Trump's Latin American Coups

Trump's Gifts to Little Havana!!

        After being exiled to Mexico after being ousted as Bolivia's President by a vicious right-wing coup last month, Evo Morales has arrived in Cuba {above}. His close associates say Morales needs medical treatment from Cuban doctors that had treated him in Bolivia {before all Cubans were booted from Bolivia after the new U.S.-backed right-wing regime replaced Morales}. After 13 years as Bolivia's pro-Cuban president, Morales is still beloved by his country's poor indigenous Indians who are a majority of the population and who have repeatedly elected him as their leader, including back in October in an election that the United States {meaning Little Havana/Miami} said was fraudulent as did the Organization of American States, which typically bends to all of the USA's anti-Cuban policies. But even some unbiased countries such as Canada also opposed Morales for his refusing to not abide by Bolivia's term-limit provisions for presidents. Yet, most of Latin American observers -- including influential media sources such as the Miami-based Progreso Weekly, Americas Quarterly, etc. -- have cringed about the USA's role in the Bolivian "COUP" that revives memories of bloody U.S.-backed Latin American coups that even historically include the death of decent democratically elected President Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973 to install the murderous but U.S.-friendly dictator Augusto Pinochet for 17 extremely bloody years. Almost all of Latin America's leaders and experts believe that the Trump administration's involvement in the Bolivian coup last month is a Trump gift to a few of the anti-Cuban zealots in Miami and the U. S. Congress. Moreover, Latin American sources envision the Trump-aligned anti-Cuban right-wingers to particularly continue promoting right-wing regime-changes in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Chile...while mostly, of course, striving for the overthrow of the Cuban Revolution.

      This map shows major "U.S.-BACKED COUP ATTEMPTS IN LATIN AMERICA between 1948-2019" and this, of course, does not include the recent successful U.S.-backed coup in Bolivia. It is well known that the Trump administration's main interest in backing ongoing coup attempts in pro-Cuban nations like Bolivia, Venezuela, and Nicaragua relate to Little Havana-Miami's fervent quest to finally  regain control of Cuba while Trump is the President of the United States. Cuba's massive influence in Latin America is based on its pugnacious success in fighting off U. S. dominance since 1959. The coup last month that ousted Evo Morales in Bolivia is especially being hailed in Little Havana. And now that Evo Morales has left his exile in Mexico to land in Cuba it is...FOR SURE...prompting Counter Revolutionary zealots like Marco Rubio, the Balarts, and Mauricio Claver-Carone to exacerbate their grip on Trump to eviscerate the Cuban Revolution ONCE AND FOR ALL.

    Meanwhile...while painting Cuba as a pariah to appease Little Havana, Trump hopes to win Florida's crucial 29 Electoral Votes needed for his 2020 re-election. Yet, all the while, Trump powerfully supports, empowers, coddles, and tolerates leaders in dangerous nations that, of course, never defeated a brutal U.S.-backed dictatorship and chased it  to its new sanctuary on U. S. soil.

   Meanwhile, as the great Editorialist Dave Granlund suggests, Trump deals and twiddles with powerful threats like Russia, which has a nuclear arsenal equal to the U. S.

    And also...when the citizens of America sit on their pusillanimous asses and allow Trump to promote genocide against totally innocent Cubans on the island to appease a few viciously vindictive Cubans in Miami who are paranoid about recapturing Cuba AS PER the 1950's U.S.-backed Batista/Mafia dictatorship, perhaps the two-party United States democracy in the closing days of 2019 is even in more overall trouble than Revolutionary Cuba's one-party system. Surely, non-elite Americans, like me, reluctantly now believe that both of the USA's political parties are money-crazed and corrupt. And that corruption has been best exposed not by Ukraine but by little Cuba with yet another Republican president totally aligned with a few rich and powerful extremist Cubans residing in the Little Havana section of Miami and in Congress and, of course, in all Republican White Houses. Complicating and exacerbating that non-democratic situation is the fact that the Democratic Party, which has been totally obsessed with impeaching Trump for the past three years, is simply too afraid of Little Havana extremists that its leaders will not accuse Trump of genocide against Cubans on the island  even as the ubiquitous Democratic impeachment obsessions spend massive Congressional dollars and time on searching for far lesser Trumpian crimes. But, of course, the USA's Mafia-aligned crimes regarding Cuba long predated the presidency of Trump as the historic images below document.

      This photo in 1956 shows that the United States continued to send plane-loads and ship-loads of U. S. trained-and-funded soldiers back to Cuba to protect the brutal Batista-Mafia dictatorship because it allowed rich U. S. businessmen to also partake in the wholesale robbery of the island. But, as shown before, the extreme brutality of the Batista forces provided massive motivation for the everyday population to risk their lives to support the underdog anti-Batista rebels, and that support proved decisive. While many historians and even venues like the famed "Godfather" movies admitted such facts, to this day the still Batistiano-aligned U. S. government refuses to do the same.

      Batista closed the University of Havana and his thugs gruesomely murdered student leaders like Jose Echevarria as Batista gunmen hunted them down in the streets or where they lived. The dead bodies, like Jose's above, were left in the streets as warnings to others not to oppose the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship. Famously, teachers such as 23-year-old Frank Pais and Frank's 17-year-old brother Jesus Pais received the same fate as Jose Echevarria. Today neither the U. S. government nor the U. S. media will tell Americans about Batista victims such as Jose Echevarria and Frank Pais because to do so would mitigate against today's continuing U. S. policies designed to regain control of Cuba. But Americans, of course, today can Goggle the names underlined above to ascertain what Batista's U.S.-backed Cuba was all about in the 1950s.

     Or Google the name of Clodomira Acosta who was captured, unmercifully tortured, and then murdered by Batista goons because she supported students such as Jose Echevarria.

       Or Google the name of Lidia Doce who was captured by Batista goons, unmercifully tortured, and murdered because she supported university leaders like Jose Echevarria.

      The names of Lidia Doce and Clodomira Acosta can be goggled today because they are still remembered among the countless victims of Batista's Cuba in the 1950s.

A drawing of Lidia and Clodimira.

       Today you also can Google the name of Esteban Ventura. He is famed as one of Batista's most notorious assassins.

      Today you can also Google the name of Luis Posada Carriles. Within days of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in January of 1959, the U. S. government put young men like Posada on salaries and sent to the then-secretive Army of the Americas at Fort Benning to train them to recapture Cuba. After graduating as a Lieutenant {left above} to attack Cuba but, famously, Posada also openly admitted being decades of being a anti-Cuban terrorist tied allegedly to such things as a deadly hotel bombing in a Havana hotel, the bombing of a civilian Cuban airplane that killed all 73 on board {"Cubana Flight 455"}, etc. Of course, Posada at age 90 died of old age on U. S. soil still hailed a hero in Little Havana and massively protected by Miami members of the U. S. Congress and the other Cubans who held most of the top political positions in Miami.

      Meanwhile, from the 1950s until THIS VERY DAY the FEU, the FEDERATION OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS in Cuba, has remained a volatile and upfront source of massive support for the Cuban Revolution, just as martyred student leaders such as Jose Echevarria were back in the 1950s.

     And meanwhile...since 1959 Americans have been propagandized to believe that Mother Teresa-types, not top Mafia kingpins like Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Santo Trafficante Jr., and Fulgencio Batista, "ran" pre-Castro Cuba.

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Pro-Cuban CUBAN In Miami

And Boldly Unafraid To Say So!!

       At the Miami Herald the top journalist pertaining to Cuban topics is Nora Gamez Torres. As such she is obligated to promote the views of the most prominent Counter Revolutionary Cuban-American extremists who have dominated Miami since the Cuban Revolution overturned the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship way back in January of 1959. And of the many articles written by Nora Gamez Torres, THE MOST INTERESTING was published today -- Dec. 6th, 2019 -- in the Miami Herald. It is entitled: "Cuban-American Democrat Who Praised Fidel Castro Runs For Congress in Miami." A very interesting headline. Moreover, the Cuban-American Democrat running for the U. S. Congress in Miami is a beautiful woman WHO IS RUNNING FOR THE SEAT IN FLORIDA'S 25TH DISTRICT THAT HAS BEEN HELD SINCE 1993 BY ONE OF THE DIAZ-BALART BROTHERS WHOSE FATHER WAS A KEY MINISTER IN THE BATISTA DICTATORSHIP AND WHO AFTER JANUARY-1959 CREATED THE FIRST ANTI-CASTRO PARAMILITARY UNIT IN MIAMI CALLED THE WHITE ROSE, WHICH WAS NAMED FOR A JOSE MARTI POEM. And that is why this is the MOST INTERESTING ARTICLE by Nora Gamez Torres. {Since 1959, the Miami Herald's prime focus has been to depict the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Havana as the world's all-time best government from 1952-1958 and the Cuban Revolution that toppled it the world's all-time worst government from 1959 to today}.

     Before the Miami Herald's slant on Miami's pro-Cuban Revolutionary Cuban-American today, Yadira Escobar was already ubiquitous in the Miami area and well-known to Little Havana's extremist Counter Revolutionaries who have dominated Miami for six decades but, despite being supported by the superpower U. S. government, they have yet to regain control of the coveted nearby island. In the Nora Gamez Torres article in the Miami Herald today, the first paragraph stated: "Blogger Yadira Escobar is used to stirring controversy in Miami: She has spoken with admiration of Fidel Castro, branded some Cuban dissidents 'criminals' and 'counter revolutionaries criminals,' and asked the United States to take its 'hands off Venezuela.'" Also, Yadira is a journalist, author, radio host and producer, CEO of a multinational company, etc.

   In Miami, and even in the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami, Yadira Escobar she has said that she is proud that "My grandfather participated in the struggle against the bloody dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista." And she said the recent ouster of Cuba-friendly President Evo Morales in Bolivia was "a coup." Surely, the feisty Yadira's decision to challenge Little Havana's grip on Miami's economic and political structure is stunning...and courageous.

      For sure, Yadira Escobar's bid for the prime Miami/Little Havana seat in the U. S. Congress is extremely brave from many aspects, most notably the fact that she is trying to unseat the Little Havana son of a key Minister from the Batista dictatorship that ruled Cuba prior to the victory of the Cuban Revolution in 1959.

      This is Rafael Diaz-Balart back in the 1950s when he was a powerful Minister in the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship.

     After the Cuban Revolution defeated the Batista dictatorship on Jan. 1-1959, this is Rafael Diaz-Balart when he was still -- from 1959 till his death in 2005 -- one of the all-time richest and most extremist Counter Revolutionary Cubans in South Florida. Once he fled to Miami, Rafael Diaz-Balart quickly created The White Rose, the first paramilitary unit on U. S. soil designed to overthrow the Cuban Revolution. Two of Rafael Diaz-Balart's sons have been extremist Counter Revolutionaries all their adult lives and one or other of them has been in the U. S. Congress as extreme Counter Revolutionaries since 1993 -- the Miami seat that the brave pro-revolutionary Yadira Escobar is trying to win in next November's election.

     Two sons of key Batista official Rafael Diaz-Balart are Havana-born Lincoln Diaz-Balart, now 65, and South Florida-born Mario Diaz-Balart, now 58. Lincoln was in the U. S. Congress from 1993 till 2011 from Miami. He resigned that safe seat in 2011, telling a news conference he could better continue his father's The White Rose ambitions as a civilian lawyer. It is widely known that Lincoln and budding billionaire Counter Revolutionary Cuban zealot Jorge Mas Canosa were the two prime architects of the infamous Helms-Burton Act that from 1996 till today legalizes extreme anti-Cuban measures as well as legalizes extreme funding of Counter Revolutionary projects and individuals. Of course, when Lincoln resigned from Congress he knew his seat would be taken by his brother Mario. Mario had also been in the U. S. Congress from 1992 from the 21st District of Florida but when Lincoln resigned his seat from the 25th District, Mario simply took that seat, where he remains today as a vicious Counter Revolutionary Cuban-American.

     For sure, Mario and Lincoln Diaz-Balart are symbolic of the transition from Havana-to-Little Havana in the U.S.-Cuban conundrum. The fact is that the Batista dictatorship in Cuba lost its capital of Havana to the Cuban Revolution in January-1959 but since January-1959 till today the new capital of Little Havana in Miami has replaced Havana for the Batistianos, incredibly reshaping America and Democracy on U. S. soil. Mario's and Lincoln's father Rafael, the ex-Batista official, dominated Counter Revolutionary Cubans in Miami from 1959 till his death in 2005. And in Congress and in Miami since 1993 Mario and Lincoln have been as unchecked in their Counter Revolutionary endeavors as was their father.

BUT HOLY MIAMI!!

    This is the face of a pro-Castro, pro-Cuban, pro-Revolutionary Cuban-American in Miami who is bidding for the Congressional seat from Miami that has been held by one of the Diaz-Balart brothers since 1993. The audacious Yadira Escobar believes that most of the Cuban-Americans even in the Miami area are tired of extremist Counter Revolutionary Cuban-Americans dictating Miami's economy and politics since January of 1959. She believes that the Counter Revolutionaries' tight on the Trump administration's Cuban policies hurt everyone except them, including most Cuban-Americans who want to  be able to react with fellow Cubans on the island and help them. Yadira Escobar, even if her beliefs are correct, still probably won't be able to stand up to the rich and powerful Balarts between now and the election in November next year. But...she's trying.

     Back in October-2018 Yadira Escobar's book "The Illustrator" explained why her hero was her Cuban grandfather: "My grandfather participated in the struggle against the bloody dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista." Since 1959 the Little Havana narrative in Miami has dominated America's perspective of the Cuban Revolution and the Batista dictatorship that it defeated and chased to South Florida. But the truth is...Yadira Escobar is correct about her views of "the bloody dictatorship" that created the Cuban Revolution.

       Since 1959 Americans have been told that Batista's Cuba was overflowing with money, and that was true. But the money was going into the pockets of top-level Mafia kingpins such as Fulgencio Batista, Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, and Santo Trafficante Jr., and rich U. S. businessmen!! But a plethora of back-and-white historic photos, like the one above, prove that the non-elite majority lived in dire poverty, with no access to health care or education. And, yes, the photo above correctly tells one of the ugly sides of Batista's Cuba.

Non-elite Cubans in Batista's Cuba.

     But it was not dire poverty among the helpless peasants that fueled the Cuban Revolution. Black-and-white historic photos like this one spawned the overthrow of Batista. Stupidly and greedily, the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship tried to quell dissent from the peasant majority by murdering peasant children to totally intimidate the adult peasants. That insanity spawned marches like the one above by brave Cuban mothers, sparking the revolution and keeping it alive.

     This photo also shows Cuban mothers marching to protest Batista's "assassinations" of their children. Batista's powerful supporters in Washington never did or said anything about what was going in Cuba, but these mothers continued to do something about it. The mother on the left in the light blouse and sunglasses was the mother of the murdered Little Willie Soler. Americans today are not supposed to know that one of the major children's hospitals in Revolutionary Cuba is named for...Little Willie Soler.

     Supported by the world's strongest criminal organization, the Mafia, and by the world's strongest nation, the United States, Batista obviously believed that he could get away with murdering peasant Cuban children to quell dissent. But photos like this prove that brave Cuban mothers not only defied Batista but they also fueled the Cuban Revolution that chased Batista, the Mafia, and the U. S. businessmen off the island -- all the WAY TO MIAMI.

     And now there is a Cuban-American in Miami named Yadira Escobar who is brave enough to sit beside a photo of Fidel Castro and give the above interview that is apart of the huge Miami Herald article today -- on Dec. 6th, 2019. Yadira Escobar explained why the Diaz-Balart power in Havana in the 1950s parallels the Diaz-Balart power in Little Havana since 1959. If you take time to dial up today's Miami Herald article about Yadira you will read why she is trying to win the Diaz-Balart's seat in the U. S. Congress that they have held since 1993. She told the Miami Herald "Essentially, I'm going to focus on Cuba" in her herculean effort to defeat the Diaz-Balart power in next November's election. Yadira Escobar is pro-Fidel Castro, pro-Cuba,  and pro-Cuban Revolution. She believes...and hopes...most Cuban-Americans in Miami will support her if they have the courage to do so. Surely, in money-crazed Miami she will not defeat the Diaz-Balarts but she will continue to remind a lot of people that the Batista dictatorship in Cuba in the 1950s was not the greatest government in world history and that Revolutionary Cuba since 1959 has not been the worst government in world history. And by doing that, I believe, Yadira Escobar is doing America and Democracy a great deed by spotlighting avenues the United States should not have traveled...in Havana, Miami, and Washington. Both history and topicality need transparency, particularly in the most famed Democracy. 

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As Cuba Changes

In the Age of Trump!!!

      The photo above was taken in Havana last night {Dec. 4th, 2019} and it shows, if subtly, how much Cuba has {and is} changing in the Age of America's Trump with a Cuban President, Miguel Diaz-Canel, who was born after the triumph of the 1959 Cuban Revolution. The beautiful and ultra-talented Haydee Milanes and her singer-songwriter father Pablo Milanes are revered in Cuba and in other places around the world. Last night the duo had a sold-out concert at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana. After the impromptu performance was first promoted in the media, all the 2,000 tickets were sold out within minutes. Selling out in venues is normal for Haydee but this concert last night came on the heels of controversial comments Haydee had made in the magazine El Estornudo whereby she had spoken emotionally and candidly about "the future of Cuba."

      In the magazine interview prior to last night's concert, Haydee Milanes shocked everyday Cubans and President Diaz-Canel with comments such as: "No se si quiero a mi higa en el fututo de Cuba." {"I don't know if I want my daughter in the future of Cuba"}. Many Cubans believed such comments might have caused President Diaz-Canel to cancel the concert, but that wasn't considered. Haydee had earlier strongly expressed displeasure that Amara Ruiz Urquiola had been fired even though Amara was considered a highly respected teacher at the Higher Institute of Design in Havana. Still incensed about Amara's dismissal, Haydee vented other beliefs in El Estornudo magazine, such as her concerns that "changes" she deems necessary in Cuba during the USA's Trump administration's genocide will "not happen." Such public comments by the high-profile Haydee are now tolerated, even encouraged, by Cuba as long as they are not made by Cubans on the payroll of the U. S. government. No one in Cuba, including President Diaz-Canel, denies Haydee's love and patriotism for the island and the Revolution that remains supreme against all odds. With most Cubans now engaged Online in the digital Social Media stratosphere, they are clearly agitated about the still crippling, 6-decades-old U. S. embargo that Trump has now ramped into a true genocidal blockade but most of them still support the Revolution that rid them of the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia rule. But in today's Cuba, if Haydee wants to raise her daughter off the island, such as in non-embargoed Spain, she has the wherewithal to do so or, if she chooses to remain in Cuba, Haydee can openly critique the government because everyone knows she is not influenced by U. S. dollars.

     Even with another Little Havana-aligned Republican U. S. President in the White House, the Cuban Revolution is still in control of the island, at least all of it except the hated U. S. Military Base on the eastern tip of the island at Guantanamo Bay that islanders believe was stolen from them in 1903 after the U. S. gained domination of Cuba after the 1895 Spanish-American War...at least till the Cuban Revolution changed things in January of 1959.

     In December of 2019, even as the likes of Marco Rubio appears to have President Trump's permission to carve out illimitable legal rules designed to eviscerate Cubans on the island, an American that somehow got to visit Cuba reportedly asked, "I am told that these school children had their choice of brand-new Nike, Fila, or Adidas shoes. But how is that so?" {Perhaps Rubio would frown and scratch his head if he saw this photo this week}.

    An exasperated Rubio would probably point at Diaz-Canel and snarl, "How the hell did those embargoed Cuban children get those brand-new shoes?" On Twitter Rubio and Diaz-Canel bark at each other. Rubio famously tweeted this message to Diaz-Canel: "See you soon," meaning he was about to overthrow Diaz-Canel's revolutionary government. Diaz-Canel then tweeted back to Rubio: "I'll be waiting for you at the Bay of Pigs."

     Any map from 1492 till today shows Cuba to be the dominant {and largest and most coveted island} in the Caribbean. Because Cuba is the only nation that ever defeated a U.S.-backed dictatorship {the brutal Batista-Mafia dictatorship in January, 1959}, Cuba therefore since 1962 has had to cope with history's longest and cruelest economic embargo ever imposed on a small nation by a strong nation, in this case the nearby United States superpower. All of the other nations in the Caribbean since 1962 have had excellent trade relations with the United States. Consider Jamaica, which is located just south of Cuba. Today -- December 5th, 2019 -- America's largest newspaper, USA Today,  spotlighted Jamaica's prosperity in an article by its Travel expert Lindsay Cohn. He wrote:

               "Jamaica is a popular destination for families, honeymooners and college students. That's because the third-largest Caribbean island really has something for everyone. It's blessed with spectacular scenery -- lush rainforests, banana groves, volcanic cliffs, gorgeous beaches, and the Blue Mountains. The birthplace of reggae and Bob Marley, native rhythms echo in the breeze. Couple that with a carefree attitude and bold, Caribbean flavors. Try the jerk chicken! To wash it down? Red Stripe beer." {Digest those words and then consider how much richer Cuba would be than Jamaica if not for the decades-old embargo imposed on Cuba by the United States}.

      Those exact words today in USA Today about Jamaica are nice, but Jamaica is no Cuba, which easily has the most potential economically, tourism-wise and otherwise If NOT FOR BEING the only nation in the world massively crippled  from 1962 till today by a massive economic embargo imposed by the world's superpower that  is geographically just 90 miles to its north. But somehow Cuba's historic Revolution still survives. Caribbean Havana Weekends in Revolutionary Cuba are still even enticing to some American tourists although the Trump administration, even as it fights impeachment in the U. S., tries to keep Cuba isolated from Americans and the world while also blocking exports and imports from leaving or getting to the pugnacious island, obviously trying to create blackouts, starvations, and deprivations for everyday Cubans. During every Republican presidential administration since 1959, daily and dire predictions of Revolutionary Cuba's demise have been rampant. But its unique dilemma also adds to the mystique and allure of the Caribbean's largest, most historic, most beautiful, and most intriguing island. The visitors riding recently along Havana's Malecon Seawall in the 1950s-era convertible above seem to concur with those observations.

      In Cuba, for example, you can even drive your own taxi that might turn out be a fine-tuned 1950s-era convertible.

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