US Blockade Blocks Cuban Baseball

 But Human Traffickers Love it!!

     Cubans in Cuba verily love baseball and, per capita, produce the best baseball players in the world...as indicated by the island's historic dominance of baseball in the Olympics and, despite the everlasting U. S. embargo/blockade of Cuba since 1962, Cuba still produces far more than its share of U. S. Major League players, including four superstar hitters in the batting order of the Chicago White Sox, one of this month's World Series favorites. But back in May of this year the U. S. hosted the pre-Qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics in South Florida. Even before he walked through the door of his hotel in West Palm Beach, Cuba's best player, Cesar Prieto, jumped into a running and waiting car and was whisked to points unknown, apparently by the expected human traffickers. So Cuba's baseball didn't qualify for the Tokyo Olympics but still sent enough athletes in other sports to finish 14th in the overall medal Olympic medal count, including 5 Gold Medals.

    Last week Cuba sent 24 players to the 12-nation U-23 Baseball World CUP in Mexico. Not surprisingly, human traffickers were waiting to whisk about Cuba's best players again...surely the ones that might be able to sign lucrative U. S. contracts or just to belittle Cuba by whisking away as many players as they could. Yet, as the defections mounted, Cuba still won 4 straight games, including a 6-to-2 victory over the Dominican Republic that put Cuba in the Super Round.

     Then after Cuba came from 5-0 down to register a scintillating 9-8 walk-off 9-to-8 victory over Panama, the depleted Cuban team joined Mexico, Venezuela, and Colombia as the Four Teams to advance to the Medal Round in the U-23 Baseball World CUP in Mexico. And Cuba played valiantly tonight -- Saturday, October 2-2021 -- but lost 5-to-3 in the game that decided the Bronze Medal.

     By the time Cuba lost the Bronze Medal game 5-to-3 to Colombia tonight in Mexico, the team that started with 24 players had lost nine key players to defections. The 9th defection was 22-year-old right-handed pitching ace Bryan Chi Montoya, who had been the ace pitcher for island's most famed team, the renowned Havana Industriales.

    Yes, ace Cuban right-handed pitcher Bryan Chi was the 9th player that defected in Mexico prior to Cuba's 5-3 loss to Colombia in the Bronze Medal {3rd place} game tonight in Mexico in the 12-nation U-23 Baseball World CUP. Cuba considers such defections a product of the U. S. Blockade that has evolved from the U. S. Embargo that began in 1962 for the stated purpose to starving, depriving, and making miserable Cubans on the island to induce them to overthrow their revolutionary government. Of course, since 1962 the Embargo-Blockade hasn't overturned Revolutionary Cuba but it surely has starved, deprived, and made miserable a lot of Cubans on the island while also enriching and empowering a lot of Cubans in the United States. Of course, there have been thousands of prime examples of that fact. And on October 2nd-2021 Bryan Chi became yet another example.

     Throughout the Under-23 World Baseball CUP in Mexico, Cuban sportscasters had covered the event with honest live reports and live coverage of the televised games...and defections...that were beamed back to Cuba. In the broadcast above the Cuban manager, Eniel Sanchez, said: "I am so proud of my players, especially for the 6-2 win over the Dominican Republic. But through it all as the defections mounted and reached nine, my players still played their hearts out right to the last out in tonight's 5-3 loss to Colombia. We are all aware that the incentives all Cuban athletes face to defect by human traffickers backed by the U. S. government and by the U. S. media are profound. We all are also aware that the U. S. Major Leagues and the Cuban Baseball Federation signed a legitimate and sane deal in which Cuban players could be signed and treated like players from all other countries. But, of course, as soon as the MLB and CBF leaders had signed that agreement, Rubio and the other Cubans in the U. S. Congress easily and quickly ended the agreement, to the delight of the human trafficker's and counter-revolutionary Cubans who revel in such things. But please let me say again, I am proud of Cuba and I am proud of the players I had here in Mexico for this excellent baseball event."

         And of course, since 1962 Americans have been programmed to believe that the image above is a nice depiction of America and its Democracy.

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Cuba Eases Pandemic Surge

 As the Month of October Starts!!

October 1-2021

    Today -- on October 1, 2021 -- Cuba announced the latest COVID-19 statistics, which remain bad but sharply reduced in recent days as the island commences a massive vaccine campaign. As shown above, in the past 24 hours there have been 50 deaths {fallecidos} for a total of 7486 overall deaths in Cuba since the pandemic began in March of 2020. In the past 24 hours the most news cases, 985, have been registered in Pinar del Rio southwest of Havana, as you can see on the above map.

    Everyday this week Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has taken to the streets to discuss both the Pandemic and the U. S. Blockade with Cubans. Also on Television, Radio, and Social Media President Diaz-Canel has emphasized this message: "Despite what the massive U.S.-aligned media says, Cuba has important friends who are not bowing to what Miami and Washington dictate. Neither the pandemic nor the blockade will destroy your revolution or your family. We are not alone and you are not alone, but the most important support of our homeland comes from Cubans like you and these people with you."

     All week President Miguel Diaz-Canel has used his forums to remind the Cuban people: "Our vaccine efforts are enabling us to plan for the full reopening of the island's national hospitality industry by December 30th of this year, but already the many Melia and Iberostar hotel and resort properties are beginning to resume with careful and adequate health protocols."

     The Spanish Hotel and Resort giants -- Iberostar and Melia -- both back in September began international ads promoting the reopening of tourism for their luxurious properties in Cuba. Iberostar has 18 Cuban properties and Melia has 40.

      Cuba is awash with some of the world's best beaches...such as CAYO SANTA MARIA, which in 2021 has been listed as the Second Best Beach in the World by TripAdvisor. Cuba's most famous beach, Veradero, has been in past listings been named The Best Beach in the World. Iberostar and Melia 4-star and 5-star Hotels & Resorts are ubiquitous on Cuban beaches but also in historic cities such as Havana, Santiago, Trinidad, etc.

     While the U. S. media is obligated to report that Revolutionary Cuba will succumb to the twin perils of COVID-19 and the Blockade "any hour now," Cuba itself, as well as some important non-U. S. entities, are actually preparing for the Caribbean's Fall & Winter Tourism Season...and touting Cuba's beaches as more prized than nearby beaches, including those in Florida. As you can see below, the great London-based Reuters News Agency is not afraid to tell the world about Cuba's potential as a tourism mecca, despite the U. S. Blockade.

    In fact, the new airline World 2 Fly, which is owned by Iberostar Hotels & Resorts, has already started flying its planes like this one to prime Cuban tourist locations.

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Popularity of Cuban & US Presidents

 Which Actually Has Most Support???

     On January 20th of 2020 the U. S. presidential election replaced Donald Trump with Joe Biden. Polls show in 2021 about half the U. S. voters believe the money-obsessed, donor-crazed election was rigged and ENDED UP with an unpopular right-wing Republican president, Trump, being replaced with an unpopular left-wing Democratic president, Biden. In fact, a recent Gallup poll, the USA's oldest and most respected pollster, revealed that most Americans didn't like Trump and now most Americans don't like Biden. The recent Gallup Poll also, of course, revealed that most Americans don't like most of the 535 members of the U. S. Congress and most emphatically don't trust what the U. S. media tells them!!! But GUESS WHAT??? Americans are told and expected to believe what Trump, Biden, the U. S. media, and Congress tell them about Cuba, which is that...Batista's dictatorship in the 1950s was the greatest government the Western Hemisphere has ever seen and therefore since 1959 Revolutionary Cuba has been the world's most brutal government in history and therefore must be starved today or otherwise overthrown BY ALL MEANS POSSIBLE!!! Of course, such unchecked propaganda since 1959 has for three generations created untold numbers of Cuban millionaires and billionaires in places like Miami, Newark, and Congress...but recapturing Cuba to this day -- the last day of September in 2021 -- remains an ONGOING but LUCRATIVE Work in PROGRESS.

     Trump, Biden, the U. S. Congress, and the U. S. media tell the American people that Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel is the world's meanest and most brutal dictator and therefore the American people, as they have done since 1959, should continue to support all of the genocidal attempts to dethrone him to make sure the nice Cubans in Miami, Newark, and Congress can regain control of Cuba. Of course, for over six decades Americans have been told that all the people in Cuba want to overthrow their Revolutionary government to make a return of the U.S.-backed and Mafia-backed Batistianos. And of course, if that propaganda was true Revolutionary Cuba would have ended as early as 1959 but the reality is that -- on the last day of September of 2021 -- Revolutionary Cuba and Miguel Diaz-Canel still rule the Caribbean's largest and most beautiful island nation. The photos below, taken today in Cuba, reveal why that is so, I think.

    The President of Cuba, Miguel Diaz-Canel, actually is very popular with a large majority of everyday Cubans on the island. He is shown above doing today what he often does, which is walking outside and talking with everyday Cubans. Diaz-Canel was born in 1960, after the triumph of the Revolution, and Cubans know him well and most of them love him dearly. Long before living in Havana as President he was the island's very popular Education Minister. Utilizing the U. S. media...rich and powerful Cuban-American Counter Revolutionaries such as Senators Rubio & Menendez can use the U. S. media and laws in Congress to inform and dictate to the American people that Diaz-Canel is a brutal, cruel dictator that the Cuban people are begging the U. S. to rid them of!! That is a lie. Most Cubans on the island support Diaz-Canel and viscerally don't like the USA's last two presidents, Trump & Biden, nor do they like what Rubio & Menendez and their ilk are doing to them. These other photos today show President Diaz-Canel doing what he does almost daily, which is to go out and actually talk to and listen to the Cuban people.

    As a democracy-loving American who has been to Cuba, I believe that the American people have the right to be told the truth about Cuba...so, for example, they can make decisions about their Presidents Trump & Biden  enlarging and expanding what already was history's longest and cruelest Embargo/Blockade ever imposed by a powerful nation against a much-weaker nation. I believe, for example, that Americans have the right to know that genocide against families in Cuba is being waged in their names and, perhaps, that the prime reason for it is the fact it empowers and enriches generations of revengeful U. S. Cubans and their sycophants. And MOSTLY, I believe that the U. S. democracy should be strong enough to at least include the opinions of the millions of the Cubans on the island and the millions of Cubans in the U. S. who strongly oppose the Blockade, but continually Americans are ONLY bombarded by the self-serving OPINIONS and laws of rich benefactors such as Rubio & Menendez as well as TRUMP & BIDEN. Somehow...I think any Democracy deserves much better than that!!!

Cuba and the U. S.

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September-2021: Cuba vs. USA

Little David vs. Goliath Still!!

    The 12-nation Under-23 Baseball World Cup continues until October 2nd-2021 in Mexico. Poor little Blockaded Cuba is competing although, like at the pre-Olympic event in South Florida earlier this year, anti-Cuban Counter Revolutionaries were waiting for the Cuban baseball players in Mexico. Cuba took 24 players to Mexico and as of today -- September 29, 2021 -- seven of them have defected...leaving Cuban manager Eniel Sanchez with just 7 pitchers and 10 position players. Yet poor little U.S.-blockaded Cuba has reached the Super Round in Mexico after beating the Dominican Republic 6-to-2 yesterday to improve its record to 4-and-1, with the only loss being to the host nation Mexico. In the Super Round tonight Cuba plays Venezuela.

    Cuba's important 6-to-2 win over the Dominican Republic yesterday in Mexico speaks to the struggles between the two Caribbean neighbors from the 1950s till September of 2021. In the 1950s the U. S. backed Cuba's brutal Batista dictatorship and also supported the Dominican Republic's brutal Trujillo dictatorship, and during the Cuban Revolution, of course, Trujillo supported Batista and the United States. Despite their differences, Cuba & the Dominican Republic both are baseball meccas, with each nation routinely providing huge numbers of superstar players to the U. S. Major Leagues. But since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 over Batista and Trujillo, the USA's efforts to gain regain control of Cuba for the rich and powerful U. S. Cubans has included human-trafficking rules for Cuban baseball players while lavishly supporting Dominican Republican players. For example, everyone of the 30 U. S. Major League teams maintain lavish year-around baseball facilities in the Dominican Republic to wildly develop players with prime coaches, top equipment, and expensive stadiums/fields...while the U. S. at the same time devotes its starvation tactics against Cuba to include starving Cuba's baseball players...at least until they defect from Cuba and sign bonus contracts with U. S. Major League teams. During the Trump administration, the U. S. Major Leagues actually signed a legal deal with Cuban Baseball in which the Major Leagues in the U. S. treated Cuban players the same as other Caribbean players were treated. The prime thing that the U. S. Majors tried to accomplish with that deal with Cuba was to try to end the human trafficking of Cuban players that was enriching brutal agents and smugglers. Of course, with only extreme Counter Revolutionary Cubans like Marco Rubio from Little Havana allowed to make Cuban decisions in the U. S. Congress, that sane and decent baseball deal between the U. S. Major Leagues and Cuba Baseball was quickly squelched once Rubio learned about it. Of course, to this day the U. S. media has been obligated to lie about that baseball deal and, of course, for sure no one is allowed to ask RUBIO why he was so quick to help the human traffickers just to continue his effort to starve Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow their government.

    And so, as with so many other things, this week's U-23 World Cuba baseball tournament in Mexico reveals that a handful of only the most extreme U. S. Cubans are allowed to dictate the U. S. policies pertaining to Cuba. Thus, knowing that it was going to face blockade obstacles in Mexico, Cuba still sent 24 players to the event and already seven of them have defected, leaving Cuba with 17 players, at last count, as it takes on Venezuela tonight -- Sept. 29-2021 -- in the Super Round of the 12-nation event. To get its 4th win during the tournament {by beating the mighty Dominican Republic 6-to-2 yesterday} speaks to the turmoil involving the two Caribbean nations since the 1950s...from Trujillo's brutal dictatorship in the Dominican Republic and Batista's brutal dictatorship in Cuba. Regardless of how the depleted Cuban team fares in the rest of the U-23 World Cup in Mexico the 17 remaining un-defected players -- including some superstar teenagers -- will try their best to win tonight against Venezuela.

       The Point I make is this: As with trying to get to the Olympics earlier this year in Japan, the Cuban baseball team had to deal with Blockade-induced defections and now this week the Cuban baseball team is also dealing with the Blockade-induced defections, 7 of them. Yet, in Japan, even without its baseball team, Cuba's other Olympic athletes finished 14th among the world's nations and so far the un-defected baseball players in Mexico this week are trying bravely to win their 5th game in the U-23 World Cup.

     Yes, Cuba and the Dominican Republic are both super-producers of baseball players but, beyond co-existing as prime countries in the Caribbean, they are vastly different because of the different way the colossal to the north, the United States, has viewed them within the USA's economic parameters. In the 1950s the U. S. backed Trujillo's brutal Dominican Republic dictatorship and also backed Batista's brutal Cuban dictatorship. Since the victorious Cuban Revolution in 1959, the U. S. has tried to starve Cuba, including shutting down its vital tourism industry, while vastly helping the Dominican Republic's vital tourism industry, including lavishly supporting the Dominican Republic's baseball industry with billions of dollars year-around. All the while, Americans are programmed not to wonder how rich Cuba would be if its neighbor, the United States -- the strongest and richest nation in the world -- treated Cuba the way its has treated the Dominican Republic since the 1950s. And most of all, Americans in September of 2021 are programmed not to wonder how Revolutionary Cuba, with a population of 11 million, can still survive when its superpower neighbor, the United States with 340 million people, has strived mightily to starve it to death, or worse, since January of 1959. I don't SUGGEST that Americans contemplate how Cuba beat the Dominican Republic in baseball yesterday in Mexico, but I do SUGGEST that Americans contemplate how Revolutionary Cuba has survived for almost seven decades while facing arguably the most powerful foreign obstacles ANY LITTLE NATION has ever faced. Such contemplations, I believe, are worthwhile...as much for the sake of the United States as for Cuba, I think.

Rafael Trujillo, Dominican Republic.

Fulgencio Batista, Cuba.

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Cuba Baseball Victorious in Mexico

 In the Under-23 World Cup!!

     Cuba this afternoon -- Sept. 28-2021 -- defeated the Dominican Republic 6-to-2 in the Under-23 World Cup Baseball Tournament in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico.

      With today's strong 6-2 win over the Dominican Republic, Cuba now has 4 wins against one loss in the 12-nation U-23 World Cup in Mexico. Cuba has defeated Germany, Czech Republic, Chinese Taiwan, and the Dominican Republic. The only Cuba loss so far was to host Mexico.

     The Standings show the four teams that are 4-and-1 in the U-23 Baseball World Cup in Mexico. And those four top teams -- Cuba, Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela -- as shown above now advance to the Super Round Finals, as baseball-loving Cubans in Cuba rejoice.

        Cuban coaches and players are shown above today after beating the Dominican Republic 6-to-2 to advance to the Super Finals of the 12-nation U-23 World Cup in Mexico. Cuba took 24 players to the important event but six players quickly defected. Of course, early this year when Cuba went to South Florida to play in the pre-Olympic Qualifying event, a running car was waiting and whisked Cuba's best player to places unknown. In such events, Cuba is the only nation subjected to such hubris and greed. The current U-23 World Cup in Mexico showcases a plethora of under-23 baseball prospects and as usual this Cuban team, despite the six defections, still has super prospects such as 19-year-old outfielder Chapelle Zuluela, 19-year-old catcher Perez Garcia-Garcia, 20-year-old First Baseman and Clean-up hitter Guillermo Garcia, 21-year-old lefty pitcher Cruz Zaldivar who beat the Dominican Republic today, etc., etc.

LASTLY on September 28th-2021:

     In Havana Manuel Porto -- an ultra-acclaimed actor of theater, film, and television -- has died on his 76th Birthday because of COVID-19. The beloved Manuel Porto was born in his beloved Havana back in 1945.

     For sure, Manuel Porto will be remembered in Cuba as a great actor, a great man, and a great lover of Cuba, especially Havana.

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