What's New In Cuba?

Well, A Whole Lot!!!

      The photo above was taken in Havana on this very first weekend in the New Year of 2019. It's important because it actually reflects the current pulses and rhythms taking place on the island, superseding even the Trump administration's apparent willingness to allow a trio of vicious Counter Revolutionaries -- Marco Rubio, John Bolton, and Mauricio Claver-Carone -- to execute what might be a bloody regime-change this spring. While Cubans on the island...including eleven million everyday Cubans...are well aware Rubio and his cabals in Miami and Washington remain unchecked by Trump as well as the U. S. media and the U. S. citizens, the Cubans in Cuba are focusing on internal issues, not diabolical threats from the world's nearby Superpower that has tried, each day since 1959, to execute another U.S.-friendly regime change in Cuba. In the photo above -- taken Saturday, Jan. 5-2019 -- Rosy Amaro Perez is excitedly pointing to a landmark in Havana. Rosy is quite aware of the Rubio-led intentions but her excitement remains undeterred because she is a prime advocate of dramatic changes on the island, which started on April 19, 2018, when former Education Minister Miguel Diaz-Canel became Cuba's first non-Castro and first non-revolutionary President since 1959. Beyond that, Rosy and 11 million Cubans on the island are excited about what will happen on February 24th of this New Year. That's the day Cuba will get its first new Constitution since 1976. Rosy posted a giddy caption to this photo: "Si esta arrimando un dia feliz." {"It is getting closer to a happy day."}. That's an important sentence, far more important than most of the media coverage of Cuba in the Western World.

    Although ignored by a U. S. media that is afraid to challenge the Counter Revolutionary zealots in Miami and in Congress, Cuba's new Constitution is a big deal. It was proposed by the island's diverse parliament, as shown above, and then it has been discussed and debated by everyday Cubans at 24,000 sites across the island, affording referendum-type changes and approval. It will be ratified into law on Feb. 24-2019 although the Rubio-types who dictate America's Cuban narratives and Cuban policies don't want Americans to know its the first new Cuban Constitution since 1976 and it will bear the imprint of the island's everyday majority.

    If Rosy Amaro Perez is excited about the "happy day" that arrives for Cuba on Feb. 24-2019 with the new Constitution, that indeed is important. The definitive photo above shows Rosy in Santiago de Cuba on January 1st-2019 where she covered {as a key journalist} and celebrated {as a high-profile citizen} the 60th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution's victory over the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship. Indeed, Cuba's new Constitution that becomes effective on Feb. 24-2019 mandates major changes from the previous 1976 Constitution. The reason Rosy's excitement about it is important is this: She not only influences but also represents the views of everyday Cubans, especially the restive young-adult generation that is expecting their new President, Miguel Diaz-Canel, to survive the Trump administration in Washington and improve their lives on the island, starting with the Cuban economy that has been assaulted since 1962 by the longest and cruelest Embargo ever imposed by a powerful nation against a much-weaker nation. At the moment, Rosy and most Cubans on the island support their new President and eagerly look forward to their new Constitution that takes effect on February 24th, 2019. While the mainstream media in the U. S. is too afraid of the Counter Revolutionary Cubans in Miami and Washington to report fairly about Cuba, the state-owned Cuban media is actually more democratic in that regard than the American media. And, yes, Rosy Amaro Perez epitomizes Cuba's state-owned media. {And that opinion, I should point out, comes from me, a democracy-loving American who is ashamed that America's Cuban policies since the 1950s have been conducted with vile self-serving criminal-intent but remains a stupid, ageless, and shamefully undemocratic practice to this day}.

     A key and influential News Anchor on Cubavision International television, Rosy Amaro Perez is neither afraid nor reluctant to criticize the Cuban government if she deems it is doing something that harms Cuban citizens, especially the island's children that include Rosy's own precocious 5-year-old daughter Mariana.

    The photo above shows Rosy Amaro being interviewed on Cuban television by Cristina Escobar. Both are brilliant young, influential News Anchors in Cuba and both totally agree with this comment, which happens to be theirs: "Cuban journalists have more freedom to tell the truth about the U. S. than U. S. journalists have to tell the truth about Cuba." And, as you can easily confirm on YouTube and other non-Cuban venues, Rosy & Cristina subscribe strongly to another of their own quotations: "Cuba's fate should be left up to Cubans on the island, not Cubans in Miami and Washington." And if Americans disagree with Rosy and Cristina, perhaps those same Americans should get off their timid behinds and show some courageous and decent input into America's despicable Batistiano/Mafiosi-controlled Cuban policies.

     As a Cuban on the island Rosy Amaro Perez is a more decent person than the Cubans off the island like Marco Rubio who hide behind the skirts of the world's Superpower to boost their bank accounts and political prowess by punishing Cubans on Rosy's vulnerable island.

      In Cuba Rosy Amaro has a precious 5-year-old daughter that she has vacationed with in the major European cities and she has relatives living in Miami, Virginia, Arizona, etc. But Rosy wants her daughter to be a Cuban in Cuba...and she believes she has a right to make such decisions as a mother and as a Cuban living on their island that she believes has been a sovereign, independent nation since the Cuban Revolution chased the Batista-Mafia leaders to the U. S. way back on January 1st, 1959.

    In a more decent, saner world, Rosy Amaro would prefer that the American airplanes that can fly around or over her island would be peaceful and not warlike. But she can't control what the likes of Rubio are allowed to do in the Superpower United States. But that doesn't mean that Cubans on the island, like Rosy, won't fight to preserve the Revolution whose leader died at age 90 on Nov. 26-2016.

     For sure, Rosy Amaro is well aware that Cuba has a new non-Castro President and, beginning on Feb. 24-2019, will have a new Constitution for the first time since 1976. Even as Rosy keeps tuned to the Trump-Rubio plans to destroy Revolutionary Cuba, Rosy excitedly tells her television viewers that they too should be both proud and excited about: {1} The AMAZING longevity of the Cuban Revolution; and {2} the AMAZING new changes taking place in Cuba.

*&***********************&*

Cuba Today -- January of 2019

Now Just Trying To Survive!!!
{Sunday, January 6th, 2019}

     A former highly regarded U. S. government official and diplomat, Emily Mendrala is now the Executive Director of the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas. Ms. Mendrala epitomizes precisely why Americans need to include democracy-lovers into the Cuban narrative, a narrative that since 1959 has been dictated by extreme Miami-based Counter Revolutionary benefactors such as the Bush-anointed billionaire Jorge Mas Canosa to today's billionaire-hopeful Trump-anointed Marco Rubio.

   While today's mainstream U. S. media is far too intimidated to include the decent, fair-minded Cuban expert Emily Mendrala into the Cuban narrative, the self-serving Rubio-types are afforded as much television airtime and print headlines as they want regarding the denunciation of Cuba to feather their own revenge, economic, and political nests.

   Meanwhile, Emily Mendrala's highly respected Center for Democracy in the Americas brilliantly works to promote sanity and decency in U.S.-Cuban relations. And her CDA has now teamed with The Cuba One Foundation and Cuba Education Travel to begin a weekly half-hour video program on YouTube dealing exclusively with U.S.-Cuban relations and key updates. And the democracy-loving Emily Mendrala herself anchors that must-see program that is easily accessed on YouTube. Thus, I urge you to take a half-hour of your time and view Emily Mendrala hosting this week's program on the series entitled "Cuba Hangouts." Two taps on the video below will take you to Emily Mendrala's inaugural 36-minute "Cuba Hangouts" program.

*&***********************&*

Cuba EXPECTS U. S. Attack

In the Spring of 2019!!
{Friday, January 4th, 2018}

  The photo above shows Raul Castro delivering the main speech in Santiago de Cuba to highlight the 60th anniversary celebrations of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959. In the lower-left you can see the tomb of Fidel Castro, who died at age 90 on Nov. 26, 2016, symbolically guarded by two Cuban soldiers. The 87-year-old Raul stepped down as Cuba's President on April 19th, 2018. In this speech, Raul made it plain that Cuba anticipates a military attack from the United States, probably by this spring and probably launched from Brazil {as I will explain}. He said: "Once again the North American government is taking on the path of confrontation with Cuba. Increasingly high-ranking officials in the Trump administration are trying to blame Cuba for the region's ills."

    The high-ranking National Security Adviser in the Trump administration is, incredibly, John Bolton. Late in 2018, as shown in the above photo, Bolton, speaking on behalf of President Trump, went to Miami and essentially declared war on Cuba. Of all the high-ranking U. S. officials in the last half-century, Bolton is considered the greatest war-monger...not against big boys like Russia or China but against small nations. Bolton has long advocated an all-out military attack on Revolutionary Cuba, once famously goading President George W. Bush by advising that Cuba was a dire threat to the United States. Bush shamefully appointed Bolton as the U. S. Ambassador to the UN but that was a joke and only a short recess appointment, meaning Bolton's shameful Bush appointment was withdrawn before it could come up for Senate approval, which Republicans as well as Democrats would have voted down. Now Trump's shameful appointment of Bolton as National Security Adviser is considered a harbinger of an all-out military attack on Cuba by this spring, and Cuba's friends in Latin America agree with that appraisal.

      This photo, and the Brazilian media reports that accompanied it, refurbished the probability of John Bolton finally getting his war against Cuba thanks to the Trump presidency. After his Miami declaration against Cuba, Bolton flew to Rio where he is shown shaking hands with Jair Bolsonaro who this week took over as the new President of Brazil, Latin America's richest, largest, most populated, and strongest nation. Two previous and recent Brazilian Presidents -- Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff -- had been democratically elected four times and both were fiercely pro-Cuba and wildly popular with Brazil's majority poor population, but a right-wing movement in Brazil brushed them aside. Bolsonaro loves the Brazilian military and he is extremely scary because is an extreme right-wing zealot...and extremely anti-Cuba. Knowing that, Bolton flew to Rio to meet with Bolsonaro. It is believed they agreed on a U.S.-Brazilian military attack on Cuba.

    Now a journalism professor at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida, Tracey Eaton is generally considered America's best and fairest journalistic Cuban expert. He headed a U. S. bureau in Havana for years and since then his Cuban expertise has been used by all major U. S. media sources...from the major U. S. television networks, especially NBC-TV, to the major U. S. newspapers, especially USA Today. After John Bolton's declaration of war in Miami against Cuba and after Bolton's meeting with Bolsonaro in Rio, Tracey Eaton wrote that he would "not be surprised" if the United States attacked Cuba from Brazil, supposedly by the spring of 2019. Tracey is married to a Cuban woman and they spent Christmas in Havana. AND TO REPEAT: Tracey Eaton knows more about current U.S.-Cuban issues than all the other U. S. journalists and politicians combined...and anyone deeply interested in U.S.-Cuban relations knows that fact.

     After his speech in Santiago de Cuba on Jan. 1-2019 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Cuba's Revolutionary victory, Raul Castro was joined by Miguel Diaz-Canel as they walked solemnly to pay homage at the tomb of Fidel Castro, as shown above. On April 19-2018 Diaz-Canel replaced Raul Castro as Cuba's first non-Castro and first non-revolutionary Cuban President since 1959. Diaz-Canel was born after the triumph of the Revolution on Jan. 1-1959 and his political rise came as Cuba's Education Minister in cities well south of Havana. President Diaz-Canel agrees with Raul Castro that U. S. President Trump will allow John Bolton, Marco Rubio, and Mauricio Claver-Carone to lead the United States into a springtime war against Cuba.

     This photo shows Cuban President Diaz-Canel with Russian President Putin. Alarmed by John Bolton's declaration of war against Cuba in Miami and by Bolton's meeting in Rio with Bolsonaro, Diaz-Canel made a whirlwind trip to discuss the situation with friends that included the leaders of Russia, China, Vietnam, and Laos.

    But, as shown above, it was in 87-year-old Raul Castro's speech in Santiago de Cuba this week that publicly revealed Cuba's expectation of an attack from the U. S. by this spring. Raul said, "When Fidel and I were young, our generation fought against Batista, the Mafia, and the United States for the soul of Cuba. We won that struggle 60 years ago today -- on January 1, 1959. Once again the North American government is taking the path of confrontation with Cuba. Once again we will be the underdog and no one expects us to survive. But I think we will. I base that prediction on what I detect all around this island. In the 1950s the main thrust of the revolution came from women like Celia Sanchez, Haydee Santamaria, my late wife Vilma Espin, Tete Puebla, Melba Hernandez, Marta Rojas and so many more. Today as I look over this island I see another generation of young women just as determined as Celia, Haydee, Vilma and the others were at the start of our Revolution. And that's the basis of my prediction. Cubans on this island will fight to the death for Cuba against all odds and those from another country who attack us may not be similarly motivated. But otherwise they will have all other advantages...so we will see. We will see, won't we."

    In his main speech and in two lesser-publicized speeches in Santiago de Cuba this week, Raul Castro surprised many on the island with his apparent anticipation of a U. S. attack by this spring. But his nostalgic mentions of the legendary female revolutionary women was also a bit surprising, as was his obvious dependence on "another generation of young women" whom he believes will defend Cuba in the spring of 2019 just as Celia Sanchez, Haydee Santamaria, Vilma Espin, etc. led the revolutionary fight in the 1950s. Raul Castro was obviously talking about young Cuban women today like the three depicted above -- singer Luna Manzanares flanked on her right by journalist Yisel Martinez and on her left by journalist Rosy Amaro. For example, Rosy Amaro -- an extremely talented and popular television news anchor in Havana on the strong Cubavision International outlet -- spent three days this week in Santiago de Cuba covering and participating in the 60th anniversary Revolutionary celebrations. And Rosy Amaro, and presumably a strong majority of young Cuban women like her, agreed with Raul Castro's comments and sentiments.

    This is Rosy Amaro on a street in Santiago de Cuba this week, almost 500 miles from her Havana home and her Cubavision International studio. Rosy has a gorgeous and precocious 5-year-old daughter; she has visited the famous capitals of Europe; and she has close relatives in the USA from Florida to Virginia to Arizona. But she would fight on the front-lines of another revolutionary war to preserve Cuba's independence.

   In Santiago de Cuba this week, Rosy Amaro played the drums in a Cuban band; 11 million Cubans on the island know her and love her.

       Although her hometown remains Havana on the northwestern tip of Cuba, Rosy Amaro perhaps has an even stronger affection for Santiago de Cuba, which is almost 500 miles from Havana and on the island's southeastern tip. Rosy, like most Cubans, credits Santiago de Cuba as the soul of the Revolution and the launching point for the astounding rebel victory that ousted the Havana-based and U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship on January 1, 1959.

   This was the last photo taken of the photogenic Rosy Amaro on her 3-day stay in Santiago de Cuba this week to cover and celebrate the 60th anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. That's Rosy reclining on the "C" in "CUBA" on January 2nd just before she made the long trek back to Havana. The huge sign fronts a major shopping mall in Santiago de Cuba. Rosy captioned this photo with these words:"Ya mi voy de Santiago, pero Santiago queda en mi." {"I'm leaving Santiago, but Santiago remains in me."}. Rosy adamantly wants to preserve the Revolution-provided sovereignty for...Santiago, Havana, and all of Cuba while opposing any hint of a return of foreign domination. But those lofty hopes and dreams will, in all likelihood, be severely tested this spring by the military designs of the Rubio/Bolton/Claver-Carone axis that adorns the USA Trump administration and now apparently includes Bolsonaro, who this week took over as the new extreme right-wing/anti-Cuban President of Brazil.

    Back in December Rosy Amaro spent a week on a journalistic assignment in Nicaragua. As shown above, Nicaraguan journalists wanted to know how Rosy felt about U.S.-Cuban relations "in the Age of Trump?" She prefaced her answer with that sad, worried look.

    This was Rosy Amaro in Nicaragua in December just before she flew back to Cuba. In the United States, I believe, the best source for deciphering the rhythms and pulses of U.S.-Cuban relations is the aforementioned journalist Tracey Eaton. In Cuba, I believe, the best source for deciphering the rhythms and pulses of U.S.-Cuban relations is journalist Rosy Amaro. I find it quite interesting on January 3rd-2019 that both Tracey Eaton and Rosy Amaro believe that a war-mongering quartet -- Rubio/Bolton/Claver-Carone/Bolsonaro -- will make war on Cuba this spring in the name of the USA, the world superpower, and Brazil, the Latin American superpower. If it happens, I wonder if the cowardly U. S. media will forge enough courage to ask the war-mongers if they really believed they could execute a regime-change in Cuba without creating a fiery conflagration not only in the Caribbean but also in Latin America, and perhaps beyond. But win or lose, Rosy Amaro and eleven million other Cubans on the island are far more decent human beings than the war-mongers in much stronger countries.

    This photo of Rosy Amaro Perez was taken today when she was back on the set anchoring the Cubavision International news program. In the USA the right-wing news media and even the intimidated mainstream news media only programs the Cuban narrative from the likes of Rubio, Bolton, Claver-Carone, and the Diaz-Balart brothers whose father was a key Minister in the ousted Batista dictatorship and then became one of the all-time richest and most vehement Counter Revolutionary Cubans in Miami. My point, which I deem valid as a democracy-loving American, is this: Rosy Amaro Perez and other Cubans like her on the island have viewpoints too...and views that the U. S. democracy should have the guts to consider. And that, I believe, is true concerning Cubans like Rosy who have no intention to defect to the wealth of Miami.

*&***********************&*

Cuba's 60-Year Revolution

60 Years as of Jan. 1-2019!!
{Wednesday, January 2nd, 2018}

      Tuesday was January 1st, 2019. Exactly 60 years ago on that day in 1959 Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution shocked the world by becoming the first and only nation to overthrow a U.S.-backed dictatorship, in this case the vile Batista-Mafia regime on the Caribbean's largest, most beautiful, most enigmatic, and certainly its most pugnacious island.

     But when Fidel Castro and his victorious rebels waved good-bye to the fleeing Batista-Mafia goons, it turned out to be a bit premature.

   The Batista-Mafia leaders that had plundered and brutalized Cuba from 1952-1959 -- including from left-to-right Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, and Fulgencio Batista -- regrouped in a safe haven on nearby American soil and were embraced anew by the U. S. government.

     Once back on U. S. soil, the Batista-Mafia thugs had tons of money and stockpiles of weapons, and the continued support of the world's Superpower. That was more than enough to totally overwhelm Miami and Southern Florida economically and politically.

     The Little Havana section of Miami in 1959 quickly became the new headquarters...the new capital...for the newly transplanted Batista-Mafia leaders. It was expected to be short-lived because expectations were that it would only take a few weeks to recapture Cuba. Indeed, the right-wing Republican thugs in the Eisenhower administrations that had sicced the Mafia on Cuba in 1952 were still around in 1959 to make sure the Superpower United States economy and military still supported the Batistiano-Mafiosi leaders who were fanatically motivated to recapture the island.

    What followed as early as January of 1959 were massive terrorist strikes on the vulnerable island...such as warplane bombings of sugar cane and tobacco plantations, deadly speedboat strafings of coastal fishing cabins by machine-guns mounted on tripods, the all-time world record of assassination attempts against Fidel Castro alone but also against those close to him, etc., etc., etc. Such terrorism or undeclared war against Cuba was meant to soften up the island for the military attack that had been designed in 1959 by the Eisenhower right-wingers and then passed on to the new John Kennedy administration on January 20th, 1960. That became known as the air-ground-and-sea Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba in mid-April of 1961. As shown on the above map, Cuba called it the Baia dos Porcos attack. Similar to what has defined U. S. policy regarding Cuba since the 1950s, the greedy right-wingers who have powered such vile things didn't know Cuba very well. For example, they assured Kennedy that once the bombs started falling on Camp Colombia on the edge of Havana that Fidel Castro would run to his getaway airplane, and once the Cuban people heard the bombing they would turn massively against Castro. Once the bombs started falling, of course, Castro ran to the front-lines where he guessed the ground attack would commence -- the Baia dos Porcos. By the time he reached the Bay of Pigs not a single Cuban had turned against Castro while 400,000 rebels were eager  to support him, but he only needed a fraction of that number considering how ill-advised and led the expensive tax-depleting attack was. So the Baia dos Porcos victory for Fidel Castro, who never had a getaway airplane, solidified his revolutionary legend even more than the original revolutionary victory on January 1, 1959. AND SO, instead of killing Castro and recapturing Cuba, the Bay of Pigs attackers had used up all those tax dollars and most of America's Latin American goodwill while also cementing Castro's legend as an incomparable revolutionary icon. Such arrogant stupidity would continue for decades even amidst the abject failure to recapture the feisty island.

   But that's not to say that the extreme terrorism against Cuba was curbed or even slowed by the resounding Cuban victory at the Bay of Pigs in April of 1961. Declassified U. S. documents confirm that Operation Mongoose was a well-funded scheme to kill Fidel Castro and Operation Northwoods was a murderous scheme concocted with a 7-and-0 unanimity by the Joint of Chiefs of Staff -- the USA's 7 most powerful military leaders -- to murder innocent Americans so it could be blamed on Cuba and used as a pretext...excuse...for an all-out military attack on Cuba. The thuggish military leaders {never held accountable, of course} begged President Kennedy to allow them to conduct Operation Northwoods. All the while, vicious terrorist acts against Cuba by CIA and U. S. Army-trained Cuban operatives -- of whom Luis Posada Carriles was the most famous -- continued unabated, including deadly hotel bombings in Havana, etc., as well as deadly car bombings in Miami. The most chilling such terrorist act against Cuba is depicted via the photo above. On Oct. 6, 1976, the civilian/child-laden {two dozen teenage athletes} Cubana Flight 455 was bombed into the ocean, killing all 73 on board. Posada, of course, died at age 90 of old age in Little Havana as a celebrated hero even though he once bragged in a famous New York Times interview that innocent terrorist deaths were necessary collateral damage.

    After assassination attempts, terrorist attacks, and a military invasion failed to recapture Cuba, in 1962 the U. S. concocted what has become history's longest and cruelest economic Embargo ever imposed by a powerful nation against a much weaker nation. De-classified documents prove that the intent of the Embargo was to starve, deprive, and make miserable the lives of everyday Cubans to induce to rise up and overthrow their revolutionary government. It didn't work but even those revelations didn't embarrass enough Americans to stand up and condemn it. It surely embarrassed two-term President Barack Obama who supported the unanimous 191-to-0 worldwide condemnation of the Embargo in 2016, his last year in office. But still, there are not enough brave, patriotic Americans in this generation to be embarrassed about the image of America and Democracy depicted above.

   Although the majority of the 2 million+ Cuban-Americans in South Florida desire normal relations with Cuba, the economic and political power through two generations since 1959 remains in the hands of Counter Revolutionary extremists. Currently, as anointed by President Trump, Senator Marco Rubio, wearing the red tie above, has an uncontested green-light to use the incomparable might of the United States to execute a regime-change in Cuba, presumably paving the way for something akin to another Batistiano-like rule that, again, would allow rich U. S. businessmen and, of course, Counter Revolutionary supporters, to partake in the fleecing of the island. The two men flanking Rubio above are Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart whose father was a key Minister in the Batista dictatorship and then one of the richest and most powerful all-time Counter Revolutionaries in South Florida. For the past two decades either Havana-born Lincoln or Mario or both at the same time have represented Little Havana in the U. S. Congress as extremists and mostly unchecked Counter Revolutionaries like their father. The extremist Cuban-Americans have benefited for six decades from massive support by Republican sycophants, particularly the Bush dynasty. The Havana-born Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, on the right in the above photo, has just retired after three decades in the U. S. Congress as a vicious Counter Revolutionary backed by the self-serving Bush dynasty; the ambitious Jeb Bush was her Campaign Manager in 1989 when Ros-Lehtinen was first elected to the U. S. Congress from Miami.

    Beginning in January of 1959, the U. S. government began sending the most fanatic anti-Castro Cuban exiles to its secretive Army of the Americas training base at Fort Benning, Georgia. Unknown to the American people who paid for it, the Army of the Americas was where the U. S. trained soldiers and policemen from U.S.-friendly Latin American dictators and then sent them back to make sure those U.S.-friendly dictators stayed in power. And, yes, there were a lot -- Batista in Cuba, Samosa in Nicaragua, Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, Videla in Argentina, etc., etc., and all the way up to the murderous 17-year reign of Pinochet in Chile, which lasted till the decade of the 1990s. Among the most famed anti-Castro Cuban zealots who graduated as a 2nd Lt. from the Army of the Americas at Fort Benning was Luis Posada Carriles. From both de-classified U. S. documents and Posada's own admissions and braggings, he holds the mantle as America's most famed terrorist. He was two years younger than Fidel Castro, the man Posada spent his entire adult life trying to kill and/or overthrow...while having the support of the vast U. S. economic and military resources but also enjoying the apathy or cowardice of the U. S. media and the U. S. citizenry. Like his nemesis Fidel Castro, Posada died of natural causes at age 90. Posada died on May 23rd, 2018, as a Little Havana hero safely protected on United States soil.

    And so, while Posada stands as America's most famed Cuban revolutionary hero, Fidel Castro remains Cuba's greatest hero.

    I tend to agree with The Woman Project.org that heroine Celia Sanchez had the best quotation to define the Cuban Revolution: "We rebels...get far too much credit for winning the revolution. Our enemies deserve most of the credit, for being greedy cowards and idiots."

   On Jan. 11-1980 at age 59, Celia Sanchez died of throat cancer. It was saddest day of Fidel Castro's life...by far. He considered Celia, a petite doctor's daughter, the most important revolutionary figure...and he was probably right considering that she was top recruiter of anti-Batista rebels and supplies, a do-or-die guerrilla fighter, and a prime decision-maker both during and after the revolutionary war. The photo above was taken shortly before Celia died. Some believe, even beyond her quote about "cowards and idiots," that Celia's greatest quotation was this one that she defiantly made several times: "The Batistianos will never regain control of Cuba as long as I live or as long as Fidel lives." Almost as incredible as the Revolution itself, that Celia Sanchez quotation has survived the test of time, and then some.

       January 1, 2019, marked the 60th anniversary of the triumph of Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution. That feat PLUS his victory at the Bay of Pigs in 1961, PLUS his incredible world-record for surviving assassination attempts, and PLUS the amazing longevity of his Revolution establishes Fidel Castro as history's greatest revolutionary figure, or at least history's most redoubtable revolutionary leader considering his entire life was spent on a small island nation and every day of his adult life his survival was threatened by the omnipotent might of the world's nearby Superpower. But Fidel Castro is no more. He died at age 90 in Havana on November 26, 2016. Yet, his legacy has prolonged his Revolution for over two years beyond his death. It remains to be seen how much longer Revolutionary Cuba will survive, but that too will depend largely on the continuing power of Fidel Castro's legacy.

    This is 87-year-old Raul Castro -- who stepped down as Cuba's President on April 19th, 2018 -- making the prime speech on January 1st, 2019, in Santiago de Cuba celebrating 60 years of revolutionary rule on the island. He praised the support the Revolution has from the young-adult generation of Cuba and reminded his audience that such support remains vital to sustain "an independent nation coveted, as always, by foreign imperialist countries."

     The prime celebrations in Cuba on January 1, 2019 toasting the 60th anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution took place 500 miles from the capital city of Havana, in and around Santiago de Cuba on the island's southeastern tip. That's because it's the area where Fidel Castro is from, and where his major revolutionary battles were fought, and where his remains are now entombed. In the photo above, that's Miguel Diaz-Canel paying homage at Fidel's tomb. He's President Diaz-Canel now. He is a non-Castro and he was born shortly AFTER January 1, 1959. A non-rebel, he is the island's former Education Minister. Having inherited overwhelming odds, President Diaz-Canel vows to extend Fidel's revolution as long as possible. That, of course, will largely depend on the power of Fidel's legacy, because the odds against Revolutionary Cuba's survival remain overwhelming.

     As of this 60th anniversary of the Cuban Rev0lution today, Fidel Castro's legacy has the strong support of most Cubans on the island at the start of 2019. That includes the restless, well-educated, healthy young-adult generation as personified by the Fidel supporter shown above. She happens to be a young mother; she wants the embargo to end; she wants friendly relations with the U. S. government; she wants Cubans on the island to have better economic opportunities and less harassment and punitive measures that are so successfully advocated by extremist Cuban Americans in the USA; and she wants Cubans on the island to decide Cuba's fate. In fact, she believes so firmly in that latter point that she would fight another do-or-die revolutionary guerrilla war to support that belief, and she firmly believes, to prevent a return of foreign domination, most Cubans on the island agree with her.

   This is the young woman who was paying homage to Fidel Castro at his tomb. Her name is Rosy Amaro. She is a very popular, very influential, and very talented television news anchor in Cuba. The photo above was taken a few weeks ago -- on Dec. 6-2018 -- when she was on assignment in Nicaragua. She herself was being interviewed and, when the photo was taken, the Nicaraguan journalist had asked her, "How do you feel about U.S.-Cuba relations in the Age of Trump?" She prefaced her answer with that sad, worried look on her face. I am a democracy-loving American and I know Rosy. I know she is a far more decent and more beautiful human being than any of her enemies living in the United States.

    This is Rosy Amaro, 500 miles from her Havana home, in Santiago de Cuba where the main celebrations are taking place to honor the 60th anniversary of the Jan. 1-1959 triumph of the Cuban Revolution. As you can see above, top officials in the city of Santiago de Cuba are making sure Rosy gets a celebratory slice of that huge, decorative cake. She's kinda special, and so too is the still-viable Revolution.

    This, I believe, is the face...and the smile...that represents Cuba in the New Year of 2019, six very volatile decades after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959. This is Rosy Amaro: young, beautiful, well-educated, healthy, smart, a superbly talented broadcast journalist, and a patriot. She is shown 500 miles from her Havana home in Santiago de Cuba on January 1st, 2019, as a journalist and as a celebrant. If Rosy ceases to smile in 2019, I think it will reflect that her strong desire {that Cubans on the island, not in Miami or Washington, predicate Cuba's future} had been usurped by foreign elements not nearly as decent as she is. Therefore, I sincerely hope Rosy continues to smile throughout the New Year of 2019!!

*&***********************&*