2.3.24

Cuba Begs UN for Help As US Sanctions Starve Cubans!!!

 

     As Cuba's Interior Minister, Betsy Diaz works tirelessly to protect Cuban families from what she calls "the genocidal designs of the U. S. blockade." And now, for the first time, the Cuban government is allowing Betsy Diaz to beg the UN for help "as whole Cuban families are suffering more than ever as the blockade deprives them from basic food and medicine, meaning that the blockade is now working for the United States better than ever as it assaults Cubans, especially children and women who have lived all their lives under cruel U. S. sanctions." On this first weekend in March of 2024, non-U.S. international news sources, such as the BBC, are sending such startling headlines as this around the world: "CUBA ASKS UN FOR HELP AS FOOD SHORTAGES WORSEN."
    As you can see above, the worldwide reach of the BBC is explaining to the world on this first weekend in March of 2024 that Cuba is taking the "unprecedented" step of begging the UN for help as the extreme results of "United States imposed sanctions, which exacerbated shortages on the island." In March of 2024 Cuba is particularly concerned with shortages of vital things such as milk, telling the UN: "...with interior commerce minister Betsy Diaz warning earlier this month that deliveries for children aged six months to two years had been delayed." Since 1959, the year that the Cuban Revolution overthrew the U.S.-backed & Mafia-backed Batista dictatorship, Revolutionary Cuba has prided itself in offering free food for all Cubans and free education thtrough college for all Cubans. But now at the start of March of 2024 Cuba, for the first time, Cuba is begging the UN for help as the vulnerable island blames the tightened U. S. Embargo, which began in 1962, for creating hunger problems -- "shortages" -- as Cuba tries to make sure that its most vulnerable children can have their guarantied food, especially things such as powdered milk for the youngest children.
    From 1953 until the first weekend of March of 2024, Cuba has used historic photos as the two shown above to explain why the Cuban Revolution felt it had to overthrow the Batista dictatorship. The photos above were taken in Batista's Cuba in the early 1950s when anti-Batista rebels -- especially outraged young women such as Celia Sanchez, Vilma Espin, and Haydee Santamaria -- believed that everyday Cuban women and children were left with nothing...including no food, no education, and no decent homes...while the Batistianos, the Mafiosi, and rich U. S. businesses were making obscene fortunes in Cuba from wild tourism, gambling, drugs, prostitution, etc., etc.
     From the start of the Cuban Revolution in 1953 till its victory in 1959, Cuban women such as Vilma Espin, Celia Sanchez, and Haydee Santamaria were at the forefront of the anti-Batista efforts as prime recruiterss of rebels and supplies, as prime guerrilla fighters and also prime decision-makers. And when victory was theirs starting in 1959, these three particular Cuban women remained prime decision-makers in Revolutionary Cuba.
    Above this Bohemia Magazine photo/caption shows Celia Sanchez standing in the doorway of a comannd center to tell rebels in early 1958 that "we will begin capturing and holding towns and cities in the foothills of the Sierra Maestra Mountains and then continue doing that until we drive northwest all across the island all the way to HAVANA!!" In the last three days of 1958 Celia's strategy and prediction came true when the rebels captured Santa Clara, the final major city leading to Havana, a historic victory that made dictator Batista race to his gold-ladened getaway airplane to flee the island on NEW YEARS MORNING on January 1st of 1959.
     Yes, women like Haydee Santamaria and Celia Sanchez were prime guerrilla fighters, prime recruiters, and prime decision-maker throughout the entire Cuban Revolution.
     Both during the Revolutionary fighting and then as leaders in Revolutionary Cuba, Fidel Castro made sure that the prime decision-makers were Cuban women such as the two sitting beside him above -- Celia Sanchez and Haydee Santamaria. For that reason, starting in January of 1959 the prime new and most everlasting new laws in Cuba were official and prime decisions such as The Block-by-Block Committees to Defend the Revolution, The Federation of Cuban Women, The Guarantees that all Cubans Will Have Free Food and Free Educations Through College, etc., etc.
    This historic photo truthfully reflects that Celia Sanchez, with Fidel Castro's permission, was the prime decision-maker during the height of the fighting during the Cuban Revolution. This photo shows Celia holding a candle so Fidel can read a book while she writes down battle plans, which Fidel by daylight that morning would routinely approve. This photo shows the caution deep in the Sierra Maestra Mountains at the secretive rebel camp that Batista's U.S.-supplied spotter airplanes and bombers were trying to locate...and bomb. Campfires were not allowed but this candle was rigged up for Celia and Fidel.
     And then in Revolutionary Cuba this definitive photo reveals that Celia Sanchez was still, with Fidel Castro's total permission, the prime decision-maker in Cuba. This photo typically shows Celia busy writing down laws for Cuba that Fidel will later 100% support. Please note that while Celia was writing down those rules, Fidel had his shoes off as he leisurely relaxed in his rocking chair on the front porch.
      This montage above shows some images of Celia Sanchez, the prime force in the Cuban Revoiution and in Revolutionary Cuba.
    On January 11th of 1980 Celia Sanchez died of cancer at age 59. But till this day in March of 2024 because her Revollution still rules Cuba,  she remains the greatest "Flower" of the nation of Cuba and of the Cuban Revolution. For that reason it is appropriate that two Celia Sanchez quotations best define her Revolution, as shown below:
       "We rebels...get far too much credit for winning the Revolution. Our enemies deserve most of the credit, for being greedy cowards and idiots."
"Tired old rebels like me, I reckon, are still out-gunned and out-numbered. We can make history but we still don't get to write it." CELIA SANCHEZ MANDULEY
     In this first week of March in 2024 a dedicated disciple of Celia Sanchez is Betsy Diaz. Like Celia who fought dictator Batista on behalf of Cuban children in the 1950s, Betsy today is fighting the U. S. Embargo/Blockade to try to make sure that Cuban children don't starve.
It seems that the EMBARGO usually wins!!
     But, as you can see above, on March 1st of 2024 this photo/caption in Cuba News shows that Betsy Diaz has just won a battle against the EMBARGO. Thanks to Betsy we know this slice of good news: "The arrival of a ship from Brazil, with 375 tons of powdered milk, guarantees distribution for children zero to six..." And for such reasons on this first weekend in March of 2024 I equate the child-loving Betsy Diaz of today with the legendary child-loving Cuban rebel Celia Sanchez.
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28.2.24

Do Top US Trading Partners Want to Trade with Cuba??

 Yes...Even South Korea!!

      Since 2022 Yoon Suk Yeol has been the President of South Korea, which has been a key ally and trading partner of the United States since the end of the Korean War in 1953. And not in 2024 President Yoon Suk Yeol wants South Korea to be a trading partner with Cuba.
      A mere five years after the end of the ultra-bloody World War Two, the Korean War began in 1950 and by the time bloody fighting had ended with an armistice on July 27 of 1953 the U. S. had lost 58,220 of its soldiers. The Korean War pitted South Korea, backed by the U. S., against North Korea, backed by China. And shortly after the Korean War ended the Vietnam War bagan.
    The ultra-bloody Vietnam War actually raged for years pitting North Vietnam backed by the Soviet Union against South Vietnam backed by the United States. By the time the U. S. finally pulled out its forces in 1973 Vietnam became united under communist rule with the former capital of Saigon renamed Ho Minh City and the new capital being Hanoi. The results of the Korean and Vietnam Wars left North Vietnam a bitter enemy of the U. S. but both South Korea and communist Vietnam both became U. S. friends and trading partners. Now in 2024 Vietnam also is Cuba's friend but not much of a trading partner and neither is North Korea, but in 2024 South Korea is finally making BIG NEWS by wanting to expand its relations with Cuba.
     Of course, if anything positive comes in this crucial year of 2024 of a close U. S. military and commerical ally such as South Korea trying to have positive relations with Cuba remains problematical. After all, the U. S. worldwide influence as the world's top economic and military power trumps any overtures from any country trying to deal positively with Cuba.
     After all...the drastic U. S. trade-commercial EMBARGO began against Cuba began over six dicades ago in 1962 and in 2024, as February turns to March, it is STRONGER than ever even as most other nations around the world appear ashamed of the image shown above.
     Since 1492, the year Cuba and the nearby United States were discovered, Cuba has been wildly coveted by the world's major powers. Its geographic location, directly south of the U. S. and as the largest & most beautiful island in the Caribbean Sea, has placed both the island and the nation of Cuba in the crosshairs as a pawn between internationally powerful nations, especially after the neighboring U. S. became the world's economic and military power after World War Two ended in 1945. Of course, studying maps is actually the best way to judge such facts because the biased pro-and-con media and history zealots slant things only to favor their viewpoints.
     And thus, as we enter into the month of March-2024, the news that key U. S. ally South Korea wants to do business with poor little blockaded Cuba is interesting although probably meaningless. That's because rich nations such as South Korea are eager to keep strong economic ties to the United States. And, of course, both South Korea and the United States are bitter enemies of North Korea, a desperately poor communist nation that also has a massive and very dangerous nuclear arsenal. In other others...as we enter into March-2024 poor little blockaded Cuba appears more than ever to be a pawn, now wedged between nuclear powers as well as between huge economic competitors. Meanwhile...left to its own devices, poor little blockaded Cuba is well aware that it would be much better off being a close friend of its close neighbor the United States than being a close friend of South Korea that is thousands of miles away.
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25.2.24

Why US Loved Cuba Prior to 1959?

But hates Cuba since 1959!! 

   Both before and after 1959 the beautiful island of Cuba, just a few miles south of Florida, has had a plethora of beautiful lures for investors and tourists. Prior to the victory of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 that overthrew the Mafia-backed Batista dictatorship, major U. S. companies wildly exploited the many Cuban attractions and raked in massive financial rewards. But since 1959, Revolutionary Cuba and its superpower northern neighbor have been bitter enemies.
      Cuba still has some of the world's best beaches, such as Varadero. But such beaches due south of Florida are economic victims of the six-decade-old U. S. Embargo/Blockade.
    But, of course, prior to 1959 both the U. S. government, the U. S. media, and U. S. companies loved lures in Batista's Cuba such as Veradero Beach and the Mafia-run casinos and hotels.
    In this last week of FEBRUARY in 2024, if Americans GOOGLE various good sources they will better understand the complex history of U.S.-Cuba Relations, and then better comprehend how and why the U. S. Embargo/Blockade has existed since 1962...and counting.
    The six-decade-old U. S. Embargo of Cuba can not  simply be  justified by believing that the bad Cubans are still in Cuba and the nice Cubans are now in Miami. The situation, and the problem, is much more diverse and complex than that.
    Depending on the U. S. media only to inform citizens about the longevity of the EMBARGO on Cuba assumes that the U. S. media is always correct & honest while the Cuba media is always false and dishonest. Above in this last week of February in 2024 the Cuban media is telling the Cuban people about "Cuba and the United States engaging in dialogue" about issues that concern both nations, a fact that is apparently true as illustrated in the report above.
    Above in this last week of February in 2024 the Cuban media noted the anniversary of a major event in U.S.-Cuba history: "It has been "121 years" since the United States began its occupation of Cuba's lush Guantanamo Bay, which now is home to a luscious U. S. military base and federal prison. Cuba's longtime Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez also noted that anniversary on Social Media platforms, such as X-Twitter as shown above.
     In this last week of February in 2024, as shown above, the Cuban media is telling the Cuban peopple that most of the World, including the nations that must abide by the Embargo, consider Cuba "a premium World Travel destination in 2024" even IF the U. S. claims it is not.
     In this last week of February in 2024, as shown above, the Cuban media is telling and showing the Cuban people that the cruise ship "Marella Explorer 2" is dyfying the U. S. Embargo by docking in Havana Harbor. The Marella Explorer 2 was built in Germany and is now headquartered in England.
     In this last week of February in 2024, many people believe US-Cuba Relations deserve unbiased media coverage, a necessary ingredient that has been lacking for too long...and both Cuba and the United States should be honest enough to admit to that basic fact. Of course, such facts can easily be distorted in a competitive and lopsided way when the world's top military and economic power is pitted against a poor, small, and weak island-nation.
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23.2.24

Cuba's President Admits His People Are Hungry

 A Leader That Admits His People Are "Hungry"

    Miguel Diaz-Canel, Cuba's President, was born soon after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 but -- first as the island's Education Minister and now as President -- he is determined, against fierce odds, to maintain revolutionary rule in Cuba, which has somehow existed now into its 65th year!! In face of the fierce U. S. economic Embargo/Blockade, which has existed since 1962, President Diaz-Canel, has repeatedly said, "To continue to survive the blockade's purpose of starving Cuban familes, we must do a better job, despite the tightened 2024 blockade, of producing more of our own food, even if that means replacing over-worked oxen with new tractors." In that milieu, the photo above shows President Diaz-Canel this week hosting an important conference in Havana that includes major U. S. agriculture executives and companies that are anxious for the U. S. blockade to allow them to trade with Cuba regarding agriculture products such as tractors, fertilizer, eggs, apples, etc., etc.
     As you can see above, today -- on February 24th, 2024, the Top Cuban Headlines flashing around the U. S. and the world include the key report from the London-based Reuters News Agency: "US state agriculture officialss eye Cuba's private sector." For more than six decades, many critics of the USA's extremely punitive Cuban policies have pointed out that they are meant to please a few politically powerful anti-Cuba factions, mainly in Miami's Little Havana counter revolutioonary sector, while drastically harming innocent Cuban families in Cuba while also hurting U. S. citizens that might want to visit or trade freely with the nearby island-nation.
     For sure, as the worldwide reach of Reuters News explains in these final days of February in 2024, outside of Little Havana in Miami there are powerful agricultural enterprises in the U. S. hoping to trade with Cuba, including "Ted McKinney, CEO of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture..." 
       And, in fact, as Reuters reports above, Ted McKinney -- an ultra-important agriculture expert in the United States -- believes that there is "a new Cuba that is emerging" and that he believes the U. S. should have a Cuban policy that helps desperate Cuban families and also help increasingly strained U. S. farmers who want to trade with Cuba, which is a hungry nation of 11 million people that, for example, has to buy milk products from faraway New Zealand, not from nearby U. S. farmers. Of course, in February of 2024 it is presumed that Americans like Ted McKinney will continue to be drowned out BY Little Havana USA.
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20.2.24

Cuba remains a little pawn in 2024's BIG wars!!

On Februrary 20 of 2024 Warring Powers Look to Cuba!

       Today  -- on February 20th, 2024 -- the image above was from a statewide televised Newscast in Cuba. It shows that a large delegation of Russian officials -- led by Russia's longtime Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov -- is in Havana today meeting with Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel. It is not coincidental that Russia is currently engaged in a long and bloody WAR with Ukraine while Cuba now admits in February of 2024 that the island is facing "the greatest economic crisis in this 62nd year of the Blockade." Of course, the United States is a key player in the Russia-Ukraine War, strongly opposing Russia, and also the key player in the economic Embargo/Blockade of Cuba that the U. S. began way back in February of 1962. Thus, for those reasons, the image of the Lavrov delegation in Havana today during a crucial point in the Russia-Ukraine War is an image that direly concerns the United States and will garner interest from the rest of the world too. It was in 1962, three years after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution shocked the U. S. and the world, that the Cuban Missile Crisis -- pitting the Soviet Union {Russia} against the United States remains to this day "the closest the world has ever come to a nuclear holocaust." Well...today --February 20th, 2024 -- the U. S. and Russia remain the world's two most powerful nuclear superpowers, although otherwise Russia does not compare to the economic or military might of the United States. And therefore the word "nuclear" is why the image above is huge.
    Above is the massive headline and photo today -- January 20th, 2024 -- in the Miami Herald as it explains the high-level meeting going on in Havana between Russia and Cuba. The Miami Herald's Nora Gamez Torres, a fierce anti-Cuba journalist, lumps Cuba's president as a supporter of Russia's raging war with Ukraine and this week's death in Russia of dissident leader Navalny -- two events that the U. S. and almost the entire world blame and damn Russia for. Today's Miami Herald headline comes at a time when Russia seeks help in its war and Cuba seeks help with its drastic economic problems, so there is sort of a nexus.
     As you can see as illustrated by the above map, Cuba is a only a tiny speck on the overall international spectrum but its geograpical location is extremely huge -- just a few miles south of the United States but thousands of miles from major challenges that the United States faces from Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, etc. And so, as small as Cuba is, it is very important to both the United States and to international challenges that the United States faces.
     Meanwhile today -- on February 20th in 2024 -- CUBA remains the largest and arguably the most beautiful nation in the Caribbean Sea, which is comprised of the USA's southeastern neighbors that include U. S. Territories such as Puerto Rico and the U. S. Virgin Islands. But since the 1950s, back when Batista was the island's dictator, Little Cuba and the Superpower United States have been in David & Goliath-like disagreements -- especially since Janaury of 1959 when the Cuban Revolution ousted Batista and since February of 1962 when the U. S. began its economic Embargo/Blockade of CUBA.
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cubaninsider: "The Country That Raped Me" (A True Story)

cubaninsider: "The Country That Raped Me" (A True Story) : Note : This particular essay on  Ana Margarita Martinez  was first ...