Moderate, Voiceless Cuban-Americans

Extremists Cuban-Americans Dictate!!

     For almost two decades, the best and most insightful journalism reaching the outside world from Cuba has been provided by Fernando Ravsberg. So, not surprisingly, his Cartas Desde Cuba/Letters From Cuba blog is also the best. Over the years even the fair-minded, London-based journalism giant The BBC has depended on Fernando's Cuban expertise and fairness to understand what's happening in Cuba and what the island's contentious relationship with the United States really entails.

      In being both precise and fair-minded in reporting from Cuba, Fernando Ravsberg has incurred the ire of the Cuban government and U.S.-based counter-revolutionaries in about equal doses, which indicates his journalistic qualifies are indeed top-notch. The best Cuban article this month -- October of 2017 -- is "The Target: Tourism in Cuba" by Fernando Ravsberg. He explains that the Trump administration's targeting of Cuban tourism is merely the latest attempt by Cuban-American extremists to starve and deprive Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow their Revolutionary government. Ravsberg is referring to de-classified U. S. documents that confirm the U. S. embargo against Cuba was imposed way back in 1962 to starve and deprive Cubans on the island to do something the Batistiano-Mafiosi exiles had been unable to do even with the economic and military support of the United States. This was Ravsberg's first paragraph in that article:

              "In the 1960s the U. S. State Department produced a document that reflected the strategy to follow in Cuba. It said in a subtle way they should provoke hunger, misery and desperation among the people to push them to rebel and overthrow their government. That has been the guide to U. S. policy since Eisenhower to date."

            After that succinct preamble, Ravsberg explained the many embargoed tactics since 1962 the U. S. government, on behalf of the counter-revolutionary extremists, had carried out against Cuba to punish the totally innocent Cubans on the island to persuade them to overthrow their government. The cruel tactics have failed decade after decade but, as Ravsberg explains, President Trump's subtle warning this month to Americans to not visit Cuba merely continues a half-century of abject failures in cruelly punishing Cubans on the island to sate the revenge, economic and political motives of only the most extremists Cuban-American counter-revolutionaries.

     As shown above, Fernando Ravsberg has infuriated the Cuban government by reporting on Cuban dissidents, but he has been fair enough to also point out that some are genuine but many are funded and supported from the United States.

     The photo above was used by Ravsberg to illustrate his article updating the latest Trump administration ploy to starve and deprive Cubans on the island to induce them to overthrow their government so, presumably, the U.S.-based Batistiano-Mafiosi dictators can FINALLY RETURN. Like hotel bombings in Havana in the past were admittedly designed to discourage tourism, a Cuban lifeline, many believe the so-called "sonic wave attacks" now being blamed on Cuba are for the exact same reasons. Surely the hotel bombings and perhaps the "sonic-wave attacks" bespeak of U.S.-based corruption that reflect more poorly on America than on targeted Cuba.

Photo courtesy of Collin Laverty.

     And speaking of corruption, the photo above highlights the lies counter-revolutionaries like Senator Marco Rubio can spout-off in the U. S. media on a daily basis. Taking full advantage of a lapdog or intimidated U. S. media and a propagandized U. S. citizenry, Rubio and his ilk claim that maintaining or expanding the embargo and other cruel measures is absolutely necessary to keep every dollar that reaches Cuba from going into the Castro bank accounts. Well, Rubio and his kind haven't hurt the Castros but they have hurt many totally innocent Cubans like Carla Leon, shown above with her parents. Carla runs a Bed & Breakfast in Havana that was thriving with mostly American customers booked via the U.S. AirB&B network that evolved in Cuba thanks to the brave and decent overtures to the island rendered by former President Barack Obama. But Carla says she began getting many cancellations as soon as Trump, goaded by the likes of Rubio, "warned" Americans not to visit Cuba. In other words, as Fernando Ravsberg opined this month, America's Cuban policies "since the 1960s" have been predicated on lies and corruption, which seems to be hallmarks of a corrupt world in which anti-corruption crusaders are out-numbered as confirmed almost daily.

      This great lady is dead. Her name: Daphne Caruana Galizia. Thus, some corrupt politicians on the Mediterranean island of Malta are feeling safer. Daphne was Malta's greatest investigative journalist and a fearless anti-corruption crusader. Her popular blog scared every corrupt politician in Malta. From her home her very last blog comment was: "There are crook's everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate." She then got into her car to drive to work and exactly one-half hour after typing those two sentences, a remotely detonated bomb ended her precious life.

     The Prime Minister of Malta is Joseph Muscot. He is 43-years-old and has been in office since 2013. Daphne Caruana Galizia, the now-dead corruption-crusader, had targeted Muscot, who released all of the appropriate statements after her murder.

         The great corruption-crusader Daphne Caruana Galizia is shown above with her husband and their three sons. The sons have demanded that Joseph Muscat resign as Malta's Prime Minister. Copies of their long and heart-wrenching letter are now included at memorials for their mother all across the grieving island of Malta.

   The beautiful, lush Mediterranean island of Malta no longer has its great corruption crusader, but she will not be forgotten. Malta has about 440,000 citizens and they speak English and Maltese. The island is a major tourist attraction.

      This great lady is still alive. Therefore, Jamaica -- the Caribbean island just south of Cuba -- still has its greatest corruption-crusader. Her name: Paula Llewellyn. Addressing the top Jamaican politicians this week, Paula said, "Crime is doubling and tripling in many of our parishes. Successive Jamaican governments have not corrected the justice system. Part of the problem is the fact that the justice system has never been as sexy for you legislators as building highways and doling out public money." Paula's corruption crusade in Jamaica is helped by a newspaper, The Jamaica Observer, that is not reluctant to be a vessel for her crusades. The energetic Paula in Jamaica and the murdered Daphne in Malta should remind us, I think, that women, who are historically far less corrupt than men, should be the top politicians...not just the top corruption-crusaders...in a more civilized world.

     And speaking of corruption, USA Today yesterday -- Thursday, Oct. 19, 2017 -- had this across-the-page Page One headline and sub-headline: Taxpayers Left In Dark On Russia Costs; Inquiries' price tag in millions -- but that's all we know." The first paragraph said: "Congress spends millions of dollars on investigations of Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election, but it's impossible to tell from public records exactly how much the inquiries cost taxpayers -- and the committees running the investigations refuse to talk about it." OF COURSE NOT!! Surely democracy-loving American taxpayers who pay for all that secrecy have no business WHATSOEVER knowing where all their tax dollars are going!!

    On August 17, 2017, the top Editorial in USA Today screamed this headline: "STOP DRUG MAKERS FROM GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER." Then the Editorial, of course, lamented the fact that the obscenely rich Pharmaceutical Industry is a giant lobbying faction in a lobby-mad U. S. government, and pleading to "stop the drug makers from getting away with murder" will not happen in what many believe is a bought-and-paid-for Congress. Corruption in Malta? Corruption in Jamaica? Corruption in the USA?

      Perhaps not coincidentally, the biggest corruption trial in the United States of America for the past few months concerns the 18 federal corruption-bribery charges against entrenched and ultra-powerful Cuban-American U. S. Senator Robert Menendez. He has long been one of the most stringent counter-revolutionaries pounding Revolutionary Cuba. After weeks of testimony, the U. S. government rested its case; the high-priced Menendez defense attorneys then asked the judge to dismiss the charges but the request was denied regarding all 18 corruption charges.

       The Menendez corruption trial is taking place in his power-base -- Newark, New Jersey. Few observers expect any omnipotent Cuban-American politician to be convicted in Newark or Miami courtrooms but after years of expensive investigations, the United States government is trying real hard to make an exception regarding Robert Menendez. A torrid relationship with Miami millionaire Salomon Melgen has resulted in the Menendez trial resurrecting reminders of the long-established Florida-Cuban-Mafia triangle connecting Miami, Newark, and the Dominican Republic. When the Cuban Revolution overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship on the first day of 1959, Dictator Batista's getaway airplane first stopped in the Dominican Republic where another U.S.-backed vicious dictator, Rafael Trujillo, ruled. Most other key Batistianos, such as Rafael Diaz-Balart, fled to Miami with Newark as a secondary target. So, it is perhaps appropriate that the Menendez corruption trial stresses the age-old Miami-Newark-Dominican Republic nexus that has shamed America and targeted Cuba for many decades.

       The Miami Cuban Mafia, from January of 1959 till today -- October of 2017 -- has maintained a tight grip on America's Cuban policies, policies that many consider corrupt and that currently are condemned in the United Nations with a 191-to-0 unanimity, which Americans are programmed to ignore. This has persisted because corrupt right-wingers in the Eisenhower administration who sicced the Mafia on Cuba in 1952 were still around when the Batista-Mafia dictators were booted off the island -- all the way to Miami and Newark, as it turned out -- by the Cuban Revolution in 1959.

    The original right-wingers targeting Cuba as a piggy-bank in the Eisenhower administration were greatly boosted by two Vice Presidential terms and three Presidential terms of the Bush dynasty, which in turn begat a U. S. Congress that has, since the 1980s, been a virtual fiefdom for the hard-line Cuban-American counter-revolutionaries. This has resulted in Batistiano-favorable laws that only Congress can overturn, and that can't happen when a handful of vicious Cuban-Americans can so easily dictate Cuban policies to the 535-member U. S. Congress.

     To be sure, most Cuban-Americans since 1959 have been outstanding citizens like Emilio Milian and today most Cuban-Americans even in Miami favor normal relations with Cuba although, of course, only vicious counter-revolutionaries get elected to the U. S. Congress. Emilio Milian was the top Cuban-American newsman in Miami in 1976 when he bravely condemned a devastating spat of terrorist acts against innocent Cubans, such as the bombing of the civilian Cubana Flight 455 that killed all on board, including two dozen teenage athletes. But that bravery got Emilio Milian silenced by a car-bomb. Since 1989, after the Bush dynasty propelled Havana-born Miami counter-revolutionary Ileana Ros-Lehtenen to the U. S. Congress, where she remains to this day, it seems only extreme counter-revolutionary Miami Cubans are eligible for top elective positions -- such as members of Congress like Marco Rubio, Carlos Curbelo and the Diaz-Balart brothers whose father Rafael Diaz-Balart was a key Minister in Cuba's Batista dictatorship and then, after 1959, one of the richest and most fervent counter-revolutionaries in Miami. Such things as the Emilio Milian car-bombing in Miami have certainly also rendered the mainstream United States media a Batistiano lapdog as opposed to being fair-minded, critical journalists.

       In fact, Hollywood movies such as Scarface have been much better at telling the truth about the Miami Cuban Mafia than the intimidated or lapdog U. S. media.

      But truth be known, even before the U. S. sicced the Mafia on Cuba in 1952 at the start of the second Batista dictatorship, the Mafia had already had a firm grip on Cuba virtually since the U. S. gained dominance over the island via the easy victory in the 1898 Spanish-American War. The graphic above, for example, chronicles the famed Mafia summit in 1946 that featured the all-time most powerful Mafiosi leader, Lucky Luciano, who also, of course, was a Mafia dynamo with Batista from 1952 till the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Yet, the U. S. government and the U. S. media today will give Revolutionary Cuba no credit for being Mafia-free, something American cities such as Miami and Newark would have trouble claiming.

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

Cuba Concentrates on Friends

While Lessening U. S. Contacts!
{Updated: Thursday, October 19th, 2017}

    The Times of Israel this week -- Oct. 17-2017 -- reported that a delegation of top Israeli business-people will travel to Cuba in early December to promote trade between the two countries. It will be the first-ever such overture from Israel to Cuba. In recent years, Israel -- tightly aligned with the U. S. economically and militarily -- is the only nation in the world to join the U. S. vote in the UN supporting the American embargo of Cuba that has persisted since 1962. But during the Democratic Obama administration, the U. S. itself and Israel both abstained on that vote and thus the current UN vote opposing the embargo is 191-to-0 with the two abstentions cast by the U. S. and Israel. The upcoming visit has been organized by the Israeli Latin American Chamber of Commerce and it's good news for Cuba.

      The CEO of the Israeli Latin American Chamber of Commerce is Gabriel Hayon. He says that the Israeli government has offered "no objection" to his group's efforts to do business with Cuba. Mr. Hayon told The Times of Israel: "As per the Cubans request, we are inviting Israeli companies that are willing to invest in Cuban businesses or enter into joint ventures to engage with Cuba. Cuba is not listed as an enemy of Israel. Business is the best bridge to diplomacy. Israeli firms can provide the Cuban people with many cost-effective solutions to improve the quality of life on the island nation, to the benefit of Israelis and Cubans." The actions and words of Gabriel Hayon are a big deal, especially at a time when the current Republican President Donald Trump is reversing many of the positive overtures in U.S.-Cuban relations that his predecessor Obama forged.

      The AP photo above shows President Trump at a news conference Oct. 16th in the White House Rose Garden. He took the opportunity to stress that, "Cuba is responsible for the sonic attacks on the United States embassy staff in Havana."

      This AFP photo showed Trump at that Rose Garden news conference this week continuing to use the sonic-wave attacks to justify more and more assaults on Cuba to appease counter-revolutionaries in Miami and Congress. Meanwhile, most American and Canadian experts on Cuba believe the mysterious sonic assaults are the work of agents who would benefit from blaming Cuba, such as counter-revolutionaries in Miami or Congress or rogue Cubans on the island who oppose closer relations with the United States. In other words, like the massive wave of hotel bombings in Havana in 1997, the sonic-wave attacks seem most likely intended to discourage tourism to Cuba, the island nation that depends on tourism as its lifeline.

      As further evidence that Cuba has tired of dealing with a Trump presidency that takes its Cuban policies only from Miami or Congressional hardliners, Cuba's Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero has reacted, first off, by paying a vital visit to Canada, which is Cuba's friend and also the prime supplier of badly needed tourists to the island.

   On his visit to Canada, Manuel Marrero met hastily with tour operators, travel writers, and government officials. He told The Canadian Press news agency, "Our hotels and other tourist facilities are back in shape after the devastation caused by Hurricane Irma. Canadians will find the hotels better than before and their friends and workers in Cuba are very enthusiastic and welcoming. The best help that our Canadian friends can give to the Cuban people is traveling as tourists so that hotels realize their potential and we can get back to normal after Irma. As for the sonic-attack excuses used by Cuba's U. S. enemies, there is zero reliable evidence that a single foreign tourist has in any way been exposed to whatever or whoever is trying to severely hurt us."

    The best Caribbean newspaper, the Jamaica Observer, reports fairly on Cuban issues and it too equates the current sonic-wave attacks with the hotel bombings that Miami terrorists admitted were designed purely to discourage tourism to Cuba.

     The Gran Manzana Kempinski Hotel is fully engaged in welcoming visitors to the heart of Havana. It opened in June of 2017 as Cuba's very first Five Star+ hotel.

     The magnificent pool area atop the Gran Manzana Kempinski offers a panoramic view of Havana's historic area. It has 246 Five-Star+ very luxury rooms.

   Havana now has a jewel in the Kempinski chain.

     The CEO of the Kempinski Hotel Empire is Markus Semer. He says, "In the heart of Havana, the Gran Marzana Kempinski is a shining example of our interest in Cuba. It has all the amenities any visitor to Cuba could desire." It features 246 luxury rooms, a variety of restaurants and bars, a luscious swimming pool, business rooms, a spa, a gym, and a terrace that provides magnificent views of Havana. The Swiss company also reflects Cuba's desire to seek investments from important foreign nations.

     An Australian company, Melbana Energy, is very interested in helping Cuba develop its potential for oil and that enthusiasm is about to produce results.

      In September of 2015 Peter Strickland of Melbana Energy signed a major deal with Juan Torres of Union CubaPetroleo to develop the oil potential in Cuba's Block 9.

     And now Peter Strickland at Australia's Melbana Energy says its extensive geological surveys indicate strong potential for block 9's oil production in Cuba. Thus, plans are underway now for two wells to begin pumping by mid-2018. Mr. Strickland said, "We are prioritizing Cuban exploration. Cuba is now becoming globally recognized for a wealth of energy resources that have largely remained untapped, partly because of the long-standing U. S. embargo. We have made the tests and we know there is much oil in Block 9." Block 9 on Cuba's northern coast is close to Cuba's largest oil field near Varadero that is owned by Toronto-based Sherritt International. Varadero has a projected 1 billion barrels in one structure and is currently producing 14,500 barrels per day. Sherritt is also beginning to drill in Block 10. Regarding his Block 9, Peter Strickland says, "I take some comfort knowing that Sherritt has shown you can invest with confidence and build a long-term profitable business in Cuba."

     The photo above shows where the Australian company, Melbana Energy, will soon begin drilling for Cuban oil at its Block 9 Alameda-1 well. With Canada's long-time partner Sherritt International expanding its oil drilling in Cuba, the commitment of Australia's Melbana Energy also looks promising. It also reflects Cuba's efforts to forge important business associations with new foreign partners such as the Swiss Kempinski hotel giant as well as Australia's Melbana Energy...and even in December major business executives from Israel will be in Cuba hoping to strike some deals.

  *&***********************&*

Five Cuban Reasons

Why America's Cuban Policy Sucks!
{Updated: Tuesday, October 17th, 2017}

     The photo above shows five reasons why the Batistiano-directed U. S. Cuban policy sucks and why it currently gets a well-deserved 191-to-0 condemnation in the United Nations. These five little Cuban girls, all barely 4-years-old, are shown here this past weekend having a good time during a stay-over at the Havana home of Rosy Amaro Perez, Cuba's outstanding young broadcast journalist. Despite the salient efforts of Cubans on the island to protect and preserve these little girls, a second generation of vicious, revengeful, and self-serving Cuban-American miscreants are allowed to unmercifully punish these little girls because the current generation of cowardly and unpatriotic Americans simply don't give a damn. If you happen to think that assessment is biased, it would only reveal how susceptible you have been to a half-century of propagandized lies and distortions by miscreants who laugh at American values while padding their bank accounts and political fortunes.

     A mere handful of Cuban-American miscreants -- with names such as Rubio, Diaz-Balart, Ros-Lehtinen, Curbelo, Cruz, Menendez, etc. -- have no trouble at all convincing cowardly Americans that is is necessary to target and punish these five little Cuban girls "in order to punish the Castros" for winning the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and for defeating the Bay of Pigs attack in 1961. Of course, the rest of the world disagrees with that shameful capitulation...as do all courageous and decent Americans...and yet it has persisted in the world's strongest democracy for over half-a-century.

      Till the last two generations, all other generations of Americans would never have allowed miscreants acting in America's name to target and punish five totally innocent little Cuban girls to sate the greed and revenge appetites of a handful of descendants from a vile and overthrown Cuban dictatorship dating way back to the 1950s. Study this particular photo of the five little Cuban girls -- all just turning four-years-of-age -- as they play during a sleep-over in an Havana home where decent Cubans try to protect them from a few rich and powerful indecent Cubans living in a foreign country. Especially study the face of the little girl staring up at the camera. Please understand that she is too young to understand why foreigners punish her.

      These five little Cuban girls are best of friends and they cling to each other in total innocence under the protective umbrella lovingly provided by their proud parents and other decent Cubans on their vulnerable and grossly targeted island. The indecent miscreants who target them from a nearby foreign country are protected by the cowardice and propagandized ignorance of the American people. If that appraisal sounds too harsh, don't try retaliating by calling me un-American or anti-Democracy. It is precisely because I am passionately pro-American and pro-Democracy that I feel so passionate about these five little Cuban girls being punished in my name by a few greedy, revengeful, self-serving miscreants hiding behind the skirts of the world superpower that, incredibly, allows it to happen...decade-after-decade-after-decade.

Photo courtesy of Luis Jorge Joa Perez.
A Cuban child on her 4th birthday.
She is furiously protected on the island.
Americans allow Cuban-Americans to punish her.
The U. S. policy has existed since 1959.
And by the way:

     The Voice of America website posted the above photo-caption this week -- on Oct. 16, 2017. It reveals, I think, that the U. S. government realizes that some of its alleged allies -- such as Turkey and Iraq -- are far more problems for the U. S. than alleged enemies like little Cuba. The VOA started its explanation of this photo with this sentence: "Kurdistan is paying a heavy price for trying to break away from Iraq." The Kurds have been by far America's best fighting ally in the vital war against ISIS and the Kurds, both its women and men, are probably the best fighters in the world today. But 30 million or so Kurds have no country and for generations they have tried to have their own independent nation, and a part of the land they have claimed is the oil-rich region around Kirkuk, Iraq. But militarily powerful Turkey and Iraq want to destroy the Kurds and now the U.S.-supplied...with a trillion dollars or so...Iraqi army is attacking the Kurds. That's a prime problem for the U. S., as the VOA acknowledges. The U. S. with warplanes and drones has backed the ground-attacking Kurds and thus gained gigantic successes against ISIS. So now...two prime U. S. "friends" are trying to annihilate the Kurds once and for all. And that's a huge problem for the U. S., the superpower that is reluctant to fight guerrilla-type wars with ground soldiers, especially after losing the Vietnam War to guerrilla-fighters.

 *&***********************&*

The Cuban Mystery. Really?

OR:  Is It Business As Usual?
{Updated for: Monday, October 16th, 2017}

    If you study the above graphic, you MIGHT have the answer to the MYSTERIOUS sonic-wave attacks in Cuba that have injured a couple dozen Americans and a few Canadians. It documents "The Tourism Boom in Cuba" that followed President Obama's brave and Herculean efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, with Obama being the only U. S. President with both the courage and patriotism to undertake that dangerous task. All less heroic efforts in the past, since the Cuban Revolution overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship in 1959, have been met with violent actions by counter-revolutionary elements who essentially and quickly reestablished their rule on U. S. soil after fleeing the Cuban Revolution. For example, the most violent CIA/Cuban counter-revolutionary, still living freely in Miami, openly bragged that his role in the bombings of Cuban hotels was to discourage tourism to Cuba. In 1996 when it was apparent that President Clinton intended to normalize relations with Cuba, another famed counter-revolutionary in Miami began teasingly and threateningly flying airplanes over Cuban waters and Cuban land, well knowing that Cuban pleas to the US and UN would go unheeded. When Cuba ended up shooting down two of the planes, President Clinton not only dropped his plans to normalize relations with Cuba but was forced to reluctantly sign the Batistiano-friendly Helms-Burton Act into what now seems to be a everlasting "legal" means to totally counter the Cuban Revolution. So a newspaper in Miami posting the graphic above about "The Tourism Boom in Cuba" is surely going to spur counter-actions in Miami and in the U. S. Congress, judging by the numerous acts of past history.

    The "MYSTERY ATTACKS ON THE DIPLOMATS IN CUBA" have already caused President Donald Trump to sharply curtail the embassies in Washington and Havana that a much braver and more decent President Obama had reopened for the first time since 1961. And, for sure, President Trump will continue using such things as the "Mystery Attacks" or whatever else it takes to cruelly dismantle all of President Obama's overtures even though they have helped millions of Cubans and millions of Americans while also easing the unanimous -- 191-to-0 -- vote in the United Nations condemning and ridiculing America's very vicious Batistiano-driven Cuban policies.

      Using the mystery attacks as an excuse, President Trump will continue to make "CUBA CHANGES" to revert back to the pre-Obama Cold War era when America's Cuban policies -- the Bay of Pigs attack, hundreds of assassination attempts, hotel bombings, airplane bombings of sugarcane and tobacco fields and seaside fishing cabins, the embargo, etc. -- were designed solely to enrich and empower a few selected counter-revolutionary Cubans while also sating their revenge for losing the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and the Bay of Pigs attack in 1961. And it is well known that during the Trump presidency, if the MYSTERY ATTACKS don't pan out to be enough of an excuse, something else will be concocted because the U. S. taxpayers who pay for such things are too afraid or too proselytized to complain and if the U. S. government for over half-a-century, except for Obama, has condoned such atrocities in its name, there is surely no incentive to cease with hotel bombings, sonic attacks or whatever will hurt Cuba and help the Batistianos.

      So, last week when Trump "warned Americans not to visit Cuba," it was as predictable as a sunrise. Yes, the bombings of five major Cuban hotels in the 1990s severely hurt tourism to Cuba. And it doesn't take a genius to understand that Cuba depends mightily on tourism and the last thing it would want is to discourage visitors to an island that American experts like Collin Laverty call just about "the safest place to visit" on the planet. But for those reasons, unchecked counter-revolutionaries in Miami and the U. S. Congress clearly understand that scaring off tourism to Cuba will help make up for all the other failed and nefarious counter-revolutionary schemes.

      When Trump "Warns Americans against Visiting Cuba," it is merely doing what every Republican President since Eisenhower in the 1950s has done, which is to let a handful of only the most vicious and self-serving Cubans or Cuban-Americans dictate America's Cuban policy and America's Cuban narrative. This has been going on for over half-a-century in the world's superpower democracy although the majority of Cuban-Americans desire normal relations with Cuba. For example, when Trump cut the "embassy staffs" in Havana and Washington, the first and foremost to be hurt were the majority of Cuban-Americans who not only desire free contact with relatives and friends on the island but also each year send several billions of dollars to Cuba to help Cubans. But countering such decent money from Miami to help Cubans are billions of tax dollars that have supported the terror bombings of Cuban hotels, airplanes, fishing cabins, sugarcane and tobacco fields, and even cars to silence a Cuban-American newsman in Miami who opposed such un-American-like terrorism.

       The graphic above reflects the fact that not even the Trump administration is ready to blame Cuba for the "Mystery Attacks" and the U. S., at the eager invitation of Cuba, has been on the island investigating them for over a year...along with the Canadian Mounties at Cuba's request. Even anti-Cuban Bush zealots like Michael Palmly, who worked for President Bush at the U. S. Interests Section in Havana from 2005 till 2008, discount Cuban involvement. Palmly, and most other Cuban experts, believe the sonic-wave attacks are the work of someone who would benefit -- such as rogue elements in Miami or even rogues in Cuba who oppose close ties between Cuba and the U. S. Meanwhile, Cuba is blamed to suit the vile Batistiano agendas.

     Meanwhile, the America flag in front of the U. S. Embassy in Havana still waves in the warm Caribbean breezes. BUT FOR HOW LONG? In my opinion, not much longer.

     In the post-Obama era in American politics, America's Cuban policy reverts back to the hands, fists and mouths of vicious, self-serving counter-revolutionaries in Miami and in the U. S. Congress. Neither the U. S. media nor the U. S. citizens have the courage or patriotism to confront this situation that President Obama tried so hard to correct. But that's only one-half of the reason I think U.S.-Cuban relations in the near future will begin decades of total separatism...unless the second generation of counter-revolutionaries can persuade a U. S. President to launch an all-out military attack that would put the Batistiano back in full charge of Cuba. The other half of my reasoning relates to the transition that is already taking shape on the nearby island.

      In a few months -- February of 2018 -- Miguel Diaz-Canel will officially be the leader of Cuba. Age, not the counter-revolutionaries, caught up with Fidel Castro, who died at age 90 back on Nov. 25-2016, and his 86-year-old brother Raul. As President, Raul and his top aides worked closely and directly with U. S. President Obama and his top aides to massively restore numerous decent and mutually beneficial relations between the two neighboring countries. But Miguel Diaz-Canel -- who will shortly be the first non-revolutionary and the first non-Castro to lead Cuba since 1959 -- is much more of a hardliner than Raul was when it comes to relations with America. The 57-year-old Diaz-Canel -- in observing the U. S. transition from an Obama to a Trump -- believes Cuba is wasting its time trying to have normal relations with the U. S., or at least relations that would not endlessly target the island. Instead, Diaz-Canel believes many days wasted dealing with Cuba's enemy, America, should be time devoted to Cuba's friends. And he will take that philosophy with him when he takes over.

And by the way:

       Miguel Diaz-Canel's staunch philosophy regarding Cuban sovereignty and the counter-revolutionaries basking in the nearby United States is patterned after that of the prime architect of the Cuban Revolution -- the petite doctor's daughter Celia Sanchez. Her dominant role in chasing the Batistianos-Mafiosi to Miami, as well as her famous quotation above, seem to be guidelines for Diaz-Canel, Cuba's next leader: "We rebels...get far too much credit for winning the revolution. Our enemies deserve most of the credit, for being greedy cowards and idiots." Indeed, Diaz-Canel has mentioned Celia's historic quote in reference to: "The Castro greatness relates, yes, to the historic Revolution's win but that greatness was also crowned by such greedy, cowardly, and idiotic things as the Bay of Pigs attack, the blockade, murders of Cuban children in Batista's reign and afterward during such things as the bombing of Cubana Flight 455, and other endless crimes such as those. Yes, the Castro greatness and the Revolution's fame, in the eyes of history and the world, were crowned by the actions of cowards and idiots in Cuba and then in the United States." It's a quote, attributed by students to Miguel Diaz-Canel when he spoke in their classroom, and it indicates his fondness for the historic quotation by Celia Sanchez depicted above.

And speaking of Celia Sanchez:

      Cuba's incomparable recruiter of rebels and supplies coupled with her fearless guerrilla fighting and her brilliant leadership during the Revolution and in Revolutionary Cuba, stamps her firmly as history's greatest revolutionary heroine.

    A very feminine 99-pound doctor's daughter from Media Luna, Cuba, Celia Sanchez was the most important Cuban who decided early-on, just as 1952 turned into 1953, that the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship had to be defeated. The odds against her were at least a billion-to-one, but she whittled the odds down to zero.

     From the moment he joined her revolution in the Sierra Maestra Mountains of far eastern Cuba, Fidel Castro made sure that Celia Sanchez was the top decision-maker in both the Revolution and in Revolutionary Cuba...till the day she died of cancer on Jan. 11, 1980. Marta Rojas is the greatest living expert on Celia, Fidel, the Revolution and Revolutionary Cuba. In 2005 Marta told me, "Since Celia died of cancer in 1980, Fidel has ruled Cuba only as he precisely perceives Celia would want him to rule it."

    The photo on the left shows the two extraordinary recruiters-guerrilla fighters Haydee Santamaria and Celia Sanchez showing Fidel Castro a weapon they gave him when he joined their guerrilla war in the Sierra Maestra Mountains. The photo on the right shows Celia Sanchez and famed Commander Juan Almeida Bosque keeping eyes peeled for a U. S.-supplied warplane that Batista regularly used to bomb any known movements or campsites in the Sierra Maestra or its foothills.

     This photo in Revolutionary Cuba shows the determined countenance of Celia Sanchez, the person most responsible for chasing the Batistianos, the Mafiosi, and U. S. businessmen off her island. After the shocking revolutionary victory on January 1, 1959, it was Celia Sanchez who laid down this equally shocking mantra: "The Batistianos will never regain control of Cuba as long as I live or as long as Fidel lives." Only a person as great and as determined as Celia Sanchez could have created such a doctrine on a vulnerable island and made it stick for all these many decades.

     The photo above shows Celia Sanchez in 1959. By then the doctor's daughter had become a chain-smoker. It was lung cancer that took her life on January 11, 1980.

        But the photo above is said to be Fidel Castro's all-time favorite image of Celia Sanchez. It was taken in the summer of 1957 in the foothills of the Sierra Maestra at a time when Batista had put his all-time biggest bounty on her revolutionary head.

     Another prescient quotation by Celia Sanchez is the one above: "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." That was in reference to the fact that the Batistianos she chased to the superpower United States dictated the Cuban narrative as they still do in America and in areas dominated by the U. S. Therefore, lies about Celia Sanchez and her Revolution resonate to this day. Her reaction is the quote above.

     The historic photo above shows Celia and Fidel reading by candlelight at a campsite {they had a generator} during a crucial time during the war. Fidel often read Earnest Hemingway novels but Celia always studied war-related updates, such as reports on the movement of Batista's armies. The best American Castro biographer, Georgie Anne Geyer, in her famous book revealed that in Revolutionary Cuba Celia still said the happiest time of her life was fighting the war: "We were all so happy then, weren't we? We will never be as happy again, will we? Not ever!" The amazing statement was made on the Isle of Pines while Fidel was questioned by a bevy of newsmen and Celia interjected the comment after one of his answers.

     In addition to daily barrages of Batistiano lies about Cuba in the U. S., even notable authors have told half-truths about the Cuban Revolution. The book cover above is a half-truth as it shows Fidel Castro relaxing in a rocking chair on Celia Sanchez's porch in Revolutionary Cuba while the CIA, the Batistianos, and the Mafia were determined to assassinate him. The book-cover is a half-truth because it shows only one-half of that photo, eliminating the half that shows why Fidel could relax in this manner.

    The whole photo, as above, includes the half on the left that shows Celia Sanchez, as always, hard at work studying to make the decisions vital to her beloved Cuba, decisions that Fidel would fully support whether or not he agreed with them. Of course, Celia was famous for "giving Fidel aspirin if he had a headache or directing every detail of his security from would-be assassins." Also in her book, Geyer correctly pointed out that Celia could "over-rule Fidel" with his blessing at anytime.

     Fidel directed that there was never to be statues of him on the island but, of course, tourists like the ones above can have their photos taken in front of Celia Sanchez statues...at least until or if the Batistianos RE-CAPTURE the lush island. 

      But the Bastistianos will never be able to destroy the legend of Celia Sanchez. What she was and what she did is far more indelible than anything they did or will do. "Greedy cowards and idiots" -- as she described them -- hiding behind the skirts of the world superpower can never rival the history carved out by Celia.

  *&***********************&*