Does Cuba Control Venezuela?

How True Is U. S. Claim?
{UPDATED: Thursday, August 15, 2019}

     Since January of this year, the Trump administration has told the American people and the world that its excuse for directing starvation tactics against Cuba, which many feel is genocide against the Cuban people, is because the little Caribbean island controls and owns the large Latin American nation of Venezuela, where the U. S. has demanded a regime-change since January, 2019. This week -- on August 13, 2019 -- Gzero Media subscribed to that theory with this interview featuring Moises Naim, a journalist and the former editor of Foreign Policy Magazine:

    The above video has interesting and provocative comments from journalist Moises Naim about little Cuba controlling big Venezuela while the three world Superpowers -- the U. S., China, and Russia -- are also concerning themselves with turning Venezuela's vast problems into their own assets. I invite you to punch the arrow above and listen to Naim's words about how SUPER POWERFUL poor little sanctioned-embargoed-blockaded Cuba really is, powerful enough to overwhelm the combined might of the U.S., Russia, and China in Venezuela.

     The Bush dynasty's anointment of Cuba-born Counter Revolutionary zealot Jorge Mas Canosa as America's Cuban dictator back in the 1980s essentially created a new government-in-exile on U. S. soil. It also, of course, created Miami billionaires like Canosa as well as an ongoing cacophony of Cuban-American multi-millionaires.

     With its own Little Havana-based government on U. S. soil and with dominance of both the Bush dynasty and the Republican Party, Little Havana since the 1980s has been able to legalize its own lucrative and punitive Cubans laws.

     In 1996 even a scared Democratic President, Bill Clinton, was usurped into signing the infamous and unending Helms-Burton Act, which has created an unending set of punitive attacks against Cubans on the island while incredibly enriching  and empowering selected Cubans in Miami and Newark.

     The Bush dynasty during the two-term George W. Bush presidency sharply continued the extreme enrichment and empowerful of Counter Revolutionary Cubans as well as their right-wing sycophants such as John Bolton. Shortly after the above handshake with President Bush, Bolton famously concocted schemes trying to induce Bush by 2002 to execute a regime-change in Cuba...while other right-wingers begged Bush to activate Title 3 of Helms-Burton. But Bush refused to militarily attack Cuba and Bush believed that Title 3 should not be activated because of its extreme cruelty against Cubans on the island and because it would unfairly enrich Miami Cubans via unlimited lawsuits in U. S. courtrooms against companies and U.S.-friendly nations that may have done business with Cuba.

     But John Bolton and a plethora of other anti-Cuban extremists from the Bush dynasty have been appointed by President Trump to ultra-powerful positions. Bolton is now Trump's top National Security Adviser. That affords Bolton what he considers his golden opportunity to finally execute his regime-change in Cuba.

     Given the power and authorization by Trump, John Bolton was quick to declare war on Cuba. He made the unequivocal declaration in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood while standing before a huge Brigada Asalto 2506 flag. That was the Cuban exile/CIA battle flag during the April of 1961 air-land-and-sea Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba. Bolton promised the few still-living veterans of that ignominious defeat that he would avenge their humiliation.

      The Bolton Doctrine while he is Washington's most infamous war-monger includes pacifying Big Boys like Russia and China but using his "BIG STICK" to assault weaker and smaller nations, especially Cuba. Amazingly, during the Trump administration, John Bolton can run amok...arrogantly.

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cubaninsider: Trump's LIES About Cuba

cubaninsider: Trump's LIES About Cuba: The Lies  Shame   America { UPDATED :  Tuesday,  August 13th,  2019 }       This is  Juan Gonzalez . He is President of Cuba's st...

Trump's LIES About Cuba

The Lies Shame America
{UPDATED: Tuesday, August 13th, 2019}

      This is Juan Gonzalez. He is President of Cuba's state-run Corporation Cuba Run. Juan just proved that both England and France are willing to help Cuba defy the USA Trump administration's all-out effort to strangle the island's economy. Juan signed a deal with England's giant spirits company Diageo to sell Cuba's prized Santiago Cuba Rum. It's a BIG deal because Diageo made $14 billion last year and owns such worldwide brands as Johnny Walker. A French company, Pernard Ricard, already sells Havana Club Rum in an important partnership with Cuba. Regarding the new contract in England, Juan Gonzalez said, "We are grateful to England, which is our friend and also is America's friend, as it should be. Santiago Cuba Rum is an expression of Cuba's people and part of our culture."

Photo courtesy: Adalberto Roque/AFP/Getty Images.

       In the photo above a Cuban is pointing to a Royal Caribbean cruise ship leaving Havana Harbor on June 5-2019 as he and his friends discuss the latest genocidal assault by the USA's Trump administration on everyday, totally innocent Cubans who deserve the right to support their families. The day before -- on June 4-2019 -- the Trump administration, as a part of its starvation tactics, had blocked cruise ships from stopping off in Cuba. This photo illustrates this week's very best article updating the prime reason Trump and a handful of Cuban-American extremists should be held accountable for such genocide. The article appears in the Los Angeles Times and is written by Mimi Whitefield. It is entitled: "CUBA FEELS THE PINCH OF THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION'S TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS."

         A long-time Latin American expert for the Miami Herald, Mimi Whitefield's aforementioned August 11-2019 article is also headlined in the Los Angeles Times. Trump's current genocide against everyday Cubans is to appease Counter Revolutionary extremists from Little Havana in Miami, such as Marco Rubio and the Diaz-Balart brothers, because Trump covets Florida's 29 Electoral Votes leading into his possible 2020 re-election. While most of the mainstream U. S. media, including the left-wing anti-Trump zealots, are too afraid of Little Havana to report fairly on Trump's most egregious sin...genocide against innocent Cubans...Mimi Whitefield, the Miami Herald, and the Los Angeles Times are among sources with more guts and integrity. In this article, which I encourage you to dial up and read in its entirety, Mimi Whitefield mocks every Trump lie regarding why he commits genocide against everyday Cubans. For example, Rosa Isabel Hernandez Pina, as Ms. Whitefield points out, is the typical Cuban being targeted by Trump and Little Havana. Thanks to the decency of President Obama prior to Trump's indecency, Rosa Isabel opened a thriving restaurant in picturesque Vinales Valley and she took pride in how its robust earnings provided for her family. Her main clients were tourists, many of them Americans, who arrived on cruise ships. The Royal Caribbean cruise ship shown above that left Havana on June 5th was the last one Cuba has seen because on June 4-2019 Trump, at the behest of Little Havana, activated Title 3 of the cruel Helms-Burton Act, something that Little Havana could not even persuade President George W. Bush to activate because of its extreme genocidal acts against innocent Cubans as well as its bullying demands against other nations to stop dealing with Cuba. Rosa Isabel and her children comprise the typical family targeted in Cuba by Trump and Little Havana.

     When Senator Marco Rubio and President Donald Trump say that the above conclusion is not so, they are lying.

      This photo shows a Cuban girl wrapped in a U. S. flag watching a cruise ship enter Havana Harbor back when the United States had a decent and brave President, Mr. Obama, who challenged Little Havana's long genocide against innocent Cubans like this girl.

     On his brave and historic visit to Cuba, President Obama promised the Cuban people on statewide television and radio that "Cuba does not need to fear a threat from the United States." Of course, the two-term Democratic President Obama, when he made that solemn promise on behalf of the American people, didn't anticipate he would be succeeded by another Republican President who takes his Cuban orders directly from Counter Revolutionary Cuban-American extremists.

      Cuba has renovated its capital building in Havana in time to celebrate this year's 500th anniversary of the island's official existence. Surely, one of the most shameful things about Rubio and Trump being allowed to commit genocide against innocent Cubans in the name of the United States of America is this stark fact: Most of the mainstream U. S. media and most of America's 323 million citizens simply don't have the guts to challenge Republican administrations or Little Havana even as they commit genocide against helpless people in a small nation. Yet, of course, those sanctimonious media cowards and those sanctimonious citizens are quick to condemn China or Russia or some other powerful nation for being perceived or even merely suspected of committing genocide against people in a much weaker nation.

      The infamous Helms-Burton Act in 1996 legalized cruelty against innocent Cubans on the island and also created extreme wealth in Miami's Little Havana corridor when it, as noted above, "STRENGTHENED THE U. S. BLOCKADE OF CUBA." That blockade, or economic embargo, has existed from 1962 till today -- AUGUST OF 2019.  Its genocidal dictates were activated on June 4th-2019 by the Rubio-dictated Trump administration, and it has been done with barely a whimper from the gutless mainstream media and the gutless U. S. citizenry. Prior to 1962, prior to 1996, and prior to June 4th-2019 the United States of America had the world's greatest Democracy. And that's why, in August of 2019, the Caribbean island of Cuba says a helluva lot more about the United States than it says about Cuba itself.

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cubaninsider: Getting To Know Cuba

cubaninsider: Getting To Know Cuba: Let Me   TELL YOU  How To !! { Sunday,  August 11th,  2019 }      The photo above was posted on  Friday, August 9, 2019 ,  atop the F...

Getting To Know Cuba

Let Me TELL YOU How To!!
{Sunday, August 11th, 2019}

     The photo above was posted on Friday, August 9, 2019, atop the Facebook page of Tracey Eaton. He captioned it with this interesting sentence: "Check out the flights heading from Miami to Havana." YES, INDEED!! You should check out everything Tracey Eaton writes, says, or shows about U.S.-Cuba relations. He is, you see, BY FAR America's best and fairest journalistic expert when it comes to reporting on the tumultuous and important U.S.-Cuba conundrum, a relationship that says a whole lot about Cuba but even more about the superpower United States of America. With that photo above, Mr. Eaton is reminding us that the 90+-miles separating Havana in Cuba from Little Havana is Miami is not very far at all...even though a handful of Counter Revolutionaries in Little Havana with their tight grips around the throat of the Trump administration believe they can now starve 11.2 million Cubans on the island to pave the way for, at LONG LAST, their recapture of Cuba, which slipped away from them way back in 1959 when the long-shot Cuban Revolution overthrew the brutal U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship. Even while Little Havana stalwarts in Miami are trying to starve Cubans on the island into submission, as Mr. Eaton shows above, at any given time the commercial airplane flights from Miami to Cuba are both numerous and crowded. Count the flights ticketed "On Time" just at "5:34 P. M., Friday, August 9, 2019." I bet you didn't know that was happening...because since January of 1959 Little Havana has dictated the Cuban narrative in the U. S. and because it has recently and successfully dictated to President Trump Little Havana's desire to starve Cubans on the island by shutting off all imports and exports to-and-from the island.

            For sure, during any Republican administration in Washington Little Havana in Miami has had a noose around Cuba, which is the Caribbean's largest and most beautiful island nation. Also, Cuba is probably the Caribbean nation with the most potential, economically and politically.

       Indeed, because Cuba has always...since 1492...been the Pearl of the Antilles, it has also been one of the world's most coveted island nations by imperialist powers -- especially Spain first of all but, since the 1898 Spanish-American War, by the United States. The U. S. domination of Cuba lasted from 1898 till 3:00 A. M. on January 1, 1959, when the Cuban Revolution chased the Batista-Mafia leaders to their new capital, Little Havana in Miami. For six-plus decades Little Havana, supported by the superpower USA, has tried every tactic in the imperialist book to recapture Cuba -- including the 1961 Bay of Pigs military attack; a record number of assassination attempts; terror bombings that included the civilian airplane Cubana Flight 455, killing all on board; car-bombings that settled internecine squabbles among Little Havana Counter Revolutionaries; a message-sending car-bombing that silenced Emilio Milian,  the bravest and most popular Cuban-American journalist who criticized Little Havana terrorism against innocent Cubans; etc., etc.

     From 1962 till today the U. S. has imposed history's all-time cruelest and longest economic embargo...a blockade...ever imposed by a powerful nation against a much weaker nation. But only the Trump administration, by activating Title 3 of the infamous Helms-Burton Act, has powered the word "genocide"/"genocidio" into being CORRECTLY applied to how the Little Havana-directed Trump administration is currently targeting Cubans on the island. And, folks, as a Democracy-loving American, I don't believe the word "genocide" should ever be attached to America's targeting of millions of innocent people in a small nation.

       Indeed, Little Havana and the Trump administration have teamed to add a skull and bones definition to the Helms-Burton Act that Little Havana rammed through the U. S. Congress "LEGALLY" and {supposedly} permanently in 1996. It since, first off, has created a plethora of Cuban-American millionaires and billionaires but...somehow...has failed to recapture Havana for Little Havana.

    Ensconced deep within the bowels of the U. S. democracy, Little Havana in Miami is able to dip deeply into the U. S. treasury {tax dollars} because, to be precisely honest, the mainstream U. S. media is too afraid to challenge or report fairly on the dictates of Little Havana USA. Sadly, that includes the ultra-rich-and-powerful left-wing media that is obsessed with impeaching and eliminating Trump -- a media that includes billionaire-backed enterprises such as NBC, MSNBC, CNN, CBS, ABC, the NY Times, and the Washington Post.

     And that brings us back around to PRECISELY WHY you should get to know Tracey Eaton, who published the photo this week atop his Facebook page about all those flights leaving Miami for Cuba. Mr. Eaton is BY FAR America's best expert on U.S.-Cuba relations. He has been stationed as a key journalist in Cuba; he is now a beloved journalism Professor in Florida; and in his long career he has never been accused by either side of being biased in favor of or opposed to either the U. S. or Cuba. He merely continues to report the facts and let others judge them. Just about every notable national and Florida news source -- from NBC News to USA Today to current Eaton articles in the Tampa Bay Times, etc, etc, etc. -- has depended on Mr. Eaton for the very best reporting on U.S.-Cuban issues.

       As America's greatest journalistic expert on U.S.-Cuba relations, Tracey Eaton recognizes that Little Havana's very intense and very successful greed for U. S. tax dollars is the fundamental goal that fuels the persistent Little Havana engine. Therefore, if you are not familiar with Mr. Eaton's must-read blog CUBA MONEY PROJECT.com then I am convinced you have no idea how huge is the steady pipeline of otherwise UNEXPLAINED tax dollars THAT FLOW EVERY SINGLE DAY FROM WASHINGTON TO MIAMI. In fifteen or so recent articles that originated on CUBA MONEY PROJECT.com, Mr. Eaton reveals RIGHT DOWN TO THE PENNY the millions or billions of tax dollars that have flowed and are flowing DAILY from Washington to the most controversial Little Havana projects and individuals in Miami. Mr. Eaton is precise regarding those uncontested figures because he is the one who gets his data from the reluctant U. S. government via the Freedom of Information Act and other pertinent and definitive sources. Indeed, both Democracy-lovers {like me} and Taxpayers {including you} should get to know Professor Tracey Eaton and his very valuable CUBA MONEY PROJECT.com blog.

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War Clouds Over Cuba

John Bolton Is Very Serious!!
{UPDATED: Friday, August 9th, 2019}

    For years, Citgo Gas Stations, owned by the Venezuelan government's PDVSA, have been ubiquitous in the United States. They still are but things have changed as the United States is intent on ousting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in favor of the U.S.-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido. The USA, with omnipotent economic and military influence worldwide, has turned Citgo over to...you guessed it!!...Juan Guaido. Therefore, Citgo will not be subject to the massive United States sanctions imposed on just about every other enterprise tied to the current Maduro government!!

     Every opposition leader throughout Latin America, like Juan Guaido in Venezuela, knows precisely what to do if a Republican president like the current Donald Trump happens to be in the White House. As shown above, you get on your phone and don't call Trump. You call Little Havana's U. S. Senator Marco Rubio because Little Havana/Miami is considered the OPPOSITION CAPITAL of Latin America and because Little Havana in Miami has an IRON GRIP around the necks of all Republican presidents.

        And, of course, Marco Rubio will eagerly answer every call from any Latin American opposition leader, such as Juan Guaido, that reportedly will promise: {1} That once in power he will help Rubio recapture Cuba for Little Havana; and {2} in return, Rubio promises the opposition leader the full support of the Superpower United States. Of course, in America's frayed two-party political system, such phone calls prevail ONLY during Republican administrations when renowned war-mongers like John Bolton reclaim enormous power.

     This photo is courtesy of Reuters/Guadalupe Pardo. It shows President Donald Trump's National Security Adviser John Bolton this week -- August 6th, 2019 -- in Lima, Peru. Bolton announced a new round of U. S. sanctions that he said will finalize the economic ruin of the "rogue nation" of Venezuela. He called them "new, maximum sanctions" tightening restrictions on Venezuela's trade with other nations and further freezing all of the country's public assets. Since January, Trump and Bolton have expected to replace besieged Cuba-friendly Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with the U.S.-friendly Juan Guaido. Many believe that Bolton's personal obsession with Venezuela derives from his long-held obsession of executing a regime-change in Cuba. In Lima this week, Bolton said, "The United States is acting assertively to cut off Maduro financially, and accelerate a peaceful democratic transition." He warned other nations not to "double down on a bad bet" and this time he singled out Russia by name. Earlier, Bolton had blamed little Cuba for keeping Maduro in power.

      Photos like the one above are reminders of why another Republican administration in Washington now has trouble even using the USA's incomparable economic and military power & influence to exact modern-day regime-changes in Latin America. Beginning in 1952 with Batista and the Mafia in Cuba, and shortly thereafter the brutal regime change in El Salvador, Republican administrations started aligning the U. S. with brutal Latin American dictators {Batista, Trujillo, Somoso, Videla, etc.}, and this continued deep into the 1970s when the Democratically elected Salvador Allende in Chile was killed in a U.S.-backed coup that put the murderous but U.S.-friendly dictator General Pinochet in charge of Chile for 17 bloody years. Many of the anti-Cuban war-mongers from the Bush dynasty have resurfaced in the current Trump administration -- such as John Bolton and Elliott Abrams, both of whom are remembered with fear throughout Latin America to this day. The photo above shows President George W. Bush when he empowered Bolton. By 2002-2003, Bolton was famous for concocting wild excuses trying to persuade Bush to recapture Cuba. As it turned out, Bush refused to go to the extremes requested by Bolton, but it appears that Bolton believes President Trump will do so...as soon as Venezuela, Cuba's close ally, has its regime-change.

   Once he became National Security Adviser, John Bolton quickly went to Little Havana in Miami and promised the few remaining survivors of the Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba that their ignominious defeat way back in April of 1961 would be avenged with the regime-change they have longed for courtesy of the Trump administration. Bolton, as shown above, made that prediction...promise...standing before a huge Brigade 2506 Bay of Pigs Assault Flag.

MEANWHILE:

      Also this week -- August 6th, 2019 -- Cuba surprisingly announced that it "will fight" in a U. S. courtroom and elsewhere against a lawsuit by oil giant ExxonMobil, which was one of the many U. S. corporations that thrived in Cuba before the Cuban Revolution overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship in January of 1959. Cuba has never contested lawsuits in the U. S. that made millionaires or billionaires out of a lot of Cuban-American lawyers and Counter Revolutionaries, and to do so against ExxonMobil is unusual, to say the least. After all, ExxonMobil can afford an army of high-priced lawyers that Cuba can't afford...and ExxonMobil will have the huge home-court advantage as well as the backing of the world superpower, the United States.

     Since 1996 the Helms-Burton Act has legalized in the United States genocidal sanctions and assaults against Cubans on the island while paving the way for vast amounts of unchecked tax dollars to enrich and empower Counter Revolutionary Cuban exiles. Helms-Burton since 1996 greatly expanded on the debilitating U. S. embargo against Cuba that has existed since 1962. Every politician in Washington is aware that Helms-Burton was craftily written by expensive lawyers working for the most vehement Counter Revolutionary Cubans in Miami, such as future billionaire Jorge Mas Canosa and then Havana-born congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart, whose father Rafael Diaz-Balart was a key Minister in the Batista dictatorship. Today Lincoln's brother Mario Diaz-Balart is in the 535-member U. S. Congress from Miami and he can easily keep Helms-Burton alive and legal along with other congressional Cuban extremists such as Senators Marco Rubio and Bob Menendez. So, in August of 2019 the genocidal skull and X, as shown above attached to Helms-Burton, is STILL alive and well...and both cruel and lucrative.

     Prior to Trump, all U. S. Presidents...even including George W. Bush...had SUSPENDED Title III of Helms-Burton because it entails extreme cruelty against innocent Cubans on the island and because it punishes and angers nations, including U. S. allies, that might want the freedom to trade with Cuba. But back on June 4th, 2019, the Trump administration activated Title III of Helms-Burton. While Title III indeed is severely hurting innocent Cubans on the island, it is also serving its main PURPOSE, which is to further enrich and empower an already select group of rich and powerful Cuban-Americans and, of course, their lawyers.

       National Security Adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, both renowned anti-Cuban zealots, make most of the announcements about anti-Cuban sanctions and anti-Cuban war-mongering.

      In August of 2019, with President Trump embroiled in a bevy of other domestic and foreign problems, John Bolton nevertheless believes he has the full authority from Trump to execute Bolton's long-desired regime-change in Cuba.

      And, therefore, in August of 2019, the most famed war-monger in Washington, John Bolton, believes he finally has the hammer...and the bombs if needed...to drive the nails in Revolutionary Cuba's coffin. For sure, it appears that neither the mainstream U. S. media nor 325 million Americans have the guts to challenge him.

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Cuba Plans to Outlast Trump

For One+ Years Or For Five+ Years!!
{UPDATED: Tuesday, August 6, 2019}

      Although the demise of Revolutionary Cuba has been predicted almost daily since January 1, 1959, that prognostication got new adherents back in June-2019 when the Trump administration activated Title 3/Helms Burton, a starvation tactic that even the Batistiano-aligned George W. Bush presidency had considered too cruel to activate.

     Once Title 3/Helms Burton was activated against Cuba back in June, the USA's vast economic influence worldwide was considered by many, at long last, to be the final nail in Revolutionary Cuba's coffin. After all, Title 3 legalized the total blockade against the vulnerable island, forcing other nations to cooperate in blocking all imports and exports to-and-from Cuba as well as decimating the island's vital tourist industry. Of course, as written originally by Batistiano lawyers in 1996, Title 3/Helms Burton is also designed to create more Cuban-exile millionaires and billionaires by legalizing vast lawsuits in Batistiano-friendly U. S. courtrooms to benefit heirs of the supposedly honest Batista-Mafia dictatorship that ruled Cuba prior to the 1959 victory of the Cuban Revolution. 

      Indeed, the Trump administration expected little Cuba to surrender by now, especially after new reports from the island, starting in June-2019, began to reveal food shortages and energy blackouts in Cuba due to Title 3/Helms Burton. Yet, as indicated above, little Cuba screamed back that no United States "economico bloqueo" would usurp "nuestra dignidad." {"our dignity"}.

           And so far, for about the millionth time since 1959, the white dove bearing the Cuban flag of independence has somehow escaped the clutches of the Batistiano-directed United States, and the dove each time has flown safely back to the Caribbean's largest and most beautiful island, much to the chagrin of the  remnants of the former Batista-Mafia rulers still nestled securely and RICHLY on U. S., but not Cuban, soil. If Title 3/Helms Burton doesn't work, all sane and decent people HOPE the Trump administration will not consider nuking the island on behalf of the Counter Revolutionary extremists but, of course, one never knows what Trump might do.

       As far as is known, not a single decent American or Cuban-American approves the extreme genocidal cruelty of Title III/Helms Burton. Indeed, decent Americans like Peter Kornbluh at the Washington-based U. S. National Archives; Emily Mendrala at the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas; and countless other decent folks have literally begged Little Havana's Marco Rubio to allow President Trump to "SUSPEND" in its entirety the insanity of Title III/Helms-Burton. But, of course, dating back to the 1950s the collective obsessions of a mere handful of Republican right-wingers aligned with a mere handful of Batistiano-Mafiosi extremists have been able to dictate America's Cuban policies, forcing the island nation to repeatedly adjust but to not surrender.

      In these first few days of August, 2019, Cuba has announced to the world its latest plan to survive President Trump and Title 3/Helms-Burton. The island has welcomed some brave help from the Russian, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Japanese governments, but it seeks vital new investments from nations closer to home. The AFP image above was used to illustrate an August 4-2019 article by BUSINESSDAY. It explained that Cuba has informed all potential investors of its total foreign debt, which it says is $18.2 billion that it is trying to keep paying off. Also, Cuba explained updated figures on how it is earning money to survive the Trump administration. For example, in 2018 Cuba earned $970 million from hotel and related services; $722 million from telecommunications; $600 million from transportation and support services, etc. Also, Cuba says its exports in 2018 totaled $14.5 billion, down from $18.6 billion in 2013; and its imports in 2018 totaled $12.6 billion, way down from $15.6 billion in 2013. BUSINESSDAY said that Cuba, for the first time, is revealing such statistics in order to try to convince foreign investors that the island is not only open for business but is also a safe investment even during the duration of the current Republican administration in Washington. Cuba insists it will survive the Little Havana-directed Republican presidency and await an Obama-like Democratic U. S. president.

    On August 4th-2019 the Foundation for Economic Education {FEE} used the graphic above in discussing the evils of Cuba's socialism compared to the wonders of Hong Kong's capitalism. Not discussed much is the wonders of socialism in, say, Norway, which has a far higher per capita income than the U. S. and, of course, a far safer and happier population. What if Cuba, like Norway and everyone else, had not suffered under brutal U. S. economic sanctions since 1962? Also, in July and August of 2019 massive anti-government demonstrations have inundated Hong Kong...not to mention that massive demonstrations in San Juan have just overturned the latest corrupt government on the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico, which is a U. S. Territory with U. S. Citizens who receive billions of U. S. tax dollars and other aid to help out during national disasters like hurricanes. When Cuba suffers from similar disasters, the U. S. embargo blocks outside help from nations that otherwise would like to help.

     So, can little Cuba survive Helms-Burton's most genocidal provisions recently enacted for the first time by the latest Little Havana-directed Republican administration in Washington? Well...maybe or maybe not!! But one thing is sure: Cuba...is trying real hard to survive Trump while hoping someone like Obama claims the American presidency.

      Obama: "Cuba does not need to fear a threat from the United States." A sacred promise President Obama made on his historic visit to Cuba in 2016. It was a sincere quote by President Obama but Revolutionary Cuba, indeed, has been forced to fear a dire threat from all six Republican administrations since the 1950's. 

       But Donald Trump is the only U. S. Republican President that has: {1} Activated the genocidal starvation provisions of Title 3/Helms-Burton; and {2} he is the Republican President that quickly went to Little Havana in Miami and promised the few remaining April of 1961 Bay of Pigs attackers that their defeat will be avenged and Cuba will be returned to them during their lifetimes. In exchange, Trump believes Little Havana can again deliver him Florida's crucial 29 Electoral Votes heading into his 2020 re-election. For sure, since the Spanish-American War in Cuba in 1898, and especially since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Cuba has said a lot more about the United States than it has said about Cuba itself. And I think we can all agree, WHAT IT SAYS is not pretty. The above photo is merely one of many things attesting to that basic fact.

     As a democracy-loving American, I was ashamed in October of 2016, the last year of the Obama presidency, when the entire world voted 191-to-0 at the United Nations to unanimously condemn the U. S. embargo of Cuba that has existed since 1962. And similarly, I am ashamed that billboards like the one above can inform the Cuban people that the embargo...Cubans call it a blockade...is by far the longest and cruelest economic embargo ever imposed by a strong nation against a much weaker nation. The words "EL GENOCIDIO" as used above means "THE GENOCIDE" and that, I believe, is a term that should shame the people in any powerful country...China, Russia, US, etc.

     This photo was taken in Cuba last week by Roberto Suarez and it shows Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel addressing Cubans in a televised speech. He used the word "genocide" to describe the Trump administration's activation of Title 3/Helms-Burton and then he explained what the Cuban government is trying to do to survive it. Cubans are well-educated and now they are very active on the Internet and the Social Media. A strong majority of Cubans support Diaz-Canel and they know him well as their former Education Minister. He was born after the triumph of the Revolution but he is a fierce supporter of it, as are most Cubans on the island. If that were not so, Revolutionary Cuba could never have survived all these decades. The Cuban narrative in the United States since 1959 starts with the premise that the Batista-Mafia dictatorship was a sweet, Mother Teresa-type government in Havana. And that's a lie. And furthermore, it hasn't been a sweet, Mother Teresa-type government on U. S. soil in Little Havana since 1959 either.

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