Deciphering the New Cuba

An Historic Transition For Sure!!
{Saturday, April 21st, 2018}

      In the past 72 hours, the enigmatic and iconic capital of Havana -- and thus all of Cuba -- has been changed drastically.

      86-year-old Raul Castro has passed Cuba's presidential baton to 57-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel who is quite popular in Cuba.

     Minutes after officially becoming Cuba's first non-Castro leader since 1959, Miguel Diaz-Canel delivered a revelatory half-hour speech to the island's 604-member National Assembly. It revealed that Diaz-Canel is a powerful, effective speaker.

     But most of all, President Miguel Diaz-Canel's very first major televised speech revealed that he is furiously, everlastingly pro-Revolutionary and pro-Sovereignty.

     The photo above best encapsulates the new Big Three in Revolutionary Cuba. Standing is Esteban Lazo Hernandez and right behind him are new President Miguel Diaz-Canel and outgoing President Raul Castro. As the transition shakes out, although there are those who will disagree, the new power structure in Cuba will be in this order: Lazo #1, Diaz-Canel #2, and Castro #3. That is the way the now semi-retired Raul and Esteban crafted the transition and it was/is approved by Miguel.

     The 604-member Cuban National Assembly, or Parliament, ratifies all major decisions in Cuba, including the presidency. The most powerful revolutionaries, the Castro brothers, could dictate their wishes to the Assembly but the retiring President Raul Castro wants the now ultra-powerful ruling body to be the prime dictator of Cuba going forward, stressing the fact that the 604 parliamentarians are elected in fairly democratic municipal processes such as the recent elections held at 24,000 polling places across the island. With that being said, Esteban Lazo has been President of the National Assembly since 2013 and today, at the start of the non-Castro domination, Lazo's power is markedly strengthened. Thus, as shown above, his control of the transitional Assembly this week was paramount and not just symbolic. Also, as Lazo orchestrated the Castro-to-Diaz-Canel presidential transition, this photo correctly foreshadows the even more powerful positions of women.

     So, who is Esteban Lazo, shown here posing April 19th with one of Cuba's outstanding young broadcast journalists, Rosy Amaro Perez. Now 74-years-old, Lazo has been ultra-powerful in Cuba since 1980. Since 2013 he has been President of Cuba's Parliament, the National Assembly. Note his age, 74, and the fact that he has been a very powerful and very visible prime pro-Revolutionary zealot and a favorite of both Castro brothers since 1980. Those two factors, whether self-adorned Cuban experts off the island agree or not, now make Esteban Lazo the most powerful person in Cuba, as authorized by Raul Castro and as approved by Miguel Diaz-Canel. At 74 Lazo is agewise directly between the 86-year-old Raul and the 57-year-old Miguel. To Raul, that was important...along with Esteban's revolutionary zeal and his proven worship of the late Fidel Castro.

    The image above...again whether or not the self-ordained Cuban experts off the island agree or not...is more emblematic of the transition transpiring in Cuba this week than even the three photos above that were taken in the National Assembly as the process was firmly implemented and officially stamped. It was Fidel Castro's Revolution and -- although he died at age 90 on November 25, 2016 -- it is still Fidel Castro's Cuba. So, you should put more stock in this photograph than in what actually occurred this week as Raul Castro's presidency was transferred to Miguel Diaz-Canel. The image above is the way most Cubans on the island today think of Fidel Castro -- their tall and powerful revolutionary icon who weathered all the powerful forces allied against him, except the mortality of age. Before he died, he had dictated to his people that there were to be no statues in his honor, nor any streets or buildings named for him. He vowed that he didn't want "a cult personality" to be associated with his legacy. That dictation, however, has fallen victim to his charisma, yes, but mostly to the Revolution he won, against overwhelming odds, and the Revolutionary Cuba that has survived for 6+ decades AGAINST OVERWHELMING ODDS. So this photo -- Fidel Castro standing tall against ominous dark clouds -- still defines Revolutionary Cuba and that is so even as the historic changes take place.

     This photo shows Cuba's new President, Miguel Diaz-Canel, paying homage to Fidel Castro on November 25th, 2017, which was the first-year anniversary of Fidel's death. Such solemn remembrances of Fidel Castro will be more common during Diaz-Canel's presidency than they were even when Raul Castro was President of Cuba.

     Shown above with his wife waiting in line to vote in the recent municipal elections, President Diaz-Balart happens to be very popular on the island. He gradually attained his power in Villa Clara province far from the hectic environs of Havana. An electrical engineer, even when his job ascendancy afforded him a free government car, he preferred bicycles and motorcycles, often using those modes of travel to visit rural areas to check on the welfare of Cubans, especially children and the elderly. He became Cuba's powerful Education Minister and then, as he was groomed for the presidency during the previous five years, he was President Raul Castro's First Vice President. In his youth Diaz-Canel was a huge fan of the Beatles and today he remains a huge fan of the Rolling Stones. And that's why, when U. S. President Obama was showing friendship to Cuba, Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones honored the Cuban people with a rollicking free concert in Havana. Most Cubans, including the crucial and restive young-adults, support Diaz-Canel. As an educator, he is proud of Revolutionary Cuba's totally free educations through college and totally free health care for every Cuban. And as Cuba's President, Diaz-Canel will be less inclined than Raul Castro was to negotiate with the United States. Indeed, Diaz-Canel did not support Raul Castro's historic detente with President Obama, which practically succeeded in normalizing relations between the two nations although the Little Havana/Miami-dominance of the U. S. Congress dictates the most harshest assaults on Cuba, such as the embargo that has existed since 1962. Even at the height  of the Castro-Obama engagements, Diaz-Canel warned Raul Castro, "You are dealing with a 2-party system and a Congress locked-in against Cuba. And with the next Republican U. S. president, their interminal war against us will resume."

    Before his ten years as Cuba's President ended this week, Raul Castro fully comprehended the wisdom of Miguel Diaz-Canel's warnings about the USA's 2-party system, its locked-in Congress, and the inevitability of the next Republican U. S. president. The photo above reveals just how correct Diaz-Canel was in 2016. The 7-story U. S. Embassy in Havana was reopened by presidents Castro & Obama for the first time since 1961 and it was fully staffed and operational under Obama. But the startling U. S. election of the Republican Donald Trump as President quickly resulted in what we have today: Huge locks on the doors have shut-down the huge U. S. embassy building in Havana, to Raul Castro's dismay and to the dismay of the millions of Cuban-Americans, including two million in the Miami area, who benefited from its reopening. But as for Cuba's new President, Miguel Diaz-Canel, he is far less concerned than Raul Castro of having a functional U. S. Embassy in Havana because Diaz-Canel believes: "The time we waste dealing with the U. S. can better be spent dealing with nations friendly to us. In the end, our dealings with the U. S. will, in any case, be defending ourselves and our sovereignty. While dealing with other nations will not only help our defense but also help our economy, which is also our lifeblood."

    With that hard-earned and well-educated Anti-American mindset, Cuba's First Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel has traveled to important capitals around the world polishing his ties to world leaders, such as China's omnipotent President Zi as shown above. Also, as pointed out April 19th by USA Today, Diaz-Canel has already "hosted meetings in Havana with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and leaders of Mexico, Spain, Germany, India, Pakistan, El Salvador, South Africa, Portugal, the United Arab Emirates and the Vatican." And also the USA Today reported these facts: "He led government delegations to Russia, China, Japan, North Korea, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Angola, Bolivia and the 2016 Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States." In other words, Cuba's new President, Miguel Diaz-Canel, is hoping to be friends with all nations EXCEPT, of course, THE UNITED STATES of America.

      And now, I will stick with my first major observation, which is that this National Assembly photo April 19th-2018 best defines the new Cuba and Cuba's new Big Three in this order: 74-year-old Estevan Lazo #1, President Miguel Diaz-Canel #2, and semi-retired Raul Castro #3. That is the configuration that Raul Castro constructed and that's what Cuba now has. If the "experts" disagree with that analysis, they are wrong.

      If you expanded Cuba's new Hierarchy to a Big Four, you would need to include Ana Mari Machado.

        If you expanded Cuba's new Hierarchy to a Big Five, it would have to include Ana Teresa Igarza Martinez.

      If you expanded the new Cuban hierarchy to a Big Six, you would have to include Miriam Brito Sorroca.

      As of today there is no Big Seven in the newly re-configured Cuban Hierarchy, but keep an eye on fast-rising student leader Mirthia Onis. A loud little lady, Mirthia was Cuba's most volatile defender last week at the Summit of the Americas in Peru. Her fierce love for Fidel, the Revolution, and Cuba's sovereignty was already well known. Mirthia's firmness has resonance on the island: "If the empire ever overthrows our government, the next day a revolution that Fidel would be proud of will begin."

    And so -- as of April 20th, 2018 -- Revolutionary Cuba's sovereign flag is still waving in the warm Caribbean breezes.

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Dawn of Cuba's New Era

A Revolution in Flux!!

Photo courtesy: Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters.

     The photo above taken yesterday -- April 18, 2018 -- marks a milestone for the historic Cuban Revolution. It shows Raul Castro and other elderly revolutionary icons presiding over their last Cuban National Assembly as a new day dawns.

     Yesterday the 86-year-old Raul Castro was replaced as Cuba's President by 57-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel, a non-Castro born after the Revolutionary victory.

      While the Castros' light and fame will never dim on the island of Cuba, at least as long as it remains a sovereign nation, it changed drastically in July of 2006 when Fidel became seriously ill and remained so till he died at age 90 on November 25, 2016. And now with Raul Castro retiring as President and hoping to at least semi-retire from politics, Cuba's new President, Miguel Diaz-Canel, has a monumental task trying to maneuver away from both the island's financial quagmire and another dangerously anti-Cuban Republican President in Washington. Prior to his death, Fidel had ordered that he did not want a personality cult to be built up around his name, and thus there will be no statues of him and no streets or buildings named for him. But as Raul well knows, at least as long as Cuba is independent, it is Fidel's legacy that will stir future pots that will continue to boil and perhaps finally explode.

     Perhaps the most important advice, or orders, that Raul Castro passed along to his presidential successor Miguel Diaz-Canel regarded three particular countries that will not hurt and may well help Cuba -- China, Russia, and Vietnam. When Raul hosted Vietnamese Communist leader Nguyen Phu Trong, above, it is reported by insiders that Raul asked Vietnam to "guide" soon-to-be President Miguel Diaz-Canel in the creation of a Vietnamese-style market economy. Phu then told Raul that Cuba first had to ditch its complicated, confusing dual-peso currency and have just one. Raul reluctantly agreed and so, it seems, has Diaz-Canel.

     In secret, on the phone, and then in person Cuban President Raul Castro eagerly worked with American President Barack Obama to normalize relations, culminating in the reopening of embassies in Havana and Washington for the first time since 1961. But the Republican Trump succeeded Obama and today the doors to the U. S. Embassy in Havana, once fully-staffed by Obama, are now locked shut with really huge locks. In all other areas, the transition from Obama-to-Trump ended the last great chance for Cuba and the United States to normalize relations. On a secret audio tape released by a dissident, Cuba's new President, Miguel Diaz-Canel, among other anti-American things, said, "Capitalism cannot be trusted, not even a little bit."

     For the record, this photo captured the moment in the Cuban National Assembly yesterday when outgoing President Raul Castro anointed new President Miguel Diaz-Canel. The contrasting expressions appropriately exuded tiredness and euphoria.

President Miguel Diaz-Canel.

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Historic Times For Cuba

With President Miguel Diaz-Canel!!
{Thursday, April 19th, 2018}

      And now {April of 2018} Cuba's 86-year-old President Raul Castro passes the baton {and his title} to 57-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel who was born after the 1959 revolutionary victory.

      The historic transition gives Cuba its first non-Castro leader in 60 years. Miguel Diaz-Canel, at least at the moment, has strong popular support on the island, especially from the critical young-adult generation. Most of the revolutionary icons, including Fidel Castro at age 90 in 2016, have passed away, and others, like 86-year-old Raul Castro, are well into their 80s. The very same thing can be said about the Bay of Pigs-era Counter Revolutionary Cubans in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood.

     Shown above patiently waiting in line beside his wife to vote in the recent nation-wide municipal elections, Miguel Diaz-Canel is well-liked on the island and little-known off of it. He rose in the ranks far from Havana in Villa Clara Province but still became Education Minister and then, for the past five years, the First Vice President, which meant he was being groomed to become President. Even after he became a top official in Villa Clara that put him in line to have a government car, he preferred riding bicycles or motorcycles to visit rural Cubans he felt might be overlooked.

     Except when it comes to the United States, Miguel Diaz-Canel is considered less of a hardliner than the Castro brothers. But, unlike Raul Castro who worked fervently with the friendly Obama administration to normalize relations with the U. S., Miguel believes all that is now in the "past tense" with another Republican administration in Washington. He says, "They have a 2-party system and Republicans are either in power and on the verge of returning to power. Therefore, we waste our time trying to work on meaningful relations, time we should be spending with friends."

     In recent years, preparing for the Cuban presidency, Miguel Diaz-Canel has made it a point to become close friends with the leaders of China {as shown above}, Vietnam, and Russia...among other non-hositle nations. He views economic Superpower China and military Superpower Russia as counter-balances to USA belligerence and he particularly wants to replicate for Cuba the highly successful Vietnamese market-style economy, which he has studied minutely and now plans to emulate in Cuba.

     In the Western world, Miguel Diaz-Canel considers Federica Mogherini to be Cuba's "very best friend" and he, thus, has courted friends like her prior to his becoming Cuba's President. Mogherini is the top official in the 28-nation European Union. The Reuters photo above shows her visiting Havana on January 3rd, 2018.

     This Reuters photo shows Miguel Diaz-Canel paying tribute to his idol, Fidel Castro, on what would have been Fidel's 91st birthday {August 13th, 2017} if the revolutionary legend had not died at age 90 on November 25th, 2016. With Diaz-Canel as Cuba's President, such tributes to Fidel Castro will be more-and-more frequent, not less.

     Most of the Cuban narrative in the United States since 1959 has been dictated by powerful Counter Revolutionaries from Miami and in the U. S. Congress. In that milieu it is therefore understandable that most Americans are totally in the dark about two historic phenomenons: {1} How in the world did the Cuban Revolution defeat the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship; and {2} how in the world has Revolutionary Cuba survived, ever since 1959, the determined, unchecked daily efforts of the U.S.-backed Batistianos & Mafiosi to recapture such a vulnerable island? Well, the Roberto Suarez photo above provides a clue. It shows Mirthia Brossard Oris last week at the Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru. Vicious Counter Revolutionary Miami members of the U. S. Congress -- including the newly self-anointed and Trump-approved U. S. Cuban Dictator Marco Rubio -- were in Peru assailing Cuba. But Mirthia, as a part of the 100-member Cuban delegation in Peru, shouted the loudest when it came to defending or vilifying her Cuba. She then was the subject of regional interviews.

   Shown above taking over a key microphone in Lima, Mirthia Brossard Onis lambasted Counter Revolutionaries like Rubio as "liars" and labeled the Cuban dissidents as "bugs paid by the empire as we all know!" To her, the hated "empire" is the USA. So Mirthia became a vocal star at the Summit of the Americas in Peru.

     So who is Mirthia Brossard Oris? Well, on the island she is a leader of the Federation of University Students. Back in 1952 and 1953, the Federation of University Students included the prime anti-Batista supporters of Fidel Castro and the burgeoning Cuban Revolution. And that's why the Batista-Mafia thugs murdered many student leaders like Jose Echevarria and also shut down the University of Havana. {Yes, you may Google-Search Jose's name and see photos of his assassinated body}. From 1959 until April-2018 the Federation of University Students, as epitomized long-ago by the martyr Jose Echevarria and today by Mirthia, has remained a prime defender of Revolutionary Cuba for six decades...and counting!!

Student leader Jose Echevarria.

Just before he was murdered in Batista's Cuba March 13, 1957.

      On the island of Cuba today, popular Television News Anchor Rosy Amaro Perez and Student Leader Mirthia Brossard Oris represent the crucial young-adult generation of Cubans who fiercely support the sovereignty provided to their island by the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Of Cuba's 11.2 million people, Rosy and Mirthia are in the majority. If that were not so, America's self-anointed and Washington-approved Cuban dictators -- such as the late Jorge Mas Canosa or the current Marco Rubio -- would long-ago have regained control of the coveted and always vulnerable island.

     The Roberto Suarez photo above shows United States Senator Marco Rubio arriving this past weekend in Peru to take over the leadership of the Let's Overthrow Revolutionary Cuba choir. Other than making Rubio a rich and powerful man in Little Havana and in Washington, his anti-Cuban venom has not succeeded in recapturing Cuba or in imposing {or reimposing} a Miami-dominated Cuban rule.

     This Rosy for Cuba image, complete with the colorful and sovereign Cuban flag, was newly added today to social media platforms to show support for Cuba's new President Miguel Diaz-Canel. Unbiased sources are aware that if Diaz-Canel is to succeed, he will need the strong support of the island's restive and well-educated young-adult generation. As of today -- April 18, 2018 -- he has that crucial support.

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CUBA IS STILL STANDING

After Vicious Summit in Peru!!
{Tuesday, April 17th, 2018}

Photo courtesy: Getty Images.

        This Thursday, April 19th, 2018, had been the day 57-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel was scheduled to become Cuba's President, replacing 86-year-old Raul Castro. That historic transition has been moved up one day; it will take place tomorrow -- Wednesday, April 18th. Raul had considered but canceled a trip to Peru last week for the 8th Summit of the Americas. He is tired but not ill and will soon begin spending most of his semi-retirement time far from Havana in the Santiago de Cuba area.

      The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, yesterday hurled a wicked dagger at Cuba. He has ordered all family members of Canadian diplomats in Havana to return home. His excuse is the mysterious Sonic Wave Attacks, the same excuse the U. S. Trump administration used to totally gut its embassy in Cuba, basically leaving only maintenance crews. In the last 70 years, Canada has been Cuba's most consistent friend and over a million Canadians visit Cuba each year, although Trudeau may curtail even that. Trudeau's father Pierre and his mother Margaret were dear friends of both Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution. Pierre Trudeau was Canada's Prime Minister from 1968 till 1984. Now his son Justin, the Prime Minister, might be the only Canadian Prime Minister to align totally with the USA as Cuba's second major enemy. Canada and the U. S. are Super Trade Partners and Trump has criticized Canadian Trade advantages. Justin Trudeau may be tossing a Cuban bone into that fray, trying to appease Donald Trump's administration.

Canadian embassy in Havana. 

But the Cuban flag still waves.

      If you happen to be a well-known Cuban dissident in Cuba, rich and powerful Counter Revolutionaries in Miami and Washington will turn you into a globe-trotting celebrity as well as put you on a highly publicized mile-high sacrosanct pedestal. The photo above, taken at the just-completed Summit of the Americas in Peru, is a case in point. That's Cuban dissident Rosa Maria Paya on the left being canonized by U. S. Vice President Mike Pence in Lima, Peru. With such ultra-powerful allies as Paya & Pence, the mere survival of Revolutionary Cuba for six decades and counting is all the more unfathomable for most observers of the HUGE phenomenon.

      When Miami's U. S. Senator Marco Rubio arrived at the Summit of the Americas in Peru, it signaled that the Counter Revolutionaries had their self-adorned leader.

     In Lima, posturing himself as the Cuban spokesman for all of America, Marco Rubio indicated he would have an absolute conniption if Cuba succeeding in turning over its Presidency this week...April 18th...to 57-year-old educator Miguel Diaz-Canel. It obviously dismays Rubio and his ilk that such a transition is possible in April of 2018 at a time when the Revolutionary icons on the island and the Counter Revolutionaries in Miami have all either died or entered their 8th decade on this earth. Rubio's arrival in Lima paralleled the U. S. missile attack in Syria but, like other Counter Revolutionary Cubans in Miami and in the U. S. Congress, Rubio's quest to recapture Cuba seems to far exceed all other dire American concerns. Yes!! Cuba!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

     In Lima this past weekend Luis Almagro, the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, continued his long-time vehement effort to rally forces to overthrow Revolutionary Cuba. In Lima Almagro said that today Latin American countries had "the tools" to finally end the Cuban Revolution after all these decades!

     But while Luis Almagro was on center-stage demeaning Cuba, the 100-member Cuban contingent in Lima, as shown above, shouted "Liar, liar!!" in denouncing Almagro as "a paid mercenary for the United States." The pro-Cuban Cubans above accused Almagro of wanting "rich foreigners to again freely rob Cuba as they did when Batista and the Mafia ruled Cuba from 1952 till 1959." After that rebuke, Almagro said his shout-down was "an example of Cubans from Cuba not allowing any dissent."

    As things evolved in Peru this past weekend, the most vehement defender of Revolutionary Cuba turned out to be a loud little lady named Mirthia Brossard Oris. At one point, as shown above, she took over a microphone and viciously assailed Counter Revolutionaries as "bugs paid by the empire as we all know." The Counter Revolutionaries roared back at Mirthia but she held firm and the large Cuban contingent shouted them down as Mirthia continued her hot barrage unimpeded.

     And so, Mirthia Brossard Oris, as Cuba's most vocal and volatile defender in Lima, became a star at the Summit of the Americas and therefore, as shown above, she received many requests for interviews, and used them to defend Cuba further.

     A Cuban star in Lima this past week, Mirthia Brossard Oris back in Cuba is one of the leaders of the island's powerful pro-Revolutionary Federation of University Students. Back in 1952 and 1953, University students were the biggest supporters of Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution against the Batista-Mafia dictatorship. In April of 2018, the biggest supporters of Cuba's soon-to-be new President, Miguel Diaz-Canel, are Mirthia Brossard Oris and her fellow Federation of University Students. In Lima this past week, Counter Revolutionaries like Rubio, Pence, and Paya didn't want that truth to see the light of day but Mirthia very vocally made it a pertinent issue.

      Just before she left for Lima, this photo shows Mirthia Brossard Oris, wearing her ubiquitous glasses, with her dear friend Rosy Amaro Perez. Rosy is a talented and popular television news anchor in Havana. Rosy and Mirthia represent a significant fact in Revolutionary Cuba that propagandized Americans are not supposed to comprehend, and that is this: There is today, as there has been for six decades, a very strong generation of YOUNG-ADULTS on the island who fervently support the Revolution. If that were not so, exiles from the Batista-Mafia rule, backed by the economic and military power of the world Superpower, would be ruling Cuba today.

      Revolutionary Cuba's free educational and health care, come hell or high water, has produced two generations of well-educated and healthy Cubans. The photo above taken this past weekend in Peru at the Summit of the Americas, illustrates that basic fact. The 21 Cuban journalists shown above were quite professional in reporting back to Cuba from Lima, and that included live regional reports from top-flight anchors. In the second row above, the big man wearing the white t-shirt emblazoned with the Cuban flag is Aroldo Garcia Fombellida. To his left the five young journalists are Daina Caballero, Gisela Serna Soza, Cristina Escobar, Roberto Suarez, and Alienn Fernandez Cabrera. In the front row second from the left and kneeling is Rosa Miriam Elizalde, one of Cuba's most powerful educators and an important mentor to young Cubans.

     Cuba's superstar news anchor Cristina Escobar, shown above in the red jacket, spent all of last week in Lima reporting back to Cuba on the Summit of the Americas. In fluent English or Spanish, Cristina is probably the best all-around broadcast journalist in the Western Hemisphere and her Lima reports enhanced that reputation.

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