Russia Military To Aid Cuba

Promise Made In Havana This Week!!

        Russia's powerful Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Havana this week and, perhaps for the first time, stated that Russia will use its military to keep the Trump administration from "destroying the Cuban people." Here are his exact words at the above news conference:

                "We shall fully support Cuba's people not only politically, not only by means of developing military-technical cooperation, but also through trade and economic projects to help the country's economy become more resistant to all kinds of external threats. Washington's neocolonialization is unacceptable and its economic coercion, as everyone knows, is unlawful and criminal. Sanctimonious Americans sometimes accuse us of picking on small nations for economic and political reasons but the Trump White House has established the record for such behavior. The Cubans won their Revolution against U.S.-supported criminals...and their tenacity to protect it since 1959 is worth our support. Military? If it comes to that."

      The extremely strong words by Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov were later conveyed directly to Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel.

      It is believed that Sergei Lavrov's declaration in Havana this week is Russia's most pertinent vow to defend Cuba since...well, since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis that pitted the Soviet Union against the United States in what evolved into the closest the world has ever come to a nuclear holocaust. Russia today cannot come close to matching the USA's economy but its nuclear arsenal is a different dynamic altogether...and it is hoped the anti-Cuban zealots in the Trump administration fully comprehend that fact.

     Even as Sergei Lavrov was in Havana this week, President Trump's two top Foreign Affairs advisers -- National Security Adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo -- were making additional threats against Cuba. They were threatening even more "sanctions" against the island, which is interesting considering that, after the activation of Helms-Burton Title 3, the U. S. is already engaging in the harshest and longest genocidal sanctions ever imposed by a powerful nation against a much weaker nation. But even the George W. Bush presidency thought Title 3 was too extreme and cruel to impose on the Cuban people. Yet, Bolton and Pompeo are famed longtime war-mongers against Cuba and they obviously relish the power Trump has given them to destroy revolutionary Cuba and give it back to the Republican-allied Little Havana zealots in Miami and in the U. S. Congress. Will Bolton and Pompeo go to war against Russia to fulfill their Cuban zeal? Incredibly, that may be what is happening.

      Meanwhile, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel yesterday -- July 26th, 2019 -- was almost 500 miles southeast of Havana in the city of Bayamo. As this Roberto Suarez photo shows, Diaz-Canel and his wife Lis arrived in Bayamo to lead the celebration of National Rebellion Day. July 26th, 1953, was the official start of the Cuban Revolution in the Bayamo-Sierra Maestra region of Cuba and the anniversary each year  is lavishly celebrated because of the astounding rebel victory over the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship on January 1, 1959.

     President Diaz-Canel was warmly received in Bayamo yesterday. He was born after the triumph of the Revolution and is best known in Cuba as the island's former Education Minister. Several times while mingling with Cubans in Bayamo, Diaz-Canel made this statement:  "I am clear that today I speak in the name of the grateful." He was expressing the gratitude for the rebels who began the revolution on July 26, 1953, and those who continued to lead it to a successful conclusion on January 1, 1959. Then Diaz-Canel released this official statement: "Washington is trying to cut off electricity and water, and even food in cruel extraterritorial acts of blockage. Today they are trying with all possible means to prevent tankers from docking in Cuban ports, brutally threatening shipping companies, governments of many countries, and all sorts of companies that have or might do business with us. They scare nations where ships are registered, and insurance companies. We must survive these enemies that are intent on destroying us and suffocating us. In their democracy, a few can do this backed by a scared Congress and evil president who is directed by greedy, revengeful, and evil people. When the majority United States population is scared to intervene, it leaves us with no choice but to do all we can to both survive and protect our sovereignty. Those who fought for our independence, especially those who won in 1959, deserve that from us on this historic anniversary day and the days to come in our sacred homeland."

Cuban flag in Bayamo.

"It flies proud, free, and sovereign."

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Cuba's National Rebellion Day

It is TODAY: July 26th!!

      Today is July 26th, 2019...in both Cuba and the United States. It is a date that is massively celebrated in Cuba but considered a day of infamy in the United States, at least as far as U.S.-Cuba relations are concerned. July 26th, 1953, is officially registered in Cuba as the start of the Cuban Revolution and it has been lavishly commemorated on this date each year since then as the pugnacious island's Day of Rebellion. The rebels, of course, went on to shock the world, especially the United States, by overthrowing the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship on January 1, 1959 -- an historic event that reshaped both Cuba and the United States forever. That's because, although still not acknowledged in the USA, the rich but timid Batista-Mafiosi leaders began fleeing Havana in the wee hours of January 1-1959 and within days had turned nearby Miami into what is now known as Little Havana. The photo above reflects how Cuba today on JULY 26th-2019 is celebrating its Day of Rebellion anniversary.  That's Havana-based Cuban journalist Rosy Amaro conducting a Day of Rebellion interview 500 miles to the southeast in Bayamo, the capital of Granma Province. In the above interview, Oriente official Manuel Santiago is explaining to the Cubavision International television anchor what some of the Day of Rebellion ceremonies will entail today in Bayamo.

     Bayamo, an historic Cuban city with a population of 220,000, is a centerpiece of the Day of Rebellion celebrations in Cuba today because throughout the island's struggles for independence Bayamo has been at the forefront. Founded in 1573 by Diego Valazguez, Bayamo has been a catalyst for all its wars against foreign domination, including the losing 1868-1878 war against Spain and including the winning 1953-1959 war against the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship. On today's Day of Rebellion commemorating July 26th-1953's start of the victorious Cuban Revolution, Bayamo remains a centerpiece of resistance against the Miami-based and Washington-based forces that, for over six decades now, have been expected to recapture Cuba for the Batista-Mafiosi exiles. The fact that the so-far failed effort is still ongoing full-bore today -- July 26th, 2019 -- is even more shocking than the triumph of the Cuban Revolution way back on January 1, 1959.

     This photo was taken last night, on the eve of today's July 26th Day of Rebellion anniversary, and it confirms that the lights were still on in Bayamo. The recent activation of Helms-Burton Title 3 by the Little Havana-controlled Trump administration has, indeed, caused blackouts and food shortages in Cuba...as intended. Title 3 is a Batistiano-written LEGAl U. S. law designed to grossly enrich already rich Little Havana Counter Revolutionaries and, secondarily, to starve and punish Cubans on the island. Even the George W. Bush administration considered Title 3 too cruel and too extreme to activate, but it's recent activation shows how badly Trump covets Florida's 29 electoral votes heading into his possible re-election in 2020 as a Little Havana-dictated U. S. President.

      The city of Bayamo headlines today's celebrations on the island to commemorate the July 26th-1953 start of the Cuban Revolution, which chased the Batistianos to their new capital of Little Havana {Miami} in January of 1959. Bayamo is in the heart of the Sierra Maestra region where the rebel guerrilla counter-attacks and then guerrilla frontal attacks against Batista's vastly superior, U.S.-supplied army began in 1953. Since fleeing the Cuban Revolution in January of 1959 for the safe haven of Miami, U. S. soil has been even more of a Batistiano Piggy Bank than Cuba was back in the 1950s. Yet, as the celebrants in Bayamo today can attest, the Batistianos on July 26th-2019 still rule Little Havana but, INCREDIBLY, they have yet to recapture Havana.

But not welcome back to Havana, Cuba!!!

     Meanwhile, today -- July 26th, 2019 --  Helms-Burton remains a legal United States law purely designed to grossly enrich a selected few Cuban-Americans while also grossly committing genocide against innocent Cubans on the island. Sadly, as a democracy-loving American, I must admit that such a harsh depiction is true.

       And, as middle-fingered graphics like this point out, the saddest fact of all is: Yet another generation of Americans do not have either the guts or the patriotism to challenge such Batistiano insults to Democracy as Helms Burton Title III.

      But on this historically rebellious day -- July 26th, 2019 -- in Cuba, the 1953 start of the Cuban Revolution is being celebrated by rebel-minded citizens all across the island.

      In Cuba Castro is still hailed by most Cubans as the "good guy" while Batista is condemned as the "bad guy." Of course, with the Batistianos dictating the Cuban narrative in the United States since 1959, just the opposite is true.

      But at least history correctly concludes that The Cuban Revolution started on July 26, 1953, and ended with a gigantic victory on January 1, 1959. At least today --- July 26th, 2019 -- Cubans on the island can celebrate that fact in their torrid relations with the SUPER-powerful United States.

     This historic photo shows Fulgencio Batista -- Cuba's brutal, thieving U.S.-backed dictator -- entertaining his close buddy, Mafia kingpin Meyer Lansky in Havana. The Batista-Mafia dictators at this time had been gifted with a U.S.-armed 20,000-man Cuban army to wipe out "Castro and his little rebellion once and for all."

       As late as July of 1958, Batista was still telling his supporters in Washington, "Don't worry. We now have the army that will wipe out all the rebels around Bayamo and therefore in the Sierra Maestra within three weeks. That will finish the rebellion once and for all. That I guarantee." In this photo Batista is staring at and pinpointing on his war-map the city of Bayamo "as the cancer we will destroy next, and then be done with it. No problem."

  Of course, his supporters in Washington accepted Batista's "guarantee." But...a young rebel named Fidel Castro had other ideas. And the rest is history. And that's why July 26th is a very special anniversary all across Cuba TODAY!!

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Why Trump Targets Cuba

 The Havana vs. Little Havana War!!

     While concerned Americans might think that their Secretary of State Mike Pompeo should be concentrating on pressing problems involving Iran, Russia, China, etc., it seems regaining control of little Cuba is actually his priority. This past weekend Pompeo, as shown above, made Latin American stops in Ecuador and Mexico with Cuba uppermost on his mind. Dating back to January, the Trump administration has envisioned regime-change in troubled Venezuela as the prelude to the long-sought {since January 1, 1959} regime-change in Cuba. The big-boy power of Russia and China has stalled the ouster of President Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela to install the U.S.-backed Juan Guaido but Pompeo insists the all-out Venezuelan effort led by Superpower USA is being blunted by the EXTREME POWER of...poor little Cuba. The Pompeo comments at the above forum included this amazing sequence: "I don't want to rule out the possibility that someone could find a clear way to do that {replace Maduro with Guaido} but it seems that to the extent that you have the Cubans protecting Maduro..." WOW!! Assuming Americans as well as his weekend audiences in Ecuador and Mexico are idiots, Pompeo -- to support his Cuban agenda -- projects tiny little Cuba as more powerful than the other main players in the Venezuelan scenario -- the U. S., China, Russia, Brazil, etc. INCREDIBLE!!

     The above montage shows Secretary of State Pompeo in the middle flanked by the OTHER FOUR most extremists anti-Cuban zealots that President Trump has assembled to bring about the regime-change in Cuba, an event that Trump obviously believes will gain him Florida's 29 crucial electoral votes necessary for his 2020 re-election.

     Meanwhile, as the USA's Secretary of State Pompeo coddles dangerous dictators who might have a capacity to fight back but makes sure to devote an inordinate amount of time and energy to picking on poor little Cuba.

    Insulting Latin America and displaying little knowledge of Latin American history, to facilitate the regime-change in Venezuela Pompeo incredibly named Elliott Abrams America's Envoy to Venezuela. Every Latin American nation views Abrams as the elderly Poster Boy from the USA's wicked right-wing imperialist designs on Latin America, an association that ties Abrams to such things as the Mozote Massacre, which will forever be a part of Latin America's darkest history. While pardoned by the Bush dynasty, Abrams' startling  revival to handle Latin America's most delicate issue in 2019...Venezuela...is the type of thing that imperialist-minded USA right-wingers should be held accountable for. Just assuming Americans don't know about the Mozote Massacre and won't bother to Google it...doesn't excuse the Trump revival of Bush extremists such as Abrams.

      President Trump's two prime foreign policy advisers -- National Security Adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo -- apparently earned those positions because of their past histories of eagerly championing a regime-change in Cuba to appease the Counter Revolutionary stalwarts in Miami, supposedly the Little Havana denizens who can deliver Trump his hotly desired 29 electoral votes in Florida. That Cuban grip on the Trump White House appears to be shaping the Trump administration more than any other issue...foreign or domestic. Of course, anything related to Cuba is easily disguised behind the facade of a well-greased blanket of deceit that has distorted the Cuban narrative in the USA since the 1950s.

     In Venezuela, presidential aspirant Juan Guaido's support from Bolton and Abrams figured to complete the process months ago resulting in a U.S.-friendly leader of that oil-rich but now-destitute Latin American nation. But Bolton and Abrams have reputations that scare Latin Americans even as opposition leaders in Latin America, such as Guaido, now seem to call Miami first and Washington second if regime-changes are desired.

      Back in 2000-2002 John Bolton famously failed to persuade  Little Havana-aligned President George W. Bush to attack Cuba even though Bolton presented Bush with what he believed was a worthy pretext. Today Bolton apparently believes that President Trump needs Little Havana's backing even more than Bush needed it to win the presidency in 2000 against Al Gore, who led in nationwide popular votes but watched with the rest of the world as Florida handed Bush the presidency. Of course, Bolton in 2019 also believes...correctly...that Cuban soldiers are far too few and far too ill-equipped to withstand even a minimal Superpower attack...an attack that Bolton seems convinced the American people are groomed to accept, regardless of its brutality or outcome.

     All Republican presidents since the 1950s have treated Cuba like a Piggy Bank that deserved a U.S.-friendly dictator, not a Democracy that might be expected to use the island's resources to help its own people. So, Dinosaurs like John Bolton from the George W. Bush presidency resurfacing in the Trump presidency was and is not surprising.

    Therefore, in July of 2019 that brings us back around to the image of Trump's anti-Cuban Secretary of State Mike Pompeo telling Latin American leaders this past weekend that Poor Little Cuba is responsible for Latin America's ills, including the prevention of what was perceived as an easy regime-change in Venezuela. Iran...Russia...China...North Korea...Saudi Arabia...Turkey...NO, NO!! We can talk and negotiate with any nation except Cuba. Cuba is too mean to talk to and Obama was crazy to do that. WE MUST RECAPTURE CUBA TO...uh, you know...RETURN DEMOCRACY TO THAT NEARBY ISLAND. And so, the beat goes on -- from Fulgencio Batista, Lucky Luciano, and Meyer Lansky in 1952 to Marco Rubio, John Bolton, and Mike Pompeo in 2019. 

U.S.-friendly Cuba in the 1950s.

USA's "Powerful" enemy in July, 2019.

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Why Cuba Resonates

And Why U. S. Media Ignores It!!
{UPDATED: Tuesday, July 23rd, 2019}

       Ubiquitous headlines on this July 23rd, 2019, warn us that the leaders of the United States and Iran may be on the brink of war.

      Major wars these days involve various proxy armies aligned with or against the interests of the three world powers -- Russia, the United States, and China.

     As the media focuses American and worldwide attention on the threat of war in the volatile Middle East and the Mediterranean Sea, it appears that President Trump also has his hands full trying to appease Senator Marco Rubio's urgent desire for a regime-change in Venezuela, apparently as the crucial step to finalizing Rubio's primary concern -- a regime-change in Cuba. It seems that Trump is perfectly willing to pulverize Venezuela and Cuba in exchange for his belief that Rubio can deliver Florida's crucial 29 electoral votes to his 2020 re-election plans. Yet, even the mainstream left-wing media in the U. S. that is trying so hard to impeach Trump is simply too afraid of Cuban extremists to report fairly...or at all...on even war-threatening Cuban issues.

     As far back as January, the world expected the regime-change in Venezuela to be a quick foregone conclusion, considering the dire straits the Maduro government was in economically and politically. Thus, Trump recognized Rubio's choice as Venezuela's president, Juan Guaido. Six months later, however, that scenario is still playing out...with Maduro's survival being aided by simply stressing that the USA's reputation for past coups in Latin America should rule-out a key U.S-orchestrated Latin American regime-change in 2019. 

       The sheer stupidity of Trump-Rubio assigning America's two most feared veteran right-wing coup-mongers -- Elliott Abrams and John Bolton -- to finalize the regime-change in Venezuela complicated the supposedly simple process. Solving the Venezuelan quagmire to suit the likes of Abrams and Bolton scares every Latin American nation, including the USA's best allies. Yet, this past weekend Rubio seemed concerned that Iran's intransigence might supersede his Venezuelan-Cuban agenda. On his Twitter page and elsewhere Rubio apparently wanted everyone to know that a Venezuelan fighter plane purposely harassed a U. S. fighter plane over the Caribbean Sea.

      A Venezuelan SU-30 Fighter Jet, it has been confirmed, did fly "dangerously close" to a U. S. reconnaissance jet flying over the Caribbean Sea.

      But, of course, it was Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to send ultra-modern nuclear bombers to Venezuela months ago that has prevented, or at least delayed, the regime-change in Venezuela, which Rubio apparently believes is the final step prior to priority #1 -- the regime-change in Cuba.

      At the moment, Russia's feared nuclear might hovers over Venezuela and thus thwarts the Trump-Rubio designs to put Miami's LONG-IMPATIENT Little Havana exiles back in charge of Havana. Apparently, Putin believes a U. S. domination of Venezuela and Cuba is not in Russia's best interests.

     Russia's newest and most prized nuclear-armed ship -- the Admiral Gorshkov 454 -- recently sailed into Havana Harbor, as shown by this Ramon Espinosa/Associated Press photo. Russia knew U. S. ships in the Caribbean closely monitored the audacious statement that took place 90 miles from Florida.

      The Cuban Missile Crisis way back in October of 1962 is still remembered as the closest the world has ever come to a nuclear holocaust. The U. S. and the Soviet Union barely avoided that catastrophe and now Russia seems to be suggesting that such a crisis needs to be avoided in 2019 too. Russia knows it can't remotely match the USA's economic power but it is convinced that it can match the USA's offensive and defensive nuclear might.

     Just north of the capital city of Caracas, Russia is eyeing a military base on a Venezuela island and has already made use of the island's airport and its proximity to both Latin America and the Caribbean in America's own backyard.

     The Venezuelan island La Orchila in the waters off Caracas is already being used by Russia. While the USA has over 400 major military operations around the world, including the unwanted Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba, Russia has 21 military bases or ports in ten countries -- from Armenia to Vietnam -- but both the U. S. and Russia have nuclear missiles that can reach anywhere in the world from air, land, or sea launches. While Russia doesn't have a full military base in the Americas, it is direly concerned with U. S. bases near its borders. Russia with a major base on La Orchila...or on the western tip of Cuba to oppose Guantanamo on Cuba's eastern tip...would alter the U.S.-Russian military dynamics.

     A Russian military base near Caracas would create concerns that might give Washington second thoughts about all-out regime-changes in Venezuela and Cuba, although it apparently wouldn't faze Rubio or Miami.

     So, it is Russia's extraordinary nuclear might that has stymied the Trump-Rubio plans for Venezuela #1 and Cuba #2.

     Seeking re-election, Trump has his hands full dealing with Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, renowned and feared Latin American right-wingers like Elliott Abrams, and Little Havana's Cuban-obsessed Marco Rubio.

    In regards to gaining dominance over Cuba and Venezuela, the graphic above depicts the USA's primary problem. In the past, unchecked right-wingers have put the USA in bed with Latin America's most infamous dictators -- Batista, Trujillo, Samoso, Pinochet, etc., etc., etc. Even as late as the 1970s the U. S. was involved in coups that, for example, overthrew and killed the democratically-elected President Allende to install the extremely murderous but U.S.-friendly Pinochet as the Chilean dictator for 17 bloody and unforgettable years. Powerful U. S. officials -- Nixon, the Dulles brothers, Kissinger, etc. -- have never been held responsible for such things. But it's for damn sure that the United States has been held responsible for such things in the eyes of Caribbean and Latin American nations. Thus, that history negates much of the incomparable economic and military power of the United States today, and erases much of the good the U. S. has done worldwide. So, yes..."What was wrong yesterday, is wrong today!" {As a democracy-loving American, I believe that NOT HOLDING greedy U. S. officials responsible for aligning the U. S. with vicious dictators, especially in the Caribbean and Latin America, is the biggest and most damning blemish on the United States of America}.

     This handshake back in the 1970s shamed the United States and Democracy. The bloody coup that killed Chile's very decent and democratically elected President Salvador Allende to install the murderous but U.S.-FRIENDLY General Pinochet as Chile's ruthless dictator for 17 bloody years needs to be acknowledged by the United States for what it was and is. And Henry Kissinger should be held responsible for this handshake and his role in the coup.

     Historic black-and-white photos resonate as color photos today. Pinochet is remembered as one of history's most blood-thirsty dictators. Kissinger, who turned 96-years-old back in May, should be held responsible for his Pinochet connection.

      For Sure, Little Havana's absolute control of all Republican presidents makes it impossible for President Trump to have any contact with Cuban leaders. In stark contrast, Trump's friendly handshakes with some of the world's most feared leaders are recent American highlights.

      Of course, Little Havana has no problem with repeated handshakes such as the one above.

     But this, of course, is Little Havana's most cherished handshake AND PERHAPS America's most dangerous one. This one apparently sealed President Trump's anointment of "Little Marco" Rubio as the USA's Cuban dictator on U. S. soil. These two men strongly dislike each other but Trump wants Florida's 29 electoral votes and Rubio wants to recapture Cuba for his economic and political mentors who fled the Cuban Revolution in January of 1959. Meanwhile, at the moment Trump's juggling act needs to avoid a faraway war in the Mediterranean Sea against big Iran as well as a nearby war in the Caribbean Sea with little Cuba as the catalyst. Often, historic and topical handshakes are lies.

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