Will Cuban Economy Collapse?

Will COVID & Embargo Combine To Make It So?

    The triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959 both surprised and irked the nearby superpower United States. Since then the destruction of Revolutionary Cuba has been predicted on a daily basis...but it has survived such things as the April-1961 Bay of Pigs military attack, an astounding number of assassination attempts against Fidel Castro, a staggering number of terrorist attacks including deadly hotel bombings in Havana to deter tourism and the deadly bombing of the civilian Cubana Flight 445 airplane, and the Economic Embargo/Blockade that began way back in February of 1962. The closest the Cuban economy came to collapsing came in the early 1990s after fall of the Soviet Union. But now, in February of 2022, there are dire predictions that the twin perils of the ever-tightening Embargo/Blockade and the COVID pandemic will finally collapse Cuba this spring or summer in 2022.

   For sure, since 1959 the U. S. media has failed to provide the American people with unbiased, honest journalism related to U.S.-Cuban relations. But this week in mid-February of 2022 one source...The Jiribilla...has revealed what appears to be a fair and honest update on the current status of the Cuban economy.

    This is famed Cuban economist Jose Luis Rodriguez this week in Havana discussing the island's economy in the face of the Pandemic, the Blockade, and now rampant Inflation. Born in Havana in 1946, he has spent three decades with such powerful titles as Cuban Minister of Economy and Planning, a member of the National Assembly, etc. For the past seven years Jose has been writing a book about the Cuban economy and he is compiling up-to-date data to conclude it prior to publication. And for decades Jose has led Economic Forums around the world, including the famed one held in Davos, Switzerland.

  This new The Jirebillo article shows Jose Luis Rodriguez during the 25 years he was the top Economist and Planner for Fidel Castro. 

    The renowned Professor Jose Luis Rodriguez, as you can see above, claims in February of 2022, that the Cuban economy "must be strengthened in four specific areas: look for alternatives to renegotiate the external debt and unlock the indispensable external financing, curb inflation, make greater investments in the food industry, and be more systematic in investments in the energy sector, starting with the maintenance of thermoelectric plants." These sage words refer to the crucial month of February-2022. This month after getting another major economic award, Jose Luis Rodriguez...in the second paragraph above...criticizes Cuba for spending too much on "tourism" and not enough on "agriculture" -- suggesting that the Revolution has been forced to spend too much for food products from foreign nations. He said, "To produce food you must make investments." He criticizes the Revolution for not having done that. But you can see above that Jose Luis Rodriguez, to this day, worships his long-time boss Fidel Castro.

Jose & Fidel twenty-five years ago.

     Back in 2016 Fidel Castro died at age 90. Contrary to what Americans have been told since 1959, in February of 2022 Fidel Castro -- the Sierra Maestra rebel -- still has the most important grip on the Caribbean's largest nation. And, moreover, any observant and fair-minded American journalist or historian who actually visits the island and mingles with the Cuban people will discover that fact. But, of course, everyday since January of 1959 Americans have been told a vast array of other bogus reasons for both the triumph and the longevity of the Cuban Revolution. And the reason for both, including its longevity in February of 2022, can be explained with just two words -- Fidel Castro. And as the Cuban-U.S. conundrum spins antagonistically for year after year...in 2022 perhaps it is time for the American people to finally be provided honest facts in which to base their decisions. Otherwise, since 1959 Americans have been gorged and bombarded with only data designed to enrich & empower a select group of U. S. Cubans while trying to starve, deprive, and make miserable the families on the island to induce them to do something Miami and Washington have been unable to do, which is to recapture the island. You know...uh...Fidel Castro's island. 

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OnCuba News Reports True News!!

 

     In this Year of 2022 major polls even in the U. S. democracy are unanimously revealing that the U. S. News Media is no longer "trustworthy" in dispensing honest news, as opposed to propaganda, to the American people. In this dangerous milieu, especially for a Democracy, one prime media source -- "On Cuba News" -- actually dispenses honest news on a daily basis even regarding the contentious U.S.-Cuban conundrum. It has honest and talented reporters working in both Havana and Little Havana and they report Cuba-related news honestly whether it is positive, negative, or somewhere in between. Today on Feb. 14th-2022 on Valentine's DAY, here are some of the honest photos from Cuba dispensed by On Cuba News in an article entitled "MENSAJES de Amor"/"MESSAGES of LOVE."

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2022's War Against Cuba Toughens

 

     Before he became President of Cuba in 2018, Miguel Diaz-Canel was already popular with everyday Cubans who knew him as their energetic Education Minister. Although born right after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, Diaz-Canel is a fervent defender of the Revolution. As the leader of Cuba, he has faced an ever-expanding six-decade-old U. S. Embargo that he says, "Has been expanded into an even worse genocidal war against Cuban families by both the Trump and Biden U. S. presidencies." As shown above, Diaz-Canel almost daily finds some street or park in Cuba where he speaks directly to the Cuban people.

    Also just about every day, as shown by this image today on Feb. 13-2022, President Diaz-Canel takes advantage of Cuba's ubiquitous News Programs to speak daily to the Cuban people. He often reacts to the TOP CUBAN HEADLINES that he is abundantly aware of in the U. S. media.

    As of today -- on Feb. 13th-2022 -- these are the TOP FOUR CUBAN HEADLINES that Americans are supposed to be reading or viewing about Cuba. As has been basically true since January of 1959, Americans have been saturated with two basic "facts" related to Cuba, namely that: {1} That the Batista-Mafia-U.S. dictatorship in Cuba during the 1950s was the best and most wonderful government in the Caribbean's history; and {2} Revolutionary Cuba since January 1-1959 has been the worst and most brutal Caribbean regime in history. And as you can see above, top U. S. media sources such as The New York Times and The Boston Globe routinely join the many well-funded media outlets that spawned like mushrooms merely to dispense anti-Cuba/pro-Miami U.S.-based propaganda that has flourished unchecked since Jan. 1-1959 till Feb. 13-2022.

     Uh, let's see...the New York Times today -- Feb. 13-2022 -- is telling us that Cafe Habana that plans to open a branch in Little Havana/Miami is running into problems with the Mexico City restaurant "where Fidel Castro and Che Guevara were rumored to have planned the Cuban revolution, according to a history now deleted from the restaurant's website. The Miami Herald first reported the story." Of course, the New York Times is not about to mention that the Miami Herald, basically since January of 1959, has published stories designed to make Miami Cubans ultra-rich and politically powerful while trying to make Cubans in Cuba to...be starved, be deprived, and be made miserable for the purpose of getting them to rise up and overthrow their revolutionary leaders -- presumably paving the way for the return of the 1950's rulers known to history as Batista, the Mafia, and the U. S. businesses that long-ago owned the Caribbean's largest and most beautiful island nation.

     And, uh, let's see today -- Feb. 13-2022 -- what the Boston Globe is telling its readers...Oh, all about "a journalist with Cuba's state TV channel" defecting to Colombia. She said: "'I couldn't work, I couldn't publish anything, so with my husband...I had to leave the country', said Yailen Insua." Wonderful!! That actually might be happening...but the Boston Globe, on a heavy News Sunday, surely would never have made such a huge story about it if it had not been NEGATIVE news that FIT THEIR anti-Cuba narratives. Obviously, in Cuba there are many journalists and other Cubans who will still fight to the death to defend the Revolution, and if that was not true since 1959 then for sure Miami would have RECAPTURED Cuba LONG AGO. Also, if the Boston Globe wants to defame Cubans on the island, why not ask just one of them why they haven't succumbed to the many vast inducements to defect and then defame the island nation that they would have just departed from.

     For example, this is a well-educated young Cuban man very active on social media who says publicly that he will fight to the death to defend Revolutionary Cuba. Maybe the U. S. media might want to ask him...why he says that.

    This is a well-educated woman in Cuba who is very active on social media and is very fluent in Spanish and English. She has no plans to overthrow her leaders and her prime wish is to "Eliminate the Blockade." Perhaps the U. S. media might one day ask her how she feels about Cuba and about the Blockade.

     This well-educated young woman in Cuba has no plans to overthrow her leaders nor does she want to defect to richer pastures. This photo was taken just before she stepped to her left to the platform and said, "The blockade must finally be eliminated because it is designed to aim genocide at Cuban families. For over two years the COVID pandemic has threatened Cuban families but the blockade has threatened Cuban families for over 60 years...and the blockade is also a virus. The American people who allow this to happen, decade after decade, are either extremely cruel or extremely uninformed."

       For sure, everyday Cubans on the island have dire opinions about things, especially such things as the six-decade-old+ EMBARGO and the two-year-old+ COVID PANDEMIC. The United States media should be honest enough to tell both sides of the EMBARGO and the PANDEMIC as they direly relate to the Cubans on the island, not just saturate the U. S. media about how those twin perils are one-sidedly promoted by the most Counter Revolutionary/Revengeful/Profiteering Cubans in the United States. And, perhaps, one day sources like THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE BOSTON GLOBE, etc., might even honestly report on how much LITTLE HAVANA has impacted the United States...and not just Cuba...since January of 1959.

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Who Is Starving Cuban Children?

 Is Cuba or U. S. to Blame??

    In 1989 the self-serving economic-obsessed & political-obsessed Bush Dynasty capped its mining of Florida when Jeb, on his way to being Florida's governor and positioning himself for the White House, became the Campaign Manager for Havana-born Iliana Ros-Lehtinen, who was the most notable anti-Castro zealot in Miami's very zealous Little Havana community. Except for Jeb's embarrassing failure to win the White House, the ploy {shown above} worked magnificently and fortuitously for both the Bush Dynasty and for Little Havana, which since 1989 has dictated the USA's Cuban Affairs...which vastly enriches & empowers Miami/Little Havana Cubans while vastly punishing Havana's and all other Cuban FAMILIES. {Please study this historic photo even if you disapprove what it still means today...all these Lucrative/Genocidal decades later}.

   Once the Bush Dynasty in 1989 put Havana-born Ileana Ros-Lehtinen from Little Havana in the U. S. Congress in 1989, the pipeline was forever fueled and unchallenged for all these subsequent decades. For sure,  Ros-Lehtinen remained for over three decades a prolific anti-Castro/PRO-Little Havana Superpower in Congress from 1989 till 2019, when she retired to devote herself to other Little Havana activities closer at home. Soon after she was elected to Congress in 1989, she was soon followed by Havana-born Lincoln Diaz-Balart, his little brother Mario Diaz-Balart, Marco Rubio, etc., etc. Of course, the Diaz-Balart brothers are the sons of the late Rafael Diaz-Balart who had been a Key Minister in the Batista dictatorship before, in 1959, becoming one of the all-time richest and most powerful anti-Castro superpower in Miami. But starting with the Bush-ordained Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in 1989 was when Little Havana began to have the political power to dictate the USA's Cuban policies...with the criteria being to be viciously anti-Castro and PRO-Little Havana, with moderate Cuban-Americans apparently not ever even being considered for political positions in either Miami or in Washington.

     And of course, the unending strings of Little Havana Cubans in the U. S. Congress have always been tied to Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's guiding mantra: "Rogue regimes never respond to anything less than hardball." Of course, she never meant that to be her mantra in Havana about Batista but devised it in Little Havana about Revolutionary Cuba, which since 1959 has been conveniently labeled a "rogue regime" in the U. S. while the rogue Batista/Mafia regime that preceded it is heralded as having been a marvelous, wonderful government!!! And that is why, from 1989 till today, tax dollars and self-serving laws flow from Congress in Washington to make Little Havana more-and-more richer & powerful while making Havana more-and-more weaker & less powerful. Indeed, hardball in favor of Little Havana and against Havana has evolved into a vast & lucrative Cottage Industry in the United States of America, especially since 1989...when superpower politicians like the Bush dynasty began to partake in the spoils of Little Havana rule in Miami just as superpower politicians & businesses in the 1950s partook so greedily in Batista's Cuba when it was all-greed-all-the-time!!

    For sure, Ros-Lehtinen in the U. S. Congress for three decades mentored many other powerful Little Havana stalwart politicians such as the Diaz-Balart brothers Lincoln and Mario.

      And for sure, even above the Diaz-Balart brothers Lincoln & Mario, the most powerful disciple mentored by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has been Little Havana's prized darling, Senator Marco Rubio. During Trump's four years as President, Rubio dictated the USA's Cuban policies and during the first+ year of Biden's Presidency, Rubio has co-dictated the USA's Cuban policies with the equally zealous and controversial Newark-based Cuban-American, Senator Bob Menendez.

     Within the bowels of the U. S. democracy, it is not very democratic that two extreme anti-Cuba/PRO-Little Havana zealots -- Democrat Senator Menendez and Republican Senator Rubio -- are allowed to dictate the USA's Cuban policies...much like in the 1950s when the USA permitted Fulgencio Batista and Meyer Lansky to dictate Cuba as long as they permitted U. S. businessmen to also rob Cuba blind right till the Cuban Revolution changed things on January 1, 1959.

    And, as this photo illustrates, from her throne in Little Havana to this day Ileana Ros-Lehtinen continues to make sure that only extreme anti-Castro zealots like Maria Salazar make it from Miami to the U. S. Congress. Thus, for the past year Maria Salazar has used her perch in the U. S. Congress to project her extreme Little Havana views.

        Of course, Congresswoman Maria Salazar...the latest Little Havana darling in Washington...can go on National Television any hour of the day or night, without any rebuttal whatsoever, and say things such as, "There is no Embargo against Cuba!!!"

      Interestingly enough, during her three-decade stint as a Superstar TV anchor for Miami television stations/networks, Maria Elvira Salazar had two interviews with Fidel Castro, 25 years apart...including one of the last he gave before his death at 90 in 2016. You Tube provides those interviews, including the 46-minute one above. {Tap to watch; it is in Spanish, and very interesting}.

        Of course, the EMBARGO against Cuba began in February of 1962 and six decades later unchecked Little Havana Cuban-Americans like Maria Salazar have by February of 2022 easily  expanded into a genocidal Blockade.

       Of course, if you happen to be a brave, well-educated, and extremely decent mother trying to protect your little girl and little boy in Cuba in 2022, you know what a Blockade imposed by a large nation against families in a small nation can entail. While the U. S. media doesn't care or report what such mothers say, in this second week of February in 2022 Cuban mothers in Cuba are using their own Media News platforms and Social Media pages to explain that the U. S. Blockade is making it impossible for Cuban mothers to, for example, get enough milk for their children, and starting in 1959 the Revolution mandated that all children on the island were guaranteed free educations through college, free healthcare for life, and...YES...free milk!!!

    As you can see above, in February of 2022 the Paris-based AFP News Agency and even U.S.-based Yahoo News are reporting that the U. S. Blockade is a key factor in keeping Cuban children from getting their normal supplies of milk. Of course, it would take a brave U. S. journalist to ask Little Havana superpowers like Maria Salazar if it is acceptable...OK...if the U. S. Blockade blocks Cuban children on the island from HAVING their milk.

    As the AFP and Yahoo news agencies explain, Cuba would love to buy the milk it needs from the nearby United States, but the U. S. Blockade prevents that. So, Cuba's prime suppliers of milk are Blockaded Cuban Farmers and the faraway nation of New Zealand!!!

    On national TV in Cuba, this Cuban mother cried real tears when she said: "The lack of milk is just a microcosm of the pain the U. S. embargo causes families like mine everyday. Do the American people realize that there is practically unanimous and universal rejection of the embargo from around the world." Of course, 330 million Americans are not supposed to be brave enough or decent enough to care about this Cuban mother's tears!!!!

     And Yes, Cuban children and mothers in Havana cry too...like this sister and mother. They were waiting at the airport in Havana in 1976 for their brother and son to return from Caracas with 27 other teenage athletes who had won Gold Medals in a Central American sports tournament. But a terrorist bomb blew CUBANA FLIGHT 455 into the ocean, killing everyone on board.

     Declassified U. S. documents seem {see above} to have implicated the CIA's and Miami's two most famed Cuban terrorists.

    And prior to 1959, in Batista's Cuba, the Batistianos, the Mafiosi, and U. S. businessmen blinkly robbed the island but didn't bother to toss even a few crumbs to the non-Batista Cubans, such as this woman and the children under her care.

     Prior to the Revolutionary victory on January 1-1959, Cuba was a lucrative haven for the Mafiosi and for the U. S. businesses and for the Batistianos but a poor hellhole for Cubans not ALIGNED with Dictator Batista.

     The victory of the Cuban Revolution on Jan. 1-1959 not only shocked the world but also its longevity from 1959-2022 has shocked the world even more. And moreover, it has changed the superpower United States even more than it has changed Cuba itself.

    And if you Google the top worldwide Cuban headlines today -- on Feb. 10-2022 -- you will understand, I believe, how the Cuban Revolution has changed the superpower United States even more than it has changed little Cuba. So just for the record, here are today's HEADLINES:

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