Ana Belen Montes in the Headlines Again

 

     In the captivating saga of U.S.-Cuban history from Columbus to Castro and beyond, the name Ana Belen Montes looms large in the most massive pantheon of intrigues and misunderstandings. {The above graphic is from the Washington Post and Andy Potts}.

     Today -- December 23rd-2022, two days before Christmas -- the Top Cuban Headline in the United States comes from the Miami Herald and it is, not surprisingly, another blistering and scathing assault on...Ana Belen Montes.

     This is the scathing denunciation of Ana Belen Montes today -- Dec. 23rd-2022 -- headlined by the Miami Herald. Powerful Cubans in Miami, of course, are alarmed that Ana Belen Montes is about to be freed after spending the last two decades in a U. S. federal prison.

     The above 3 paragraphs show how the Miami Herald today begins to explain the latest news in the Ana Belen Montes saga: "Cuba's top spy in the United States will be freed from prison on Jan. 8 after serving just 20 years in a federal prison in Texas. She is said to be coming to Miami.........!!!!"

     Of course, there have always been many people who believe that Ana Belen Montes should never have served the last 20 years in a United States federal prison.

     A graduate of the University of Virginia and Johns Hopkins University, Ana Belen Montes quickly zoomed up in the higher echelons of the U. S. Defense Department as the USA's top expert regarding Cuba.

    As the U. S. government's top expert regarding Cuba, Ana Belen Montes won numerous citations and awards from the CIA and the Defense Department.

    But on 09-21-2001, as shown above, Ana Belen Montes was arrested by the FBI and charged with being the most notorious Cuban spy in the history of the United States. She, of course, was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in a federal U. S. prison. On the day she was sentenced Ana Belen Montes famously stated that she would never regret having done what she did to help innocent Cubans in Cuba from being brutalized by the United States. Twenty years later...as she is about to be released from prison...Ana Belen Montes will say the same thing.

    At her trial it is still important to know exactly what Ana Belen Montes told the judge right after she was sentenced. That aspect of her life is not often reported but, as quoted below by Elio Delgado Legon, you can read correctly every word of her statement. As you see below, she started by saying: "Your honor, I engaged in the activity that brought me before you because I obeyed my conscience rather than the law. I believe our government's policy toward Cuba is cruel and unfair, profoundly unneighborly, and I felt morally obligated to help the island defend itself from our efforts to impose our values and our political system on it." That was the first paragraph of her statement and the other six paragraphs of what she read and said to the judge is also correctly listed below.

     "I hope for a U. S. policy that is based instead on neighborly love, a policy that recognizes that Cuba, like any nation, wants to be treated with dignity and not with contempt." As you can see in the third paragraph from the bottom above, the above quotation and sentence in pink was included in the long speech Ana Belen Montes made before the judge right after he sentenced her to 25 years in a federal U. S. prison.

    Born on February 28th, 1957, Ana Belen Montes rose to become the top U. S. Cuban expert for the Defense Intelligence Agency and at the job for 17 years she was convicted in 2001 as being a Cuban spy. But even her accusers acknowledge she didn't do it for money {Cuba did not pay her} but to assuage her "conscious" for what she considered to be an egregious Cuban policy by the United States that she told the judge is "cruel and unfair." And for that belief, she has spent the past twenty years in a federal prison in Texas. It remains to be seen what she will do after she is released on January 8th, 2023.

*&***********************&*

All Neighbors LOVE Cuba, Except for US

 

    All maps reveal that Cuba is the largest nation in the Caribbean and most tourists reveal that Cuba is also the most beautiful nation in the Caribbean. All of Cuba's neighbors, except for the northern colossus known as the United States, love and respect Cuba. That includes the U. S. Territory of Puerto Rico and the U. S. Virgin Islands...and it also includes Cuba's close neighbors such as Jamaica, the Bahamas, and the Dominican Republic...all of which are blessed with tons of U. S. dollars thanks to close economic ties with the United States...including massive tourism as well as major U. S. golf tournaments, football bowl games, etc., not to mention such things as the Dominican Republic raking in billions of dollars from all 30 of the U. S. Major League Baseball Teams having year-around training facilities/stadiums/coaches to facilitate Dominican players reaching the money-crazed U. S. teams. All of this is happening while the superpower U. S. has maintained, for over six decades, massive rules to totally starve the economy of one Caribbean nation -- Cuba!!!!

    Among the Caribbean nations raking in tons of U. S. tourists and sports dollars, of course, is the Bahamas. Today -- December 21st-2022 -- the Prime Minister of the Bahamas, Philip Davis, is in Havana meeting with Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel.

      The leader of the Bahamas, both publicly and privately, told the leader of Cuba that his country loves Cuba and hates the "unique"  U. S. economic stranglehold on Cuba.

          The leader of the Bahamas today brought along a huge delegation of Bahamian leaders with him to Havana to tell Cuba's leader, "Please let the Cuban people know that the Bahamian people love them and wish them happiness and safety." 

        Of course, regardless of what the Bahamian people wish for, the Cuban people in the Caribbean's largest nation are not "safe and happy" on December 21st, 2022...four days before Christmas.

*&***********************&*

Who GETS RICH On U.S. Cuban Policies????

The Six+decades of the U. S. Blockade of Cuba has starved Generations of Cubans but made Generations of Americans VERY rich!!!  Today -- December 20th-2022 -- the largest newspaper in the United States explained this ongoing lucrative and cruel situation but, of course, Americans are programmed not to care.

     But just for the record, by far the largest newspaper/media source in the United States is The Wall Street Journal. As you can see above, the WSJ has a daily circulation more than double that of sources such as the NY Times, USA Today, and the Washington Post. Today -- December 20th-2022 -- the WSJ featured a blazing headline and article that told the American people about the cretins who continue to make tons of money from the USA's lucrative but disastrous Cuban policies but, of course, Americans again are not supposed to give a damn...and that is why it will continue endlessly.

         But for the record, above is the article today -- Dec. 20th-2022 -- in the Wall Street Journal that Americans are programmed to ignore. The two opening paragraphs, for what it's worth, are: "Ferrying Cubans to the U. S. in the past year has become a billion-dollar business involving airlines, charter operations and travel agents working from strip malls in Florida to airports across Central America and the Caribbean. Immigration figures show a quarter of a million Cubans have arrived in the U. S. in the past year. Many of them paid thousands dollars each...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

     Of course, on December 20th of 2022 America's largest newspaper -- The Wall Street Journal -- tells us cowardly and uncaring Americans that unchecked elements today are making "BILLIONS OF DOLLARS" from U. S. government policies that have pertained to Cuba since 1959, the year that the Cuban Revolution overthrew the US/Mafia-backed Batista dictatorship that famously allowed U. S. businessmen and the Mafiosi to also make BILLIONS OF DOLLARS from 1952 till 1959. In the 1950s that generation of Americans thought the lucrative but cruel rape of Cuba was fine as long as it enriched a few people in a much larger country. And in December of 2022 another generation of Americans feel the same way. Meanwhile...there must be a few Americans who are ashamed about the seminal image of America depicted above, but where are they? Too AFRAID to admit shame?

*&***********************&*

Those That LOVE the Cuban Blockade

 While Others Consider It Genocidal!!

      In 1962 the United States imposed an economic EMBARGO-BLOCKADE against the nearby island nation of Cuba that was designed to starve, deprive, and make miserable Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow their revolutionary government. This was after a record number of assassination attempts against rebel leader Fidel Castro had failed and after the massive U. S. Bay of Pigs military attack against Cuba had failed to overthrow the Cuban Revolution that had overthrown the U.S./Mafia-backed Batista dictatorship in 1959. And since 1962 the EMBARGO-BLOCKADE, amazingly, has also failed to overthrow Cuba's revolution.

     That brings us to today, which happens to be December 19th-2022. Above are today's top Cuban Headlines in the United States...none of which, as usual, speaks to the truth about the unending EMBARGO-BLOCKADE that almost all of the world's 8 billion people and almost all of America's 340 million people oppose, with many of them considering the EMBARGO-BLOCKADE to be legalizing genocide against masses of people in a small nation by a handful of benefactors in a large nation. So peruse the Cuban Headlines on December 19th-2022 but understand that, as usual, that they primarily are designed to continue the lucrative U. S. myth that all the key Cubans in the U. S. deserve to be rich and powerful while the masses of Cubans in Cuba deserve to be...starved, deprived, and made miserable.

    And please understand...since the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and since the U. S. Blockade of Cuba in 1962, the mainstream U. S. media has not been the place to get the truth about U.S.-Cuban Relations. But sources such as WOLA, a prime Civil and Human Rights group for the Americas based in Washington does report truthfully about U.S.-Cuban Relations -- including the Blockade. WOLA means Washington Office on Latin America and it is the leading research and advocacy organization for advancing Human Rights in the Americas. So...WOLA is a truthful source for updates regarding U.S.-Cuba Relations, such as shown today in late December of 2022:

  As highlighted above, in the closing days of 2022 the Washington Office on Latin America offers sane suggestions for the Biden administration to apply to the dreadful Trump-Biden policies regarding Cuba, which have greatly exacerbated the dreadful dictates that created the EMBARGO-BLOCKADE way back in 1962. For sure, while failing to overthrow Revolutionary Cuba, those policies have surely tormented...starved, etc...generations of innocent Cubans on the island...while also surely enriching and empowering a handful of Cubans in the United States. Are those two ongoing and divergent facts the two reasons the Blockade has existed since 1962...and the reason it is tighter than ever????

     Is the U. S. blockade of Cuba the longest and most genocidal embargo in history by any huge country against any much smaller country??? I am not a historian, so I don't know. But I believe the question is a legitimate one.

*&***********************&*

Why Sanity Should Rule US Cuba Policies

     In 1898 the U. S. easily won the Spanish-American War on Cuban soil and therefore became the latest imperialist power to dominate the Caribbean's largest and most beautiful nation. But that didn't result in Democracy taking over Cuba; instead the U. S. quickly built a lucrative Military Base at Guantanamo Bay and by 1952 the U. S. began backing the cruel Mafia-laced Batista dictatorship on the vulnerable and nearby island. On January 1st in 1959 the Cuban Revolution shocked the world by overthrowing the Batista regime. Since then Revolutionary Cuba has shocked the world by resisting daily and unchecked attempts to overthrow it. And since January of 1959 the U. S. media has presented many reasons and needs for nearby Florida and the United States to regain control of Cuba. That brings us to today...December 16th of 2022...and an important and massive article by Carmen Sesin, the Miami-based reporter for NBC News. Her article today, while blaming Revolutionary Cuba for the island's vast problems, is important and should be heeded...not just for Cuba's sake but particularly for America's sake.

    All sane and decent people should read the above article written by Miami's Carmen Sesin of NBC News today -- December 16th, 2022. It details how the cartels are making tons of money shepherding hundreds of thousands of Cubans over the U.S.-Mexican border into the United States. Of course, the economic Embargo-Blockade of Cuba, which has existed since 1962, has been recently tightened to combine with and greatly exacerbate the dire financial problems in Cuba that are fueling the vast influx of Cubans migrating to the United States.

      As shown above, the Carmen Sesin/NBC News article today -- December 16-2022 -- correctly states that twice Fidel Castro famously sent thousands of Cubans to the U. S. purposely, most notably emptying his jails in 1980 during the Mariel Boatlift and then again in the 1980s more nicely when Fidel Castro sought again to ease problems in Cuba with the Rafter Crisis when he intended to shift some of his problems to the U. S., notably nearby Florida. For sure, since the Spanish-American War won by the U. S. in Cuba in 1898 both Cuba and the United States have combined for countless mutual tragedies...the Bay of Pigs military attack by the U. S. in 1961, the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the Embargo in 1962, the Mariel Boatlift in 1980, the Helms-Burton Act in 1996, etc., etc., etc., etc. And now today on December 16-2022, as you can see in the two above paragraphs written by NBC News today, the Current U.S.-Cuba Crisis is unique. And, of course, while Revolutionary Cuba, as usual, is blamed for this latest human crisis that is cresting in Miami and Florida as well as along the U.S.-Mexican border, PERHAPS it is time that sanity and decency replaces the greed and hubris the U. S. has showered on Cuba since 1898.

   Telling Americans that the United States has always acted decently, democratically, and intelligently in its relation with Cuba might continue the insanity for more decades, but that doesn't make it right. The U. S. decision-makers regarding Cuba since 1898 have not been blameless.

*&***********************&*

Miami STILL Dictates US Cuban Policy

     On January 1st of 1959 both Havana in Cuba and nearby Miami in Florida changed forever, and so did all of Cuba and all of the United States. January 1st-1959 was the day the Cuban Revolution overthrew the U.S./Mafia-backed Batista dictatorship in Cuba. That historic event quickly spawned Little Havana in Miami. And since January 1st of 1959 Little Havana in Miami has had the money and political clout to dictate U. S. Cuban policy...a policy that has continued all these days for over six decades to enrich and empower Cubans in Little Havana while cruelly devastating Cubans in Cuba.

      As the map above reveals, Havana in December of 2022 is still the capital of Cuba while nearby Miami remains the glitzy and ultra-rich U. S. city that remains home to Little Havana, still the unchallenged dictator of the USA's Cuban policies.

      Today -- on December 14th-2022 -- above you can see the "Top Cuban Stories" that, as always, reflect Little Havana's domination of U.S.-Cuban Relations. The fiercely pro-Little Havana Miami Herald today, as usual, leads the anti-Cuban headlines...in this instance regarding U.S.-Cuba Relations as well as Miami-born Marco Rubio using his unchallenged Cuban domination of Cuban policy in the U. S. Senate to enrich & empower Little Havana while also gravely punishing Cubans in Cuba.

        Born 51 years ago in Miami {Little Havana}, since 2011 Marco Rubio has largely dictated Little Havana's policies in the U. S. Senate. To say that he has enriched & empowered Little Havana at the expense of Cubans in Cuba is something that Cubans in Cuba, at least the ones who are not joining the avalanche of Cubans still flocking to Miami, live with daily. In the U. S. Congress there are 99 other Senators and 435 Representatives in the House for a total of 535 politicians but it seems that since 1959 only Little Havana-type Cuban-Americans like Senator Marco Rubio control America's CUBAN POLICY and only Little Havana-type "journalists" such as those at the Miami Herald control what Americans are told about America's CUBAN POLICY.

*&***********************&*