Now at the end of April in 2025 the 66-year-old Little Havana/Havana War seems finally to be ending now that Donald Trump, in his second 4-year term as President of the United States, has named Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Latin American Envoy Mauricio Claver-Carone to the positions in which they can now surely finally give Little Havana in Miami the decisive edge over Havana, the capital of Cuba. Both Rubio and Claver-Carone are superstars from Little Havana and both have spent their entire adult lives trying to overthrow Havana's Cuban Revolution that overthrew the US/Mafia-riddled Batista dictatorship in 1959. Now in 2025 President Trump has given them the tools to finally finish their lifelong Little Havana Miami dreams.
As indicated by the Miami Herald article shown above in Late April in 2025, since 1959 anti-revolutionary Cubans in Little Havana in Miami, supported by the Catholic Church and the U. S. government, have virtually dominated U. S. Cuban policies, much to the benefit of Miami Cubans and much to the detriment of Cuba's Cubans. Thus, in late April of 2025 it is no surprise that companies such as Expedia have been fined $9,950,000 for doing some business with Revolutionary Cuba. The idea is to deprive Cuba from money, such as from tourism.
With massive input from Little Havana politicians in Miami, massive anti-Cuban U. S. laws such as the Helms-Burton ACT zoom through the U. S. Congress in Washington. Helms-Burton has helped Miami Cubans become billionaires while devastating Cubans in Cuba. While named for convenient U. S. Congressmen Helms & Burton, the "X"-infamous Helms-Burton Act was crafted by key counter revolutiionary Miami Cubans such as Santiago de Cuba-born Jorge Mas Canosa and Havana-born Lincoln Diaz-Balart {whose father Rafael was a key Minister in the Batista dictatorship who then, starting in 1959, founded The White Rose as the first anti-Castro unit in southern Florida}. Today in late April-early May in 2025, Helms-Burton continues to enrich Miami's already rich Cuban-Americans while depriving already poor Cubans in Cuba.
Outside Miami and Washington it will be hard to find support for the Helms-Burton Act...as you can see if you enlarge and read the accurate and historical Helms-Burton summery as shown above. Note the first paragraph: "The Helms-Burton Act was condemned by the Council of Europe, the European Union, Britain, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and other U. S. allies..." But, of course, the Helms-Burton Act was championed by Miami Cubans...which was what counted in the U. S.
Surely one of the most fierciest anti-Castro Miami Cubans after 1959 was Jose Basulto. Now 84, he was born on August 8th in 1940 in Santiago de Cuba and is most famed for founding Brothers to the Rescue, the airplanes that patrolled the waters between Miami and Havana. Once he left Batista's Cuba for Miami, Basulto was trained by the CIA in Intelligence Operations in Cuba and Latin America. He was, in fact, in Cuba when the CIA-directed Miami Cubans militarily attacked Cuba in April of 1961 at the Bay of Pigs, and he later told how he climbed the walls to get into the Guantanamo U. S. Military Base near his hometown of Santiago de Cuba as soon he knew U. S. airplanes were bombing Cuban airfields from Havana to Santiago de Cuba. Basulto was very aligned with other Miami Cubans such as Felix Rodriguez, the CIA operative involved in the assassination of Che Guevara in Bolivia in 1967.
The exploits of famed anti-Castro operative Jose Basulto as shown above confirms that he was one of the most important Miami Cubans involved in the Havana-Little Havana War that has existed since 1959. But for all these decades since Fidel Castro overthrew Fulgencio Batista on January 1, 1959, neither Jose Basulto nor Rafael Diaz-Balart, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Felix Rodriguez, lleana Ros-Lehtinen, Marco Rubio, etc. have been the most important anti-Castro Cubans in Miami. That distinction goes to the incomparable Jorge Mas Canosa.
Jorge Mas Canosa
Born in Santiago de Cuba in 1939, Jorge Mas Canosa quickly emerged as the all-time most powerful Counter Revolutionary Cubam in southern Florida starting in 1959 after the triumph of Fidel Castro's Revolution.
Although he died unexpectedly in southern Florida in 1997, Jorge Mas Canosa's legacy still rules the US Cuban policy to this day as Arpil turns into May in 2025. Once he arrived in Miami Jorge Mas Canosa emerged as the smartest and most effective anti-Castro zealot that southern Florida has ever seen. He became the first Cuban billionaire in the U. S. and he used his intelligence, money, and political intuition to make sure that U.S.-backed projects such as the Helms-Burton Act, the tax-funded Radio-TV Marti in Miami, etc., etc., became vast tools to help and enrich Cubans in Miami while also harming and depriving Cubans in Cuba to make sure that sheer poverty and deprivations on the island undermined Fidel Castro's revolution.
Smartly, Jorge L. Mas Canosa began his U. S. career as an officer in the U. S. Army and keyed the militant 2506 Brigade, which is famed for the Bay of Pigs air-land-sea military attack on Cuba in April of 1961 after many assassination attempts against Fidel Castro failed to upend the 1959 victory by the Cuban Revolution, the event that ended the huge financial playpen in Cuba for dictator Fulgencio Batista, the Mafia, and a large array of top U. S. companies.
The history of the expensive CIA-directed Brigade 2506 Bay of Pigs air-land-sea attack on Cuba in April of 1961 turned out to be a quick and massive victory for Fidel Castro, not for the U. S. and the Miami Cubans. The CIA had famously told the US's young President John Kennedy that the attack would be easy because Fidel Castro would run to his getaway airplane the moment he heard U. S. planes were bombing his military airports and {Kennedy was told} that the Cuban people would quickly rise up against him. But in both instances, when Fidel Castro heard the bombs falling on Camp Colombia in Havana, he raced for the Bay of Pigs, where he and Celia Sanchez had earlier predicted that any land assault would start. And, of course, most of the Cuban people supported Castro's revolution, not the U. S. attack.
Yet, the U. S. media and the U. S. government bushed aside the failed military Brigade 2506 Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba. Thus, after April of 1961 the Brigade 2506, which failed at the Bay of Pigs, more-and-more became a symbol of Little Havana/Miami's FIERCE and lucrative anti-Cuba/anti-Castro campaigns. With money and political power, Miami Cubans took advantage of the critical role Florida's massive 30 electoral votes had in determining presidential elections. Since the 1960s presidential candidates routinely flock to Little Havana in Miami to loudly denounce Revolutionary Cuba and to loudly promote and lavish the Brigade 2506 banner. In the PHOTO above that is exactly what future two-time U. S. President Donald Trump was loudly doing.
Not only Donald Trump, but all U. S. Presidents and would-be Presidents since 1959 have to loudly promote prime Little Havana/Miami projects such as Brigade 2506 while also, of course, loudly promoting policies designed to starve and destroy Revolutionary Cuba although the much-hated {in Miaami} Fidel Castro died at age 90 in 2016.
Although Fidel Castro died in 2016 at age 90 in Havana and Jorge Mas Canosa died at age 58 in 1997 in Coral Gables, their legacies still in 2025 define Revolutionry Cuba and the powerful forces still determined to end the Cuban Revolution. Contrary to what Americans are usually told, Fidel has always had the support of most of the Cuban people in Cuba. and also contrary to what Americans are usually told, Jorge's legacy and his Cuban American National Foundation, which he founded in 1981, still in 2025 rule America's Cuban policies.
Yes, The Cuban American National Foundation founded by Jorge Mas Canosa in 1981 has essentially dictated the U. S. Cuban policies for decades, while Canosa died in 1997 as a multi-billionaire and his ultra-rich sons still help dominate southern Florida.
Starting in the 1980s Jorge Mas Canosa and hiis CANF began telling two-term U. S. President Donald Reagan what to do and what not to do in regards to Little Havana's desires regarding Havana.
After President Ronald Reagan did Jorge Mas Canosa's bidding from 1981 till 1989, one-term President George H. W. Bush did the same thing from 1989 till 1993. But as CIA Director and then Reagan's Vice President from 1981 till 1989, it was George H. W. Bush who, even before his own presidency started in 1989, had propelled Jorge Mas Canosa as the political, social, and Cuban superstar in Little Havana, Florida, and later iin Washington.
As President from 1989 till 1993 it was no susprise that President George H. W. Bush could be seen, as shown by the photo above, signing a pro-Little Havana/anti-Havana bill into law as the man standing approvingly over his shoulder was Santiago-De Cuba-born Jorge Mas Canosa. Havana-born U. S. congresswoman from Miami lleana Ros-Lehtinen is shown at Bush's left shoulder.
In this photo Havana-born lleana Ros-Lehlinen, the long-time U. S. Congresswoman from Little Havana, gets a souvenir pen after President George H. W. Bush signed another pro-Canosa biil into law as Jorge Mas Canosa himself smiles and awaits his souvenir pen. In his eight years as Vice President under Reagan from 1981 tiil 1989, Bush had anointed Canosa as the orchestrator of U. S. Cuban policy, and future U. S. Presidents and Vice Presidents had to accept that policy.
George H. W. Bush's son George W. Bush was President of the U. S. for two terms, from 2001 till 2009. Of course as President, George W. Bush harshly followed the starve-destroy Cuban policies championed by his father.
After 1979 all Republican U. S. presidents -- Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush -- were all massive political allies of Little Havana Cuban stalwarts such as Jorge Mas Canosa.
Republican Cuban-American stalwards in Little Havana have included Lincoln Diaz=Balart, Marco Rubio, Mario Diaz-Balart, IIeana Ros-Lehtinen, etc. -- all disciples of Jorge Mas Canosa and therefore easily elected to long terms in the U. S. Congress.
While all four of the Republican Presidents, as mentioned earliar, bowed to Jorge Mas Canosa but, in the U. S. two-party political system, so did Democratic Presidents such as Bill Clinton. You see, both Republican and Democratic presidential candidates crave Florida's often vital 30 electoral votes. Therefore, it was Democratic President Bill Clinton who actually signed the extreme pro=Little Havana/anti-Havana Helms-Burton Act into eternal law.
The historic photo above shows President Bill Clinton signing the infamous Helms-Burton Act into laws as powerful Cuban-Americans such as Robert Menendez, IIeana Ros-Lehtinen, etc., look on admiringly. Actually, history also registers the fact that before he signed Helms-Burton into law on March 12 in 1996, President Clinton a few weeks earlier had indicated that he planned to soften U. S. policies against Cuba, especially the dreaded starvation-creating U. S. Embargo. But President Clinton's plan to ease the U. S. Embargo agaiinst Cuba was dramatically derailed by an incident involving famed anti-Castro zealot Jose Basulto's Brothers to the Rescue airplanes flying south out of Florida.
Earlier in 1996 when it became known that President Clinton planned to soften Little Havana's U. S. policies against Cuba, the Jose Basulto Brothers to the Rescue planes became more aggressive over Caribbean waters between Florida and Cuba. Fidel Castro complained to the U. S. State Department that Brothers planes were flying over Havana and dropping anti-Castro leafets, etc., and scaring the Cuban citizens. Castro warned he would do something about it if the U. S. didn't stop such flights. The rest is history.
Any Goggle search will provide endless data about the fact that Fidel Castro ordered the Perez-Perez brothers to fly two mig planes and shoot down the Brothers to the Rescue airplanes that again appeared to be flying toward Havana. Four people in two of the planes were killed and a third plane piloted by Jose Balulto turned around and returned safely to Florida. But the two shootdowns doomed President Clinton's apparent plans to ease the U. S. policies against Cuba. But to this day there are disputes about whether or not the Brothers planes were over international or Cuban waters. And, of course, massive lawsuits in Florida -- including one won by Basulto -- were easily won. To this day Castro, the Perez-Perez brothers, and other Revolutionary Cubans have been branded the prime culprits.
As mentioned, The Cuban American Foundation founded by the incomparable Jorge Mas Canosa for decades has dictated much of the U. S. Cuban policies. In that milieu all Presidents and would-be Presidents have flocked to Little Havana in Miami to bow before the powerful CANF and Brigade 2506 banners. In the two photos above, for example, that was the current two-time U. S. President Donald Trump speaking in Little Havana to honor CANF and Brigade 2506 -- two of the most extreme movements that have tried for decades to overthrow Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution.
But since 1959, amazingly, Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution has ruled Cuba for over 66 Years -- including 9 Years since Fidel Castro died of natural causes at age 90 in 2016 in Havana.
But all that history and topicality brings us to the end of April and to the start of May in 2025. And now pridictions are rampant that U. S President Donald Trump and his new & ultra-powerful Secretary of State Marco Rubio will rather easily finally overthrew the punacious Cuban Revolution once and for all in 2025. Born in Miami of Cuban parents, Marco Rubiio has spent his entire adult life as a disciple of Jorge Mas Canosa and thus tried mightily to overthrow the Cuban Revolution, including his time representing Miami in the U. S. Senate from 2011 till 2025. But now in 2025 as Secretary of State, the most powerful position in the new Trump administration, it is assumed that Rubio has all the power he needs to finish his dream of ending the Cuban Revolution with few little obstacles standing in his way.
A final note: The historic article above by the great Tad Szlc of the New York Times was also published all over the United States on April 6, 1961, including in the San Francisco Chronicle, as shown above. It told the world that the CIA-trained Cuban exiles and Brigade 2506 supported by massive tax dollars were failing in their expensive air-land-sea military attack in Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, an attack in which Fidel Castro raced to the front lines to defend his revolution. Such news reports as this chronicled the Little Havana-Havana wars, but so do these three excellent books {below}:
So the three great Cuban experts shown above -- Julia E. Sweig, Ann Louise Bardach, and T. J. English -- basically tell you just about everything you need to know about the vast and utterly fascinating Cuba-U. S. Conundrum. But, of course, don't stop there, especially in this age of A-I and Search Engines. The neighboring lands that became Cuba and the United States were both discovered in 1492 by explorer Christopher Columbus. Since then the United States has become the richest and strongest nation in world history, while Cuba remains a beautiful Caribbean island nation that imperative nations have massively coveted...almost since 1492!!!
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