Cuba Exposes Dire USA Weakness

U.S. Media Insults U. S. Democracy!!

    Two headlines this first full weekend in December of 2018 reveals, I think, today's most dire weakness in the U. S. democracy: An intimidated, incompetent, propaganda-obsessed, right-wing/left-wing News Media. Two distinct headlines related to Cuba today -- Sat., Dec. 8th -- illustrate that fact. The London Daily News headline screams: "Prince Charles Will Become the First Member of the Royal Family to Visit Cuba." That's important considering the fact that Prince Charles will be the next King of England. So, it's legitimate news.

     But in the United States of America this weekend the major headline related to Cuba is from the Breitbart News Network, which blared this unmitigated lie: "Survivors: Cuba Has Detained Half A Million Dissidents, Still Starving Prisoners To Death." Typical of Cuban headlines in the U.S., Breitbart readers, listeners or viewers are almost daily propagandized to believe that in Revolutionary Cuba people are routinely and massively imprisoned, murdered, and starved to death while in the preceding Batista-Mafia rule on the island all Cubans were treated as tenderly as Mother Teresa would have treated them.

Prince Charles is legitimate Cuban news.

   Also interesting and important are the opinions of Prince Charles regarding whether the late Fidel Castro's Revolutionary triumph in 1959 improved the island in relations to the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia rule that existed from 1952 till 1959. A legitimate debate.

     And that takes us back to today's typical Cuban headline from the massive, well-funded Breitbart News network. Anyone who reads Cuban-related Breitbart articles is being taken down a lying, propagandized trail that most intelligent people try to avoid, which suggests that Breitbart is something that should not have a foothold in the world's strongest democracy. Breitbart is nothing more and nothing less than an extreme right-wing propaganda machine, but like many other so-called "news" outlets in the USA these days, it is massively funded and therefore far-reaching. Hedge Fund billionaire Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebecca are known to be huge Breitbart backers. The Wikipedia bio of Rebecca Mercer, for example, features this exact line: "Mercer and her father played a major role in the election of Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election." In other words, extreme right-wing "news" rags can have monumental influences regarding America's most cherished democratic fibers -- such as elections. And that's a shame...and also one that Thomas Jefferson warned against in 1776 when he opined that an honest and free media was more important than the newly independent United States government itself. Breitbart is the Poster Boy that proves Mr. Jefferson was right, and every Breitbart mention of Cuba, for example, is a propagandized lie, I believe. For American citizens to allow the likes of Breitbart to emerge prominently onto the American landscape simply because of support from tons of dollars from a billionaire shames America and Democracy, in my opinion. Therefore, I think Americans should consider whether or not that no longer having a trusted media constitutes America's most glaring weakness. The island of Cuba, which has in fact exposed much about extreme right-wing shenanigans in America, has exposed the propagandizing media too...at least making it a topic well worth discussing by democracy-loving Americans.

  Thomas Jefferson wrote America's Declaration of Independence and he wrote the quotation above. Both of those Democracy Jewels, I believe, are proof that Mr. Jefferson would detest today's propaganda-obsessed U. S. media, especially well-funded/right-wing rags like Breitbart.

     And speaking of the media and quotations, Cuba's Cristina Escobar is probably the most talented television news journalist in the Western Hemisphere, anchoring both Spanish-speaking and English-speaking television shows. She also has uttered, on both Cuban and American soil, two famous quotations: {1} "Cuban journalists have more freedom to tell the truth about the United States than United States journalists have to tell the truth about Cuba;" and {2} "Cubans on the island, not Cubans in Miami and Washington, should decide the fate of Cuba."

     The sheer fact that a brilliant, well-educated, bilingual Cuban television news anchor, Cristina Escobar, can render two such definitive facts regarding Cuba-U.S. media and Cuba-U.S. relations should, I think, cause genuine reflections among America's democracy lovers. Cristina is well respected by veteran U. S. journalists such as NBC-TV's Andrea Mitchell and veteran politician Barack Obama. During the Obama presidency, Cristina made history by being the first Cuban to ask questions...she ended up asking six pertinent ones...at an official White House news conference. As a democracy-lover, do I believe Cristina Escobar's two quotations depicted above are accurate? Yes, I do. {YouTube videos feature both Cristina quotes}.

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Drastic Changes in Cuba

A Long Effort Bears Fruition!!
{Updated: Friday, Dec. 7th, 2018}

Credit: Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters/NBC News.

     The photo above taken Wednesday night -- December 5th, 2018 -- shows Cubans sitting on the famed Malecon Seawall in Havana connecting with the Internet world on their Smart Phones. As of this week, Cubans are enjoying full internet access on their phones.

A new Getty Images Cuban photo.

Another Getty Images Cuban photo.

     Already about 6 million of Cuba's 11.2 million people had cell phones but now, thanks to a process aided by former U. S. President Obama and Google's boss Eric Schmidt, much easier connections to the Internet are possible across the island. Many Cubans have expensive Smart Phones courtesy of Cuban-American relatives and friends in the USA. Also, thousands of Cuban entrepreneurs regularly fly to countries like Panama and Guyana to purchase clothes and other items, then return to Cuba to sell them for profits or use them personally. Being innovative in restoring 1950s-era U. S. cars is not the only thing Cubans on the island have learned since the Revolution changed things drastically in both Cuba and the United States. Coping & surviving are great motivators.

     A big announcement from Mayra Arevich in Havana. Mayra is the President of ETECSA, Cuba's Telecommunication Company. Starting this week -- on 12-05-2018 -- Mayra says Cubans across the island can begin receiving full internet access on mobile phones. There are now more than 800 WiFi sites in Cuba and Mayra said Cuba began seriously modernizing internet access in 2014 when U. S. President Barack Obama seriously began normalizing relations with Cuba. "I regret Mr. Obama is no longer America's president but I also want what is best for all Cubans. So we move along," Mayra said.

    Cuba's desire to modernize its internet service has been slowed by the current Trump administration in Washington but it has a key ally in the internet giant Google. The photo above shows Mayra Arevich, the boss at ETECSA, signing an important deal with Eric Schmidt, the boss at Google. With an office in Havana, Google installed servers that drastically improved connectivity speeds in Cuba. "I am proud of Google," Mayra said, "and I hope Mr. Schmidt is proud of Cuba."

    As Cuba's telecommunication boss, Mayra Arevich was asked how many internet sites, starting now, will be blocked out in Cuba on mobile phones. She replied, "Almost none, fewer than in most countries I assure you. We want Cubans to have access to a wide range of information and communication." What about Radio-TV Marti in Miami? "Of course," she replied, "that will be blocked. We would be foolish to facilitate a well-funded propaganda source located in a foreign country whose only purpose is to destroy us and, failing that, to demean us. We do not deserve to be demeaned or lied to by Cubans or anyone else off the island."

     The photo above was taken in New York City on Sept. 25-2018 when Cuba's new President Miguel Diaz-Canel was hosted at Google headquarters by Google's top boss Eric Schmidt. One by one Mr. Schmidt introduced Diaz-Canel to dozens of other American business executives. A strong majority of American business executives, such as Mr. Schmidt, favor doing business with Cuba...as do a strong majority of Cuban-Americans in the United States of America.

     But the United States of America has only a two-party political system -- Republicans and Democrats. And since the 1950s all six Republican administrations in Washington have been tightly aligned with the Batistiano-Mafiosi faction that raped-robbed-and-brutalized Cuba at will from 1952 till Jan. 1-1959, after which the Batistiano-Mafiosi leaders fled the Cuban Revolution to resurrect their new capital of Little Havana in Miami, Florida. And since Jan. 1-1959 -- hiding behind the skirts of the Republican Party and a bit of Miami-related terrorism -- the Counter Revolutionary Cubans have dominated both the U. S. Congress and Republican White Houses. The photo above is a prime example. After Democratic President Barack Obama bravely and decently tried to normalize relations with Cuba, incoming Republican President Donald Trump QUICKLY WENT TO LITTLE HAVANA and shamefully returned America's Cuban policies back over to the Counter Revolutionary Cuban extremists and their self-serving sycophants. And the point I make is this: Any American who is not shamed by the photo above is, IN MY OPINION, either a coward or an anti-American.

     Since 1959 Cuban-born Counter Revolutionaries in the United States have lucratively dictated the Cuban narrative to the American people with the cooperation of an intimidated, incompetent, or politically correct mainstream United States media.

     Incessantly since 1959 the United States media has enabled Counter Revolutionary Cuban extremists to paint Batista's Cuba as a Mother Teresa-like paradise while portraying Revolutionary Cuba as the most murderous hellhole in world history.

     In 1959 remnants from the overthrown Batista dictatorship in Cuba easily had enough money and enough strong-arm tactics to totally dominate Miami's and Newark's political and economic structures...and that situation has exacerbated outwardly since then, especially to the hallowed halls of Washington. Now a second generation of well-off and ubiquitous Cuban-Americans, like Humberto Fontova, will use the mainstream United States media to tout the "virtues" of Batista's Cuba in stark contrast to the "debauchery" of Revolutionary Cuba.

    The fact that the U. S. media lacks the courage to provide equal time to the majority of Cuban-Americans who favor decent interaction with Cuba is, I believe, more America's problem than Cuba's. America's Cuban policies have been condemned by the decency of President Obama and a 191-to-0 vote in the UN; America's Cuban policies dictate that Americans are the only people in the world without the total freedom to visit Cuba, lest they judge it for themselves; and Americans have been programmed not to object to the world's longest and cruelest economic embargo ever imposed by a powerful nation against a much weaker nation...even after de-classified U. S. documents revealed the ongoing purpose of the embargo was/is to starve, deprive, and make miserable the lives of everyday Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow their government. Of course, the usually unchallenged rantings and ravings from the likes of Humberto Fontova never attempt to explain how and why Revolutionary Cuba has, somehow, managed to exist for all these many decades. {Could it possibly be that the answer is this: Rebels like Fidel Castro stayed on the island to fight while his enemies fled to safer havens elsewhere?}.

    Meanwhile, Cuba's superstar television News Anchor Rosy Amaro Perez has spent this entire first week of December-2018 reporting back to the island from Nicaragua. {Apparently John Bolton's inclusion of Nicaragua in his anti-Cuban tirade in Miami was of interest to Rosy.} You may detect a worried look on Rosy's countenance.

     As an infamous war-mongering right-winger, Mr. Bolton has always been scary, especially during Republican presidencies. As President Trump's National Security Adviser, Bolton is more scarier than usual.

     President Donald Trump's choice to succeed Nikki Haley as the United States Ambassador to the UN is Heather Nauert. She is a former Fox News journalist and recently served as primary State Department anti-Cuban spokesperson. It is a fact that Little Havana's U. S. Senator Marco Rubio has the final word regarding any Trump appointment that might even remotely relate to Rubio's regime-change plans for Cuba. Of course, Heather Nauert easily meets Rubio's criteria.

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Cuba Winning Sonic Controversy

Who Perpetrated It To Hurt Cuba??
{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.

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Mexican Weekend for Cuba

In Trump Era Cuba Needs Friends!!
{UPDATED: Sunday, December 2nd, 2018}

     In Havana this first weekend in December, 2018, Cuban doctors continued to return from their assignments in Brazil after that powerful Latin American nation, recently Cuba's dear friend, elected a far-right, militarist President named Jair Bolsonaro. The photo above shows some of the 202 Cuban doctors who returned to Cuba on the 13th flight from Brazil. Some 8,300 Cuban medical personnel have been booted out of Cuba after diligently serving only the poorest Brazilian areas for the past five years, and many of them have been offered asylum in Brazil, the U. S., or U.S.-friendly nations. A right-wing, military-style government in Brazil that aligns with the Trump administration in Washington is the last thing Cuba needs as it adjusts to a post-Castro leader.

     Brazil remains Latin America's dominant country and it's new right-wing, military-style government is a threat to Cuba. In fact, the U. S. journalist most attuned to U.S.-Cuban affairs, Tracey Eaton, opined this past week that he "would not be surprised" if the United States launched an attack on Cuba "from Brazil." The last military assault by the U. S. against Cuba was the April-1961 Bay of Pigs attack that was launched from Nicaragua when the U.S.-backed Somoza dictatorship ruled that nation. So Eaton's prediction is eerily reminiscent of the Bay of Pigs and in 2018 the Trump-Rubio-Bolton faction in Washington apparently believes this generation of proselytized Americans will stomach whatever they plan for the island of Cuba. And Cuba understands that.

    Meanwhile, a ray of sunshine for Cuba burst forth in Mexico City this weekend. On Saturday, Dec. 1-2018, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was inaugurated as Mexico's new President. In an emotional speech the left-leaning Lopez Obrador stressed his allegiance to Mexico's children, youth, seniors, and all indigenous people...and he vowed to assail the corruption that so mightily favors the rich at the expense of the poor.

      And speaking of indigenous Latin American friends, in Mexico Saturday Cuba's new President Miguel Diaz-Canel wrapped his arms around the embattled, Cuba-friendly Presidents of Venezuela and Bolivia. Politically, their Western Hemisphere is being reconfigured.

First four photos courtesy: Leticia Martinez Hernandes.

     In the past couple of weeks Cuba's new President Miguel Diaz-Canel has traveled to...France, China, Russia, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, England, and now Mexico. The photo above shows Diaz-Canel's arrival in Mexico City for Saturday's inauguration of Mexico's new President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The Trump presidency in the U. S. has convinced Diaz-Canel that Marco Rubio, John Bolton, and Mauricio Claver-Carone have been authorized by Trump to overthrow Cuba's Revolutionary government. Diaz-Canel thus is seeking new friends and trying to "re-polish"...as he says...old friends.

     In Mexico, Cuban President Diaz-Canel and his wife Lis huddled with very friendly Cuban and Mexican diplomats.

    A charmer in Mexico this weekend, President Diaz-Canel will need to be very charming to survive, with help from friends, the Trump era in the nearby United States. 

    To survive the USA's new hegemonic ambitions, Cuba's Diaz-Canel, as in Mexico this weekend, hopes to be honored with many more red carpet-honor guard salutes in important capital cities.

     This Manuel Velaquez/Getty Images photo profiles Mexico's news President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who is also known just by the acronym AMLO. December 1st, 2018 was inauguration day for Lopez Obrador as Mexico's President. He had lost two precious elections, one of whom he says was stolen from him. But this time Lopez Obrador won his election handily and his party even has a strong super-majority...better than two-thirds...in the Chamber of Deputies that is comprised of 32 Mexican Governors. Over the years since 1959, Revolutionary Cuba has depended on the friendships of Canada on the northern U. S. border, and Mexico on the southern U. S. border. When Cuba's Diaz-Canel this week spoke of his need to "re-polish" old friendships he was referring especially to Mexico and Canada.

    The Desmond Boylan/Associated Press photo above shows the Canadian embassy in Havana. This week another Canadian diplomat suffered from ailments similar to those that have affected other U. S. and Canadian personnel working in Cuba's capital. The two-year-old "mysterious attacks" have been tied to sonic, microwave, etc., assaults but, after endless and massive investigations, remain "mysterious." Yet, of course, the Trump administration continues to use the illnesses to further hurt Cuba while also urging Canada to do the same. The U. S. has used the attacks, for example, to warn tourists not to visit the island, knowing tourism is vital to the Cuban economy. Canadians dominate tourism to Cuba and the Trump administration is urging Canada to also warn its citizens to stop visiting Cuba. Meanwhile, Cuban President Diaz-Canel...now a force on Twitter like Trump...makes this rather salient point: "The last thing we would want to do is hurt tourism. The last thing we would want to do is harm our friendships with nations like Canada. The last thing we would want to do is to give the United States, the world superpower, an excuse to attack our island. With all that in mind, anyone concerned with the mystery of the sonic...or whatever...attacks should first have the integrity to ask...who are they hurting and who are they helping? I say they are hurting Cuba and helping Cuba's enemies in Miami and Washington. And those who will not ask that question are playing directly into the hands of the culprits."

     And, oh, YES!! Cuban President Diaz-Canel uses his Twitter account to rebuke the Trump-Rubio-Bolton assaults on Cuba but, as above, Diaz-Canel also often Tweets about other aspects of his job as the island's new leader. In the above Tweet, Diaz-Canel announced his appointment of Miriam Nicado as the first female head of the University of Havana in its 290 years of existence {not counting, of course, the time when Dictator Batista closed the University while his goons were gunning down all the student leaders, such as Jose Echeverria, who were believed to be supporting the Revolution that Batista kept assuring his friends in Washington was "no threat" to his...and their...rule of the island}. Also, Diaz-Canel was born after the triumph of the Revolution on January 1, 1959, and he is Cuba's former Education Minister, not a former guerrilla fighting rebel.

    This is Miriam Nicado, President Diaz-Canel's choice as the new leader at the University of Havana.

     And this, by the way, was Jose Antonio Echeverria. I give you his whole name just in case you want to Google his role in the Cuban Revolution. Jose was one of the many student leaders at the University of Havana that Dictator Batista gruesomely murdered but there were still so many anti-Batista students that Batista closed the University of Havana entirely.

    The historic photo above is a part of the Jose Antonio Echeverria legend as documented by famed Cuban historian Pedro Alvarez Tabio. On January 4th, 1959, two tired but victorious rebels -- Fidel Castro and Celia Sanchez -- stopped off in the city of Cienfuegos on their way to Havana to take charge of the Cuban government. Celia told Fidel, "We are so tired but we must take time to go by and see Jose's Mother."

    And so, though extremely tired and very anxious to get to Havana, Fidel Castro and Celia Sanchez on Jan. 4-1959 were driven to the home of Jose Antonio Echeverria's mother. They discussed her martyred son, actually got some sleep, and had breakfast the next morning with Mrs. Echeverria. According to Tabio, Celia's last words to Jose's mother were, "I sent word to you that we would avenge Jose's murder or we would all die trying. We kept that promise but I am not happy that Batista and those around him have fled, with their loot, to safe havens."

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