9.2.18

The Cubanization of America

Its Origin & Its Fruition!!
{Updated: Sunday, February 11th, 2018}
      The Cubanization of America got its origin in 1952, shortly after the United States came out of World War II as the strongest and richest nation in the world. At the time, the U. S. and its Democracy were the world's most respected nation and government. Then in 1952 right-wing thugs high up in the Eisenhower administration teamed the U. S. Democracy with the Mafia to support the Batista dictatorship on the nearby island of Cuba, where the U. S. had gained dominance after the 1898 Spanish-American War. The U. S. support of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba beginning in 1952 was designed so rich American businessmen could partake in the wholesale rape and robbery of the island nation. Most pivotal of all, U. S. citizens never objected to the insult to Democracy even when they became aware that Batista was a brutal-thieving dictator and the other two primary decision-makers in Cuba were the top echelon of the Mafia -- Batista's friends Lucky Luciana and Meyer Lansky as shown above.
      But the Batista-Mafia-U.S. dictatorship in Cuba made two incredible mistakes, the first of which is illustrated by the above photo. While raking in a vast amount of loot from drugs, prostitution, gambling and other unsavory enterprises -- massively buttressed by the influx of U. S. businesses and tourists -- the greedy Batistiano-Mafiosi leaders didn't even bother to throw crumbs at the majority peasants, such as the mother and children above. Backed by the United States of America, the strongest nation in the world, and by the Mafia, the strongest criminal organization in the world, Batista did not believe he had to waste any money on the peasants.
      But it was the second Batistiano-Mafiosi mistake that spelled doom for the U.S.-backed tyrants. Apparently as a warning to the non-elite Cubans not to resist, the Batista dictatorship began to routinely murder children. This spawned, as shown above, fierce and famous anti-Batista marches by the bravest and most outraged women on the island. The huge sign above decried "The assassinations of our children; Cuban mothers." It was marches like these that created the Cuban Revolution, which neither the leaders in Havana nor Washington took seriously until it was too late to defeat this female-provoked outrage. The Cuban mother in the center wearing the light jacket was the mother of the murdered little Willie Soler. Today in Cuba the William Soler Children's Hospital is named for him. And although it is hard for Americans to admit, Cuban children today are fiercely cared for and everyone of them is assured totally free and excellent health care and college educations.
      The photo above shows a modern-day Cuban child celebrating her 4th birthday with her best friends. All five are fiercely loved, protected, very safe, and cared for.
    This newly turned 4-year-old Cuban child is fiercely taken care of on the island today, but if she has to look warily over her shoulder, it's because right-wing thugs in the nearby Superpower, based on still-viable de-classified U. S. documents dating back to 1962, ARE STILL trying to starve, deprive, and make miserable little girls like this in a sovereign country to entice them to hate their government. If Americans don't like that succinct and accurate assessment, then perhaps they should do something about it. The black-&-white photos are real; and so is this color photo.
     
     
    It took the long-shot Cuban Revolution from 1952 till 1959 to shock the world by defeating the vile, murderous U.S./Mafia-backed Batista dictatorship.

   But the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on Jan. 1-1959 chased the Batistiano-Mafiosi leaders to a new sanctuary in nearby South Florida, with Little Havana in Miami soon becoming their U. S. capital from 1959 till this very day in 2018. In April of 1959, barely three months after their victory, the two revolutionary leaders -- Fidel Castro and Celia Sanchez -- embarked on a 12-day friendship visit to the United States. But by then the extreme wealth of the Batista-Mafia kingpins had overwhelmed the political and social spheres in South Florida, especially the Miami area. And by then U. S. tax dollars had created powerful anti-Castro paramilitary units and sent hundreds of the most vehement anti-Castro zealots to train at Fort Benning in Georgia as U. S. soldiers, and this included the future Leader-in-Exile Miami billionaire Jorge Mas Canosa, the future anti-Castro terrorist kingpin Luis Posada Carriles, etc., etc., etc.
     The 12-day visit of Fidel Castro and Celia Sanchez in April of 1959 was culminated when President Eisenhower's Vice President, Richard Nixon, surprised Fidel Castro by telling him that his Revolution would be overthrown "within a few months."
   As this photo illustrates, Castro was surprised by Nixon's brazen braggadocio threat. Fidel had been reluctant to visit the U. S. so soon after the Revolutionary victory but he verily worshiped Revolutionary heroine Celia Sanchez and she persuaded him because she firmly believed the new Cuba badly needed the U. S. as a friend and trading partner. Celia had arranged the trip and been assured by the U. S. State Department and the U. S. Society of Newspaper Editors that Fidel would meet directly with President Eisenhower, whom Celia respected. But Nixon and the Dulles brothers -- among the architects of the 1952 Batista-Mafia-U.S. alliance -- had persuaded Eisenhower to take a golfing trip while Nixon met with Fidel, who at the time was being hailed as a hero in the United States AND all around the world.
     When they were back on Cuban soil in April of 1959, Celia Sanchez, with the 100% backing of Fidel Castro, was the prime decision-maker. And significantly, she was far more outraged than Fidel by the Nixon threat, which she took to heart. It was then that she laid down what could rightly be called Revolutionary Cuba's manifesto: "The Batistianos will never regain control of Cuba as long as I live or as long as Fidel lives." She died of cancer at age 59 on Jan. 11, 1980; he died of old age at 90 on Nov. 25, 2016. Against overwhelming odds, Celia Sanchez's bold proclamation incredibly stood the test of time, including such assaults as the April-1961 Bay of Pigs air-land-sea military attack; the 1962-until-today economic embargo; and an ungodly series of deadly and unpunished terrorist attacks against totally innocent, decent Cubans.
      This is one of the many memorials in 2018 honoring the 73 innocent victims of the terrorist bombing on Oct. 6, 1976, of the civilian Cubana Flight 455 airplane. Luis Posada Carilles, trained in explosives at Fort Benning in Georgia where he became a U. S. Army officer in the early 1960s, was born on Feb. 15-1928 in Cienfuegos, Cuba. He turns 90-years-old next Thursday as an honored citizen of Miami, Florida, USA.
     Also incredibly, from January of 1959 till February of 2018, The Cuban Mafia in Cuba has been allowed to operate on U. S. soil as The Miami Cuban Mafia.
   This photo of Cuban-American newsman Emilio Milian in Miami chronicles the rise of the Cuban Mafia on U. S. soil as first a powerful economic force and then an ultra-powerful political force...first in South Florida and then in Washington. The decent Emilio Milian complained on the air about the Cuban Mafia in Miami murdering innocent Cubans and Americans. Then Emilio was silenced by a favorite tool of the Cuban Mafia, a car bomb. Of course, the local, state, and federal authorities seldom, if ever, prosecuted such deeds. The car-bombing of Emilio Milian took place in 1976, perhaps the bloodiest year for the Cuban Mafia in the USA and perhaps that was because the anti-Castro zealots in Miami believed the omnipotent Bush dynasty had their backs. 1976 was the only year future Vice President and President George H. W. Bush was the CIA Director. A few days removed from the Emilio Milian car-bombing in Miami, the two most-famed and most-protected anti-Castro terrorists -- Posada & Bosch -- were tied to the bombing of the civilian Cubana Flight 455 that killed all 73 passengers, including two dozen teenage athletes. And it seems that the Milian car-bombing in 1976 merely served as a warning to the media. 
   Incredibly, in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, Hollywood seemingly has been Freer and Braver than the mainstream media when it comes to chronicling the historic transfer of the Mafia capital from Havana in Cuba to Little Havana in Miami, Florida, in 1959. A case in point is the 1983 movie Scarface that is still a cult favorite on cable television. It was directed and written by Hollywood heavyweights Brian De Palma and Oliver Stone, and it starred top-tier actor Al Pacino as Tony Montana. The movie starts out by showing actual video of drug-running, anti-Castro Cubans arriving in Miami after the Revolution. The Tony Montana character emerged as the murderous Cuban drug-kingpin in Miami, mimicking the actual fact of the drug-infested terror that gripped Miami throughout the 1960s and deep into the 1980s. It was killing so many in the cross-fire that President Reagan at one point sent his VP George H. W. Bush to Miami to try to quell some of the violence. In the famed Cocaine Cowboys documentary, Miami's and America's top crime reporter at the time, Edna Buchanan, pointed back at the magnificent Miami skyline and remarked that it was built by the Cuban Mafia's drug trafficking. Also, as movies like Scarface and documentaries like Cocaine Cowboys, 638 Ways to Kill Castro, etc. explained, the Cuban Mafia's enormous wealth easily overwhelmed South Florida beginning in 1959 and lasting till this day, especially with the political power it has purchased and the Cuban billionaires that also emerged when Cuban businesses such as Bacardi Spirits and the Fanjul Sugar monopoly transferred to far-more-lucrative U. S. soil. In fact, the enduring fame of Scarface is probably tied to the indelible fact that Hollywood has been Freer and Braver in telling the Miami Cuban Mafia story than the scared mainstream United States media has dared to tell.
     This is the famous attire -- white jacket and red shirt -- worn by actor Al Pacino when he played Tony Montana, the murderous Cuban drug-king in Miami.
   The photo-montage above shows the Tony Montana character on the left and...INCREDIBLY...U. S. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen DRESSED AS TONY MONTANA on the right. It was her way, apparently, of mocking the enormously successful transfer of the Cuban Mafia in Cuba to the Cuban Mafia in Miami. Ros-Lehtinen was born in Havana in 1952 and brought to Miami after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution by vicious anti-Castro zealots. She grew up to become the first of many Miami Cubans tied to the Bush dynasty to be elected to the U. S. Congress and she has been there since 1989 when Jeb Bush, to solidify his very successful ties to the Miami Cubans, was her Campaign Manager. If you study the photo-montage above, it is natural to assume that Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen is mocking the success of Miami's and Congress's Cuban Mafia but, of course, don't mention it.
    But all that brings us right up to date in February of 2018 with the significance of Havana-born/anti-Castro zealot Ileana Ros-Lehtinen representing Miami and the Bush dynasty in the U. S. Congress from 1989 till today. This week -- on Feb. 7, 2018 -- the U. S. State Department, on behalf of the congressional Cubans, embarked on the latest of countless Republican schemes since 1959 to overthrow Revolutionary Cuba's government. This new tax-devouring scheme is officially called the CUBA INTERNET TASK FORCE. Like the Cuban Embargo from 1962 till today, like the enormously lucrative Radio-TV Marti anti-Castro propaganda machine in Miami from the 1980s till today, etc., the CUBA INTERNET TASK FORCE is designed to induce the Cubans in Cuba to rise up and overthrow their government. But like...the Embargo, Radio-TV Marti, the Bay of Pigs attack, numerous assassination attempts, countless terrorists acts such as car-bombings, hotel-bombings, airplane-bombings, etc., etc, the CUBA INTERNET TASK FORCE will, in all likelihood, do two things: {1} Fail; and {2} cost American tax-payers and American prestige dearly. On Feb. 8th, 2018, in a Reuters article written by Sarah Marsh, a Tweet by Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was quoted. It said: "It's vital that the Task Force works to counter the Castro regime's control over the airwaves and its political propaganda." That Tweet from the lifelong anti-Castro zealot Ros-Lehtinen, by the way, is memorable. Entrenched since 1989 as a Miami member of the U. S. Congress, backed by the Bush dynasty, she is notable for such things as illegally while a member of Congress calling for the "assassination of Fidel Castro" after such assassinations had been illegal since the Ford presidency. Also, Ros-Lehtinen's ties to such infamous and easily documented Miami-Cuban terrorists as Posada & Bosch remain to this day topics the mainstream U. S. media is afraid to divulge. Yet, that very same mainstream U. S. media...both on television and in print...will eagerly promote anything Ros-Lehtinen has to say. Her Tweet published by Reuters on Feb. 8, 2018 about the newly minted Anti-Cuban Task Force is by an unafraid London-based news agency but it chronicles, I think, the Cubanization of America that has been ongoing since 1959.
     The Cubanization of America would not be all that bad if the 2+ million moderate and decent Cubans were the orchestrators, as opposed to a handful of extremists related to the Bush dynasty. And the reason it is possible...or probable...is the buffaloed mainstream U. S. media that meekly serves as a propaganda tool for the extremists,  as least by not reporting even well-known facts. For example, Jeb Bush was the best-funded of the 17 Republican presidential candidates in 2016 and his push...or that of his son George P. Bush, etc....will continue in the future to have a third Bush presidency. Yet, Jeb's and the Bush dynasty's ties to Orlando Bosch and Posada Carriles won't rise to the level of being political obstacles.
    Beyond the mainstream U. S. media, any Goggle search would reveal realms of data on the Bush ties to the most extremist Cubans. That would readily include de-classified U. S. documents and even the famed Jeb Bush's written and successful appeal, as partially delineated above, to his dad, President G. H. W. Bush, on behalf of Orlando Bosch, who died in Miami in 2011 at age 84 as a heralded Cuban hero.
Yes....Orlando Bosch? Who?
Orlando Bosch & Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
   The photo above shows Jeb Bush imitating a halo around Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's head after he, as her Campaign Manager, had used the power of the Bush dynasty to make her the first Cuban from Miami to become a member of the U. S. Congress in 1989, a position she very safely holds till this day. But since the 1950s, as proven by de-classified U. S. documents, Jeb's dad George H. W. Bush had tightly aligned with anti-Castro extremists. So Jeb in 1989 solidified his controversial political and economic ties to the Cubans in Miami by guiding the famed anti-Castro zealot Ros-Lehtinen to the U. S. Congress. And controversial or not, it made Jeb a two-term Governor of Florida and, in 2016, a highly funded, largely with billionaire Cuban-American dollars, Republican presidential candidate against Donald Trump.
  The photo above is quite appropriate. It shows Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen being kissed by President George W. Bush while Governor Jeb Bush smiles his approval. The Bush connection not only put Ros-Lehtinen in the U. S. Congress from Miami in 1989 but it has also helped put a steady stream of other viciously Counter Revolutionary Miami Cubans in the U. S. Congress including the Diaz-Balart brothers -- Lincoln and Mario -- whose father Rafael was a key Minister in Cuba's Batista dictatorship. And Bush-connected Miami Cubans in the U. S. Congress also include Senator Marco Rubio, newly anointed as President Trump's key anti-Castro point-man. Of course, the weird 2000 presidential election that put George W. Bush in the White House will eternally be remembered as the Florida farce that kept Democrat Al Gore, who got the most votes, out of the White House. So the 2000 presidential election was George W. Bush's reward from the Miami Cubans, just as his brother Jeb's two terms as Florida's Governor were Jeb's reward from the Miami Cubans. But to illustrate just how tight the Miami Cubans are with the Bush dynasty, consider this: In 2016 Marco Rubio, a Miami Cuban mentored by Ros-Lehtinen, was a highly funded presidential candidate. But instead of supporting Rubio, Ros-Lehtinen supported Jeb Bush against both Rubio and Trump in the money-crazed Republican sweepstakes.
    This photo likewise reveals one of the Cuban-related tragedies for the Cubanized United States democracy. It shows Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen lovingly pinching the cheek of John Boehner who, at the time, was the most powerful Republican in the U. S. Congress. What this photo illustrates is that Ros-Lehtinen and the extremists anti-Castro Cubans in Miami and in Congress have always had the support of powerful Republicans from the 1950s until today, and that is so even when such historic and topical alliances have been notably and shamefully anti-democratic.
    This photo shows three Bush-connected Miami Cuban- Americans in the Cubanized United States Congress -- Ileana Ros-Lehtinen flanked by Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart, the sons of the key Batista Minister Rafael Diaz-Balart who became one of the richest and most vehement Counter Revolutionaries in Miami. Rafael, in fact, formed The White Rose, the first paramilitary unit in South Florida. While Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart are still vicious Counter Revolutionaries in the U. S. Congress, Lincoln Diaz-Balart resigned his safe seat for what he said at the news conference was even stronger White Rose-type Counter Revolutionary tactics.
     Although the majority of Cuban-Americans even in Miami favor Obama-like normal relations with Cuba, it seems only Counter Revolutionary extremists can get elected in Miami. And once in the U. S. Congress, they all seem to flock to the Foreign Affairs committees in the House and Senate. Cuba is a foreign nation. As the image above indicates, Ros-Lehtinen wielded her Counter Revolutionary baton vociferously when she Chaired the House Committee on Foreign Affairs...as have Counter Revolutionary zealots Marco Rubio and Robert Menendez when they Chaired the Senate's Foreign Affairs Committees. It's in keeping with Cubanizing the United States Congress.
    In fact, last month -- January, 2018 -- Rubio chaired and Menendez Co-Chaired a vicious anti-Cuba session in the U. S. Senate, as shown above. They, of course, called as "expert witnesses" such infamous Bush-connected Counter Revolutionaries as Otto Reich. This January-2018 photo reveals, I think, how drastically the U. S. democracy has been so unwittingly altered by the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Rubio reached the U. S. Senate from Miami with his bio loudly still proclaiming that his parents escaped the tyranny of Castro's Cuba for the freedom of Miami. Then it was pointed out that Rubio's parents escaped the Batista tyranny in Cuba long before Americans ever heard of Castro. Now early in his second 6-year term...till he runs again for President...Rubio was profiled by respected journalist Ken Silverstein in an easily dialed-up article that labels Rubio "head and shoulders above everyone else" when it comes to chicanery & corruption. Of course, aside from the acutely and minutely documented claims in the Ken Silverstein article, the mainstream U. S. media treats Rubio as a choirboy and Menendez as a saint. Yet during a 3-month trial in 2017, and after an extensive and expensive 5-year Federal Investigation, it took a hung jury in his hometown of Newark to get Menendez off on 18 serious Federal charges related to corruption and bribery. But Menendez and Rubio are entrenched in the U. S. Senate forever it seems, just as Ros-Lehtinen has been in the House since 1989 and the Diaz-Balart brothers have had either one or two seats in the U. S. Congress for going on two decades. The Federal government in 2017 said it would re-try Menendez but in 2018 it has announced it will not do so, apparently because of the expense and the possibility of another hung jury. So Menendez is expected to be re-elected to a third term in the Senate in 2018 and Rubio's Senate seat is safe forever.
    Since the 1950s the American people have meekly put up with every salacious anti-American & anti-democratic assault on innocents Cubans while shamefully allowing for the Cubanization of the U. S. government. The handshake above, therefore, will be readily tolerated by this pusillanimous and unpatriotic generation of Americans. This handshake epitomizes President Trump essentially anointing Senator Marco Rubio as the latest USA Cuban dictator, ala Batista-Luciana back in the 1950s and the Bush-anointed Jorge Mas Canosa in the 1980s. Out of over two million moderate and well-qualified Cuban-Americans, it seems the Cubanized U. S. democracy only anoints Counter Revolutionary extremists, such as "Little Marco" as Trump called him. 
      The U. S. democracy has existed for 241 years and counting. But since a crucial mistake in 1952 exacerbated by the Bush dynasty in 1989, the undeniable onset of the Cubanization of that precious gift to the American people has put it on a precipitously slippery slope. Can the U. S. democracy as envisioned by the Founding Fathers correct that precarious situation? The photo above clearly indicates that the answer is, "Probably not."
 *&***********************&*  


6.2.18

Does Cuba Truth Matter?

Yes! In Both Cuba and America!!
{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.
     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.
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2.2.18

Another Notable Cuban Death

Fidel's Oldest Son Is Dead!!
{Updated: Monday, Feb. 5th, 2018}
     This week -- February 1, 2018 -- the body of Fidel Angel Castro Diaz-Balart was found at the Seguridad Clinic in Havana where he was being treated for depression. Known as Fidelito, he was 68-years-old. The cause of death is listed as suicide. Since the death of his father at age 90 on Nov. 25-2016, it was known on the island that Fidelito was particularly depressed and he had been in treatment for months.
       Fidelito was born on Sept. 1, 1949. His mother, Mirta Diaz-Balart, was married to Fidel from 1948 till 1955. Mirta was the sister of one of Fidel's Law School classmates Rafael Diaz-Balart, who was a Minister in the Batista dictatorship that had captured and imprisoned Fidel from July of 1953 till May of 1955. After Fidel's Cuban Revolution overthrew the Batista dictatorship on Jan. 1-1959, Rafael became one of South Florida's richest and most fervent Counter Revolutionaires, actually creating The White Rose as the first anti-Castro paramilitary unit on U. S. soil, and two of Rafael Diaz-Balart's sons, Lincoln and Mario, were elected to the U. S. Congress from Miami. But through it all, Mirta Diaz-Balart -- who lost a custody battle for Fidelito to Fidel -- dearly loved Cuba and was close to her former family and Fidel's second wife Dalia.
     Born on Sept. 30, 1928 in Banes, Cuba, Mirta is now 89-years-old. She is shown above with Fidelito. Mirta remarried after divorcing Fidel in 1955 and lived off the island. But a home was maintained for her in Havana because she frequently visited Fidelito and he in turn took her to visit his father during Fidel's long illness.
    The death of Fidel Castro on Nov. 25-2016 still grips the island. The photo above shows on the left Alejandro Castro, the son of Raul Castro, commiserating with Antonio Castro, one of Fidel's five sons with his second wife Dalia Soto del Valle. It was Antonio Castro, a medical doctor, who begged Fidelito to seek treatments for his depression and both Antonio and Alejandro also tried to keep Fidelito from constantly reading about Fidel and from visiting his father's final resting place.
Antonio Castro's fears were realized this week.
     After Fidel's death at age 90 on November 25th, 2016, this AFP photo shows Fidelito -- Little Fidel -- on the sad day he watched the urn holding his father's ashes pass slowly by. That's Fidelito in the middle holding the Cuban flag high. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder to Fidelito's left is his son Fidel Antonio Castro.
The Seguridad Clinic where Fidelito died.
       The official family statement regarding Fidelito's death was issued by his son Fidel Antonio. It asked for "privacy for my family members at this sad time."
Billionaire Richard Branson with Fidel Antonio.
     This AP photo shows Fidel and Fidelito on a very happy occasion. It was shortly after the January 1, 1959 triumph of the Cuban Revolution, which shocked the world then and now. The great United States broadcaster Edward R. Murrow interviewed Fidel on the popular American CBS-TV program Person to Person. Speaking English, Fidel included Fidelito in the American broadcast.
Fidelito & Fidel.
     A nuclear physicist, Fidelito was married twice. He had three children, and their first names are Fidel, Mirta, and Jose. At the time of his death, he was an adviser to the Cuban Council of State and Vice President of Cuba's Academy of Sciences.
Fidelito
{Sept. 1, 1949--Feb. 1, 2018}
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cubaninsider: "The Country That Raped Me" (A True Story)

cubaninsider: "The Country That Raped Me" (A True Story) : Note : This particular essay on  Ana Margarita Martinez  was first ...