Cuba Unhappy With Venezuela and USA

     Today is May 2, 2023 and the image above shows the start of a key Newscast in Cuba. It began by loudly denouncing the U. S. "BLOCKADE of Cuba and Venezuela." It was explaining to the Cuban people why the normally hugely celebrated May Day Parade was cancelled yesterday. The prime reason for the cancellation was the long lines at gas stations that are out of gas, which the Cuban media blames on the "U. S. blockade of Cuba and Venezuela."

 

     Yesterday -- May 1st, 2023 -- Cuba made international headlines when it cancelled its May Day Parade in Havana that normally drew up to a million celebrants to celebrate the 1959 victory over the U.S.-backed/Mafia-backed Batista dictatorship. The cancellation was deemed necessary this year because the U. S. Embargo/Blockade of the island, which began in 1962, is finally and totally devastating Cuba's fragile economy.

   Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel further surprised international observers as well as the Cuban people by criticizing Venezuela for "selling its best oil to the United States while not living up to its full fulfillment of its promise to us."

     The famed professor at the Universitiy of Texas Jorge R. Pinon, the notable economist and top expect on Cuba's economy, seems to concur with what President Diaz-Canel told his Cuban people, as reported by the London-based The Guardian.

     Above Professor Jorge Pinon said, "Hungry for crude after sanctioning Russian oil and gas, Washington last November issued Chevron a license to export Venezuelan petroleum to the US for the first time in years." In thus easing its sanctions on Venezuela, the U. S. further stopped Cuba from getting its vital supply of oil from its longest and best friend --- Venezuela.

    The death of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez because of cancer in 2013 remains a devastating {and possibly fatal blow} to Revolutionary Cuba. As the powerful leader of oil-rich Venezuela, Hugo Chavez idolized Cuba's revolutionary icon  Fidel Castro, who repeatedly proclaimed that Chavez was "Cuba's best FRIEND."

      "We lost our best friend." When Hugo Chavez died in 2013, Fidel Castro himself wrote the article shown above for Cuba's Prensa Latina News Agency that led the tribute to the loss of Hugo Chavez.

     For sure, since the deaths of Hugo Chavez in 2013 and of Fidel Castro in 2016 -- as the Bloomberg News Agency reported above -- Venezuela has had "DUELING PRESIDENTS." Since 2013 Nicolas Maduro has been Venezuela's hand-picked President but the last two U. S. presidents -- Trump and Biden -- support and consider opposition leader Juan Guaido the real Venezuelan President. Thus in the new month of May in 2023 Cuba is the biggest loser in the USA's vaccilating relationship with oil-rich Venezuela, a Venezuela without Cuba's dear friend HUGO CHAVEZ!!!

     In this first week of May-2023, poor little Cuba is wedged precariously between the mighty United States and oil-rich Venezuela. Before the deaths of revolutionary strongmen Hugo Chavez {2013} and Fidel Castro {2016}, somehow Cuba survived history's longest and cruelest economic blockade ever imposed by a powerful nation against a much-weaker nation. But...After the deaths of Chavez and Fidel Castro, it appears that Revolutionary Cuba in May of 2023 is finally doomed.

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May Day in Cuba is CANCELLED!!!

 

      In previous years, starting in 1959, parades like the one above lavishly celebrated Revolutionary Cuba on May Day -- May 1st of each year. But not tomorrow -- May 1st of 2023. That's because...after six decades the U. S. economic Embargo/Blockade has finally totally devastated the Cuban economy, even causing the cancelation of tomorrow's May Day Parade!!!

      Led by the Miami Herald and the Washington Post, the mainstream U. S. is rejoicing about the devastation of the Cuban economy, but the two London-based international giants -- the BBC and The Guardian -- today on the last of April-2023 are informing the world fairly about the plight of the Cuban people.

      The London-based Reuters News Agency has been informing the world fairly about the growing economic plight plaguing Cuban entrepreneurs, such as the taxi drivers merely parked in long lines because there is no fuel for their cars.

      But while Americans are conveniently programmed by their government and their news media not to care, as always vulnerable children are the biggest losers and the prime victims when a powerful nation imposes a vicious economic Embargo/Blockade against a much-smaller and much-weaker nation. It so happens...that the six-decade-old U. S. Embargo/Blockade {since 1962} against Cuba is the longest and the most vicious in history. In other words...the three Cuban children shown above in April of 2023 have been severely punished and victimized all their lives...and so have their mothers and their grandmothers all their lives!!! A journalist named Natalia Favre took the three photos above. I believe...that Natalia Favre was trying to tell the world that these three Cuban children never hurt a single soul in the United States, and neither have their mothers and grandmothers!!!

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Havana is Buzzing This Weekend!!!!

 A Beautiful Cuban Returns Home!!

    This Samir Hussein/WireImage shows why many people believe Ana de Armas is the most beautiful woman in the world. She was born 34 years ago in Havana where was a teenage actress when producers in Madrid and Hollywood noticed her performances in the the romantic drama Ana Rosa de Francia. At the age of 18 Ana was lured first to Madrid and then to Hollywood, and her off-the-charts beauty and talent soon made her a Superstar. She became a Bond {James} Girl and in 2023 Hollywood decided Ana would be the leading star of the acclaimed movie "Marilyn" {Monroe}, a role that many other Hollywood actresses coveted. But Hollywood agreed that the role was meant for Ana, the most beautiful woman in the world.

     It so happens that, on this last weekend of April-2023, Ana de Amas and her boyfriend Paul Boukadakis are keeping Havana abuzz as they walk the streets of the Cuban capital, eat in restaurants, and leisurely and openly mingle with proud and excited everyday Cubans. A journalist recorded Ana saying in Spanish, "I love you all so much. I love my hometown so much."

    This photo was taken when Ana de Armas and her boyfriend Paul Boukadakis arrived at the Havana airport. Ana had a teary reunion with her dear friend Claudia Muma Alvaricino. Holding back her tears as best she could, Claudia said, "I love Ana all the more for always coming back to the place where she is loved the most. The world now loves her but Cuba and Paul love her the most."

Ana de Armas {Photo: Samir Hussein}.

    This is the Most Beautiful Woman in the World, Ana de Armas, kissing her boyfriend Paul Boukadakis. This last weekend in April of 2023 Ana and Paul are thrilling Cubans by returning to Ana's beloved hometown of Havana.

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Canada Remains Cuba's Friend

 

     The most important airplane flights to and from Cuba involve Canadian airlines that have defied U. S. sanctions/embargoes/blockades to disrupt or destory the Caribbean nation's economy to provoke anti-Cuban reactions from the Cubans in Cuba. Thus planes ferrying tourists and businesspeople to and from Canada are more important than ever in April of 2023. Today this Sunwing airplane flying back to Canada made some Cuban news.

     A mechanical problem caused this Canadian flight to return to the Varadero Airport but everyone was safe today.

    The ageless U. S. sanctions/embargoes/blockades of Cuba block cruise and cargo ships from visiting the Caribbean's largest island so today when this ship appeared off the coast at the Port of Holguin it was another News Story for the Cuban media.

A Cubavision International news story today.

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Cubans Cry About the Death of a U. S. Icon

    The death this week of the legendary American entertainer and Civil Rights leader Harry Belafonte has greatly saddened Cubans in Cuba.

     This week major television news programs in Cuba, such as the one above, have led with the sadness Cubans feel after the death of Harry Belafonte at age 96 this week. Whereever he went, especially in Cuba and the U. S., Mr. Belafonte showed his support and respect for the Cuban Revolution and the Cuban people that overthrew the U.S.-backed/Mafia-backed Batista dictatorship on January 1st of 1959.

The Cuban Revolution and Harry Belafonte.

     There were many public visits and many private discussions between Harry Belafonte and Fidel Castro.

The legends: Castro and Belafonte.

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Why Does the US EVEN HAVE an Embassy in Havana?

A Fresh Look At The Situation 

    Yes, the United States still maintains a ubiquitous 7-story Embassy Building in Havana. The question is...why? There is, of course, no U. S. ambassador in Cuba.  But Benjamin Ziff is the Charge'/D'affaires at the U. S. Embassy Building in Havana.

       Back in 2016 U. S. President Barack Obama became the first U. S. President since 1959's Cuban Revolution to have the courage to try to normalize relations with Cuba. As shown above, President Obama even had the courage to visit and even use statewide Cuban television to tell the Cuban people: "Cuba Does Not Need To Fear A Threat From The United States." History registers the fact that President Obama meant those words but, within days, it was apparent that rich and powerful Counter Revolutionary Cubans in Little Havana/Miami and in Washington quickly overturned that courageous promise to the Cuban people in Cuba.

    As shown above, President Obama was also even courageous enough to name Jeffrey DeLaurentis, one of the USA's greatest and most respected diplomats, as the new U. S. Ambassador to Cuba. But, of course, Cuban-Americans such as Marco Rubio from Little Havana/Miami quickly also ended that brave Obama appointment too.

     So, except for the few days that President Obama in 2016 named the brilliant and decent Jeffrey DeLaurentis as the USA's badly needed Ambassador to Cuba, U. S. relations with Cuba have been dictated by counter revolutionaries in Miami and in Washington since 1959. This week -- in late April of 2023 -- NBC News had a major report on the ongoing disastrous 6-decades of the USA's acrimonious relations with Cuba, now led by Charge D'affaires Benjamin Ziff, not by an Ambassador like the great Jeffrey DeLaurentis.

     The NBC News report this week -- late April-2023 -- stressed the "dangerous" migration of Cubans to the U. S.: "Over 16,000 Cubans have emigrated to the US through a humanitarian parole program since it began in January, US Charge d'Affaires in Havana, Benjamin Ziff, told NBC News." As the dangerous treks from Cuba to the U. S. across the Caribbean Sea or across the U.S.-Mexican border continue unabated and with mounting lures, it means more-and-more problems for US-Cuban Relations, as apparently many powerful people desire. Meanwhile {see below} on April 21-2023 NBC News reported that: "The U.S. is making efforts to expand the number of people in organizations who are willing to sponsor immigrants from Cuba and other countries, according to the U.S. Charge d'affaires in Havana, Benjamin Ziff." 

The U. S. "parole program." {above}

      Remember what the courageous President Barack Obama, on his Historic Visit to Cuba in 2016, sincerely told the Cuban people: "Cuba Does Not Need To Fear A Threat From The United States." As the Democratic President of the United States and as the strongest person in the World in 2016, Obam's decent overtures to the Cuban people were quickly dumped into the political trash cans in Miami, Newark, and Washington.

     In the USA's two-party political system, Democratic Cuban-American U. S. Senator Bob Menendez from Newark and Republican U. S. Senator Marco Rubio from Little Havana/Miami are the two most powerful people in charge of U.S.-Cuban Relations. President Obama in 2016 faced that fact and since 2017 so have the last two U. S. Presidents -- the Democrat Joe Biden and the Republican Donald Trump.

President Biden, former President Trump.

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