OR: Is It Business As Usual?
{Updated for: Monday, October 16th, 2017}
If you study the above graphic, you MIGHT have the answer to the MYSTERIOUS sonic-wave attacks in Cuba that have injured a couple dozen Americans and a few Canadians. It documents "The Tourism Boom in Cuba" that followed President Obama's brave and Herculean efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, with Obama being the only U. S. President with both the courage and patriotism to undertake that dangerous task. All less heroic efforts in the past, since the Cuban Revolution overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship in 1959, have been met with violent actions by counter-revolutionary elements who essentially and quickly reestablished their rule on U. S. soil after fleeing the Cuban Revolution. For example, the most violent CIA/Cuban counter-revolutionary, still living freely in Miami, openly bragged that his role in the bombings of Cuban hotels was to discourage tourism to Cuba. In 1996 when it was apparent that President Clinton intended to normalize relations with Cuba, another famed counter-revolutionary in Miami began teasingly and threateningly flying airplanes over Cuban waters and Cuban land, well knowing that Cuban pleas to the US and UN would go unheeded. When Cuba ended up shooting down two of the planes, President Clinton not only dropped his plans to normalize relations with Cuba but was forced to reluctantly sign the Batistiano-friendly Helms-Burton Act into what now seems to be a everlasting "legal" means to totally counter the Cuban Revolution. So a newspaper in Miami posting the graphic above about "The Tourism Boom in Cuba" is surely going to spur counter-actions in Miami and in the U. S. Congress, judging by the numerous acts of past history.
The "MYSTERY ATTACKS ON THE DIPLOMATS IN CUBA" have already caused President Donald Trump to sharply curtail the embassies in Washington and Havana that a much braver and more decent President Obama had reopened for the first time since 1961. And, for sure, President Trump will continue using such things as the "Mystery Attacks" or whatever else it takes to cruelly dismantle all of President Obama's overtures even though they have helped millions of Cubans and millions of Americans while also easing the unanimous -- 191-to-0 -- vote in the United Nations condemning and ridiculing America's very vicious Batistiano-driven Cuban policies.
Using the mystery attacks as an excuse, President Trump will continue to make "CUBA CHANGES" to revert back to the pre-Obama Cold War era when America's Cuban policies -- the Bay of Pigs attack, hundreds of assassination attempts, hotel bombings, airplane bombings of sugarcane and tobacco fields and seaside fishing cabins, the embargo, etc. -- were designed solely to enrich and empower a few selected counter-revolutionary Cubans while also sating their revenge for losing the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and the Bay of Pigs attack in 1961. And it is well known that during the Trump presidency, if the MYSTERY ATTACKS don't pan out to be enough of an excuse, something else will be concocted because the U. S. taxpayers who pay for such things are too afraid or too proselytized to complain and if the U. S. government for over half-a-century, except for Obama, has condoned such atrocities in its name, there is surely no incentive to cease with hotel bombings, sonic attacks or whatever will hurt Cuba and help the Batistianos.
So, last week when Trump "warned Americans not to visit Cuba," it was as predictable as a sunrise. Yes, the bombings of five major Cuban hotels in the 1990s severely hurt tourism to Cuba. And it doesn't take a genius to understand that Cuba depends mightily on tourism and the last thing it would want is to discourage visitors to an island that American experts like Collin Laverty call just about "the safest place to visit" on the planet. But for those reasons, unchecked counter-revolutionaries in Miami and the U. S. Congress clearly understand that scaring off tourism to Cuba will help make up for all the other failed and nefarious counter-revolutionary schemes.
When Trump "Warns Americans against Visiting Cuba," it is merely doing what every Republican President since Eisenhower in the 1950s has done, which is to let a handful of only the most vicious and self-serving Cubans or Cuban-Americans dictate America's Cuban policy and America's Cuban narrative. This has been going on for over half-a-century in the world's superpower democracy although the majority of Cuban-Americans desire normal relations with Cuba. For example, when Trump cut the "embassy staffs" in Havana and Washington, the first and foremost to be hurt were the majority of Cuban-Americans who not only desire free contact with relatives and friends on the island but also each year send several billions of dollars to Cuba to help Cubans. But countering such decent money from Miami to help Cubans are billions of tax dollars that have supported the terror bombings of Cuban hotels, airplanes, fishing cabins, sugarcane and tobacco fields, and even cars to silence a Cuban-American newsman in Miami who opposed such un-American-like terrorism.
The graphic above reflects the fact that not even the Trump administration is ready to blame Cuba for the "Mystery Attacks" and the U. S., at the eager invitation of Cuba, has been on the island investigating them for over a year...along with the Canadian Mounties at Cuba's request. Even anti-Cuban Bush zealots like Michael Palmly, who worked for President Bush at the U. S. Interests Section in Havana from 2005 till 2008, discount Cuban involvement. Palmly, and most other Cuban experts, believe the sonic-wave attacks are the work of someone who would benefit -- such as rogue elements in Miami or even rogues in Cuba who oppose close ties between Cuba and the U. S. Meanwhile, Cuba is blamed to suit the vile Batistiano agendas.
Meanwhile, the America flag in front of the U. S. Embassy in Havana still waves in the warm Caribbean breezes. BUT FOR HOW LONG? In my opinion, not much longer.
In the post-Obama era in American politics, America's Cuban policy reverts back to the hands, fists and mouths of vicious, self-serving counter-revolutionaries in Miami and in the U. S. Congress. Neither the U. S. media nor the U. S. citizens have the courage or patriotism to confront this situation that President Obama tried so hard to correct. But that's only one-half of the reason I think U.S.-Cuban relations in the near future will begin decades of total separatism...unless the second generation of counter-revolutionaries can persuade a U. S. President to launch an all-out military attack that would put the Batistiano back in full charge of Cuba. The other half of my reasoning relates to the transition that is already taking shape on the nearby island.
In a few months -- February of 2018 -- Miguel Diaz-Canel will officially be the leader of Cuba. Age, not the counter-revolutionaries, caught up with Fidel Castro, who died at age 90 back on Nov. 25-2016, and his 86-year-old brother Raul. As President, Raul and his top aides worked closely and directly with U. S. President Obama and his top aides to massively restore numerous decent and mutually beneficial relations between the two neighboring countries. But Miguel Diaz-Canel -- who will shortly be the first non-revolutionary and the first non-Castro to lead Cuba since 1959 -- is much more of a hardliner than Raul was when it comes to relations with America. The 57-year-old Diaz-Canel -- in observing the U. S. transition from an Obama to a Trump -- believes Cuba is wasting its time trying to have normal relations with the U. S., or at least relations that would not endlessly target the island. Instead, Diaz-Canel believes many days wasted dealing with Cuba's enemy, America, should be time devoted to Cuba's friends. And he will take that philosophy with him when he takes over.
And by the way:
Miguel Diaz-Canel's staunch philosophy regarding Cuban sovereignty and the counter-revolutionaries basking in the nearby United States is patterned after that of the prime architect of the Cuban Revolution -- the petite doctor's daughter Celia Sanchez. Her dominant role in chasing the Batistianos-Mafiosi to Miami, as well as her famous quotation above, seem to be guidelines for Diaz-Canel, Cuba's next leader: "We rebels...get far too much credit for winning the revolution. Our enemies deserve most of the credit, for being greedy cowards and idiots." Indeed, Diaz-Canel has mentioned Celia's historic quote in reference to: "The Castro greatness relates, yes, to the historic Revolution's win but that greatness was also crowned by such greedy, cowardly, and idiotic things as the Bay of Pigs attack, the blockade, murders of Cuban children in Batista's reign and afterward during such things as the bombing of Cubana Flight 455, and other endless crimes such as those. Yes, the Castro greatness and the Revolution's fame, in the eyes of history and the world, were crowned by the actions of cowards and idiots in Cuba and then in the United States." It's a quote, attributed by students to Miguel Diaz-Canel when he spoke in their classroom, and it indicates his fondness for the historic quotation by Celia Sanchez depicted above.
And speaking of Celia Sanchez:
Cuba's incomparable recruiter of rebels and supplies coupled with her fearless guerrilla fighting and her brilliant leadership during the Revolution and in Revolutionary Cuba, stamps her firmly as history's greatest revolutionary heroine.
A very feminine 99-pound doctor's daughter from Media Luna, Cuba, Celia Sanchez was the most important Cuban who decided early-on, just as 1952 turned into 1953, that the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship had to be defeated. The odds against her were at least a billion-to-one, but she whittled the odds down to zero.
From the moment he joined her revolution in the Sierra Maestra Mountains of far eastern Cuba, Fidel Castro made sure that Celia Sanchez was the top decision-maker in both the Revolution and in Revolutionary Cuba...till the day she died of cancer on Jan. 11, 1980. Marta Rojas is the greatest living expert on Celia, Fidel, the Revolution and Revolutionary Cuba. In 2005 Marta told me, "Since Celia died of cancer in 1980, Fidel has ruled Cuba only as he precisely perceives Celia would want him to rule it."
The photo on the left shows the two extraordinary recruiters-guerrilla fighters Haydee Santamaria and Celia Sanchez showing Fidel Castro a weapon they gave him when he joined their guerrilla war in the Sierra Maestra Mountains. The photo on the right shows Celia Sanchez and famed Commander Juan Almeida Bosque keeping eyes peeled for a U. S.-supplied warplane that Batista regularly used to bomb any known movements or campsites in the Sierra Maestra or its foothills.
This photo in Revolutionary Cuba shows the determined countenance of Celia Sanchez, the person most responsible for chasing the Batistianos, the Mafiosi, and U. S. businessmen off her island. After the shocking revolutionary victory on January 1, 1959, it was Celia Sanchez who laid down this equally shocking mantra: "The Batistianos will never regain control of Cuba as long as I live or as long as Fidel lives." Only a person as great and as determined as Celia Sanchez could have created such a doctrine on a vulnerable island and made it stick for all these many decades.
The photo above shows Celia Sanchez in 1959. By then the doctor's daughter had become a chain-smoker. It was lung cancer that took her life on January 11, 1980.
But the photo above is said to be Fidel Castro's all-time favorite image of Celia Sanchez. It was taken in the summer of 1957 in the foothills of the Sierra Maestra at a time when Batista had put his all-time biggest bounty on her revolutionary head.
Another prescient quotation by Celia Sanchez is the one above: "Tired old rebels like me, I reckon, are still out-gunned and out-numbered. We can make history but we still don't get to write it." That was in reference to the fact that the Batistianos she chased to the superpower United States dictated the Cuban narrative as they still do in America and in areas dominated by the U. S. Therefore, lies about Celia Sanchez and her Revolution resonate to this day. Her reaction is the quote above.
The historic photo above shows Celia and Fidel reading by candlelight at a campsite {they had a generator} during a crucial time during the war. Fidel often read Earnest Hemingway novels but Celia always studied war-related updates, such as reports on the movement of Batista's armies. The best American Castro biographer, Georgie Anne Geyer, in her famous book revealed that in Revolutionary Cuba Celia still said the happiest time of her life was fighting the war: "We were all so happy then, weren't we? We will never be as happy again, will we? Not ever!" The amazing statement was made on the Isle of Pines while Fidel was questioned by a bevy of newsmen and Celia interjected the comment after one of his answers.
In addition to daily barrages of Batistiano lies about Cuba in the U. S., even notable authors have told half-truths about the Cuban Revolution. The book cover above is a half-truth as it shows Fidel Castro relaxing in a rocking chair on Celia Sanchez's porch in Revolutionary Cuba while the CIA, the Batistianos, and the Mafia were determined to assassinate him. The book-cover is a half-truth because it shows only one-half of that photo, eliminating the half that shows why Fidel could relax in this manner.
The whole photo, as above, includes the half on the left that shows Celia Sanchez, as always, hard at work studying to make the decisions vital to her beloved Cuba, decisions that Fidel would fully support whether or not he agreed with them. Of course, Celia was famous for "giving Fidel aspirin if he had a headache or directing every detail of his security from would-be assassins." Also in her book, Geyer correctly pointed out that Celia could "over-rule Fidel" with his blessing at anytime.
Fidel directed that there was never to be statues of him on the island but, of course, tourists like the ones above can have their photos taken in front of Celia Sanchez statues...at least until or if the Batistianos RE-CAPTURE the lush island.
But the Bastistianos will never be able to destroy the legend of Celia Sanchez. What she was and what she did is far more indelible than anything they did or will do. "Greedy cowards and idiots" -- as she described them -- hiding behind the skirts of the world superpower can never rival the history carved out by Celia.
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