Prince Charles Wows Cuba

The UK Royals Thrill Cubans!!

Photos credit: Associated Press/Ramon Espinosa.

      Yesterday -- March 26th, 2019 -- Prince Charles, the future King of England, and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, continued to excite Cubans on their extended visit to the island. The popular Royals Tuesday pointedly stressed their defiance of the Trump administration's renewed efforts to isolate and starve the island. 

       In the photo above Charles is shown squiring Camilla around Havana in a vintage 1953 British MG convertible, which typically has been kept fine-tuned by the famed ingenuity of Cuban mechanics.

     Later, Charles and Camilla stopped off at a park in Havana that is famous for its John Lennon bench. Across the street at the Yellow Submarine Bar and Cultural Center they heard a Cuban band singing and playing Beatles songs. Earlier, Charles had inaugurated a new Havana statue of William Shakespeare by pulling off the cover to debut it. The Royals also visited an agricultural farm where the UK is helping Cuba produce more of its food to counteract the U. S. embargo. They then attended a gala dance program at the famed Alicia Alonso Theater, visited two bio-medical centers, and met with many of Cuba's entrepreneurs who are taking advantage of new private enterprise and ownership laws. Then Tuesday night Charles and Camilla had their second state dinner with Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel.

     But from the standpoint of helping Cuba and defying the USA, the most important chore Prince Charles performed Tuesday is shown above. He cut the ribbon to inaugurate the UK's $250 million Solar Farm at Cuba's vital, state-of-the-art, deep-water Port Mariel Economic Zone located 28 miles southwest of Havana. Later this year the Solar Farm is expected to be reducing Cuba's dependence on oil, at least partially negating the hopes of anti-Cuban zealots in Miami and Washington that the Venezuelan peril will at least finally and completely starve the Cuban economy. Solar Mariel, a wholly owned British company, is finishing the upgrade to Cuba's power grid. Significantly, standing at Prince Charles' right shoulder is 86-year-old Ramiro Valdes, one of Cuba's six Vice Presidents and one of the Cuban Revolution's last still-living legendary rebels and commanders. Valdes was at Fidel Castro's side from beginning to end in the Revolution, including at the July 26th, 1953, attack on the Moncada barracks that launched the Revolution. It perhaps was significant that Charles motioned for Valdes to be at his side for the important ribbon-cutting ceremony at Mariel, a billion-dollar port that has been dredged 60-feet deep and can handle the Supermax ships now going through the Panama Canel. Cuba believes USA Republicans and Counter Revolutionaries are very desirous of owning the Muriel Port, which is rated ultra-modern and ultra-strategic.

 Throughout their visit, Charles and Camilla have massively thrilled Cubans and gone out of their way to spend time with them and chat. Reuters journalist Sarah Marsh reported that Charles ducked into a Havana barbershop and cordially thanked the female owner for sharing her air conditioner with him. She said, "He sure didn't act like a Prince. He is genuine, inquisitive, and just a nice person."

        Walking with and chatting with Cubans along Obispo Street in Havana, Camilla was amused by the statue of the Literary Doorman holding a biography of Jose Marti and gifting visitors with a white rose, which Camilla knew referenced Marti's famous White Rose poem. Cubans were amused that Camilla was amused. "For ME!! A beautiful white rose?"

     This photo shows Lis Cuesta, the wife of President Miguel Diaz-Canel, escorting Camilla, the wife of Prince Charles, to one of the many functions Camilla requested. The Brit's knowledge of Cuban history...such as its medical research, infant mortality statistics, and Alicia Alonso's famed ballet school, etc....has impressed Cubans throughout the Royal visit.

    In fact, Camilla spent a much longer time than scheduled discussing Cuba's free health care for all Cubans when she visited pregnant women and their doctors. Later Camilla explained, "I had discussed Cuba's strong expenditures on health and education for all with top World Health Association and UN officials, but discussing it unannounced till the last moment with everyday doctors and patients was invigorating."

     While the visit to the Mariel Port has been the most important Prince Charles statement in Cuba this week, both the future King and Camilla have given Cubans a breath of fresh air with their friendliness and sincerity in caring for the people on the island. As when she was sharing the bench with the iconic John Lennon statue, Camilla kept her parasol handy to ward off some of the Caribbean sun. Camilla said, "John Lennon praised the Revolution and Cuba remembers that."

      But beyond the Mariel Port ceremony, John Lennon, the meetings and state dinners with President Diaz-Canel, etc., the image that is getting the most international attention is Prince Charles driving Duchess Camilla around Havana in a vintage and fine-tuned 1953 British MG convertible. They both enjoyed the ride.

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UK Slams US Cuban Policy

Prince Charles Makes Salient Point!!
{Wednesday, March 27th, 2019}

     Last November Cuba's new President Miguel Diaz-Canel became abundantly aware that President Trump had given permission for Marco Rubio and John Bolton to use the economic and military might of the USA to execute a regime-change in Cuba. One of Diaz-Canel's first reactions was to meet in London with his friend Prince Charles.

   On Sunday, March 24th, Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, arrived in Havana on a Royal Air Force plane.

     This week President Diaz-Canel and all Cubans on the island are getting A HUGE KICK out of this extremely important visit.

     Monday night Prince Charles was hosted by President Diaz-Canel at a state dinner and also for images like the London Daily Mail photo above.

     Images like this of President Diaz-Canel and Prince Charles are intended to convey to Washington that the UK will make its own decisions in regards to Cuba, and the UK government has made it clear that it supports Prince Charles and the Royal Family's respect for Cuba's independence.

 This photo shows Prince Charles and Camilla in Havana's Revolutionary Square with the iconic, world-famed image of Che Guevara as the backdrop.

    Prince Charles attended this ceremony honoring him and the British flag. It also was intended to remind the world that Revolutionary Cuba overcame "THE LONGEST OF LONG-SHOTS" in 1959 to gain its independence from Batista, the Mafia, and the USA and that it would fight against "even longer odds against foreign imperialism to keep our sovereign island."

    This photo shows Prince Charles eagerly accepting Cuban Churros, the traditional gift that all visitors are offered when they inspect the most historic area of Old Havana. Cuban journalist Rosy Amaro used this photo and said, "It is Cuba...its culture, its people."

     Except to ridicule the UK for allowing Prince Charles to visit Cuba, the conservative and right-wing U. S. media doesn't mention the visit. But more significantly, both the left-wing and mainstream U. S. media are basically too afraid to mention anything positive related to Cuba. However, the British media and especially BBC NEWS, which has a vast and respected international reach, is pointing out the topical justification for a visit to Cuba by the future King of England. Prince Charles himself makes these points: "Cuban has a new non-Castro and non-revolutionary President whom the people know and love as their former Education Minister...Cubans with totally free educations through college are extremely well-educated...Cubans with totally free healthcare for life are remarkably healthy....Cuba has a new Constitution that opens up private businesses and ownership even though the government does not want it to create a vast rich-poor disparity...almost all Cubans now have access to the Internet and Social Media and therefore they know what's happening on their island and in the nearby United States..." Etc., etc. from a brave and surprisingly Cuba-savvy Future King of England.

    Major London-based news sources -- such as the BBC, London Times, The Guardian, London Daily Mail, Reuters News Agency, etc. -- report fairly on Cuban issues. Reuters is one of the world's 3 biggest news agencies and its excellent staff in Cuba includes Sarah Marsh. Even major U. S. media sources are restricted to virtually getting all their quotes regarding Cuba from only Counter Revolutionary extremists such as Little Havana's Rubio and the Diaz-Balart brothers or from Republican politicians who take their orders from Little Havana, and that includes all major Republican politician like President Trump. But Sarah Marsh in her Reuters article about the Prince Charles visit to Cuba had the freedom to stress quotes from a 26-year-old Cuban historian, Aaron Rubio, and from one of America's greatest Cuban experts, notable American University Professor William LeoGrande. Aaron Rubio said, "It's always good for Cuba to strengthen its relations with important international actors but all the more so when the United States has a president responding to the interests of extreme right-wing people who want to harm Cuba." And then Sarah Marsh published this exact quote from William LeoGrande: "Such visits as Prince Charles and the UK are making to Cuba lend legitimacy to the Cuban government and represent an implicit warning to the United States that hostile actions against the Cuban people may incur a diplomatic cost with important allies."

     As a democracy-loving American, I wish journalists in the United States still had the freedom to cover Cuban issues the way Sarah Marsh can cover them for Reuters. Sarah is shown above getting first-hand knowledge from a Cuban farmer before she wrote a Reuters article about the pros-and-cons of farming in Cuba, complete with renewed efforts by the Cuban government to produce more of its own food despite fertilization and equipment obstacles presented by the U. S. embargo that has existed since 1962.

    The London Times has a headline that reads: "PRINCE CHARLES HELPS UK WOO CUBA." The British media reports that 200,000 Brits visit Cuba each year and more would "like to." Prince Charles will visit Cuba's deep-water and state-of-the-art Mariel Port/Investment Zone 28 miles southwest of Havana where the UK already has one project and plans more, which would vitally help Cuba's economy.

 On their extended visit to Cuba, Camilla and Charles are seeing a lot of Cuba's Deputy Foreign Minister Ana Teresita Gonzalez. That's because Camilla is fascinated with "the history of the Cuban Revolution that during the war and after the victory has always had women at the forefront." Both Camilla and Charles have asked to see a Cuban facility that is famed for its cancer research and is getting assistance from the UK's University of Manchester. Charles has also asked to visit the recording studio in Havana of one of his favorite bands, the famed Buena Vista Social Club. Camilla has asked to attend a performance of the ultra-famous Cuban Ballet where the omnipotent Alicia Alonso since 1959 has trained many of the greatest UK and USA ballet stars. AND, OH, YES!! Both Camilla and Charles have asked Ana Teresita Gonzalez to "make sure we get to ride in some of the 1950s-era American convertibles." Ana asked, "What color would each of you like to ride in?" Camilla said "Yellow" and Charles said he preferred "Red." Ana smiled and replied, "No problem, yellow or red."

 A yellow convertible for Camilla.

And a red convertible for Charles.

   OH, YES!! Cuba has spent considerable time and money since 2013 completely refurbishing its Capital Building because a 500th Cuban anniversary will be celebrated soon. And Cuba was proud to show their Royal visitors a rejuvenated El Capitolio.

       This photo shows El Capitolio while re-construction was still underway. But now that it has been restored, Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla will be told this week that El Capitolio will soon be home to Cuba's 508-member General Assembly.

Friends: Charles & Miguel.

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Cuba WELCOMES England

UK Flounts US!!
{Monday, March 25th, 2019}

     The London-based BBC, the world's top news organization, has made it plain that Prince Charles' historic 4-day trip to Cuba is designed to belittle the USA/Little Havana antagonism against the island at a crucial time when Cuba "obviously is trying hard to engage its people the best it can considering the harsh obstacles newly launched from Washington." The Reuters photo above shows the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall in front of the famed image of revolutionary icon Che Guevara at Revolutionary Square in Havana.

      This AP/Getty Images photo shows Prince Charles participating in Havana at a wreath-laying ceremony honoring Jose Marti. The BBC blared this headline: "PRINCE CHARLES AND CAMILLA MAKE HISTORY IN CUBA." It stressed: "This visit is expected to usher in a new chapter in the UK-Cuban relationship, and send a message to the U. S. to ease off on the island during the Trump era. Charles's visit offers an opportunity for the UK and Cuban governments to forge closer ties. Later this week Charles and Camilla will be joined by Lord Ahmad, who is flying to Cuba to represent the UK government. Lord Ahmad's presence is an indication of how important Downing Street views the four-day Cuban visit and its potential to develop new avenues with a country that has already begun the process of opening up economically and socially." The BBC stressed that Cuba has a new former Education Minister as its President, a new Internet and Social Media opening for all Cubans, and a new Constitution that opens up private businesses.

    Shortly after this AP/Ramon Espinosa photo, Sunday night Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel hosted Prince Charles, England's future King, and Duchess Camilla at a state dinner. Both of the Royals requested a meeting with the famed Buena Vista Social Club band and that was quickly arranged at their recording studio in Havana.

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UK's Cuban Decency

Challenges TRUMP'S Indecency!!

     This weekend {March 23-24, 2019} the London Daily Mail used the above photo to illustrate a major article that had this headline: "PRINCE CHARLES RISKS PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP'S FURY WITH HISTORIC VISIT TO CUBA." The photo shows Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall Camilla in Grenada prior to flying to Cuba, the first Royal visit to the island since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in January, 1959. The Daily Mail said: "Prince Charles and Camilla will visit a medical research center where they will hear about a partnership with Manchester University that helps Cuba develop its own cancer drugs. This is particularly important because Cuban doctors are blocked from getting certain drugs from the United States." {INCLUDING Baby Aspirin}.

    Along with its photo of the British Prince and Duchess in Grenada, the aforementioned London Daily Mail article this weekend also included this photo of U. S. President Donald Trump to illustrate his anger at England for allowing such AN IMPORTANT ROYAL VISIT TO CUBA. Newspapers outside the United States, such as the Daily Mail, have the freedom to express such opinions about the USA's Cuban policies although ALL NATIONS, including the UK, must bow to the USA's incomparable economic and military might and therefore accept a Batistiano/Mafiosi-directed USA Cuban policy that, since 1959, has been dictated by two generations of Batista-Mafia exiles headquartered in the Little Havana section of Miami. When the Daily Mail referenced "Cuban doctors are blocked from getting certain drugs from the U.S.," that is beyond the scope of propagandized Americans because, since 1959, the Batista-Mafia exiles have also directed the Cuban narrative in the United States. In other words, as the Daily Mail referenced, the omnipotent international power of the USA, under legal laws directed by Little Havana, can PUNISH any nation that does business with Cuba. BABY ASPIRIN? Absolutely. The extreme cruelty of USA laws dictated by Batista-Mafia exiles in Little Havana once punished a Jamaican company when that little island nation south of Cuba sent a BOX OF BABY ASPIRIN to Cuba. For six decades, two generations of intimidated Americans have accepted such cruel insults to their DEMOCRACY...and so, just as significantly, has the gutless mainstream United States media.

       Therefore, while the London Daily Mail is free to report fairly about this weekend's visit to the late Fidel Castro's Cuba by Prince Charles, the mainstream U. S. media is restricted to reporting only what Little Havana/Miami dictates they report. Incredibly, that includes CNN, NBC, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, the New York Times, and the Washington Post -- the omnipotent left-wing sources that spend most of their time and unlimited resources trying to impeach PRESIDENT TRUMP via a media coup. YET, even those ultra-powerful anti-Trump media sources in the USA are TOO AFRAID to criticize TRUMP'S Cuban policy, which is far more nefarious than anything TRUMP has going on with his nuclear-propelled Russian and North Korean friendships. In other words, when it comes to Cuba, the Caribbean, and Latin America, the USA capitulates to a Little Havana government deeply embedded within the bowels of the USA's Washington government.

Havana's BIG THREE 1952-1959.

Luciano, Lansky, & Batista.

Little Havana's BIG THREE 2019.
Claver-Carone, Rubio, & Diaz-Balart.

     Meanwhile, Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel is happy to welcome Prince Charles and Camilla to his island this weekend although he is well aware it is an URGENT time for Cuba. Diaz-Canel, like most Internet-savvy Cubans these days, is very active on Social Media, especially Facebook and Twitter. This week the Cuban President has used such forums to call President Trump's "rhetoric against Cuba warlike and dirty."

   So this weekend's friendly and peaceful...and even brave...visit to Cuba by Prince Charles and Camilla represents for Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel a respite between the storms that the Trump administration has planned for Cuba this spring. President Diaz-Canel will personally and gracefully host the internationally famous Royals from London.

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Rubio's Cuban Urgency

Jealousy of Cuba's New Leader?
{Saturday, March 23rd, 2019}

    A major focus Thursday, March 21, 2019, on the vast international platforms of Voice of America was its use of the above AP photo to illustrate an article that explains why Marco Rubio, on behalf of the Little Havana Counter Revolutionaries, is so anxious to recapture Cuba. The poignant VOA update, compiled astutely by Ashley Thompson, is entitled: "Cuba Planning Major Changes to State and Legal System." The fair analysis said: "Nearly a year of debate and discussions ended last month with the approval of Cuba's first constitutional reform since 1976. The new laws could reshape everything from criminal justice to the economy." The long report concluded that the Cuban changes being orchestrated by the island's new President, Miguel Diaz-Canel, strives to bring about "the possibility for a slow-moving deep change that will speed the modernization of Cuba's government." Please remember that the journalists, like Ashley Thompson, who work for the VOA are U. S. government employees. But the VOA has far more courage and integrity to report fairly about Cuba than the intimidated mainstream U. S. media that seems to be afraid of Little Havana's car-bombs that have silenced decent and brave Miami journalists such as Emilio Milian. Therefore, I believe, the proper analysis of this VOA update on Cuba is significant for this reason: Marco Rubio, in charge of recapturing Cuba while Trump is the U. S. President, is afraid of the American people discovering that Cuba's President Diaz-Canel, the island's former Education Minister, is very popular on the island as is the new Constitution that promises, as reported anew by the VOA, to "modernize" Cuba's economy, justice system, private ownership of property, entrepreneurial openings, etc. Meanwhile, now that most of the island's 11.4 million citizens have ready access to the Internet and social media, it is easy to comprehend, as the VOA did Thursday, that most everyday Cubans on the island love their new President and love their new Constitution while also being informed enough to hate what they know to be Marco Rubio's nefarious designs on their lives.

     While Rubio can use the mainstream U. S. media 24-hours-a-day to spew his anti-Cuban venom and "justify" why recapturing the island is essential for America, it is gratifying that at least one major USA source, the internationally powerful VOA, actually provides true portraits of what is transpiring on the island. Rubio's open window to recapture Cuba to appease a handful of his fellow Little Havana Counter Revolutionaries will close the day Trump leaves the White House for good. Rubio seems to understand that...but so, apparently, does the VOA as well as the now-savvy Internet users on the island.

   Cubans ON THE ISLAND, like this lady who is shone very carefully reading and studying Cuba's new Constitution, should predicate the present and the future of their own sovereign nation that finally gained independence in 1959 after chasing the Batista-Mafia dictatorship to Little Havana in Miami. And now for a handful of Little Havana benefactors in 2019 to dictate the fate of Cubans like this lady is not only wrong but also sinful and an insult to democracy-lovers, like me.

    Since 1959 3 generations of Cubans on the island...like Carmen, Mariana, and Rosy...have been punished and continually targeted by the likes of Marco Rubio who continue, after all these decades, to hide behind the skirts of the nearby foreign Superpower. While Rubio may claim that he will take better care of Mariana, her grandmother Carmen and her mother Rosy KNOW they will take better care of Mariana while also defending her against foreigners.

  Perhaps it's time for profiteering puppeteers like Marco Rubio -- and his war-mongering sycophants like John Bolton as well as his anointed foreign enablers like Juan Guaido -- to actually be held accountable for their vile and mostly unchecked actions. Greedy or revengeful miscreants in a powerful nation benefiting from punishing totally innocent people in a much weaker nation belittles everything the U. S. democracy stands for today and, of course, stood for proudly prior to the creation of Rubio's hometown of Little Havana way back in January, 1959.

     This photo was taken by John Raoux and distributed by the Associated Press on Oct. 17, 2016, when Marco Rubio was campaigning against Representative Patrick Murphy to retain his Little Havana seat in the U. S. Congress. This photo was then used by NBC News to illustrate an online article with this exact title: "Marco Rubio Says 'Our Goal Is Not to Punish' Cubans With U. S. Policy." Patrick Murphy considered that statement to be a lie and, frankly, so do I!!

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