Yes! In Both Cuba and America!!
{Updated: Thursday, February 8th, 2018}
{Updated: Thursday, February 8th, 2018}
On behalf of Senator Marco Rubio and 5 other Counter Revolutionary Cuban-Americans in the U. S. Congress, the U. S. State Department this week -- Feb. 7, 2018 -- launched what it calls the "Cuba Internet Task Force." Even Cuban dissidents on the island call it yet another stupid, ignorant, insane, and, of course, costly effort by Republicans in Washington to overthrow Revolutionary Cuba. While the mainstream U. S. media will ignore this new attempt, the entire and much-more informed international media is aghast at how typically counter-productive this new tactic is, a fact pointed out by the superb REUTERS journalist in Cuba, Sarah Marsh. Her article is entitled: "Cuba Independent Media Say No Thanks to Trump Free Press Initiative." This article points out a fact-of-life by explaining why even U.S.-backed dissidents on the island cringe at Washington's utter stupidity regarding a little nation that, for six decades now, even the nearby world Superpower can't recapture.
The aforementioned Sarah Marsh-REUTERS article uses Elaine Diaz to illustrate the stupidity of the U. S. launching yet another anti-Cuban propaganda effort -- "Cuba Internet Task Force" -- without comprehending even rudimentary insight about the island it is trying to return to Cuban-American extremists, ala the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship from the 1950s. Elaine Diaz is a 32-year-old, Harvard-trained Cuban journalist and U.S.-backed {funded} anti-Cuban dissident. After the Obama detente, Web-based independent news outlets highly critical of the Cuban government have been allowed. But, as Elaine Diaz told REUTERS today, any hint of a U. S. Counter Revolutionary program on the island is doomed BECAUSE the vast majority of Cubans on the island trust their Revolutionary government a hell-of-a-lot more than they trust the U. S. government or FAR MORE than they would trust a return of a Batistiano-like government. Elaine Diaz said, "These media are called independent and that means independent of Cuban authorities as well as any other." Then the dissident independent journalist Elaine Diaz told REUTERS of the utter stupidity of the U. S. launching another anti-Cuban propaganda scheme in Cuba, calling it "a move that could damage the credibility of the independent media." Buttressing the words of dissident Elaine Diaz, the REUTERS article today explained that young, well-educated, and Online-savvy Cubans on the island will oppose any anti-Cuban propaganda financed from or related to Miami or Washington. 22-year-old Miguel Alejandro Hayes made this very typical statement: "Trump's policy is aimed at destruction, toppling the Cuban government. We don't agree with that."
As an independent journalist in Cuba, Elaine Diaz is among a small minority of Cubans working to overthrow the Revolutionary government...and that's why, as illustrated above, she gets high-paid speaking fees at Ohio State University and other rich American entities. But Elaine Diaz doesn't want a return of the extremists U.S.-based Batistiano-Mafiosi remnants. And Elaine Diaz is smart enough and insightful enough to know that...in both Miami and Washington...the U. S. Cuban policy is dictated by just a few extremists Cuban-Americans and their rich sponsors. Moreover, a powerful majority of everyday Cubans, Elaine Diaz knows, will fight to defend their Revolutionary government against U.S.-backed extremists just as, in the 1950s, a powerful majority of everyday Cubans fought-to-the-death to rid the island of the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia rule. Republican right-wingers in Miami and Washington would know that if they listened to independent journalist and anti-Revolutionary zealot-dissident Elaine Diaz. She's on Cuban soil, which Trump & Rubio have never touched.
The photo above is a reminder of why fair and honest reporting on Cuba is important...to Cubans, Americans, and citizens of the world. For SIX DECADES, counter-revolutionary exiles from the overthrown Batista-Mafia dictatorship have dictated the Cuban narrative in the United States. Therefore, some Americans to this day have no idea why America's Cuban policy was unanimously condemned 191-to-0 in the last year of the Obama presidency when not even President Obama could support a Cuban policy dictated by a few Batistiano and right-wing extremists who control Cuban policy in the 535-member U. S. Congress. But in this digital age, if Americans ignore the Batistiano-dominance of the mainstream U. S. media, there are, for example, three internationally acclaimed London-based news outlets -- the BBC, Reuters, and The Guardian -- that will report honestly and fairly from Cuba whether the news is good, bad or ugly. For example, Sarah Marsh of Reuters can always be counted on for her excellent reports from Cuba.
When Sarah Marsh tells the world about what is going on in Cuba, she doesn't take government hand-outs nor, unlike the mainstream U. S. media, is she afraid to upset the U. S. Bastistianos. Sarah depends on everyday Cubans to provide her the essence of daily life on the island. The photo above shows Sarah in a field with a Cuban farmer named Toto. His honesty helped Sarah develop an honest Reuters article from Cuban soil. Is that important, even for Americans? Yes, I believe it is. Honest and unafraid articles from Cuba by journalists like Sarah Marsh would help Americans understand why the USA Cuban policy gets condemned 191-to-0 in the UN and why, against all odds, the USA, the Batistianos, and the Mafia have been UNABLE to recapture the very vulnerable but pugnacious island of Cuba.
The photo above is courtesy of Sarah Marsh, Reuters & The Guardian. In this first full week of February in 2018, this photo contradicted the latest dishonest pretext the Batistiano-infested Trump administration will employ to...once and for all...destroy Revolutionary Cuba so the Batistiano-Mafiosi leaders can reclaim the island, just as President Trump promised them on June 16-2017 in his Little Havana speech in Miami before a few remaining survivors of the April-1961 Bay of Pigs attack. Later this week Cuba-American counter-revolutionaries will dictate a U. S. government session designed to control Cuba's Internet accessibility, apparently to inspire a revolt by the Cuban people. The Sarah Marsh photo above reveals that the pivotal young-adult generation of Cubans are healthy, well educated, and already well attuned to WiFi Internet hook-ups. Furthermore, the young-adults in Cuba are abundantly aware that, SINCE 1960, the U. S. embargo against Cuba has, according to De-classified U. S. documents, been designed to starve, deprive, and make miserable the lives of Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow their government. But -- like the Bay of Pigs attack and an awesome array of terrorist attacks -- the embargo has only served to get the USA condemned 191-to-0 by the nations in the United Nations.
The mainstream U. S. media this week will provide Americans only the Batistiano version of the Trump administration's new ploy to destroy the Cuban government -- namely by using the Cuban Internet accessibility to propagandize the Cubans on the island the way Americans in the U. S. have been propagandized since 1959. Will it work while every other ploy to recapture Cuba has failed for six decades? The Sarah Marsh report above chronicles a typical image of the young-adult Cubans who prefer real information and not anti-Cuban propaganda from a Batistiano-infested nation.
A couple of weeks ago the United States Congress conducted an important session devoted to the destruction of Revolutionary Cuba, and typically it was as un-democratic as many other sessions involving Cuba have been in the U. S. Congress since 1959. This particular event was CHAIRED by Senator Marco Rubio and CO-CHAIRED by Senator Robert Menendez. And, of course, their "expert witnesses" were equally renowned Cuban-American Counter Revolutionaries such as the infamous Otto Reich. Their focus, of course, was to use the fabricated pretext that Cuban is an unsafe country to bolster the Trump administration's "warning" not to visit unsafe Cuba...a "warning" aimed at stifling Cuba's prime source of income, which is tourism. Last year because of Obama Cuba had a record 4.7 million tourists; this year, because Trump has turned America's Cuban policy back over to self-serving Counter Revolutionaries, the island's vital tourism industry has, indeed, been sharply hurt.
Of course, Cuba's Chairman-Senator Marco Rubio has no trouble convincing propagandized Americans and the cozy mainstream U. S. media that his primary job in the U. S. Congress is to hurt the Castros. Of course, every unbiased and mildly interested person is quite aware that the Batistiano-directed U. S. Cuban policy primarily hurts everyday Cubans, like the hard-working clerk in the above photo.
Yamina Vicente is one of the Cuban entrepreneurs who benefited from the Obama decency and now is being terribly hurt by the Trump-Rubio indecency.
Niuris Higueras, Yamina Vicenta, Marla Recio, and Julia de la Rosa are four Cuban female entrepreneurs who benefited from Obama's decency and have been hurt by the Trump-Rubio indecency. As indicated above, those four Cuban women co-authored a scathing anti-Rubio article in Rubio's hometown newspaper, the Miami Herald. Interestingly, the Herald is dominated by Cuban-Americans and it obviously supported the four Cuban women, NOT RUBIO. In fact, the Herald has accused Rubio of not representing Miami in the U. S. Congress and, indeed, most Cuban-Americans even in Miami support Obama's Cuban policies, NOT Rubio's. Yet, since the self-serving Bush dynasty put the still-serving Havana-born Counter Revolutionary Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in the U. S. Congress way back in 1959, it seems only vicious Counter-Revolutionaries can be elected to the American Congress.
Yet, Federica Mogherini -- the ultra-powerful High Representative of the 28-nation European Union -- is determined that the unholy Trump-Rubio alliance will not destroy Cuba. The first trip from Brussels this year by the democracy-loving Italian was to Cuba, as shown above. In her departing news conference she called the U. S. embargo against Cuba "archaic, cruel, and illegal." She left Cuba only after signing EU agreements to help Cuba, which the island needs to combat U. S. Republicans.
Following Federica Mogherini's visit to Cuba in January, the island is already benefiting from the European Union's financial support in creating renewable fuel, in getting help from the EU in solving Cuba's stifling two-peso economy, etc.
One of Cuba's most important democracy-loving friends is Emily Mandrala. Her Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas bravely and decently fights Trump & Rubio tooth-and-nail -- on behalf of innocent Cubans, Americans, and Democracy. Emily Mandrala uses all of her platforms -- including taking democracy-loving members of Congress as well as top U. S. CEOs to Cuba. She points out that Rubio has never set foot on Cuban soil but his constant rants, and his position as a U. S. Senator, severely hurt the most innocent Cubans and severely hurts America's image around the world, an image that shames her, Obama, and all of America's best friends that voted with the unanimous majority -- 191-to-0 -- to condemn the U. S. embargo of Cuba...an embargo first imposed by right-wingers and Batistianos back in 1962 for the exact purpose, as confirmed by de-classified U. S. documents, to starve, deprive, and make miserable the lives of everyday Cubans to induce them to overthrow their government. That revelation further shamed democracy-loving Americans like Emily Mandrala. Of course, in February of 2018 it still doesn't shame right-wingers, Batistianos, and propagandized Americans.
A tweet that has gone around the world a few times shows feisty, pugnacious little Cuba sitting on top of the world, and chirping. The Republican right-wingers and Counter Revolutionary Cubans in Washington have invented another pretext to bury Cuba. This time the excuse to harm the island's vital tourism industry is for the Trump-Rubio government to declare Cuba the one place in the world that is too "unsafe" for Americans to visit. Well, on Jan. 23-2018 the Madrid International Tourism Fair named Cuba "The Safest Country in the World for Tourists to Visit." That respected yearly report is used by nations to advise their citizens. The report stressed: "This recognition proves Cuba is the safest country for tourists to visit, not just in the Carribean, but the entire world." And the Madrid announcement sharply denounced "claims recently made by the Trump administration that seek to tarnish Cuba's impeccable reputation for safety." So, the little Tweeting Cuban bird sitting atop the world hails its designation as the "safest nation in the world." Uh, no kidding!
Being British, Christopher P. Baker, the world's most renowned Travel Writer, can write fairly about Cuba. Baker, as indicated by this photo-graphic, has been used by all the major U. S. networks as a travel expect and he was quick to confirm the designation of Cuba -- by the Madrid International Tourism Fair -- as "the safest country in the world." Having minutely investigated Cuba and other key tourist destinations, Baker said he was "not surprised" that Cuba was just designated the safest nation in the world for tourists.
And that takes us back around to Counter Revolutionary Cuban-Americans in the U. S. Congress such as Ros-Lehtinen, Chairman Rubio, and Co-Chairman Menendez. They can clap and celebrate that Donald Trump is intent on reversing Obama's decent Cuban policy by putting it back in their hands. The pretext of Cuba being "unsafe" is a joke but it has already succeeded in hurting everyday Cubans on the island and hurting America's reputation around the world. Now THIS WEEK Counter Revolutionary Cuban-Americans in Congress have Trump's permission to embark on another scheme to bury Cuba, this one officially called the "Cuba Internet Task Force." With U. S. tax dollars and with the ignorance of propagandized American citizens, it will be implemented THIS WEEK. As other schemes, it will make democracy-lovers cringe, even an American jailed in Cuba for five years for breaking Cuban laws by doing similar work on the island to appease a few right-wingers.
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Now 68-years-old, Alan Gross spent five years of a 15-year sentence in a Cuban prison till he was freed on December 17, 2014, only when President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba was eagerly supported by the Cuban government. Gross had made repeated clandestine and illegal trips to Cuba setting up communications designed to help topple the Cuban government internally. Gross was well-paid with tax dollars to do his Cuban work but he didn't become a millionaire until, after Cuba released him, he sued the U. S. government AND WON millions of tax dollars because the U. S. government knew his mission was illegal. So, the aforementioned Reuters journalist Sarah Marsh asked Alan Gross how he felt about THIS WEEK'S latest U. S. scheme to infiltrate Cuba's communication apparatus. Alan Gross told her: "My first response was 'ARE YOU KIDDING ME?' We are supposed to learn from our mistakes. I learned the hard way that it is illegal to distribute anything in Cuba that's funded in full or part by the U. S. government. Until the government of Cuba wants the kind of assistance the United States is capable of providing, the United States shouldn't be doing this stuff. There are many things that could be happening in a positive and constructive way with Cuba. I myself would return to Cuba IN A HEARTBEAT if only the Cuban government would allow me the honor."
If this generation of Americans cared more about their democracy, and exhibited just a modicum of courage, I believe they would go online and read Alan Gross's comments about THIS WEEK'S latest stupid, costly, and cruel Batistiano-directed attack on Cuba -- the one officially called "Cuba Internet Task Force." Both nations know it is illegal just as both nations knew, starting immediately after Jan. 1-1959, the cruel illegality of massive terrorist attacks, the Bay of Pigs attack, numerous assassination attempts, the longest and cruelest economic embargo ever imposed by a strong nation against a weak nation, etc., etc., were illegal and undemocratic. Furthermore, both nations well knew that such tactics were designed to appease a few right-wing thugs and ignore the sane and decent majority opinions, defaming democracy. Yet, they have persisted from Jan. 1-1959 till this very week -- February-2018. Alan Gross's court-validated illegal acts -- even to Alan Gross's chagrin -- are being repeated with THIS WEEK'S tax-funded, democracy-demeaning "Cuba Internet Task Force" attack. The huge poster above on one of the island's rural roads reminds Cubans that "Cuba is Ours." Of course, Counter Revolutionaries in the U. S. Congress -- Rubio, Menendez, Ros-Lehtinnn, Diaz-Balart, etc. -- believe Cuba is Theirs and they expect Trump to give it to them. The fact is...if the majority of Cubans on the island didn't believe "Cuba is Ours," THE GENERATIONS OF BATISTIANO-MAFIOSI REMNANTS IN THE UNITED STATES SINCE 1959 WOULD HAVE RECLAIMED THE ISLAND MANY, MANY DECADES AGO.
After the death of Fidel Castro in 2016 at age 90 and the imminent retirement of Raul Castro at age 86 in April, the generational shift in Cuba will feature brilliant, young, healthy, and well-educated Cubans like Cristina Escobar. She is perhaps the best broadcast journalist...as an anchor and interviewer...in the Western Hemisphere, which includes North America. That's why she is the only Cuban journalist to ask questions at a White House news conference. Deeply admired by veteran U. S. broadcast journalists such as NBC's Andrea Mitchell, Cristina has spoken about journalism and U.S.-Cuban relations at U. S. universities and in U. S. interviews, such as the one above when Tracey Eaton interviewed her on the island for the Pulitzer Center, which still posts the video on line as does YouTube. Cristina's comments have garnered some headlines: "Cuba's fate is up to Cubans on the island, not Cubans in Miami and Washington;" and "Journalists in Cuba have more freedom to tell the truth about the U. S. than journalists in the U. S. have to tell the truth about Cuba."
In 2018, Cristina Escobar believes as much in Revolutionary Cuba as the island's most legendary heroine Celia Sanchez believed in the Cuban Revolution in 1953. Familiar with United States soil and very fluent in English, Cristina has had lucrative offers to defect but even Cuban billionaires in Miami don't have enough money or mansions to entice her. Moreover, Cristina is at the core of the majority opinion on the island, led by young-adults like her. If that were not so, as in decades past, the sheer Superpower might of the Trump-Rubio alliance would be able to regain control of Cuba in a cakewalk. But Cristina is a Cuban in Cuba, not in Miami or Washington.
And speaking of Celia Sanchez...the doctor's daughter and the heroine most emphatically and historically responsible for chasing the Batistianos, Mafiosi, and American businessmen off the island...she is worth remembering. Right after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, Celia devised the two definitive revolutionary quotes. I thought the most important was: "The Batistianos will never regain control of Cuba as long as I live or as long as Fidel lives." When she first made that proclamation, people laughed; six decades later, it's embedded in history. But, as noted by the photo-graphic above, The Woman Project.org thinks this was Celia's most important quotation: "We rebels...get far too much credit for winning the Revolution. Our enemies deserve most of the credit, for being greedy cowards and idiots." So, take your pick...but I think you'll agree that Cuba's greatest heroine, Celia Sanchez, coined, mandated, and brilliantly backed-up the two all-time greatest revolutionary quotes.
Of course, some experts believe the most important, the most historic, the most prescient, and the most topical Celia Sanchez quotation was one she made shortly before she died of cancer at age 59 on Jan. 11-1980: "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." With that acute and astute observation, Celia admitted that -- once they resurfaced on U. S. soil -- the remnants of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship dictated the Cuban narrative in the nearby world Superpower. That surely was true in 1980, the year Celia died. And, of course, it's true today -- four decades after her death.
