Miami REMAINS Little Havana

Obsessed With Recapturing Cuba!!
{UPDATED: Wednesday, August 15th, 2018}

Photo courtesy: Roberto Koltun/Miami-Nuevo Herald.

    This photo shows Jose Daniel Ferrer, by far the most powerful dissident on the island of Cuba, holding a news conference in...WHERE ELSE? -- Miami!! The photo was taken before he was arrested in Santiago de Cuba this past weekend and accused of attempted murder against a Cuban official. His now celebrated case has, of course, cast the usual spotlight and headlines on the vast U.S.-Cuban conundrum, which has vastly reshaped both nations since the 1959 Cuban Revolution chased the leaders of the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship to their new...and apparently permanent...capital of Little Havana in the heart of Miami. The Ferrer photo above was used to illustrate a huge article August 13-2018 in the Miami Herald written by Nora Gamez Torres. The article is entitled: "Cuba Opposition Leader Is Accused of Attempted Murder. Activists Dispute the Charge."

     It so happens that Nora Gamez Torres, who wrote the aforementioned article in the Miami Herald, is an outstanding and fair-minded journalist. Unlike the intimidated and politically correct mainstream U. S. media and the avalanche of thuggish anti-Cuban right-wing media rags, Ms. Gamez Torres and the Miami Herald can be counted on to write honest journalistic appraisals of Cuban events. In that vein, Ms. Gamez Torres presented both sides of the latest Jose Daniel Ferrer controversy. And she included this accurate paragraph:

           "The Santiago de Cuba attorney's office accused Ferrer and Ebert Hidalgo Cruz of trying to run over Dainier Suarez Pagan, the Interior Ministry official. Hildalgo usually serves as Ferrer's driver. However, on this day, Ferrer was practicing his driving skills when the car struck the official."

         Those exact and honest words in the August 13-2018 Miami Herald written by Nora Gamez Torres are actually AMAZING considering that a major U. S. newspaper had...and HAS...the sheer guts EVEN IN MIAMI to actually write a fair-minded paragraph about a Cuban issue.

     After all, history confirms that Emilio Milian, at the time the top Cuban-American newsman in Miami, got car-bombed when he complained about Cuban-American terrorists in Miami terrorizing totally innocent Cubans on the island and in Miami.

     Cuba has released the chauffeur who was in the car but not driving it when it struck the Cuban official on a Santiago street in far southeast Cuba. But Jose Daniel Ferrer, the driver, is still being held by Cuba. As by far the most powerful dissident in Cuba, Ferrer is beloved by the ultra-rich and ultra-powerful Counter Revolutionary elements in the United States. But Cuba labels Ferrer "an agent of the anti-Cuban forces in Miami and in the United States Congress and in all Republican White Houses." After the incident in Santiago, the official spokesman for Ferrer told the Reuters news agency, "The incident was an accident and the Ministry official was only slightly injured." Whatever the true facts are, two things are assured: {1} Decent Americans have a right, as they would if it involved any other foreign nation, to wonder if Cuba will deal with Ferrer fairly; and {2} Democracy loving Americans, like me, have every reason to wonder if, as usual, only right-wing Counter Revolutionary extremists in Miami and in the U. S. Congress will dictate how this latest Ferrer controversy is portrayed in the United States. After all, as any Google-search would reveal, even the most infamous, self-admitted, and extremist anti-Cuban terrorists -- Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch -- found safe sanctuaries in Miami, Florida.

Bosch & Posada...

lived out their long lives...

as heralded citizens of Miami.

    The world's top news organizations, such as the BBC report above, have told the truth about U.S.-Cuban relations. Perhaps it is time...in 2018...for U. S. organizations to finally do the same.

My point is..............

..........despite the worldwide image depicted above, the superpower United States of America DOES NOT own the island nation of Cuba. And neither is Cuba, unlike Puerto Rico and the U. S. Virgin Islands in the Caribbean, a U. S. Territory or possession of the United States. The image above derives from the fact that transplanted {and well-known as well as awesomely supported Cubans and sycophants on U. S. soil} elements from the overthrown Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba have been allowed to dictate America's failed, embarrassing, and anti-democratic Cuban policies and narratives since 1959.

    Such basic facts always remind this democracy-loving American of Celia Sanchez -- the petite doctor's daughter who became Revolutionary Cuba's greatest recruiter of rebels and supplies, greatest guerrilla fighter, greatest military leader, and, always with Fidel Castro's 100% support, the greatest decision-maker in Revolutionary Cuba from January-1959 till she died of cancer at age 59 in January-1980. And while she still lived, Celia Sanchez famously made what might be the most definitive quote in the historic annals of U.S.-Cuban relations. Just for the record in 2018, that quote is shown below.

      "We rebels...get far too much credit for winning the Revolution. Our enemies deserve most of the credit, for being greedy cowards and idiots."

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Cuban Dissidents Emboldened

Cuba Adjusts to Trump Era!!
{Monday, August 13th, 2018}

Photo courtesy: Mariana Bazo/Reuters

      The Reuters journalist in Cuba, Marc Frank, reported on Aug. 12-2018 that the island's leading dissident, Jose Daniel Ferrer, has been charged with attempted murder. He is accused of trying to use his car to deliberately run over an official of the Interior Ministry. A spokesman for Ferrer's Patriotic Union of Cuba organization told Marc Frank the "incident was an accident and the official was only slightly injured."

"Dios Patria Libertad" = "God Homeland Freedom"

      The Cuban government considers Jose Daniel Ferrer to be "an agent of the United States government created by Counter Revolutionairies and the U. S. media."

      In her Aug. 12-2018 article in the Los Angeles Times, Tracy Wilkinson wrote, "The Ferrer arrest comes after a relatively benign period for Cuban dissidents, who have enjoyed more freedom as the new government of Miguel Diaz-Canel drafts a new constitution, Cuba's first in decades." But as Tracy Wilkinson and all unbiased journalists and Latin American experts well know, anytime anything positive related to Cuba is reported, the vast Counter Revolutionary extremists in the USA mount their counter narratives with well-funded but distorted interpretations. That was obvious when Sunday's Tracy Wilkinson-LA Times article quoted the Trump administration's acting Deputy Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere and he quickly assailed Cuba for the Ferrer arrest. Unfortunately, Cuba is in the Western Hemisphere and another Batistiano-aligned Republican administration is in power in Washington.

Trump's Western Hemisphere guru, Francisco Palmieri.

     After replacing the two-term, Cuba-friendly Democratic President Barack Obama, Republican President Donald Trump, like all Republican presidents since the 1950s, turned America's Cuban policies back over to the most radical Counter Revolutionaries in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood. The photo above shows Trump performing that chore at Miami's Manuel Artime Theater, a plush Little Havana landmark named for a leader of the 1961 Bay of Pigs military attack on Cuba.

       While in Little Havana, President Trump officially signed documents returning America's Cuban policies back over to extreme Cuban-American hardliners and their self-serving sycophants, such as the two men peering over Trump's right shoulder -- Senator Marco Rubio from Little Havana, Miami's capital; and Governor Rick Scott from Tallahassee, Florida's capital. None of the people in this photo are the least bit concerned that America's Cuban polices were condemned by a 191-to-0 vote in the United Nations in 2016, the year before Trump replaced President Barack Obama.

       Meanwhile, Cuba has a new President, Miguel Diaz-Canel. He said, "We have just drafted a new constitution that is now being discussed in people forums all across this island, and we hope it will be ratified by a referendum vote in November. We must, foremost, continue the sacred Revolution beyond all else but we also must recognize who and what is now in charge in Washington as we try to build a sustainable economy while also staunchly maintaining the sovereignty that the Revolution in 1959 finally gave this island and its deserving people. The world globe beside me includes many nations favorable to Cuba already and many others desiring to be Cuba's friend. We must concentrate on cultivating friendly relations while trying to drift away from our one enemy nation even if we must face another survival mode situation."

      This weekend -- on Aug. 11th, 2018 -- longtime Counter Revolutionary journalist Andres Oppenheimer penned a major article in the Miami Herald entitled: "Cuba's New Constitution Is Worse Than The Old One." After referencing items in Cuba's new constitution that he said have "generated a lot of enthusiastic headlines around the world," Oppenheimer then lambasted the new constitution with this sentence: "On the contrary, it's dreadful." On U. S. soil Oppenheimer is one in a long, lucrative line of Counter Revolutionary journalists/authors/speakers who have gained fame, riches, and notoriety within the bowels of the Castro Cottage Industry in the USA. The only thing people like Oppenheimer would not consider "dreadful" in Revolutionary Cuba is if all the leaders in Havana would surrender on their knees in Miami's Little Havana sector and turn the island back over to the Batista-Mafia remnants that the Revolution chased to Miami way back in 1959. Of Course, being Counter Revolutionaries from Little Havana in Miami might be more lucrative than being back in charge of Cuba in Big Havana.

     Cuba announced on August 9th that the referendum vote on the new constitution will be held on February 24th, 2019, after island-wide forums "thoroughly discuss the new provisions," which include same-sex marriage, strong protections for gays, added property ownership avenues, and other prime guaranteed advancements.

      Meanwhile, CUBANS ON THE ISLAND LIKE THESE THREE LADIES -- not Counter Revolutionary extremists like Andres Oppenheimer in Miami -- will hopefully predicate whether Cuba's new constitution gets ratified or not. And that's the way it should be, regardless of how lucrative Counter Revolutionary assaults from Little Havana in Miami from the likes of Oppenheimer may be. Cuban women likes these on the island, now busily studying the new constitution, are the ones who should have input regarding its passage, NOT self-serving foreigners like Andres Oppenheimer.

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Why {How} Cuba Shames America

From 1898 Till 2018!!

      U.S.-Cuba Relations have been dictated by right-wing political and media thugs since the Spanish-American War in 1898 wrested dominance of the Caribbean island from Spain and left Cuba controlled by the supposedly much more decent United States. As a democracy-loving American, I have the guts to make that statement. However, most Americans don't despite the undeniable truth of such a simple, historic and TRUE fact.

      Since 1898 only one nation, Cuba, has consistently resisted America's brash imperialistic designs on helpless, smaller, and much weaker nations. Again, most Americans in 2018 don't have either the guts, the intelligence, or the patriotism to admit that simple truth...which says a lot more about superpower United States than it says about little Cuba. And mostly what it says is just how cowardly, ignorant, and unpatriotic the last few generations of Americans have been in their lack of defense of their nation's democracy and its international reputation.

     America's Cuban policy in 2016, the last year of the decent Obama presidency, got a resounding 191-to-0 condemnation in the United Nations, and that unanimity was approved by America's President, a democracy-lover named Barack Obama. Furthermore, I don't believe in this very diverse world that there is any other single topic other than the U. S. insanity against Cuba that could possibly attain such international unanimous condemnation and, if you think there is, BE SURE to let me know if there is another such topic. In that vein, I refer you to the above image entitled: "US-Cuba Relations Explained." This image, or graphic, will take you to a brilliant, concise, fair, and unbiased eleven-minute video on YouTube that expertly, concisely, and fairly summarizes U.S.-Cuban relations since 1952 when right-wing thugs in the Eisenhower administration sicced the Mafia on Cuba to expedite and facilitate the participation of rich Americans and so-called legitimate U. S. companies in the wholesale rape and robbery of the Caribbean's largest island, Cuba. The video-bio explains how the same right-wing thugs, beginning in Guatemala in 1954, overthrew the democratically elected Arbenz government to install a series of brutal but U.S.-friendly dictators. This consistent trend persisted in the U. S. for two more brutal decades, culminating in 1973 when the two most powerful U. S. thugs -- Nixon & Kissinger -- got away with backing a coup in Chile that overthrew and killed the wildly popular and democratically elected Allende government to install, for the next 17 murderous years, the U.S.-friendly but well-known and extremely murderous Pinochet dictatorship. Through it all, the aforementioned YouTube bio entitled "US-Cuba Relations Explained" very correctly explains that little Cuba for all these decades has been the only small country to continually resist such hegemony and foreign domination by a world superpower.

 I sincerely urge all democracy-loving Americans to use this title -- "US-Cuba Relations Explained" -- to dial up the 11-minute explanation on YouTube that explains why America's Cuban policy -- since 1898 and especially since 1952 and 1959 -- has done more...FAR MORE...than anything else to harm America's and Democracy's worldwide images and reputations. And that undeniable fact mostly rests, I and many other democracy-lovers believe, with generations of cowardly and unpatriotic Americans who have allowed right-wing thugs to dictate America's grossly insane Cuban policies.

    For sure, President Barack Obama was mightily ASHAMED of the graphic above compiled by Brazilian artist Carlos LaTuff. The American SHAME in August of 2018 is that the above image does not SHAME enough citizens in an America that is in dire need of more democracy-loving patriots. In the meantime, OF COURSE, America in August of 2018 is awash in sanctimonious, cowardly citizens and sanctimonious, self-serving media propagandists who readily accuse other powerful countries...such as Russia and China...of brutalizing totally innocent citizens in weaker countries. 

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Cuba Strives to Improve Economy

Agriculture Production Is A Priority!
{Thursday, August 8th, 2018}

Photo courtesy: REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini

     The photo above shows Cuban farmers picking tomatoes and it was used yesterday -- Tuesday, August 7th, 2018 -- to illustrate a key REUTERS article written by Marc Frank. It's entitled "Cuba Sweetens Land Grant Program for Farmers."

          Cuba is doubling the amount of land it grants to farmers and increasing the lengths of their leases in an effort to increase the island's production, which would boost the economy.

           REUTERS said, "Cuba now has 400,000 private family farmers and their cooperatives" but "the island imports more than 60 percent of the food it consumes at a cost of around $2 billion annually -- mostly for bulk cereals and grains such as corn, soy, and beans as well as other items such as powdered milk and chicken."

            The new regulations are effective this week and REUTERS reports that farmers can now "lease up to 66 acres of land. Cuba has been paying tens of millions of dollars into many crops with the goal of reducing imports."

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Cuba's Stranglehold on America

Just Check Today's Headlines!!

     Whether you speak Spanish or English or both...and whether you are an American, a Cuban-American, OR BOTH...you cannot deny that the Caribbean island of Cuba says a lot more about the superpower United States than it says about Cuba. That is particularly true since 1898 {the Spanish-American War}, since 1952 {the year the U. S. sicced the Mafia on Cuba}, and since 1959 {the year the Cuban Revolution chased the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Havana to its new capital -- Little Havana in Miami}.

      Any unbiased American or Cuban-American, I believe, will agree with the theme of this essay if they take time to explore the historic and topical relations between the superpower United States and the nearby Caribbean island of Cuba. FOR EXAMPLE, this is the first weekend in August of 2018 -- going on two years since the decent Democratic and Cuba-friendly Obama presidency in the U. S. was replaced by the indecent Republican and Batistiano-friendly Trump administration. Explore the top three headlines today {August 4th, 2018} that result from a Google search of the word "Cuba." Those top three headlines today, along with their media sources, are:

#One

           "Cuba Invites Exiles To Take Part In Debate For Proposed Changes To Island's Constitution." {The top headline today in the Miami Herald}.

#Two

                 "Democratic Governor Says Cuba Has Better Health Care Than U. S." {The top headline today in Newsweek Magazine; and, by the way, the Governor in question is the respected Dannel P. Malloy of Connecticut}.

#Three

                "Senator Bernie Sanders Smitten With Cuba's Health Care." {The top headline today on the Townhall website}.

     The aforementioned Miami Herald article was illustrated by the above photo, which shows a demonstration by Counter Revolutionary Cuban-Americans in front of the Versailles Restaurant in the heart of Miami's Little Havana neighborhood. In contrast to its one-sided photo, it's a fair and balanced article written by Nora Gamez Torres.

     Unlike the cowardly mainstream U. S. media that is afraid of the Batistianos, Miami Herald journalists such as Nora Gamez Torres have recently, in the Trump era, written a series of important articles that actually provide both sides of the two-sided U.S.-Cuban conundrum. Thus, the aforementioned Miami Herald article today is well worth reading because it was written by Nora Gamez Torres, a truly excellent journalist.

     And the aforementioned Newsweek article today is also worth reading because it centers on a very brave U. S. politician, Governor Dannel Malloy of Connecticut, daring to say that Cuba's health care is better than America's because it universally cares for all Cubans equally while America's health care, the world's most expensive, caters to extremely rich Americans and to how much money extremely rich capitalists can make off of health care. So, indeed, the Newsweek article today is well worth reading.

     But the aforementioned Townhall article was written by Humberto Fontova and that means is it not worth reading unless you happen to be seriously addicted to Counter Revolutionary anti-Cuban propaganda, such as Mr. Fontova is spewing out in the above video. Therein lies a serious dilemma in the U. S. since 1959 for both totally innocent Cubans, Americans, and Cuban-Americans. Townhall is a lavishly funded media source in Washington that is a typical right-wing propaganda outfit that sullies the descending reputation of the overall U. S. media. In that milieu for decades well-heeled Counter Revolutionary anti-Cuban authors-writers-speakers across the USA landscape -- such as Mr. Fontova -- have lucratively spouted their Cuban venom without any concern about being questioned about either their ideology or their motives. This, I believe, has harmed the U. S. democracy far more than it has harmed Revolutionary Cuba, which...in fact...has, to a degree, been aided by it.

     Meanwhile, in Havana today the capital building is still standing and, incredibly, sovereign and revolutionary rule on the island has prevailed...against all odds...since January of 1959, incredibly reshaping BOTH little Cuba and big America IN EQUALLY LARGE DOSES. And, as the aforementioned Miami Herald article points out today, Cuba on August 4th, 2018, has a new non-Castro President AND a newly drafted constitution that very surprisingly "welcomes input from Cuban exiles" including Counter Revolutionary zealots in Miami's vehement Little Havana neighborhood.

      Cuba's new President Miguel Diaz-Canel was born after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959, and he is the island's former Education Minister.

     Everyday Cubans on the island are very fond of their new President, Miguel Diaz-Canel. While the mainstream U. S. media doesn't have the courage to report such things about Cuba, the Miami Herald, incredibly, does have such courage.

     Cuban-born Fabiola Santiago since 1980 has been a key journalist at the Miami Herald. I have often criticized her for her fierce anti-Cuban articles. But she is a journalist and not a propagandist. Today she is the Miami Herald's top columnist and its Editorial chief. Recently she has had the courage and the integrity to suggest that, in the Trump era, if the United States is willing to talk with leaders like Kim in North Korea and Putin in Russia THAN the U. S. should have the guts and the decency to talk with Cuba's Miguel Diaz-Canel, whom Ms. Santiago suggests is a more decent person than Kim, Putin, OR Trump. AND ALSO, as the top journalist at the Miami Herald, the Cuban-born Fabiola Santiago has strongly criticized President Trump for his gutless anointment of Miami's self-serving U. S. Senator Marco Rubio as America's latest Cuban dictator. And you know what? I admire integrity and courage. Thus, I admire Fabiola Santiago whether or not I always agree with her, and I often don't.

     In other words, the top Cuban-American journalist in Miami {Fabiola Santiago} and I agree that having Marco Rubio as today's U.S.-backed dictator of Cuba in Washington is no better than having the Mafia-aligned Fulgencio Batista as the 1950's U.S.-backed dictator of Cuba in Cuba. I say that as a democracy-loving American who has come to admire Fabiola Santiago at the Miami Herald as a democracy-loving Cuban-American who, even in anti-Cuba-infested Miami, has the integrity and courage to write the truth about America's most lied-about topic, CUBA!!!

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Well-Heeled in Cuba

Massive Support from the USA!!

    Taking a page from Yoani Sanchez's career, Claudio Padron Cueto knows how to become a well-heeled Cuban in Cuba, not just in Miami. After getting her free University of Havana journalism degree, Padron knew she could stay in Cuba and get massive economic and promotional support from the U. S. by being a Counter Revolutionary journalist-propagandist in Cuba.

    The vast Counter Revolutionary Castro Cottage Industry in the United States yearns to support anti-revolutionary dissidents -- especially journalists such as Claudio Padron Cueto that Cuba allows to remain on the island while dispensing their anti-Cuba diatribes via her powerful, well-funded El Torqe/In Touch blog and her powerful, well-funded U.S.-backed sources and outlets -- such as the right-wing media as well as ultra-rich and ultra-powerful propaganda institutions in Washington like the Brookings Institution, which has a Board of Directors that includs dozens of America's richest billionaires -- from Alfonzo Fanjul of infamous Cuba-Miami fame, Nike's Philip Knight, and many, many MORE. Brookings, of course, loves Claudio Padron Cueto.

     The Counter Revolutionary Castro Cottage Industry in the U. S. also takes advantage of Cuban experts such as Richard E. Feinberg. He's a university professor-economist-author-journalist and he devotes most of his intellect and energy to Cuban issues. This week he teamed with Claudio Padron Cueto to co-author a HUGE and LONG article about, uh...Cuban ice cream.

      The Quartz-Feinberg-Padron photo above illustrated a massive article this week entitled: "To Understand Cuba's Emerging Class System, Try the Ice Cream." It was co-authored by Mr. Feinberg and Ms. Padron -- SO BE SURE TO READ IT. The photo and the article supposedly depicts a wealthy Cuban family enjoying expensive ice cream. Then the article explained that the majority Cuban peasants were relegated to extremely cheap ice cream. WONDERFL!! The gist of the elongated spiel was to stress that Revolutionary Cuba's "egalitarian society" is evolving into a quagmire of gross inequality with the minority rich living luxuriously in Post-Castro Cuba while the majority poor are destitute and starving...and, of course, that calamitous situation MUST BE corrected by a foreign power. Analysis: On the tropical Caribbean island of Cuba, ice cream deserves to be journalistically judged fairly and not used as yet another pawn to discredit everything related to Revolutionary Cuba while sanitizing the vile Batista-Mafia regime that preceded it.

   Indeed, in 2018 Revolutionary Cuba has entered into a nascent but still-targeted Post-Castro era. The island since April 19-2018 has inaugurated its first non-Castro leader since 1959 and as of July 22-2018 Cuba has drafted {above} a new constitution that stresses things such as sexual-marriage equality and omits the word "communism" in favor of just "socialism." But as the aforementioned Brookings-Quartz-Padron-Feinberg propaganda references illustrate, there is nothing Revolutionary Cuba could possibly do that would alter what the island has been since Christopher Columbus discovered it in 1492 and that is: Its beauty, its size, and its location has for centuries made it one of the greatest prizes or targets for imperial powers. The Revolution in 1959 finally gained sovereignty for Cuba but the world's most famed democracy -- which happens to be the world's nearby Superpower -- remains in 2018 the one nation in the world that prefers foreign domination over Cuba preferable to any form of self-government for the besieged island, and...sadly...that includes Democracy. The fact that many Americans...most Americans...disagree with that basic truth reflects the power that propaganda and intimidation can have even within the bowels of the world's most powerful Democracy. It was propaganda & intimidation that enabled the U. S. to support the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba in the 1950s and, since 1959, to support the Batistiano-Mafiosi efforts to regain control of the luscious island. Therefore, regardless of what Cuba's new constitution says or evolves into, the Cuban narratives and the Cuban policies of the United States of America will continue to be dictated by yet another generation of greedy Batistiano exiles and yet another generation of greedy Batistiano sycophants.

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