America's rich and powerful Castro Cottage Industry in trying to ward off each and every one of Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. The startling financial and political rewards harking back to Bush-era Cuban policies will always evoke massive reactions whenever such easy largess is threatened by democracy-lovers like Obama or, perhaps, by business-lovers such as President Donald Trump.

Cuban doctors stranded in Bogota, Colombia.

     The vast majority of the U. S. media is either too intimidated or too politically correct to report fairly on Cuban issues, but there are exceptions such as the bold and brilliant Paul Guzzo and the Tampa Bay Times. Paul is an outstanding journalist, author, historian and film-maker. On President Trump's inaugural day -- January 20th -- his article in the Tampa Bay Times included such pertinent information as: "In its final days in the White House, the Obama administration made it easier for the Cuban government to drill for oil in Gulf waters just beyond the country's maritime border with the United States." The U. S. previously, of course, had such an agreement with Mexico but Obama included CUBA in a new 3-way agreement. The Eastern Basin of the Gulf, as it is known, is reportedly rich in oil and China's oil industry is already helping Cuba drill for oil to make up for a sharp cut-back in Venezuela's capacity to subsidize Cuba's oil needs. Cuba and the Obama administration also signed a key joint agreement regarding regional protections against oil spills and other environmental threats. The Trump administration, as Paul Guzzo hints, could one day make it possible for U. S. oil concerns to partner with Cuba, which actually would prefer nearby American agreements as opposed to far-away Chinese, Russian and Vietnamese agreements. Such agreements with the U. S. would also, Paul Guzzo hints, nudge Cuba ever-closer to capitalism and maybe even...uh, to DEMOCRACY! 

      Also on January 20th -- the day of Trump's presidential inauguration -- Josefina Vidal was featured in a major Trump-related article in the powerful London-based The Guardian. The article had this ominous title: "TOP DIPLOMATIC NEGOTIATOR IN CUBA WARNS TRUMP 'AGGRESSION DOESN'T WORK'". Vidal is Cuba's Minister in charge of U. S. relations and she brilliantly negotiated 17 key agreements with the Obama administration. The Guardian asked her if she had any suggestions for President Donald Trump. As you can see if you check the article, she replied: "Aggression, pressure, conditions, and impositions do not work with Cuba. This is not the way to attempt to have even a minimally civilized relationship with Cuba." The unambiguous Vidal is proud of her 17 important agreements with the Obama administration but, before she fully accepts a normalization of relations with the U. S., she has other lines in the sand -- notably an end to the embargo and at least serious discussions about the return of U.S.-occupied Guantanamo Bay to Cuba.

       Josefina Vidal got along famously with Obama's Secretary of State John Kerry, as this photo indicates. But Kerry even as a long-time Senator fought tirelessly for a sane U. S. policy towards Cuba. In stark contrast to Kerry, President Trump's Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, has vowed to put Cuba back on the U. S. Sponsors of Terrorism list. Being on that list conveniently enabled anti-Cuban zealots to successfully sue unrepresented Cuba in Miami courts, judgments that resulted in easy payoffs from "frozen" Cuban assets as well as U. S. taxpayers as dictated by Batistiano-directed laws such as Helms-Burton. When President Obama four years ago first contacted Cuba about normalizing relations, the very first line in the sand Vidal drew was: "Remove Cuba from the Sponsors of Terrorism list and I'll be glad to talk to you or your representatives about normal relations." Encouraged by John Kerry, Obama removed Cuba from the Terror list that had been a hallmark of the hardline anti-Cuban zealots. After that, right down to Obama's final days in office this week, Vidal kept her promise and worked diligently with President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry. Now Trump's Secretary of State, Tillerson, wants Cuba back on the Sponsors of Terror list. That means, unless Trump changes Tillerson's mind, that Tillerson wants to make war with Vidal. In a serious war, Tillerson would win but Trump and the U. S. would be the big losers, sinking America and Democracy even deeper than the current 191-to-0 denunciation in the United Nations of its Cuban policy.

 President Trump's VICIOUSLY anti-Cuban Secretary of State.

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