Main Enemies of Decent Cubans

Are Indecent Cuban-Americans!

       The photo above, courtesy of the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas, emphatically reflects the decades-old battle of decent, democracy-loving Americans contesting the indecent handful of self-serving Cuban-Americans and their easily-acquired roguish-thuggish political sycophants who assault totally innocent Cubans on the nearby island. The folks above are hard-working Cuban entrepreneurs trying desperately to make honest livings in Cuba to support their families. Former American President Barack Obama bravely gave them those chances as he defied the vicious handful of Cuban-Americans in Miami and in the U. S. Congress who constitute the biggest enemies confronting these very decent Cubans. And that's why, for the second time, Cuban entrepreneurs made their way to Washington TO BEG the administration of President Trump to "not turn-back the advances in our lives orchestrated in recent years by President Obama and the Cuban government."

      The CDA photo above should touch the heartstrings of every democracy-loving American. It was taken this week in Washington as Cuban entrepreneurs begged the United States democracy to allow them to continue to make decent livings on their island with their private entrepreneurial businesses. It was an amazing plea, especially in the hallowed halls of the world's greatest and strongest democracy. The lady on the right...the one clapping and smiling...is Cuban entrepreneur Yamina Vicente. The lady in the middle is Cuban entrepreneur Julia de la Rosa. Julia is warmly hugging U. S. Congresswoman Kathy Castor, the brave democracy-loving, Miami-born member of the U. S. Congress from Tampa Bay, Florida. For the sake of America and for the sake of totally innocent and hard-working Cubans, Kathy Castor has worked hard all her political life doing only decent things for democracy and Americans, but she has been opposed every step of the way by rogues. 

             At the microphone above is Yamina Vicente, the Cuban entrepreneur who started her thriving private business in Havana thanks to Obama but now she has to plead with Trump ...who is now the President of the World's superpower..."not to close those doors that my family and thousands of other Cuban families so badly need to stay open." The saddest thing about Yamina's plea is this basic, sheer fact: Not enough Americans care enough about Yamina and about democracy to give a damn.

       The quotation above is from Yamina Vicente and is courtesy of the Center for Democracy in the Americas. It was taken from the written and verbal pleas decent Cubans like Yamina made to the President of the United States this week in Washington. If you study the quotation above, and if you love decency and democracy, you perhaps will weep: A decent, hard-working woman in a tiny country BEGGING A SUPERPOWER to allow her to continue making a decent living for her family. Americans who do not have the courage to support Yamina, I believe, should at least know the great Americans who do and the indecent Americans who do not. 

     Former U. S. President Barack Obama is a decent, democracy loving man. He supports decent and hard-working Cubans like Yamina Vicente. In 2016 Obama became the first sitting U. S. President to visit Cuba since 1928. In an address carried live on Cuban state television, Yamina and most of the other 11 millions Cubans heard Obama say: "Cuba does not need to fear a threat from the United States." She also heard him say that the United States, at long last, would support private Cuban citizens who started their own businesses and employed other Cubans. Yamina, with happy tears flowing down her cheeks, rejoiced over the bold support President Obama was providing her and thousands of Cubans like her.

      But then the new U. S. President, Trump, went to Little Havana in Miami and stood before a huge Bay of Pigs Assault Banner and very cowardly vowed to the surviving Bay of Pigs veterans that he would essentially help them reverse their disastrous April-1961 military attack on Cuba. That Trump speech was also carried live from Little Havana USA on Cuban state television. It changed Yamina Vicente's Obama-produced happy tears to Trump-produced sad tears, revealing the undemocratic nuances of America's titillating and vacillating evil designs on sovereign, vulnerable Cuba. 

       And then on June 16, 2017, President Trump went to the lavish Artime Building in Little Havana in Miami that is named for an infamous Bay of Pigs veteran to announce before a counter-revolutionary choir his cowardly and indecent signing of a memorandum to reverse some of President Obama's sane and decent Cuban overtures. Again, that Trump speech was carried live from Miami on Cuba's state television. It made counter-revolutionary extremists like Mario Diaz-Balart very happy. That's Mario in the above photo on the far left looking over Trump's right shoulder. Mario's father Rafael was a key minister in the vile Batista-Mafia dictatorship who became one of the richest and most militant counter-revolutionaries in Miami after the victory of the Cuban Revolution in January, 1959. Mario is typical of a long-line of extremists Cuban-American counter-revolutionaries elected to the U. S. Congress since the 1980s. Americans, of course, are not supposed to wonder why Miami, the Little Havana city where most Cuban-Americans desire normal relations with Cuba, only sends counter-revolutionary extremists to Congress because, after all, the U. S. is still a democracy...ISN'T IT?...even with counter-revolutionary Cuban-American extremists dictating almost all of America's Cuban narratives and policies.

     A decent, democracy-loving American, Kathy Castor was born in Miami 50-years-ago. Since 2007 she has very bravely and decently represented the Tampa area of Florida in the U. S. Congress. In Florida, in Congress and in Cuba itself, Kathy Castor has done everything she can to bring decency and sanity to America's Cuban policy. Decent, hard-working Cubans on the island deeply appreciate democracy-loving Americans like Kathy Castor. A photo in Washington this week, the second one from the top in this update, shows Cuban entrepreneurs Yamina Vicente and Julia de la Rosa warmly and graciously thanking Kathy Castor. And so should Americans.   

      The United States of America, the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, has had only one sitting President since 1928 with the bravery and decency to not only visit Cuba but to do all he possibly could to bring sanity and decency to America's Cuban policy that rightfully garners that 191-to-0 condemnation in the United Nations. But the Trump-led Republicans who now rule the White House and both branches of Congress can be expected, as we've already heard from Trump himself, to put America's post-Obama Cuban policy back solely in the greedy hands of only the most vicious counter-revolutionary Cuban-Americans in Miami and in Congress. That is a slap in the face to both democracy and the Obama legacy. And yet, the current make-up of Americans -- arguably the most unpatriotic cowards in America's history -- can be expected to sit  back and let it happen. Meanwhile, America's and democracy's enemies around the world wildly cheer-on America's Cuban policy while America's best friends around the world feel embarrassed and ashamed. Yes, America!! In the heralded hallowed halls of the U. S. Congress there is a difference between Mario Diaz-Balart and Kathy Castor. And not to know that difference speaks volumes about how patriotic or unpatriotic Americans are during the Obama-to-Trump transition. 

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America's Hidden Cuban Truths

Assaulting Cuba AND Democracy!!

       The top Cuban-American journalist in Miami was Emilio Milian. He was also a decent and brave man. He voiced sharp criticism of Cuban-American extremists in Miami committing horrendous terrorist acts against totally innocent Cubans, all in the name of overthrowing Revolutionary Cuba. Emilio was then car-bombed in Miami.

      The top journalist-columnist at the Miami Herald was Jim DeFede. He was also a decent and brave man. He wrote a famous column poignantly expressing the opinion that "terrorism against innocent Cubans" was and is the same as terrorism against any other people or country.  In that column, still easily accessed online, Jim excoriated Miami Cuban-American members of the U. S. Congress -- namely Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and the Diaz-Balart brothers -- for their unconscionable support and protection of the most famed and most vicious Cuban-American terrorists freely residing in Miami's safe-haven. For his decency and bravery, Jim DeFede was fired.

        What happened to Emilio Milian and Jim DeFede sent the intended messages to the U. S. government and to the U. S. media: Democracy bedamned!! Cuban-American extremists -- not the majority of Cuban-Americans who are decent and brave citizens -- will dictate America's Cuban narrative in the media and America's Cuban policy in the Congress and in all Republican White Houses. Meanwhile, an unpatriotic generation of Americans, via silence and cowardice, has regretfully permitted a mere handful of Cuban-American extremists to dictate America's Cuban narrative and America's Cuban policies. With rare exceptions, unlike Emilio Milian and Jim DeFede, not enough members of Congress and not enough members of the U. S. media have the guts and integrity to challenge the Cuban-American extremists who have self-servingly defamed America and democracy in the eyes of the world.

BUT THERE ARE EXCEPTIONS.

For example:

     There is actually a Washington-based journalist who, amazingly, has the sheer guts and the basic integrity to write fairly about Cuban issues. Her name is Melanie Zanona. In the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, Melanie therefore stands out as a beacon of hope for both the U. S. media and the American democracy.

  In recent articles for one of Washington's most influential political publications -- "The Hill" -- Melanie Zanona has written fair articles related to Cuba. And she actually goes to Cuba and talks to everyday Cubans about their lives, their dreams, and their hopes and expectations for the future. This week, heading into the second half of July-2017, Melanie Zanona's insightful article was/is entitled: "In Cuba, Trump's Policy Shift Casts Dark Shadow." Writing from Havana, she began with these exact words:
                      "All around Havana, local Cuban entrepreneurs refer to the day President Trump unveiled his new policy toward the country simply as 'June 16.' 
                      "It's easy to see why the date would be seared into their memories: Private businesses ranging from car companies to bed-and-breakfasts have already seen an alarming number of cancellations from American travelers since the White House announced it would be lifting Obama-orchestrated travel and commercial ties between the two countries. They fear the White House will have a devastating impact on their lives -- even though Trump's effort was billed as a way to help the Cuban people working in the growing private sector. Instead, Cuban entrepreneurs worry they will be hit hardest by the crackdown."

     For a high-profile Washington journalist to go to Cuba, do her diligent research, and then write such a truthful Cuban article proves this salient point: Melanie Zanona has more guts and more integrity than the multitude of biased, politically correct or scared U. S. journalists who wouldn't dare point out Cuban truths. Remember Mr. Milian and Mr. DeFede? Most U. S. journalists shamefully write about or report on Cuba precisely and only just as the most vicious counter-revolutionaries in Miami and in Congress insist that they do. For example, the Melanie Zanona article depicted above exposes perhaps the most important lie about Cuba, one that has grossly harmed two generations of totally innocent people on both sides of the Florida Straits. That lie -- which emanated in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood in 1959 and then, with the supreme help of the self-serving Bush dynasty -- invaded Congress and Republican administrations like a deadly cancer invades the human body. It has embedded and cemented this premise into the otherwise sacred preambles of the U. S. democracy: Anything we do against Cuba -- the unending embargo, not letting everyday Americans visit Cuba, military and terrorist attacks, cannon-fire against coastal fishing cabins, assassinations, etc. -- is to prevent the Cuban government from getting access to money BECAUSE EVERY PENNY GOES TO THE CASTROS. With the counter-revolutionaries in charge of the Cuban narrative and the Cuban laws in the U. S., there have not been enough American citizens with the guts, intelligence or patriotism to question such self-serving lies. Even in the rare instances when someone like Emilio Milian, Jim DeFede or Melanie Zanona tell truths about Cuba and the counter-revolutionaries, the post-World War Two generations of Americans tend to keep their heads buried deep in the sand. Meanwhile, billionaires sprout up in Miami like mushrooms while U. S. college students are burdened with $1.3 TRILLION dollars of student-debts and while many millions of Americans are fearful about having health care because BIG BANKS and BIG PHARMA lobbyists can easily buy-and-sell the politicians who do ONLY their bidding. And meanwhile, in Cuba in stark contrast to the Batista-Mafia pre-revolutionary brutality and thievery, every Cuban has free educations through college and every Cuban has totally free health care from birth till death. And this, please note, is despite the persistence of the lies that Melanie Zanona's brave report from Cuba this week exposed concerning who America's Batistiano policy really hurts -- IT HURTS EVERYDAY CUBANS!

        The still-ubiquitous memorial depicted above attests to some of the lies that Melanie Zanona exposed this week. When the civilian Cubana Flight 455 was blown into the ocean killing all 73 innocents on board, the battle-cry in the Miami media was, "It's the biggest blow yet against Castro." Of course, it was and remains a BIG BLOW against America and against democracy, just as Emilio Milian, Jim DeFede and other brave people have pointed out...and it has also been pointed out that, to this very day, the CIA-connected self-avowed counter-revolutionary terrorist most associated with SUCH BOMBINGS as Cubana Flight 455 is still an honored Miami citizen.

         In addition to Cuba, there are in 2017 many nations around the world who know all about the "Cubana Flight 455 Air Disaster." As indicated by the graphic above, countries like Guyana on each October 6th anniversary of the downing of Cubana Flight 455 hold ceremonies honoring the victims, two dozen of whom were teenage athletes, while those nations' "leaders call for justice." Even in this digital age with ultra-powerful Search Engines like Google, few Americans know about Cubana Flight 455 and few Americans care that the current vote in the United Nations condemning America's Cuban policy is 191-to-0. In a very diverse world, America's Cuban policy might be THE ONLY TOPIC that could garner such unanimity on an international scale, and yet a handful of counter-revolutionaries in Miami and in Congress can saddle the United States of America's extremely precious democracy with such a cancerous blight...decade after decade.

Meanwhile:  

       This photo shows Cuba's superstar news anchor Christina Escobar and star reporter Sadiel Leon on the set of their spanking new and already very popular Canal Habana television enterprise. On Cuban soil and U. S. soil -- including at the White House and in talks at U. S. universities -- Cristina has, with stern conviction, poignantly made this statement: "Cuban journalists have more freedom to tell the truth about the U. S. than U. S. journalists have to tell the truth about Cuba." Cristina is not only a brilliant broadcast journalist, in Spanish or English, she is also considered one of the region's top experts on Cuban-U.S. relations. Her thesis at the University of Havana eerily predicted the effects U. S. President Obama would have on Cuba as well as the reactions to those effects in both countries. Her admirers include NBC's top foreign correspondent Andrea Mitchell...and other Americans.

        And speaking of the U. S. media, study the above image. It shows the Voice of America reminding us that President Trump reached the six-month plateau of his administration this week -- on July 20th, 2017. He's depicted looking over his shoulder, as he should, at the U. S. media and at un-loyal forces within his Republican Party and even within his White House -- forces that have the desire and the firepower to maybe overthrow him later in his first term. Except for Fox News -- led by Sean Hannity -- and a strong array of conservative radio anchors -- led by Russ Limbaugh -- the mainstream U. S. media is engaged in an electronic and conspiratorial coup to end the Trump presidency PRONTO, although it might take a couple of years and then might evoke a Civil War-like resistance from his hardcore supporters, which comprise about 36% of Americans, easily enough in these divisive times to spawn something akin to a second American Revolution. The undisguised and ongoing media conspiracy against Trump consists of entire elements and efforts at NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, and the Washington Post unapologetically trying to destroy Trump -- with no attempts to hide their biased disdain even as they still pretend to be legitimate journalists instead of coup-mongering propagandists. It is easy for even non-political or disinterested viewers and readers to see that Mr. Trump is in dire trouble. That leaves many millions of Americans, like me, who don't support Trump but are deeply concerned about the mainstream media's total lack of respect for the Office of President and for the Electoral Process that put him in the White House, much to their chagrin. But waiting for the next election, not a coup, is the democratic way to oppose Trump. 

But guess what?

           The AP photo above  defines President Trump's problems and his impending termination even better than the aforementioned VOA photo does. This one was taken on April 16th at the Manuel Artime building in Miami's counter-revolutionary Little Havana neighborhood. Mr. Artime was a major architect and "hero" of the April-1961 Bay of Pigs attack on Revolutionary Cuba. It was where Trump very cowardly bellowed his plans to the choir, the counter-revolutionaries, to reverse former President Obama's peaceful overtures to Cuba. The man shown above congratulating Trump and patting his back is the U. S. Senator from Miami Marco Rubio, the most ambitious and the most dangerous of the counter-revolutionaries. Rubio, supported by the mainstream U. S. media and billions of right-wing dollars, still failed in his 2016 presidential bid when he viciously mocked Trump. Now pretending to support Trump and patting him on the back, Rubio in the coming months might stab Trump in the back to try to take control of the Republican Party prior to the 2020 presidential race. And perhaps someone should remind Trump that many of his top appointments -- including Vice President Pence and UN Ambassador Haley -- strongly supported Rubio and strongly mocked Trump during the 2016 presidentical campaign. Rubio's two very dangerous and self-aggrandizing goals seemingly are to become the President of the United States and the Dictator of Cuba. And -- considering America's money-crazed, lobby-administered, propagandized, volatile, and pundit-driven political atmosphere -- he might eventually attain those goals although the latter one, regarding Cuba, might be the hardest...minus a nuke attack.

And by the way:

      Tourists are beginning to discover that Playa Jibacoa is one of the most beautiful, most accessible and now one of the most increasingly popular beaches in Cuba.

  As shown by the red circle, Playa Jibacoa is just east of Havana.

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Underestimating Cuba

Ignores Island's Resiliency!!
{Updated: Thursday, July 20th, 2017}

       A highly respected History Professor at the University of California has just returned from a visit to Cuba. Those two reasons -- a history expert and a person who judges Cuba after actually visiting the island -- gives him insight Americans are not supposed to have. That's because, since 1962, America's Batistiano-directed Cuban laws have made everyday Americans the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba, lest they might judge it for themselves apart from the daily anti-Cuban propaganda they have been exposed to since the overthrown Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba was chased to U. S. soil on Jan. 1-1959. That Professor just back from Cuba is Mark Levine. That's him delivering a lecture. This week he wrote a long article available via major online venues. It's entitled: "WHY CUBA'S FUTURE COULD BE MORE PROMISING THAN THE U. S." As you digest that title, you should study the entire article to understand that Mark Levine didn't mean that the island of Cuba will soon exceed the wealth and power of the nearby world economic and military superpower. But he supports that title with logic that tells him -- an American historian just back from Cuba -- that the immense but always shackled potential of Cuba COULD POSSIBLY, if left to its own devices, soon be emphatically released.

         The photo above is courtesy of Ramon Espinoso/AP and it was used to illustrate the aforementioned article by Mark Levine. It shows medical graduates proudly displaying their diplomas, illustrating what Mr. Levine noticed first-hand: Cuba is flush with a well-educated young-adult generation ready and anxious to blossom. Using the above photo as a focal point, here are some of the points Mr. Levine stressed:
                         "If Trump does not spoil Cuba's transition, it could develop into a model welfare democracy. Cubans rightfully boast of their country's impressive level of human development and low levels of inequality and crime compared with so many other countries in the region.
                            "Cuba's 11 million population and relatively good natural resource base, along with its highly educated citizens and significant room for growth in almost every economic sector, have the potential to generate a transformation towards a form of social welfare democracy.
                       "Foreign investment in Cuba's innovative pharmaceutical, tourism and other industries continue to grow. Meanwhile, the U. S. under Trump is likely headed down a dark hole of plutocracy and racial, ethnic and class conflict on an unprecedented scale."
             With personal observations and quotes, Mark Levine was not predicting a particular cataclysm or an overall apocalyptic future for the U. S. but pointing out that the U. S., which has supported hard-line Cuban exiles for six decades in trying to destroy revolutionary Cuba, will have to concentrate on more urgent items such as a myriad of foreign problems as well as frightening domestic issues such as inequality, crime, and an increasingly alarming polarization of its weakening two-party system as well as ethnic disparities that highlight the dangerous and widening chasm separating the extremely rich from the extremely poor. With the U. S. under the divisive Trump having its own urgent foreign and domestic problems, Cuba is finally more able to deal with ALL THE OTHER NATIONS WHO ARE WILLING TO HELP CUBA ADVANCE as opposed to being punished by the U. S. in the past for even dealing commercially with Cuba.

           For example, study this Getty Images photo of a rejuvenated section of Old Havana. Right behind the newly excited AND EMPLOYED Cuban bedecked in a U. S. flag is a spanking new 5-Star hotel -- The Hotel Kempinski. It's a luxury Swiss hotel that's helping to hopefully revitalize Cuba and its famed capital city.

        President Obama's impact on Cuba, which includes his historic visit to the island in March of 2016, carved a niche in positive U.S.-Cuban relations that even President Trump, the Republican-dominated Congress, and normally unchecked counter-revolutionary Cubans will not be able to fully overturn. While Miami -- un-democratically it seems -- continues to send only counter-revolutionary zealots to Washington, MOST CUBAN-AMERICANS EVEN IN MIAMI STRONGLY FAVOR NORMAL RELATIONS WITH CUBA. So do most Americans. AND SO DOES THE ENTIRE WORLD, as evidenced by the current 191-to-0 vote in the United Nations that condemns America's Cuban policy EVEN AFTER MR. OBAMA SOFTENED THE VILEST ASPECTS.

         On April 16th of this year in Miami's Little Havana in the Artime Building named after a "hero" of the April-1961 failed Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba, the photo above shows President Trump holding up his newly signed memorandum that he claimed "wiped out" Obama's positive overtures to Cuba. Inside that building were only fierce counter-revolutionary Cubans and politicians, all of whom wildly cheered both Trump's speech and his memorandum. But outside on the streets Cuban-Americans demonstrated against Trump and his counter-revolutionaries, which included Miami members of the U. S. Congress. As with other Batistiano-related problems with the American democracy, when...if...the majority of Cuban-Americans in Miami are able to send a moderate to Congress, it might well indicate that the U. S. is finally trying to come to grips with a cruel Cuban policy that rightfully has that 191-to-0 denunciation in the UN.

            Cuba - - like all nations including those not targeted and embargoed for over half-a-century by the world's superpower - - has its share of problems. But as Professor Mark Levine observed on his recent visit to the island, Cuba is not the collapsing basket-case that Americans are repeatedly told about by a handful of vicious, self-serving counter-revolutionaries who believe they have the sole right to dictate America's Cuban narrative and America's Cuban policy. The photo above shows two of the typically "highly educated" young Cubans that Professor Levine knows about because he managed to visit Cuba and judge it for himself as opposed to the Batistiano-dictated U. S. law that for decades has made everyday Americans the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba, and that un-democratic insanity exists to this day despite the Herculean efforts of President Obama to lessen its effects. For example, the two highly educated and very talented Cuban broadcast journalists depicted above are Rosy Amaro Perez and Daily Sanchez Lemus. They monitor coverage of Cuba in the U. S. media and they often point out, publicly and privately, how unfair that coverage is. Obama's entire speech when he was in Cuba and Trump's entire speech in Little Havana were both carried live on Cuban television. After watching Trump's speech, Rosy wrote on her influential Facebook page, "I've lived all my life in Cuba and the Cuba that Trump spoke of is not the Cuba that I know." Nor is it the Cuba that other Cuba-loving Cubans have known all their lives.

      Cuba's young superstar broadcast journalist Cristina Escobar tagged Rosy Amaro Perez's Facebook comment about Trump's Miami speech with this terse sentence: "Can I quote you?" Her way of totally agreeing with Rosy. And speaking, as Professor Mark Levine did, about talented, well-educated young-adult Cubans, Cristina Escobar is quite possibly the most talented broadcast journalist in the Americas. Fluent in English, she has made her mark both in Cuba and in Washington covering Cuban news -- including a ubiquitous domination of a White House news conference -- and while on U. S. soil she has made journalism speeches and held Q & A sessions at Universities in both California and Alabama.

       Because of her well-earned reputation, Cristina Escobar is often interviewed from Havana in international hook-ups related to Cuban and U.S.-Cuban issues. On venues such as YouTube and the Pulitzer Center website, an Escobar interview conducted in Cuba by respected American journalist Tracey Eaton perhaps best revealed her fierce love of Cuba and her admirable dedication to the field of broadcast journalism. If you check those sources you can see and hear Escobar statements such as: "Journalists in Cuba have more freedom to tell the truth about the U. S. than U. S. journalists have to tell the truth about Cuba;" and "Cuba's fate is up to Cubans on the island, not Cubans in Miami and Washington."

         The awesomely talented and respected Cristina Escobar, Cuba's wildly popular television anchor, is shown above delivering an "INTERNATIONAL COMMENTARY" critiquing President Trump's April 16th anti-Cuban speech in Miami's Little Havana Bay of Pigs building. It is the critique Cubans on the island strongly agreed with and, truth be known, probably the majority of Cuban-Americans in Miami also agreed with.

       Since 1959, most of America's news and views about Cuba have emanated from Little Havana in Miami or from counter-revolutionary Cuban-Americans in Congress, the only types capable of being elected although the majority of Cuban-Americans even in Miami agree with President Obama regarding Cuba.

Professor Mark Levine observed Cristina Escobar's Cuba.

"Cuba's fate is up to Cubans on the island..."
And by the way:

         The cheerful photo above shows Yodeni Maso Aquila this week giving a Thumbs Up for fellow journalist Rosy Amaro Perez. Cuban camaraderie on the island is both authentic and legendary.

          Three cheerful young Cuban broadcast journalists on their set yesterday: Rosy Amaro Perez, Yodeni Maso Aquila, and Yanet Perez Moya. They are concerned but unperturbed about Miami's antagonism.

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Cuba's Propaganda Enemies

Unchecked and Unsavory!!
{Updated: Tuesday, July 18th, 2017}  

      For being just a small island, relatively speaking, it is astounding how much vile anti-Cuban propaganda flows throughout the world's superpower, the U. S., on a daily basis...almost as if Cuba, as in the 1898 Spanish-American War and in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, is still the most important aspect of America's Foreign Policy. That relates, of course, to the unique fact that the vile and overthrown U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba regrouped permanently starting in 1959 on U. S. soil. Yes, finally taking control of Cuba from Spain in 1898 was vitally significant to imperialist and greedy right-wing Americans and so was teaming with the Mafia to support the murderous and thieving Batista dictatorship on the plush island beginning in 1952. But after the Cuban Revolution in 1959 booted Cuba's Batistianos and Mafiosi to Miami, a half-century of efforts, backed by the U. S. government and the U. S. taxpayers, have failed to recapture the island. The 1961 Bay of Pigs military attack didn't get the job done and neither has such sadistic tactics as the economic embargo that, since 1962, has been the longest and cruelest embargo ever imposed by a powerful nation against a weak nation. But, hey!! Propaganda might wipe-out little Cuba any day now!!

        The daily barrage of cruel and sadistic anti-Cuban propaganda is highlighted this mid-July week by Mary O'Grady. She is a powerful editor and columnist for the ultra-powerful Wall Street Journal and, unfortunately as indicated above, she considers herself an expert on Latin America. But primarily she is a vicious anti-Cuban propagandist and attack-dog. Each Monday O'Grady writes a column called "The Americas" and the Americas include little Cuba. This typically anti-Cuban O'Grady propaganda is entitled: "How Cuba Runs Venezuela." Her first three sentences are: "The civilized world wants to end the carnage in Venezuela, but Cuba is the author of the barbarism. Restoring Venezuelan peace will require taking a hard line with Havana. Step one is a full-throated international denunciation of the Castro regime." I assume that by "hard line" O'Grady means nuking Cuba because she apparently doesn't believe that assassination attempts, the Bay of Pigs military attack, massive and unending terrorist attacks such as the bombing of the civilian Cubana Flight 455, the 1962-till-today embargo, etc., etc., have been "hard line" assaults on Cuba. Yet, such daily vitriol and propaganda masquerading as "news" is far more harmful to the prestige of the United States than it is to Cuba. O'Grady, for example, assumes her readers are either anti-Cuban zealots or just plain stupid. She has the gall, as noted above in the second sentence of her new propaganda sheet, to call for "a full-throated international denunciation" of Cuba. Of course, even while O'Grady and her ilk have been unable to persuade the United States to nuke Cuba, she doesn't have the integrity to mention that the INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY  has already spoken IN UNANIMITY regarding the Batistiano-directed American Cuban policy -- and the UN CONDEMNED IT by a vote of 191-to-0. 

       The anti-Cuban propagandist at the Wall Street Journal, Mary O'Grady, epitomizes why U. S. journalism has plummeted to depths never imagined before in democratic societies. One primary reason is that once-great institutions such as the Wall Street Journal are being purchased by multi-billionaires apparently for propaganda purposes. Amazon multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post that now seems engaged in a massive propaganda-fueled effort to overturn the U. S. presidential election; Nevada-and-China's controversial multi-billionaire  casino mogul Sheldon Edelson bought Nevada's largest newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, apparently because it was too critical of Edelson. And Rupert Murdoch -- born 86-years-old in Melbourne, Australia -- purchased the WSJ for $5 billion in 2007. Prior to that it was probably the most respected newspaper in the United States. Murdoch -- the Aussie-British-USA media mogul -- also owns Fox, Fox News, 21st Century Fox, Harper Collins Publishers, etc., etc. The WSJ was founded in 1889 and became America's first national newspaper. It was the Bancroft family's and America's pride and joy. But if you Google either "Rupert Murdoch" or the "Wall Street Journal," you will note that one of the first articles will reveal how the remaining members of the Bancroft family "regret" selling their prize to Murdoch. If you read the new propaganda piece about Cuba by Mary O'Grady, you may understand why.

MEANWHILE, while rich and powerful counter-revolutionary zealots in the rich and powerful United States -- Like Mary O'Grady -- spend countless hours assaulting Cuba at every turn, on the island itself there are extremely decent, honorable, family-oriented, well-educated, hard-working young Cuban women such as the skilled broadcast journalists shown above this week reporting on an event for their popular television broadcast. On the left is Rosy Amaro Perez and her colleague and friend is Daily Sanchez Lemus. There are decent people in this world who believe that Rosy and Daily shouldn't be punished ALL THEIR LIVES by a handful of self-serving, unchecked miscreants in a nearby superpower. And that reflects most of all not on revengeful benefactors in America like Mary O'Grady but on the majority of America's cowardly, unpatriotic and silent citizens who permit such abominations to occur decade after decade IN OUR NAMES.

      So, if you want an anti-Cuba/anti-Venezuela propaganda piece this week, read Mary O'Grady's Wall Street Journal propaganda. But if you want fair and unbiased news today about the tragic political, social and economic turmoil in Venezuela, turn to John Paul Rathbone of the London-based and highly regarded Economic Times. His latest article is entitled: "Cuba Courted in Diplomatic Push on Venezuela Crisis."

            John Paul Rathbone in the Financial News July 17th used the photo above to illustrate his fair article. It shows Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Venezuelan President Nicolas Madura. Santos has flown to Havana to solicit Cuba's help to try to ease or end the turmoil in Venezuela that has killed 90 protesters in the past three months and is causing Venezuelans to flock across the border into Colombia seeking food and medicine not available in Venezuelan. Cuba is Venezuela's closest ally but Latin American nations often turn to Cuba during periods of crisis. In Venezuela's case, Madura blames much of his country's problems on anti-Cuban elements in Miami, Congress and the Donald Trump White House.

        Both Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos and Cuban President Raul Castro recently received considerable international praise for brokering a peace treaty between Colombia and FARC rebels who had waged an extremely bloody half-century Civil War in which hundreds of thousands of people died.

         Prior to the incredible ceasefire in Havana that Cuba spent many months hosting, U. S. taxpayers contributed billions of dollars to the Colombia-FARC war -- especially during Bush administrations that were tightly aligned with conservative Colombian Presidents. But Santos is a peace-loving President. That's  why he worked so hard for a FARC ceasefire and that's why he's back in Cuba trying to get Havana's help in dealing with the ghastly Venezuelan crisis. Cuba bringing the President of Colombian and the guerrilla leader of the FARC rebels together to hammer out a ceasefire was both a Herculean and monumental achievement although anti-Cuban propagandists would never admit it. While much larger countries supported either the Colombia government solders or the FARC rebels, prolonging the half-century war, little Cuba almost single-handedly and evenhandedly negotiated the peace treaty.

         The FARC rebel leader Timochenko Jimenez, shown above in an AP photo, suffered a stroke on July 2nd, 2017 and was in intensive care in Colombia, which has excellent hospitals. But he chose to return to Cuba for treatment and recovery. His real name is Rodrigo Londono. The very week he suffered the stroke, the UN announced that its observers have certified that his rebels have "completely disarmed" in accordance with the peace agreement hammered out in Havana. The UN has confirmed that over 220,000 people died in the conflict. Now Colombia's President Santos is back in Cuba hoping to end the bloody Venezuelan crisis that anti-Cuban propagandist Mary O'Grady says in the Wall Street Journal today: "Cuba is the author of the barbarism." Of course, such propagandists accuse Cuba of all sorts of barbarism while implying its Batistiano and Mafiosi enemies are and always have been sweetheart Mother Teresa-types.

       This photo shows the President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos, on the right, arriving in Havana this week on two important missions: One is to discuss the unrest and turmoil roiling Venezuela but it was an already scheduled trip by Santos to promote renewed economic relations between Colombia and Cuba.

And by the way:

        While Mary O'Grady, the anti-Cuban propagandist at the Wall Street Journal, is a self-proclaimed Latin American expert, John Paul Rathbone at the Economic Times is a true Latin American expert. His book depicted above -- "THE SUGAR KING of HAVANA: The Rise and Fall of Julio Lobo -- Cuba's Last Tycoon" -- still stands tall as a fascinating and richly detailed portrait of Cuba, to paraphrase the New York Times.

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As Long As Cuba Smiles

It Will Survive, Maybe Thrive!

       I try day-by-day to judge the rhythms of Cuba -- the gorgeous and pugnacious Caribbean island that has survived so many obstacles, namely a virtual unending menagerie of natural and man-made hurricanes. My most visceral and revealing test, I confess, is to monitor a brilliant and vivacious young Cuban woman named Rosy Amaro Perez. She has, for example, the most beguiling and awesomely beautiful smiles. And, I sincerely believe, as long as Rosy keeps smiling, Cuba will be OK.

     This photo this week shows Rosy Amaro Perez at work. She is a superbly talented and dedicated broadcast journalist -- highly trained and well-educated. The family-oriented Rosy is also fiercely dedicated to her husband, her beautiful look-alike daughter, and to her beloved island. As a high-profile journalist, and as a gregarious and social-minded young woman, Rosy is quite influential on the island -- especially with the all-important young-adult generation but also with older Cubans who deeply admire and respect her talent, her zest for life, and especially her love for Cuba.

        And so, this is the smile that tells me...day-by-day...about the rhythms and pulsations that define Cuba. As long as it exists...meaning that smile...I believe that Cuba can survive both its age-old problems and its topical ones as it navigates forward. Yes, it is vitally important that Rosy Amaro Perez keeps smiling. Left to its own devices and guided by its talented, well-educated and Cuba-loving young-adult generation, Cuba can be on the cusp of not only surviving but thriving. It has always had that potential and if Rosy keeps smiling I think it will be realized.

Rosy Amaro Perez and...that smile.

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