Can Cuba Survive Trump?

It's Now About 50-50!!

{Let's Take an HONEST Look}

     One of Miami's most important journalists is Arturo Arias-Polo. In English he writes for the Miami Herald and in Spanish he writes for the Miami El Nuevo Herald. On the eve of this weekend in mid-May 2019 -- on Friday, May 17th -- Arias-Polo's propagandized-fueled article was/is entitled: "Visit Cuba Without Leaving Miami." The theme, of course, suggested that tourists yearning for Cuba should continue to visit Little Havana in Miami, at least until the Trump administration recaptures Cuba for the remnants of the Batista dictatorship that fled the victorious Cuban Revolution and, beginning in January of 1959, established their new capital city -- Little Havana in Miami. So, Arias-Polo's Miami Herald propaganda on May 17-2019 urged tourists to visit Cuba by visiting Little Havana while the Trump administration continues to starve Cubans on the island until Trump recaptures Havana for LITTLE HAVANA.

     Since January of 1959 the U. S. democracy has included a second government...the Batistianos...within the bowels of the U. S. government with Little Havana USA in Miami being its capital. Americans have been programmed since 1959 via intimidation and via the Batistiano dictation of the Cuban narrative to dismiss this cancerous fact, and yet it's true.

    But please understand this: As a democracy-loving American, I have been to both Havana and Little Havana. I have no problem with the majority of Cuban-Americans in the Miami area, except for the fact that a handful of two generations of Batistianos have dictated Miami's economic and political structures with questionable money and strong-arm tactics basically since January 1, 1959. Along the way...while picking up sycophants such as the Bush dynasty and out-of-state converts like Jeb Bush and Rick Scott...Little Havana's reach inundated Washington beginning in 1989 when the self-serving Jeb Bush was Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's Campaign Manager, putting her as the fierce ultra-zealous Counter Revolutionary in the United States Congress.

    So this photo from 1989 marked the beginning of the Batistiano government becoming a second government in Washington, following the takeover of Miami by the Batistianos in 1959. Jeb Bush had reason to smile in this photo because putting the Havana-born Counter Revolution-zealot Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in the U. S. Congress paved the way for Jeb to become the two-term Governor of Florida. Ros-Lehtinen served in the U. S. Congress for three decades, from 1989 till 2019. She recently retired from Congress to take a lucrative job with a Washington Think Tank that has Cuban dealings. While recapturing Cuba has since 1959 been a priority of the Batistianos, the main priority -- just like in Cuba from 1952 till 1959 -- has been MONEY. Since the 1980s Batistianos in Congress have legalized extremely cruel anti-Cuban laws such as Helms-Burton to punish Cubans on the island BUT they are also responsible for legalized laws such as Radio-TV Marti, an exceedingly lucrative anti-Cuban operation in Miami that, since the 1980s, has literally gushed on a daily basis tons of tax dollars from Washington to Miami, supposedly to overthrow the Cuban government but mainly, of course, to enrich Batistiano Cubans. So, if you're interested in knowing the origin of the Batistiano government, study the photo above; it became entrenched when Jeb Bush used the economic and political power of the Bush dynasty to put Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in the U. S. Congress in 1989. Shortly, she was followed by a continuing line of Batistiano stalwarts from Little Havana -- including Marco Rubio as well as the Diaz-Balart brothers Lincoln and Mario who are the sons of key Batista Minister Rafael Diaz-Balart, the man who formed Miami's first anti-Castro paramilitary unit known as the White Rose.

So, to recap what you just learned:

     The latest {May 17-2019} propaganda speil by Arturo Arias-Polo in the Miami Herald is entitled: "Visit Cuba Without Leaving Miami." That's typical Batistiano propaganda since 1959 but it is also, to a significant degree, sadly true.

   This photo, also sadly, aptly and amply illustrates that latest propaganda piece in the Miami Herald. Miami since 1959 not only evolved into Little Havana, it also -- thanks to its control of the Republican Party in Washington -- leads the way in trying to starve the Cubans in Havana prior to the anticipated recapture of Havana while Donald Trump is the U. S. President. So, now that you understand that undeniable update from Little Havana, I'll turn to a real journalist reporting for the Associated Press on today's actual conditions in Havana.

      Colombia-born Andrea Rodriguez is the excellent journalist the Associated Press has stationed in Cuba. Her May 17-2019 article heading into this weekend is entitled: "Cuba Still Welcoming Tourists Despite Trump Restrictions." She reports that the island had 4.7 million tourists in 2018 and is on a pace in 2019 to reach 5 million. In the first four months this year, 257,000 Americans visited Cuba, mostly arriving on cruise ships. Andrea Rodriguez wrote: "The battle for Cuba's economic future is being waged on its beaches. And at its all-inclusive resorts, dive sites and cobblestone colonial plazas. The country has launched a full-scale effort to turn virtually the only bright spot -- tourism -- into an engine...." Andrea Rodriguez earlier had pointed out Cuba's herculean effort to produce more food products as well as also trying desperately to increase renewable energy as well as its own oil production with the help of Canadian, Australian, and Vietnamese drilling companies. But..."tourism" still remains the immediate key to Cuba's surviving the Trump presidency that, like previous Republican administrations, totally takes it Cuban orders from only the most extremist Little Havana zealots. In the May 17-2019 AP article, Andrea Rodriguez said: "On the paradise-like beaches of Varadero...the little city alone has 21,200 hotel rooms and is adding 1,000 more per year, managed in partnership with Spain's Melia and Barcelo hotel chains and with Mexico's Fiesta Americana Corporation."

     Every day since January 1-1959, with expectations that Cuba would be recaptured for the Batistianos "any day now," Little Havana Cubans have longed to regain control of all aspects of Cuba, including pristine beaches like this.

     The city of Varadero has 21,200 high-quality hotel rooms and contracts for 1,000 more to be built each of the next five years...and as of May-2019 Little Havana is not involved with any of Varadero's assets.

Varadero

Varadero

Varadero

Varadero

Varadero

   Since January of 1959, the Little Havana USA leaders just across the Florida Straits in Miami  have expected every Republican President...there have been six...to recapture Cuba for them. It hasn't happened but in the last six decades Little Havana has exacted extreme revenge against totally innocent Cubans on the island while also, of course, using its dominance of the Republican Party to grossly enrich a multitude of Little Havana Counter Revolutionaries.

     But of the six U. S. Republican Presidents since the 1960's, all of whom have been tightly tied economically and politically to Little Havana, the Trump administration is the most dangerous as far as Cuba is concerned and as far as getting the USA entangled in a neighborhood war, meaning the Caribbean and Latin America. When Trump anointed Little Havana's Marco Rubio as the Cuban dictator on U. S. soil...it is no surprise that the USA's two top foreign policy stooges are two of America's most famed anti-Cuban war-mongers -- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton. In other words, if dictator Rubio can't recapture Cuba with Trump as Commander-in-Chief, Pompeo as Secretary of State, and Bolton as National Security Adviser, than even Cuba's new President, Miguel Diaz-Canel, will probably be surprised. {And as for me, I give Rubio a 50-50 chance as long as Trump is President and as long as the American people tolerate people like renowned war-mongers such as Pompeo and Bolton in such extraordinary positions of power}.

  Meanwhile, speaking of Cuba's new President Miguel Diaz-Canel, he happens to be very popular on the island as indicated by three photos taken this week by Boris Fuentes. Born after 1959's triumph of the Cuban Revolution, Diaz-Canel has been beloved by Cubans since his days as the island's Education Minister. As shown above, he is known for having extremely compassionate feelings for Cuba's children and its elderly citizens but today's all-important, and restive, young-adult generation on the island at the moment also strongly supports Diaz-Canel. With Diaz-Canel's insistence, and with a very helpful Google presence on the island, most Cubans have ready access to the social media, which fiercely reveals their love of Diaz-Canel as well as their hatred of...Trump, Rubio, Pompeo, Bolton, and Mauricio Claver-Carone, the career Counter Revolutionary zealot that Rubio has maneuvered into the strategic position of the USA's Chief of Western Hemisphere Affairs because Cuba is in the, uh, Western Hemisphere.

    This photo this week shows President Diaz-Canel out among everyday Cubans who adore him. Such mingling is his trademark, and he has ordered his Ministers to "make regular appearances on state radio and television outlets to let the people know exactly what you are doing, or not doing, to help them."

     This photograph this week shows President Diaz-Canel, in the blue shirt, doing what he apparently loves the most...mingling and talking to everyday Cubans. Although he is Cuba's first non-Castro and first non-Revolutionary leader since 1959, Diaz-Canel is known to be a hardline defender of the Revolution. Even on his Twitter page Diaz-Canel has affirmed that "no matter the Superpower aligned at the moment against us, the Revolution must be and will be defended with every ounce of strength and blood we can muster."

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Punish Everyone To Starve Cuba

 Will The USA Win?
{Updated: Friday, May 17th, 2019}

     Cuba's Minister of Commerce is Betsy Diaz. She has been tasked with trying to keep the Trump administration's activation of Helms-Burton Title 3 from causing starvation on her vulnerable island. She said this week, "President Obama, for the first time in six decades, gave our new generation of well-educated, talented young-adult entrepreneurs the chance to thrive...and they did, briefly. Then came the Trump term as President, the antithesis of Obama. Our adjustment is painful. The activation of Title 3 of Helms-Burton, we know, is meant to starve us and stop other nations that would be our trade partners from dealing with us. It might be called genocide but, for us, it is survival...life or death but not surrender."

    Cuba's Commerce Minister Betsy Diaz, as shown above, appears on state television and radio to inform the Cuban people why Title 3-Helms-Burton has made it necessary for her to order rationing of important foods and health products. "I ask for calm," she said, "and for the understanding that I and others in government service are doing everything we can to ease the pain."

    One of the food staples that Betsy Diaz has been forced to ration in Cuba are eggs. She said, "Since Title 3 added to the Helms-Burton assault on this island, we have produced or acquired about 900,000 fewer eggs than the 5.7 million eggs we need each month. Along with eggs, we are struggling to stock the needed amount of items such as rice, beans, chicken, and soap. When the American people, whom I consider mostly nice people, allow their government to treat foreign people, including children and the elderly, in this manner...well, it makes me wonder if their democracy is just a facade that mean people hide behind. To me, as I have learned from the generation that preceded mine, it reminds me of when the Mafia hid behind the facade of the U. S. democracy to rape and plunder Cuba prior to the Revolution's victory. We hoped for an American leader like Obama, and we were rewarded. But how can the next leader be permitted to turn all of that into ashes?" Her name is Betsy Diaz. Her title is Cuba's Minister of Commerce. She longs for the day Cuba can do commerce with its neighbor, the United States. Oddly, every U. S. farm organization and every U. S. port from the East Coast to Florida to New Orleans wants to do commerce with Cuba. Yet, a handful of unsavory creatures want to starve Cubans on the island, and it is those miscreants that hold the upper hand from the dark side of the U. S. democracy.

   Canada's outraged Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland flew to Havana yesterday to discuss the Trump administration's activation of Title 3, the portion of the infamous 1996 Helms-Burton Act that called for the total starvation of Cubans on the island, the portion of Helms-Burton that NOT EVEN the George W. Bush presidency would activate because of its extreme genocidal cruelty. But to appease extreme Counter Revolutionary Cubans in Miami and in the U. S. Congress, Trump activated Title 3 last month, on April 17th. Along with starving Cubans, Title 3 punishes companies and countries that might do business with Cuba. Chrystia Freeland, as any leader of a sovereign nation would be, is upset that Canada and Canadian companies are being punished by Title 3. For example, the Montreal-based National Bank of Canada has a branch in Havana. And Canada's Sherritt International Corporation has major nickel, cobalt, and oil operations in Cuba. That's why Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland flew to Havana yesterday. She doesn't believe right-wing extremists in the Trump administration should be allowed to punish other nations and other companies in order to starve Cubans on the island to appease a few Cubans in Miami and in the U. S. Congress.

    Former Florida governor {2007-2011} Charlie Crist now represents Florida in the U. S. Congress. Crist is shown above on his recent visit to Havana where he discussed Title 3 with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez. Unlike Florida's two U. S. Senators Rubio and Scott, Crist is outraged that Title 3's activation hurts the majority of Cuban-Americans in Florida who adamantly do not want fellow Cubans in Cuba starved or harmed. Such Cuban-Americans in Florida, for example, yearly send several billion dollars worth of cash and goods to Cubans on the island. Of course, Title 3 sharply curtails that decency.

    On April 17, 2019, it was U. S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who announced the activation of Helms-Burton Title 3. With a gutless lack of consideration for Cubans on the island, for most Cuban-Americans, and for Democracy, Pompeo's shameless announcement also added this totally gutless exact sentence: "Any person or company doing business in Cuba should heed this announcement." In other words, to totally starve innocent Cubans on the island, Pompeo warned that nations or companies that tried to prevent the starvation of Cubans would be punished by the Superpower United States of America.

    And in other words, Pompeo and his henchmen in Miami and in Congress should be very proud of the above photo. The image is accurate and unstaged; the elderly Cuban women did not know they were being photographed. Because of Title 3, Cuba has been forced to ration products such as eggs, which are vital to normal Cuban diets. Cubans since 1959 have been famed for sacrificing whatever they have to help others. The lady on the left above was caught doing that: She was giving her last egg to her dear friend in the adjoining apartment. While I assume Mike Pompeo and a handful of dictatorial miscreants in Miami and Washington are very proud of this photo, I believe it should shame every decent Democracy-loving American and Cuban-American.

    The Helms-Burton Act, written by lawyers working for extreme Counter Revolutionary Cubans such as Cuba-born Miami extremists Jorge Mas Canosa and Lincoln Diaz-Balart, was, in the minds and hearts of many decent people, a legal USA genocidal act against everyday Cubans on the island.

     The Helms-Burton Act became law in 1996 when a very scared President Bill Clinton reluctantly signed it because, as I and many others believe, he was afraid of Cuban-American extremists in Miami and Newark. Indeed, earlier in 1996 President Clinton had indicated he was determined to normalize relations with Cuba. Study the photo above that depicts the day Clinton signed Helms-Burton into law. The obviously scared Clinton is glancing up at Newark's contribution to the U. S. Senate Bob Menendez and the man standing directly above Clinton's right shoulder is Lincoln Diaz-Balart. Menendez remains in the Senate to this day because in 2017, after a massively expensive investigation and trial in Newark in which the U. S. government charged him with multiple corruption charges related to Miami and the Dominican Republic, Menendez was spared prison time only by a hung-jury verdict, and then was, of course, re-elected again to represent New Jersey in the U. S. Senate to this very day. And what about Havana-born Lincoln Diaz-Balart, the Miami Congressman above Clinton's right-shoulder? Lincoln's father Rafael Diaz-Balart was a key Minister in Cuba's Batista dictatorship and then beginning in 1959 one of the all-time richest Counter Revolutionary zealots in Miami. Now today, of course, Lincoln's younger brother Mario represents Miami in the U. S. Congress. So, photos like the 1996 Helms-Burton signing above illustrate, I believe, the extreme grip that Miami and Newark have maintained over the United States democracy for all these decades since 1959.

    The Batistiano-driven Helms-Burton Act also, I believe, graphically illustrates, defines, and codifies another huge weakness within the bowels of the U. S. democracy. As indicated by the graphic above, Jesse Helms and Dan Burton were the names forever etched to the infamous Helms-Burton Act. Whether it was uniting the U. S. government to the Mafia in supporting the brutal-thieving Batista dictatorship in Cuba in 1952 or conspiring with the Batistiano-Mafiosi exiles in Miami and Newark from 1959 till today, it has never been a problem for a handful of Counter Revolutionary U. S. Cubans to acquire the necessary assistance of right-wing politicians such as Congressmen Jesse Helms and Dan Burton who eagerly attached their names to the Helms-Burton Act.

    And now in MAY OF 2019 this authentic, unstaged photo reminds Democracy-lovers that the U. S. DEMOCRACY, AFTER ALL THESE DECADES, is still not strong enough to prevent a mere handful of thugs from hiding behind the skirts of the Superpower U. S. government while {1} Trying to starve innocent people in a much-weaker nation; and {2} even punish America's best friends, like Canada, if they try to prevent such extreme cruelty. And through it all, I don't believe the thugs who benefit from such genocide are most to blame. I believe we, the majority of Americans and the majority of Cuban-Americans, are most to blame for allowing it to happen. AGAIN, as a Democracy-loving American, I ask you to study the poignant and authentic May-2019 photo above. Because of Title 3/Helms-Burton, the elderly Cuban lady on the left is passing her last egg to her next-door neighbor in a typically heroic and unselfish gesture. I truly wish that the last three generations of Cubans on their island had not and have not been forced to act so...unselfishly.

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Why Trump Worries Cubans

And Americans Too!!

     At age 58 Tom Nichols knows a lot about wars and the preparations for wars. He is the Professor of National Security Affairs at America's Naval War College.

      Yesterday -- May 14th, 2019 -- Tom Nichols dominated the Editorial Page of USA Today with an article entitled: "Trump Foreign Policy Is Spinning Into Chaos." His sub-title pointed out: "We're In A Scary Free-Fall."

     When Tom Nichols writes or speaks about wars or potential wars, intelligent and concerned people listen. In his USA Today article yesterday, Professor Nichols indicated that the "scary free-fall" for the Trump administration and for the USA began when John Bolton was incredibly named National Security Adviser. As a relic from the Bush dynasty, Bolton is clearly the most "scary" war-monger that Trump could have possibly selected for that crucial position.

    While the pundit-driven U. S. media primarily focuses on anti-Trump/pro-Trump rhetoric with left-wingers in control of the Democratic Party and right-wingers in control of the Republican Party, Americans should prize expert opinions from true experts. When it comes to wars and potential wars, Tom Nichols is the expert. In USA Today yesterday he wrote: "The easy answer is to blame it all on national security adviser John Bolton. Bolton doesn't know what he's doing; from Iran to Venezuela he is indulging a set of statistic reflexes -- a predilection for confrontation, a belief in the utility of intervention. There is no more a 'Bolton Doctrine' than there is a 'Trump Doctrine." For sure, Tom Nichols suggested that neither Trump nor Bolton knows what they are doing. And the Top Security Professor at the Naval War College then fashioned this exact conclusive sentence: "The more frightening answer is that no one is in charge."

     The USA's top security expert, Tom Nichols, is correct when he says "no one is in charge" of the USA's war machine right  now but it is the war-mongering John Bolton who appears to be directing what Tom Nichols deems to be America's "scary" and "frightening" posture permitted by Trump and orchestrated by Bolton who Tom Nichols says has "a predilection for confrontation, a belief in the utility of intervention, a disdain for negotiated solutions, and a hatred of treaties and international institutions."

      The first three targets in John Bolton's gunsights after being named National Security Adviser were, not surprisingly, "Cuba, Nicaragua & Venezuela." Cuba, of course, is #1 with Nicaragua and Venezuela rounding out Bolton's "TROIKA" because they are Cuba's two closest allies. Way back in 2002-2003 Bolton concocted a wild pretext and begged President George W. Bush to attack Cuba.

    But in 2019 President Donald Trump appears to be the perfect patsy for John Bolton's dark obsession regarding Cuba. As Trump's National Security Adviser, Bolton was quick to fly to Miami and assure the few remaining survivors of the 1961 Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba that their ignominious defeat will be avenged with Trump in the White House. Twice Bolton has given that assurance standing before huge "BRIGADA ASALTO 2506" banners that were the Battle Flags for the Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba in April of 1961. What was it that Tom Nichols, the top security expert at the Naval War College, said yesterday in the USA Today about John Bolton? Let's see..."scary"..."frightening"..."doesn't know what he's doing."

     The Miami-based Progreso Weekly, with the above graphic, probably has the best insight as to what John Bolton IS DOING. Guided by his puppeteer from Miami's Little Havana, Marco Rubio, Bolton's prime business is putting Juan Guaido in place as the new President of Venezuela and then recapturing Cuba followed by a third regime-change in Nicaragua. Progreso Weekly, a prime expert on Little Havana, seems to think that Rubio worries that Bolton may actually start a war with Iran that would further delay Rubio's obsession with recapturing Cuba and dealing fatal blows to Cuba's friends in Venezuela and Nicaragua. REGARDLESS of which scenario prevails, with Bolton and his puppeteer Rubio in charge of the USA's war machine, it is indeed "scary" and "frightening" -- not only for the targeted nations but for America itself.

Rubio & Bolton. WOW!!!

May God Help Us All.

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USA's Regime-Changers

Where Is The Next One????
{Wednesday, May 15th, 2019}
{Updated from May 14th}

     Author Jeb Sprague has a reputation as an expert on Caribbean and Latin American REGIME CHANGES. He has also been a notable professor/lecturer at the University of Virginia and the University of California. A recent article by Mr. Sprague in Monthly Review, a magazine published since 1949, is entitled: "Washington's Hybrid War on Venezuela -- A Very 21st Century Attempt At Regime Change."

 Books by Jeb Sprague include "GLOBALIZING THE CARIBBEAN" and prove he knows the Caribbean, including Marco Rubio's clearance from President Trump to use the dire situation in Venezuela as the pretext to recapture Cuba for Miami's Little Havana Counter Revolutionaries.

    The photo above was used to illustrate Jeb Sprague's Monthly Review article, which you can readily dial up online. It points out that once Rubio was allowed to flank Trump with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton it almost assured that Rubio, on behalf of Little Havana in Miami, had the key men in place to execute the regime-change in Cuba right after the regime-change in Venezuela and right before the regime-change in Nicaragua. Sprague made these pertinent and visceral points:

              "At the U. S. Senate's Foreign Relations Committee on 7 March, Senator Marco Rubio pledged that Venezuelans 'were about to experience the most dramatic shortages they have ever faced.' Within hours, a mysterious black-out hit Venezuela, oil refinery storage tanks combusted, and an oil pipeline exploded."

      With 3.6 followers on Twitter, Marco Rubio used the above gruesome Tweet to supposedly warn Venezuelan President Maduro, Cuban President Diaz-Canel, and Nicaraguan President Ortega  that the "Gaddafi model" awaited them. One of Rubio's mouthpieces, Bolton, had earlier called Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua the "Troika of Tyranny" in obvious preparations for regime-change and Bolton also stupidly used the term "Gaddafi model" while, as you can see above, Rubio used this photo montage to coarsely and stupidly convey the world-message. Earlier, one of Rubio's Tweets was directly aimed at Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel with the  three-word warning "See you soon."

    Every journalist in Washington knew that when Rubio anointed the famed anti-Cuban war-monger Bolton as Trump's National Security Adviser that Rubio's war against Cuba was inevitable. Rubio this past week ridiculed the New York Times for making that point, and said any criticism of Bolton was "ridiculous." Of course, that's typical Rubio propaganda but he's used to getting away with it. As Ken Silverstein, the best investigative journalist in Washington, said: "Marco Rubio is head and shoulders above everyone else in Washington when it comes to corruption and chicanery." {And, yes, I urge you to Google Ken Silverstein's credentials and his extensive Rubio article that began with and then documented that quote}.

    And every journalist in Washington knew that when Rubio anointed Elliott Abrams as Trump's Special Envoy to Venezuela that Rubio's war against Cuban ally Venezuela was inevitable. Here is what the knowledgeable Jeb Sprague wrote in his aforementioned article:

           "The appointment of Elliott Abrams on 25 January 2019 as Washington's point man on Venezuela was glaring. Under Reagan-Bush in the 1980s Abrams was tied to countless gruesome events in Latin America. Under Abrams' watch it was common for U. S. intelligence operations to use front companies to illegally ship weapons into Latin America to arm death squads. On 3 February Venezuela discovered a secret cache of weapons and equipment on board a Boeing 767. The flight had flown from Miami to Valencia. Venezuela assumed U. S. authorities and far-right groups in Miami were responsible. The McClatchy newspapers reported the same plane had made 40 trips to Colombia and Venezuela, sometimes multiple times a day. The plane according to Amnesty International is owned by 21 Air LLD whose Chairman is Adolfo Moreno." With Abrams directing Rubio's anti-Cuban operations in Venezuela, it is no wonder that 3 sources -- Jeb Sprague, McClatchy newspapers, and Amnesty International -- report that arms shipments to expedite the regime-change in Venezuela were coming from "far-right groups in Miami" where far-right Cuban groups since 1959 have had what can be considered free-reins because of their ties to right-wing Republican federal officials.

     To say there are "Skeletons in the closet" of Elliott Abrams is a gross understatement. The tactics depicted above now being deployed and employed in Venezuela are classic tactics Abrams is famed for using in Latin America back in the 1980s during the Reagan-Bush years. Of course, later President George H. W. Bush granted Abrams a much-needed pardon. America's top Latin American experts, including Jeb Sprague in the aforementioned article, tie Abrams to the infamous Mozote Massacre in which all 800 Latin Americans in one village were murdered by U.S.-armed killers -- famously executing the men first, then the women after rapes, and then the children. While Americans are not supposed to know about such things, every detail of that massacre has been minutely studied by America's best historians and journalists, so Googling the Mozote Massacre is easy. It occurred on Dec. 11, 1981, in El Salvador.  On Jan. 27-1982 the great NY Times journalist-author Raymond Bonner told the world about what happened at El Mozote. But it was not until 1994 that explicit details and the truth about the U. S. involvement began coming out in Mark Danner's book "The Massacre at El Mozote." And then in this year of 2019 when Raymond Bonner was astonished that Elliott Abrams had been named Trump's Envoy to Venezuela the great Mr. Bonner penned a remarkable article in The Atlantic entitled: "What Did Elliott Abrams Have To Do With The El Mozote Massacre?" And now...in May of 2019...for unpatriotic Americans to sit back on their comfortable asses and ignore such things insults all democracy-lovers, I sincerely believe.

     Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido is the Trump administration's choice as the next President of Venezuela. Americans and much of the world are programmed to believe that if the USA executes a regime-change it is to replace a bad leader with a GOOD leader...but Latin Americans believe otherwise because of the USA's past love of really bad dictators like Batista in Cuba, Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, Somoso in Nicaragua, Pinochet in Chile, etc., etc. etc. What Latin Americans fear is that the U. S. citizens will not hold right-wingers in the U. S. responsible for such things, with Chile being a prime example. In 1973 President Nixon and his prime adviser Henry Kissinger believed the popular Democratically elected President of Chile, Salvador Allende, would not allow rich Americans to raid his country's natural resources. So, a bloody coup ended up killing Allende and for the next 17 years the "U.S.-FRIENDLY" General Pinochet was one of history's most murderous dictators. Will the GOOD U.S.-friendly Guaido replace the BAD Maduro in Venezuela with then the BAD Diaz-Canel in Cuba and the BAD Ortega next on the Rubio-Bolton-Abrams agenda?

    With the dire situation in oil-rich but now dirt-poor Venezuela, many experts believed Maduro would have been replaced by Guaido as long ago as January. But it is still a "STANDOFF" because of Trump's utter stupidity in allowing Rubio to install people like Bolton, Abrams, Pompeo, Mauricio Claver-Carone, etc, in the most powerful positions to execute Latin American regime-changes. In other words, with Miami's Little Havana "right-wing groups" calling the shots, as pointed out by Caribbean-Latin American expert Ted Sprague, only die-hard right-wingers believe the USA should be defining the outcome in Venezuela...or Cuba and Nicaragua. The past USA FOOTPRINTS in those three nations and throughout the Caribbean and Latin America are historic reminders that such decisions in Washington should be be made by moderates, NOT right-wing or left-wing extremists.

     Appearing on one of the U. S.'s three major television networks, ABC News, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was asked if his days are numbered. He replied: "John Bolton and Elliott Abrams can believe that. But you should not believe that because you are a young man and knows that history will continue." In other words, both the good guys and the bad guys in the current Venezuelan conundrum realize that Trump and Rubio were stupid to assign Bolton and Abrams as the prime arbitrators when EVERYONE with the possible exception of propagandized Americans know their TRACK RECORDS in Latin America and the Caribbean.

    With Trump and Abrams calling the shots in Venezuela, Maduro has a chance to hang on as long as his top Generals and either Russia or China support him. In other words, Washington needs an intelligent and decent moderate to make such regime-change decisions. The utter stupidity of thrusting the likes of Abrams between Trump and Maduro highlights both the audacity and the ignorance of the seven Republican administrations since the 1950s.

     When Trump stupidly says he "loves" dictators like Kim in North Korea, it makes it harder to explain why Trump hates, for example, Cuba's former Education Minister Miguel Diaz-Canel that most Cuban people know and love. Diaz-Canel in his own Tweets and Cubans on the island on their social media pages use the above photo to explain that Rubio and Little Havana "would never let a Republican president talk to President Diaz-Canel, but Kim is fine."

    For sure, President Trump assumes the American people are stupid when he puts "BAD CHOICES" like Elliott Abrams into positions to exact U.S.-friendly regime-changes in either the Caribbean or Latin America or elsewhere.

    Such stupidly Bad Choices regarding people like Elliott Abrams create insults to the USA and to Democracy resulting in images like this that shows Secretary of State Mike Pompeo resurrecting Elliott Abrams from the grave...meaning the Bush dynasty...to overthrow what Pompeo is calling "the Brutal dictatorships of Latin America." This Editorial Cartoon accurately reflects how Latin Americans feel about such things as the Mozote Massacre or replacing the decent democratically elected Allende with the murderous Pinochet in Chile, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.,.....and so forth.

     When a popular Editorial Cartoon like this mocks Trump, it is really mocking both the United States of America and Democracy...and it is time that Americans understand that. Even people who dislike Maduro and love Guaido should know that Maduro has cause to ask his top General the question depicted above.

      But, I believe, the bottom line is this: When this generation of Americans in October-2016 was not embarrassed when the nations of the world voted 191-to-ZERO in the United Nations to condemn the U. S. for its Cuban policy, it apparently reflected the fact that Americans now have very little respect for their Democracy. That's the point the great Brazilian Editorial Cartoonist Carlos Latuff was making with the definitive image depicted above. Thus, I believe Trump-Rubio-Pompeo-Bolton-Abrams are totally wrong and Carlos Latuff is totally right.

     U. S. President Barack Obama in 2016 approved that 191-to-0 condemnation of the USA in the UN because of America's Batistiano/Little Havana-directed Cuban policy. Obama also had the guts to try his best to give decent Americans and Cuban-Americans control of the USA's Cuban policy...and Obama, as shown above, actually went to Cuba and on state-wide television and radio assured the people that they had "no reason to fear the United States." That promise, through no fault of Obama's after he served the maximum two terms as President, turned out...to be...a lie.

President Obama's sacred promise to Cuba.

   But then THIS {see above} HAPPENED TO AMERICA and it seems the U. S. Democracy is no longer strong enough to correct it. And that's where we are in mid-May of 2019 with the USA TRYING TO STARVE INNOCENT CUBANS ON THE ISLAND WHILE ALSO TRYING TO EXECUTE THREE MORE RIGHT-WING REGIME-CHANGES IN THE CARIBBEAN AND LATIN AMERICA. Of course, the quartet above -- Trump, Rubio, Pompeo, and Bolton - - want the American people to not remember the USA's favorite past Caribbean and Latin American dictators -- Batista, Trujillo, Somoso, Pinochet, etc., etc., and so forth.

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