CNN Spotlights Cuba In Busy Week

 Precursor of Biden Cuban Overtures?

       Even this week -- this second week of Feb.-2021 -- as CNN is obsessed with the 2nd Congressional Impeachment trial of former President Trump -- CNN has provided major airtime for its excellent correspondent based in Havana, Patrick Oppmann. 

      Patrick Oppmann opines, in the last sentence depicted above, that "Cuba's endlessly inventive and long suffering entrepreneurs will be watching to see what happens." Unfortunately, of course, so will some powerful people, even in President Biden's own Democratic Party, who profit from being {or answering to} Counter Cuban Revolutionary forces in the United States.

     In his CNN report from Havana Patrick Oppmann mentioned that long-time {since 1975} Senator Patrick Leahy has co-sponsored yet another bill in the U. S. Senate designed to finally overthrow the U. S. Embargo/Blockade against Cuba. But, yet again, the cruelty and insanity of the Embargo/Blockade within the bowels of the U. S. democracy has for decades been fueled by the greed or revenge that a few powerful Cuban-Americans and their sycophants derive from maintaining it.

   While CNN's Havana-based journalist Patrick Oppmann provides fair reports from Cuba on U.S.-Cuban affairs, so does the BBC's excellent journalist Will Grant. Below the gist of Will Grant's article this week is all about Cuba's effort to energize its economy during the Age of COVID-19 that has been coupled with the Trump administration's dire efforts in the past four years to totally wipe it out. Those twin perils in the past year have reduced the overall Cuban economy by another 11%. Below read what the BBC's Will Grant says the island is trying to do about it.

     The BBC's Will Grant, as well as Patrick Oppmann of CNN, this week reported fairly on what the Cuban government is implementing to help entrepreneurs revive the economy, and as well as reporting on how the Cuban people are reacting to the changes.

      Another good source for fair journalism regarding US-Cuban relations is Reuters's Marc Frank, a great journalist who has been based in Cuba for decades. This week his latest article reported on significant efforts by the Cuban government to help small business entrepreneurs.

     In his great book CUBAN REVELATIONS, Marc Frank discussed many of the revelations he gained from actually living for many years among the Cuban people on the island, such as these succinct words:

     Patrick Oppmann, Will Grant, and Marc Frank are...for sure...three fair-minded journalists who report real news from Cuba. Of course, most U. S. sources...such as The Miami Herald, Miami's Radio-TV Marti, The Washington Post, etc., are dispensers of only anti-Cuban propaganda...which makes real journalists such as Oppmann, Grant, and Frank all that much more important for finding the truth about U.S.-Cuban relations.

     Actually, most of the 11.2 million Cubans on the island are now geared to ubiquitous Internet social media platforms to discuss their lives and opinions, including complaints about the government if they feel like it. And most of the 11.2 million Cubans depend on and have learned to accept as true and viable the news and its efficacy that they get from state radio, television, and newspaper sources. TV anchors such as Rosy Amaro shown above are well educated and talented journalists who live with the people and understand that if their newscasts and reporters are not honest with the people that their listeners, viewers, and readers will know...and let them know about it. Rosy Amaro, for example, is a star on Cubavision International News but on both social media and on the airways she has criticized the government when she feels everyday Cubans are treated unfairly.

    Now entrepreneurs in Cuba, such as these farmers in Vinales Valley, are getting more support from the government to expand their businesses and profit more from their efforts.

     In the United States no one has worked more tirelessly than powerful Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy from Vermont to bring sanity to the insane and self-serving U. S. policies regarding Cuba that, for all these decades, have been crafted to enrich and empower a minority of rather unholy and greedy individuals. As noted by fair journalists, such as those mentioned above, Senator Leahy this week noted the entrepreneurial changes taking place in Cuba and said again: "This is long overdue and it's welcome news, and the United States should finally affirm that the Embargo, from 1962, was never intended to last forever and to forever penalize private families and private enterprise in Cuba. In this year of 2021 if we cannot fairly and honestly deal with that it says more about us than it says about Cuba. Or we, permit me to say, too mired in having created too many generations of people who have profited immensely from such insanity and cruelty."

      Cubans on the island, such as the ones shown above arriving in Havana on a train, have been pawns for centuries...for sure since the 1898 Spanish-American War that transferred dominance of the island from Spain to the United States from 1898 to 1959. In 1903 the U. S. exercised its prerogative and stole the plush Guantanamo Bay, where to this day the U. S. has an unwanted military base there along with an infamous prison. And in 1952 why and how did the U. S. democracy team with the highest echelon Mafia leaders to support the brutal Batista dictatorship. {And why hasn't the U. S. democracy never had to really explain such things??}. Of course, since 1959 Revolutionary Cuba has dominated the island but, for sure, almost seven decades of trying to recapture the island while destroying or  punishing the people who live on the island has created a vastly lucrative Cottage Industry in the United States even though somehow the pugnacious island has held off the world's Superpower FOR ALL THESE DECADES. Of course, in the U. S. only the few prime benefactors are generally allowed opinions about that dichotomous dilemma but, if truth be known, in the Internet Age we can now assume, for example, that the young man in the red shirt and wearing the COVID mask above has a Smart Phone and knows not only what his own government is doing to affect his life but also he knows what the U. S. government is doing to affect his life. The point I make is this: That young man shown above has opinions, and his opinions are IMPORTANT too. And, in fact, his parents and grandparents also have opinions that self-serving Americans don't think they should be allowed to have!!!

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Little Havana Fights Biden's Havana Overture

 As Biden Appoints A Key ENGAGE-Cuba Person!!!

     As the Democrat Joe Biden has replaced the Republican Donald Trump as the U. S. President, the rich and politically powerful faction that rules Little Havana in Miami wants to remain in control of the USA's lucrative CUBAN POLICIES. That includes the Miami Herald's Editorial Editor Fabiola Santiago. She was born in Matanzas, Cuba, but arrived in Miami on one of the "Freedom Flights" in 1969. That meant her privileges came gushing in from three powerful sources -- Cuban exiles, the Catholic Church, and the United States government. By 1980 the young Fabiola Santiago had a nice job at the Miami Herald and was primed to write Counter Revolutionary books that major publishers such as Simon & Schuster were eager to unleash on the world. Now as the long-time Editorialist at the Miami Herald she still relishes being a rich and powerful Cuban-American in Miami but she still appears to promote the notion that Cubans on the island should continue to be exploited, starved, and made miserable so Congress and all Republican administrations can continue to enrich and empower Little Havana. In that vein during this first weekend of February-2021, below is the powerful headline from Fabiola Santiago's latest Editorial in the Miami Herald.

     In studying that headline above, I realize that, once again, Fabiola Santiago is promoting the lucrative notion that the USA's Cuban policies should be dictated by Little Havana without any regard for how the 11.2 million Cubans on the island feel about it. As you see below, Ms. Santiago is suggesting...warning?...that President Biden, like Trump, should permit Little Havana to dictate the USA's Cuban policies.

     In the portion of the Editorial above Fabiola Santiago pinpoints why the ultra-rich and ultra-powerful Cubans in Little Havana should dictate the USA's Cuban policies. "Biden needs us and our expertise," she wrote. "Cubans in Cuba need us to advocate for them." Those two sanctimonious sentences ignore the fact that 11.2 million Cubans in Cuba should not be allowed to think for themselves about what they want. In other words, Ms. Santiago implies that most Cubans on the island grave a return of the Batistiano-Mafiosi dictatorship that preceded the 1959 victory of the Cuban Revolution. Those of us who have been to Cuba, and those who take time to read the now ubiquitous comments of Cubans on Social Media platforms, have and can detect that most Cubans on the island actually prefer Revolutionary Cuba to what they know of or remember about the Batista-Mafia rule of Cuba. As Ms. Santiago knows, Trump for the past four years gave 100% control of the USA's Cuban policies to only the most self-serving Little Havana Counter Revolutionary zealots such as Rubio, Claver-Carone, and Diaz-Balart. But the new Biden presidency has, at least, just named a life-long advocate of U.S.-Cuban decency and engagement to a significant position in the U. S. State Department. Thus, Emily Mendrala will have decent input from her post as Deputy Secretary in the State Department regarding Cuba and the Western Hemisphere. Of course, Ms. Santiago is not a fan of Emily Mendrala...as you can see below in the aforementioned Santiago Editorial.

       But on its official website the U. S. State Department, as shown below, described Emily Mendrala.   

     And the U. S. State Department used the photo, as shown below, of Emily Mendrala and provided this synopsis of her career. It includes the last four when she was the Executive Director of the Center for Democracy in the Americas where her primary focus was always on promoting decent engagement between the United States and Cuba.

     Of course, decent engagement with Cuba by the United States, as promoted by Emily Mendrala, would ease the cruel and genocidal targeting of Cubans on the island by self-serving Cubans in Little Havana.

      This photo of the Miami Herald's powerful Editorial Writer Fabiola Santiago is courtesy of her powerful publisher, Simon & Shuster.

     This photo of Emily Mendrala is the one used on the U. S. State Department's website. It showed Emily during her 4-year term as the leader of the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas where she steadfastly exhibited  her fervent desire to bring sanity and decency to U.S.-Cuban relations. Now as a pertinent member of President Biden's State Department, she hopefully can continue those endeavors.

    Emily Mendrala's mentor was/is Sarah Stephens, who founded the Center for Democracy in the Americas in 2006 and led it till Emily took over in 2017. From its beginning, the Center for Democracy in the Americas had a prime focus -- normalizing relations between the U. S. and Cuba. But, of course, brilliant and decent Americans like Sarah and Emily have always faced powerful obstacles because...Batista's Cuba in Havana back in the 1950's and Batistiano's Cuba in Little Havana from 1959 till February of 2021 has been and CONTINUES to be a vast piggybank and power base for too many Cubans and too many Americans.

        In other words, the superbly talented and decent Emily Mendrala -- and fair-minded Americans like her -- have always faced massive obstacles when it comes to bringing decency and sanity to the USA's relations with Cuba, the Caribbean's largest and most luscious island nation. That is NOT LIKELY to change in the foreseeable future, even with a Democrat {Biden} replacing the latest Republican {Trump} in Washington's White House. And if you disagree with that analysis, study the five photos directly below. {You don't have to agree or disagree with them, but at least study them for a few seconds}.

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Great Writers Decry Genocide Against Cubans

 But U. S. Benefactors Still Prevail!!!

     Two of America's greatest journalists and authors, beyond doubt, are William LeoGrande and Peter Kornbluh. These two men also are America's two best Journalists/Authors related to U.S.-Cuban Relations. LeoGrande is a renowned Professor at American University and Kornbluh is the brilliant expert at the U. S. National Archives in Washington with special emphasis on Cuba and Chile. As you can see above, LeoGrande and Kornbluh co-wrote the great book Back Channel To Cuba. But in February of 2021 these two men continue to write the best columns and articles related to U.S.-Cuba Relations. Because Americans usually get most of their mentions and prisms from only self-serving Counter Revolutionary Cubans and their sycophants, LeoGrande & Kornbluh are therefore essential sources as truth-tellers regarding U.S.-Cuban Relations, which involve many facets that impact the USA's international image, whether or not Americans realize that basic fact.

      For example, William LeoGrande wrote a superb, unbiased article this past week entitled: "Biden Should Act Fast On Cuba." It is so powerful that the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Orlando published it on its Editorial Page.

       As you see above, in the William LeoGrande article it is correctly mentioned that "more than 3,400 Cubans have been killed" in vicious terrorist attacks by Counter Revolutionary terrorists in the United States, many of them while working for the U. S. government and to this day are considered major heroes in Miami and elsewhere where Counter Revolutionaries control the Cuban narratives and the Cuban policies, such as in Newark, Congress, and in all Republican White Houses. Therefore, as honest experts such as Mr. LeoGrande have stressed for many decades, Americans are not supposed to consider the "more than 3,400 Cubans" killed by terrorists harbored in U. S. sanctuaries, but Americans are supposed to believe that little Cuba since 1959 has been engaged in massive and murderous terrorist acts. As Mr. Leo-Grande understands, such propaganda since 1959 is used to justify huge revenge, financial, and political rewards for Cuban Counter Revolutionaries and their sycophants while also, of course, being the excuses for vile terrorist attacks against innocent Cubans, not to mention being the excuses for genocidal government laws such as the 6-decades-old EMBARGO-BLOCKADE that is designed to starve, deprive and make miserable Cubans on the island to force them to rise up and overthrow their Revolutionary government. {And then what? Await the return of the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship that ravished the island from 1952 till January 1, 1959?}.

      If William LeoGrande is not the greatest and most unbiased American expert on U.S.-Cuban Relations than surely Peter Kornbluh is. In February of 2021 Kornbluh still writes the best and most honest articles on that subject, including this one:

      In his scathing article this week, Peter Kornbluh minutely explains how the U. S. has put Cuba back on its tiny list of Nations That SPONSOR TERRORISM!!! It is, of course, to appease the economic and political whims of Counter Revolutionary extremists. Kornbluh, the USA's best and most unbiased expert on such things, says in the sub-headline above: "Far from being a 'state sponsor of terrorism,' as the Trump administration claimed, Cuba has been an ally in fighting it." That truth from the great Peter Kornbluh doesn't compute with what the people in the U. S. who profit from saying the exact opposite about Cuba...and also, of course, influencing the U. S. government to back them on it. Peter Kornbluh continued with these extremely pertinent words:

     The great Peter Kornbluh article starts with the three massive paragraphs depicted above. He explains how, since the Cuban Revolution's victory over the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship in 1959, Cuban terrorists have been lavishly funded and protected on U. S. soil, with the two most famed being, of course, Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch as named in the above article. The CIA, FBI, and DOJ as well as many afraid and silent journalists knew all about the work terrorists such as Posada and Bosch did for decades and even bragged about it. In the portion of the article as shown above, Kornbluh pinpoints the facts about the Oct. 6-1976 terrorist bomb that killed all 73 innocent civilians aboard Cubana Flight 455, which included two dozen teenage Cuban athletes. 1976 saw arguably the bloodiest of the terrorism against innocent Cubans and happened to be the only year that George H. W. Bush was CIA Director. Later as President, at the request of Florida's governor, his son Jeb, President Bush pardoned Orlando Bosch from any culpability. Since the 1950s neither the Bush dynasty nor any other powerful American person or group has been held accountable for continuous acts of terrorism or genocide against Revolutionary Cuba.

       As the de-classified documents above show, the U. S. knew all about who was responsible for the terrorist bombing of Cubana Flight 455 and so did Cuba. Notice in the three photos of Posada above that he was among many Cubans who fled the Cuban Revolution in January of 1959 and quickly ended up at Fort Benning in Georgia where he graduated as a 2nd Lieutenant in Brigade 2506, the unit that attacked Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in April of 1961. But Posada is more famed for his terrorist attacks such as the bombing of Cubana Flight 455 and, as you can see above, the U. S. knew that Posada named "Orlando {Bosch}" as being implicated in the bombing.

     Of course, Posada and Bosch lived out long lives as super-heroes in Miami even as friendly federal courtrooms in Miami awarded hundred of millions of dollars to Cubans who brought judgments against Cuba, which was not even represented in the trials. Meanwhile, study by contrast the photo above. It shows a Cuban sister and mother of one of the 15-year-old athletes who was killed aboard Cubana Flight 455. His sister and mother were waiting at the airport in Havana for his return and the photo was taken right after they had just gotten word the plane was in the ocean and there "are no survivors." Of Course, even after the U. S. documents implicated who the terrorists were, this sister and mother couldn't sue anyone in one of those Miami courtrooms.

      But, of course, a lot of decent Cuban-Americans such as Emilio Milian, have been victims for denouncing unchecked terrorism against totally innocent Cubans by Cubans in Miami. Emilio was the most respected Cuban-American newscaster and journalist in Miami but after bravely denouncing terroristic murders against innocent Cubans, Emilio himself was the victim of one of Miami's ubiquitous car-bombings.

     After his hand-written note to his dad the President about the Orlando Bosch pardon became known, apparently some brave, or careless, journalist asked Jeb Bush about it. Reportedly Jeb, of course, didn't answer but supposedly his expression said, "Orlando Bosch? Who?" Bosch & Posada lived out their natural lives in Miami but we hoped the reporter who bravely or carelessly asked Jeb that question lived a long life too.

     Other than William LeoGrande and Peter Kornbluh, there are few journalists/authors today who have the ability, courage, and integrity to tell the truth about U.S.-Cuban Relations. Therefore, for decades benefactors who profit via revenge, economics, and politics from the dearth of good journalism and the lack of courage benefit immensely from the Cuban diaspora. For example, virtually unchecked pro-Batistiano/anti-revolutionary rhetoric and policy in the U. S. since the 1950s skewers all aspects of the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia rule in Cuba as well as the U.S.-backed Batistiano rule of America's request to recapture the pugnacious island. Thus, skewering or manufacturing any pretext to justify the costly but very lucrative recapture of the island is par-for-the-course because repetitive propaganda is a powerful tool. Fox example, the Little Havana zealots in Miami and in Congress easily got President Trump and the American people to believe that Cuba was committing violent attacks on U. S. diplomats on the island to make sure Trump closed the U. S. Embassy in Havana that President Obama in 2014 had reopened for the first time since 1962. Of course, Cuba and honest observers said Cuba wouldn't do that but the people who didn't want the Embassy to function properly might....uh...do such things. Well, that accusation has hurt Cuba for several years now...and now in this month of February of 2021 the great Peter Kornbluh writes that there is still no reason not to dispute Cuba's assessment of the...uh..."mysterious" attacks on the U. S. diplomats. Kornbluh wrote the following words about "the Havana Syndrome."

       In other words, "transparency to solve the mystery of the 'Havana Syndrome'" is apparently being hidden by the U. S. government because...uh...in the sunlight it might be beneficial to Cuba and...uh...might be harmful to the perpetrators. Maybe or maybe not but the great Peter Kornbluh and William LeoGrande would surely...uh...not be surprised if that was the case. And that is why, in this case Peter Kornbluh, as you can see above, is urging the new Biden administration to let everyone know "by declassifying the documents."

    When it comes to de-classifying U. S. documents that should see the light of day, the best investigative journalist in the U. S. is the now 74-year-old James Bamford. For example, for decades the U. S. had a unit known as The Army of the Americas that Americans were not supposed to know existed, and for a good reason. Its purpose was to train soldiers from U.S.-backed brutal dictatorships -- such as Batista's in Cuba, Trujillo's in the Dominican Republic, Somoza's in Nicaragua, Pinochet's in Chile, etc., etc. Then those soldiers would then be sent back to those dictatorships to make sure those brutal U.S.-backed dictators stayed in power. The Army of the Americas was hidden away at the sprawling Fort Benning Army Base near Columbus, Georgia. The great, super-hero James Bamford finally exposed what The Army of the Americas was, including writing a brilliant full-page article in USA Today and, of course, writing about it in his brilliant books. President Clinton read Bamford's article in USA Today and then held a news conference to "apologize" for it. Then, Guess What? It was quickly renamed "The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation." I KID YOU NOT!!

      But even after the Clinton Administration re-named The Army of the Americas at Fort Benning, many Latin American immigrants who knew all about it and called it the School of the Americas are still begging for it to be closed for good, as this protest in  Nov.-2019 protested against the soldiers who committed one of Central America's most famed mass-murder massacres.

      As you see by the photo/graphic above, Operation Northwoods was concocted by the top U. S. military leaders, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to convince President Kennedy to approve a plan to kill US citizens so it could be blamed on Cuba and could thus be used as a pretext for an all-out war against Cuba. As you can see, President Kennedy "rejected" the plan but, once it was de-classified, it became a part of the true history of U.S.-Cuban Relations, although the military leaders who obviously wanted Operation Northwoods carried out were not held accountable for concocting it.

       In other words, whether it was Operation Northwoods, The Army/School of the Americas, or other major and nefarious U. S. policies against Cuba, rest assured that many of the most devious documents detailing such things were designed to be classified, which means hidden. And if or when they have been de-classified by truly great journalists such as James Bamford, William LeoGrande, and Peter Kornbluh, the perpetrators are usually never held accountable. If you are interested in true de-classified information that shines truth on major aspects of the contentious, historic, topical, and unforgettable details chronicling U.S.-Cuban Relations, I suggest you start with these six must-read books:

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