January of 1959 Till December 2023!!
At least since 1817 U. S. politicians and newspapers have loudlly clamored for the United States "to SIEZE" the nearby Caribbean island of Cuba. That fervent desire by the much-larger and much-more powerful nation to control the much-smaller and much-weaker nation has, not surprisingly, created havoc -- including the Spanish-American War, the Cuban Revolution, the Bay of Pigs War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, etc., etc. In fact...it seems the only time since 1492 -- when Cuba and the United States were discovered by Columbus -- that the two neighboring nations were friends and major trade partners was in the 1950s when the U.S./Mafia-backed Batista dictatorship unmercifully ruled Cuba, an alliance that spawned the Cuban Revolution, an event that the U. S. has desperately tried to reverse since 1959. And all that turmoil brings us to today, which is December 13th of 2023...with all the new havoc!!
Today -- on December 13th of 2023 -- the avalanche of U.S.-Cuba Headlines flashing around the world include those shown above. And please remember that both the superpower U. S. and little Cuba on December 13th of 2023 are both being asked to take sides in two bloody Wars pitting Russian-Ukranian and Israeli-Hamas forces.
For a perspective on what is happening regarding U.S.-Cuba Relations on December 13th of 2023, I believe it is necessary to study and understand the three historic images listed above. The Cuban Revolution in January of 1959 shocked the world by overthrowing the U.S./Mafia-backed Batista dictatorship in Cuba; that spawned the ageless Little Havana community in nearby Miami; and it also meant that powerful counter revolutionary Cubans such as Rafael Diaz-Balart, a former Batista minister shown above in the center of the photo above flanked by his four sons, quickly emerged as extremely rich and politically powerful forces not only in Little Havana-Miami but also in Washington where Little Havana's wealth and political power for many decades has been undeniably potent.
For example, for decades the U. S. Congress in Washington has included Mario Diaz-Balart and/or Lincoln Diaz-Balart and, along with other notable counter revolutionary Cubans in Congress, have been instrumental in legalizing prime Counter Revoluionay/Pro-Little Havana laws, such as the notorious Helms-Burton Act!!
The photo directly above shows four of the totally unchecked Little Havana/Miami Cubans in the U. S. Congress -- Rubio in the center flanked by the Diaz-Balart brothers and, second from the right, Lleana Ros-Lehtinen, who for decades in Little Havana/Miami and in the U. S. Congress mentored the phalanx of Counter Revolutionary Cubans in both Miami and Washington.
After mentoring powerful Miami Cubans such as Rubio, the Diaz-Balart brothers, etc., Ros-Lehtinen more recently helped Maria Salazar become one of the most fierce Counter Revolutionary Cubans in the U. S. Congress in Washington.
Miami Cubans such as Salazar and Rubio, from their perches in Congress, are unchallenged in their domination of U. S. laws related to Cuba, and that is why the U. S. Economic Blockade of Cuba has existed since 1962!!! The rest of the world, as revealed each year at the United Nations, believes the Blockade is extremely cruel, even genocidal, and yet the world's opinion is not nearly as powerful as Little Havana's opinion, it seems.
The U.S.-Cuban Headlines on December 13th of 2023, of course, don't include the opinions of people such as Ines Maria Chapman. In Cuba Ines is a mother and grandmother as well as being a powerful Minister and Vice President of Cuba. This week in mid-December of 2023 Ines saw articles in which Little Havana/Miami stalwarts Salazar and Rubio expressed their opinions about why the U. S. policies against Cuba should be maintained or expanded. Well, it seems that in Havana Ines had an opnion too: "I don't wonder much what men in Miami think, but sometimes I wonder if mothers in Miami who support the blockade ever stop to think how it impacts mothers in Cuba. Aside from the blockade, I have believed that mothers around the world cradled empathy for all children, and not just their own."
As I perused the top U.S.-Cuban Headlines today -- on December 13th of 2023 -- I noticed the Tourism Ad shown above. It seems to suggest that tourist flights or cruises from Miami to Key West to Havana to Varadero to Cayo Guillermo to Puerto Vita included prime Cuban Tourist Attractions. Yes, it was listed as a "sponsored" Ad on Social Media forums...and, at least FOR A MOMENT, I wondered if it meant the U. S. blockade of Cuba had ended or at least been dented a bit!!
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