Who Perpetrated It To Hurt Cuba??
{UPDATED: Wednesday, December 5th, 2018}
{UPDATED: Wednesday, December 5th, 2018}
A top Foreign Affairs journalist at the Washington Post, Amanda Erickson, this week -- on Dec. 3rd-2018 -- penned a major article entitled: "Another Diplomat Gets Brain Injury in Cuba: What We Know So Far." It references another Canadian diplomat in Havana who has complained of brain damage from some mysterious sonic attack that has also affected more than 20 Americans. For almost two years the Trump administration in Washington has used the attacks to punish Cuba as it whittles away all the positive U.S.-Cuban relations established under the pre-Trump presidency of Barack Obama. Amanda Erickson's article in the Washington Post astutely examines the sonic-wave/microwave-like attacks right up to date. Then Ms. Erickson's last paragraph is one that Marco Rubio, now in charge of the latest Republican Party effort to create a regime-change in Cuba, doesn't want Americans to read. But here is that exact final paragraph: "One government most people think is innocent: Cuba. Washington and Ottawa have found no evidence that the Cuban government is involved. Havana has vigorously denied that it had anything to with what's going on and has worked with international teams to get to the bottom of it."
And so this week -- Dec. 3-2018 -- the Washington Post's Foreign Affairs expert, Amanda Erickson, provides Americans with the definitive update on the two-year "mystery" concerning Marco Rubio's favorite current pretext for assaulting Cuba. And Ms. Erickson's conclusion suggests that perhaps Americans, instead of allowing Rubio to dictate the Cuban narrative in the U. S., should for once consider Cuba's logic. As a brave journalist, it is obvious Amanda Erickson didn't ask permission from Marco Rubio when she concluded: "One government most people think is innocent: Cuba."
The Cuban government's Top Minister related to U. S. Affairs is Carlos de Cossio. He says: "After exhaustive research on our part and after our pleas to American and Canadian researchers to do their due diligence, we strongly suggest that motive is a key factor. Just the publicity surrounding the facts and the rumors attached to them have hurt Cuba's economy and reputation, and that appears to be the motive. We are not in the business of deliberating hurting ourselves regarding tourism or anything vital to our security. So who has the motive to hurt and defame Cuba? Almost two years into this mystery, to ignore that question is to mislead what should be an honest appraisal and an honest investigation."
Since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on Jan. 1-1959, efforts hatched in Miami and Washington to regain control of the island include a wide range of provocations designed to create a "Pretext" that would justify an all-out military attack on the island. Prime examples, of course, are "Operation Northwoods" in 1962 and Brothers to the Rescue airplanes from Miami in 1996 that, among other things, dropped items down onto Cuba's capital city of Havana...typical of significant little tidbits supposedly not mentioned by an intimidated U. S. media. Of course, the perpetrators who devise such schemes have never had to worry about being held accountable in the U. S., but Cuba remains very sensitive to "Pretexts" from Miami or from Washington. As pointed out in the above graphic, in 1962 "Operation Northwoods" was quite classified {secret} and Americans, for whatever it was worth, only learned about it on Nov. 18-1997 when it was finally de-classified.
If Cuba's revolutionary government is found to be responsible for the "MYSTERY ATTACKS" in Havana against either American or Canadian diplomats, Cuba should be held accountable. But Revolutionary Cuba hasn't survived all these decades by being that stupid, and the same standards should be applied to other, more plausible culprits also. But two years of using the accusations to punish innocent Cubans on the island merely plays into the hands of a handful of Counter Revolutionary extremists, exacerbating the historic lopsidedness of the U.S.-Cuban conundrum on U. S. soil.
MEANWHILE, by the way:
The President of Guyana, David Granger, has chosen Cuba's renowned CIMEO clinic for the treatment of his cancer.
A Vietnamese construction company is hard at work building Cuba's first Industrial Park west of Havana on a 310-acre parcel of land. Cuba plans for the Park to house companies from various countries.
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, shown above with Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, had a busy two days in Havana last week when he was accompanied by dozens of Spanish business executives. Spain has agreed to join Russia and China to help Diaz-Canel on one of his pet projects -- which is, sharply refurbishing the island's railroad system. Also, Cuba now reports that 41 clients from 28 nations, led by Spain, have invested in the Mariel Economic Zone where the state-of-the-art deep-water port 28 miles southwest of Havana remains a key to the island's economic viability.
Cuba took a huge hit when extreme right-winger Jair Bolsonaro was elected President of Brazil, of course. Quickly, Bolsonaro booted out 8,300 Cuban doctors working in Brazil's poorest areas and considered by most observers to be doing vital services. But Cuba is equally concerned about the handshake above between Bolsonaro and John Bolton, who is President Trump's now powerful National Security Adviser. Bolton has long advocated for the overthrow of Revolutionary Cuba and the possibility of mighty Brazil assisting the ultra-mighty USA in that endeavor is surely dire cause for Cuba's concern.
The photo above shows a Cuban doctor as the only doctor this Brazilian woman and baby had ever seen. A key director at the Pan American Health Organization in Brazil, Joaquin Molina, said this week, "Cuba only sent well-trained, experienced, and dedicated doctors to Brazil. They served drastically under-served or totally un-served areas. They will be missed."
But this past Saturday -- on Dec. 1st-2018 -- Mexico inaugurated a Cuba-friendly President in Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. As you can see from the BBC graphic above, President Lopez Obrador got a strong election mandate. One early word from Mexico City now predicts Mexico will hire about 3,000 of Cuba's excess doctors to work in some of Mexico's poorest areas. So Cuba is adjusting as best it can to the vacillating political nuances in Latin America, such as in Brazil and Mexico.
Since last Saturday, Dec. 1-2018, Cuba has had a good friend, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, as the new President of Mexico.
Mexico's President Lopez Obrador and his wife Beatriz Gutierrez this past weekend hosted Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel and his wife Lis Cuesta at the Palacio Nacional in Mexico City.