Imminent Venezuelan Coup?

Foretold by the BBC?
{Updated for: Sunday, February 18, 2018}

      All day Thursday at the Cuban embassy in Washington the Cuban flag was flown at half-staff in mourning for the seventeen lives lost in Wednesday's tragic school shooting in South Florida. Jose Ramon Cabrisis is the head of the Cuban embassy.

      The London-based BBC is easily the top source for worldwide news, including the best unbiased news coverage of major United States, Caribbean, Latin American, African, Middle East, Asian, etc., events. Stephen Sackur is one of the BBC's superstar broadcast journalists. He seems to think a Venezuelan military coup, possibly tied to the USA, is imminent. A 3 minute, 26 second video on YouTube eerily documents a dangerous undercover report by Sackur from Venezuela before he was booted out of the direly troubled nation. This week -- on Feb. 13-2018 -- Sackur's program -- BBC Hardtalk -- featured a hard interview from Washington that rather chillingly seemed to be a precursor to a coup in Caracas, Venezuela.

     Stephen Sackur's chilling interview was with dissident politician David Smolansky, who has been in Washington the last three months apparently seeking support from the Trump administration to dethrone the Nicolas Maduro presidency in deeply troubled Venezuela. Still only 32-years-old, Smolansky won a term from 2013-2018 as the Mayor of El Hatillo, which is a municipality in Caracas. But he fled Venezuela, fearing for his life, and for the past three months has waged his opposition against Maduro from Washington. The BBC's Stephen Sackur this week, on Feb. 13th, asked Smolansky if he had been in contact with anti-Cuban U. S. Senator Marco Rubio and anti-Cuban U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillotson. Smolansky indicated he had but demurred on the details.

     The mere fact that David Smolansky, a high-profile opponent of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, has spent the last three months in Washington lobbying Senator Rubio, Secretary Tillerson, and possibly President Trump himself is, to say the least, ominous. It also reminds many Latin Americans of 2002 when President George W. Bush's White House included anti-Cuban zealots like Otto Reich on the eve of the coup that briefly overthrew Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a U. S. involvement that still deeply concerns a lot of Latin American nations. But the Stephen Sackur BBC interview this week with David Smolansky suggests military action against Maduro is not only ominous but imminent. Venezuela has the world's largest known oil reserves, yet it is in dire financial trouble with millions of Venezuelans lacking food, medicine, and other basic needs. Smolansky told Sackur that Venezuela should be exporting six billion barrels of oil per day but is down to just 1.5 million barrels a day. And Smolansky told the BBC that he is trying to convince the U. S. to overcome the influence in Venezuela of three particular nations -- Cuba, Russia, and China. The BBC appears convinced that Rubio and Tillerson for sure and perhaps Trump himself are on the same page with David Smolansky.

      
  The BBC's superb Canadian-born State Department correspondent in Washington is Barbara Plett-Usher. Her ominous article is entitled "Tillerson Speculated About A Possible Military Coup in Venezuela." She reported that "Canada has joined the U. S. in sanctioning Maduro loyalists" and she indicated that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's Latin American trip, which started on February 2nd in Mexico, was to solicit support against Venezuela from other Latin American nations. Ms. Plett-Usher also wrote, "A dozen Latin American countries, known as the Lima Group, agree with the U. S. messaging."

      This Reuters photo shows U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arriving in Mexico at the start of his Latin American trip on February 2nd, 2018. He also stopped in Jamaica, the island due south of Cuba. Tillerson appears to be a close ally of Senator Rubio as they rally regional support for increasing pressure on Venezuela and Cuba.

     The BBC seems convinced U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is determined to dethrone the Maduro government in Venezuela but his impetus seems not to be Venezuela's oil or turmoil. It apparently relates to complying with the dictates of Counter Revolutionary Cuban-Americans, similar to the 2002 U.S.-backed coup against Hugo Chavez. For example, the BBC starkly quoted Tillerson as saying: "If the kitchen gets a little too hot for Maduro, I am sure that he's got some friends over in Cuba that could give him a nice hacienda on the beach." Was that a subtle hint?

     Thus, as of mid-February in 2018 the BBC seems to think that U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and U. S. Senator Marco Rubio are determined to change the governments in both Venezuela and Cuba, with Cuba being the higher priority.

       When Rex Tillerson was seeking confirmation in the U. S. Senate as Secretary of State, it was Senator Marco Rubio, as shown above, who grilled him the hardest. In his second 6-year term in the Senate, Rubio's priorities appear to be two-fold: {1} Destroying Revolutionary Cuba; and {2} becoming President of the United States in 2020. And regarding both Cuba and Venezuela, the expert journalists at the BBC apparently believe Rubio has a point-man in Secretary of State Tillerson.

And by the way:

    For the past twelve years Josefina Vidal has held the highest profile position in Cuba, next to the Castro brothers Fidel and Raul, as far as the U. S. is concerned. That's because she was in charge of the Foreign Ministry's relations with the United States, and particularly during the Obama administration when Vidal brilliantly negotiated historic and remarkable deals, such as reopening embassies in Washington and Havana for the first time since 1961. But Vidal has now been replaced in that position as things have changed in Cuba. In the spring of 2006, just before he became seriously ill in July, Fidel Castro was reportedly so impressed with Vidal that he envisioned her as a future President of Cuba "with my support." But Fidel turned the Presidency over to his brother Raul in 2008 and, after a long illness, died at age 90 on Nov. 25, 2016. Also, of course, the presidential transition from Obama to Trump starting on Jan. 20-2017 has taken U.S.-Cuban relations from daylight to darkness again. And in April the 86-year-old Raul Castro will step down as President, likely replaced by 57-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel who has recently began reshaping Cuban priorities away from the United States with a stronger emphasis on friendlier countries...like China. It is believed that the reversal of many of the important advances she made with Obama had soured Vidal on negotiating with the Trump administration although there is also speculation that the decision was not Vidal's.

     Cuba's replacement for Vidal is Carlos Fernandez de Cossio. He held the same diplomatic position related to the U. S. back in the 1990s. Since then he has been Cuba's Ambassador to Canada and South Africa, two countries important to Cuba.

     The official announcement of the Vidal-to-de Cossio transition was handled by Johana Tablada who has worked closely with Vidal and held very important diplomatic positions such as Cuba's Ambassador to Portugal. With more key transitions in 2018 on the horizon in Cuba, Tablada's star will shine more brightly. 

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Trump's Cuban Lies

Condoned by U. S. Media!!

     In a paradox the American people are not supposed to understand, the left-wing mainstream U. S. media -- namely 5 of the 6 network "television news" organizations coupled with the NY Times and Washington Post -- are not engaged in covering the news but only in a coup to overturn the election that made Donald Trump the President of the United States. Yet, that same left-wing extremist media group is too intimidated or too incompetent to either report fairly on or to criticize Trump's diabolical and egregious assault on Cuba that leaves America "out in the cold" as far as the rest of the world is concerned and as far as the vast majority of democracy-loving Americans, including most Cuban-Americans, are concerned. The photo above and the "out in the cold" caption are courtesy of the Voice of America, which, interestingly, is a vast internationally renowned U. S. news operation that does have the guts and the integrity to tell the truth about both Trump and Cuba.

     For example, yesterday -- Feb. 13th, 2018 -- the Voice of America used the above Reuters photo to illustrate a worldwide article entitled: "Cuba Creditors Offer Cuba 'Very Significant Relief' In Debt Proposal." The VOA was referencing an offer from the London Club for Cuba to pay back a $1.4 billion debt that dates back to the 1980s. But the VOA points out fairly that Cuba is already strapped by paying back an old debt to the Paris Club nations and Cuba is also, as the VOA had the decency to stress, facing financial hurdles because of the extremely punitive U. S. embargo, dire problems in Venezuela, lower revenue from such key exports as nickel and sugar, and devastation wrought by Hurricane Irma that is costing Cuba $13 billion in its recovery efforts. But most of all, the VOA pointed out that Cuba's prime assault comes from "the tightening of business and travel restrictions by the U. S. administration under President Donald Trump." That references the fact that Trump and his Bastistiano friends are smelling blood in Cuba's Caribbean waters and, like sharks and buzzards, want to feast on what they presume will be Cuba's demise. And in referencing the photo above, the VOA on Feb. 13-2018 pointed out both the stupidity and the cruelty of Trump in permitting the Miami Batistianos -- led by Rubio -- to impose on Cuba and on the gullible U. S. tax-payers another propaganda ploy, the crudely named Cuba Internet Task Force, which is designed to propagandize Cubans on the island into rising up and overthrowing their government, something the ousted U.S.-backed Batistianos & Mafiosi have spent six costly decades sucking up American prestige & tax-dollars trying to recapture Cuba with the full support of all Republican presidential administrations. This could only have been possible with the apathy, cowardice, and lack of patriotism from two generations of American citizens.

     In other words, the Voice of America -- quite unlike the intimidated and incompetent mainstream U. S. media -- is fair enough to acknowledge a fact of life: The vast majority of Cubans on the island don't want a Rubio-Trump dictatorship on their island anymore than they want a return of the murderous-thieving Batista-Mafia dictators that resettled in Rubio's Miami backyard after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution way back on January 1, 1959. Yet, in February of 2018 neither the mainstream U. S. media nor the equally propagandized and scared U. S. citizens will confess to either the utter stupidity or the insane cruelty of Rubio-Trump assaults on Cuba that actually are bigger assaults on democracy and decency. The new Rubio-Trump Cuba Internet Task Force and the new Rubio-Trump support of the London Club in pressuring Cuba to repay an alleged 1980s debt will surely hurt innocent Cubans on the island but it won't make Rubio-Trump the new dictators of Cuba.

     While the Voice of America on its excellent international platforms has both the courage and the competence to report fairly on U.S.-Cuban relations, the mainstream U. S. media has evolved into left-wing & right-wing propaganda outlets devoid of meaningful journalism in both electronic and print forms. That basic fact hurts Cuba, of course, but mostly makes a mockery of the U. S. democracy that...as Thomas Jefferson loudly proclaimed...was dependent on having a fair and effective media.

      For sure, Thomas Jefferson believed that a decent and competent media was more important than the government itself. When the Founding Father who penned the Declaration of Independence penned the above quotation, it indicated that he dreaded a U. S. media that might devolve into being a propaganda outlet for the "naughty and greedy few," as he expressed in a letter to John Adams. If Mr. Jefferson was alive today, I believe he would be outraged that his greatest fear for his democracy had come to fruition. Unwittingly, little Cuba looms as a big example of what Thomas Jefferson apparently feared the most for his precious democracy.

     But as of February 14th, 2018, the Revolutionary flag still waves over the island of Cuba. It signifies, I believe, that the Cuban Revolution for the past six decades has said more about the United States of America than it has said about Cuba. 

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Trump's Backyard Cuban War

It's Picking Up Steam!!
{Updated: Wednesday, February 14th,2018}

     Cuba's state media reacted to statements by U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson by accusing the Trump administration of trying to swallow up the Caribbean as a part of a goal to cover the world with the U. S. flag. Illustrated by the above graphic, the Cuban Foreign Ministry released this official statement: "It is obvious that neither the deplorable President of the United States nor his Secretary of State know Latin America or the Caribbean. Ours has been a continent submitted to the humiliating dominion of the United States, which is interested in only extracting the resources in an unequal relation. But our Americas has awakened and will not easily be put on her knees."

Photo courtesy: Jamaica Observer & Joseph Wellington.

      Although the mainstream U. S. media is not about to report it to the American people, the Jamaica Observer this week --- Sunday, Feb. 11th, 2018 -- was not so intimidated or so politically correct. On Saturday, Feb. 10th, U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was in Kingston, Jamaica, where he was greeted, above, by Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holmes. As a part of the undeclared Trump administration's war on Cuba, the island just north of Jamaica, Tillerson assured Jamaica that the U. S. would quickly make up for any decline in Venezuelan oil that might be caused by the continuing U. S. effort to remove Venezuela's Cuba-friendly but teetering Maduro government. The U.S.-backed coup that briefly overthrew the Chavez government in Venezuela in 2002 was partially engineered by anti-Cuban zealots in the Bush White House as an intended step toward defeating Cuba's Revolutionary government that, amazingly, has hung on since January 1, 1959. While in Jamaica this past weekend, Tillerson, in addition to the Venezuelan guarantee, promised Holmes other caveats, such as, according to the Jamaica Observer, promises "to support Jamaican security forces and its criminal justice system."

    Cuba has no enemies in the Caribbean, and that includes Jamaica, the island due south of Cuba. In fact, many Caribbean islands have long depended on Cuban assistance regarding such things as education, health, and safety. Cuba, for example, is by far the safest island in the Caribbean and Jamaica happens to be one of the most violent...and Cuba has provided free-of-charge scholarships for many Jamaican students. Also, every Caribbean nation, including U.S.-dominated islands like the Territory of Puerto Rico and the U. S. Virgin Islands, have long disapproved of U. S. military, terrorist, and economic assaults on Revolutionary Cuba. The Caribbean people, unlike the American people, well remember or know about the extremely thieving & brutal U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship that roiled Cuba and the Caribbean back in the 1950s. Also, Caribbean nations have memorials to innocent Cubans killed by unpunished Cuban-American terrorists, such as the 73 innocents aboard the fatally bombed Cubana Flight 455 on October 6, 1976.

     With that being said, why did U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson this past weekend circle Jamaica in red and then fly to Kingston to make all those promises? Many in Jamaica, including the Jamaica Observer, an excellent newspaper, believe Tillerson's mission was to begin to purchase Jamaica's support for Trump's Cuban War. Batistiano propagandists in the U. S. control the Cuban narrative and they can deny and rewrite history as far as Americans are concerned, but that is not possible in the Caribbean. But, of course, small nations are always susceptible to being bought-off by much richer nations. The Trump administration's current war against Cuba clearly involves buying off key Caribbean neighbors whose tendencies are to strongly support Cuba and oppose all U. S. operations against Cuba, just as all the Caribbean nations always vote with the unanimous worldwide majority when the international community in the United Nations loudly condemns the U. S. embargo of Cuba. But the U. S., as the world economic and military Superpower, doesn't have to pay any attention to a UN 191-to-0 condemnation of its Cuban policies. But still, as apparently indicated by Tillerson's anti-Cuban trip to Jamaica on Feb. 10th, 2018, even the Trump administration has chosen to buy at least some backyard support in its all-out effort to destroy Revolutionary Cuba on behalf of Counter Revolutionaries in Miami and in the United States Congress. In the coming days, how much of that Tillerson-promised U. S. largess Jamaica accepts will be a tip-off as the Trump government continues to try to purchase anti-Cuban support in the Caribbean.

     This extremely high-priced New York City lawyer also now factors into the Trump administration's on-going war to destroy Revolutionary Cuba, namely its fragile and U.S.-embargoed economy. His name is Lee Buchheit. This past week Trump's U. S. Treasury department authorized Buchheit to be the no-holds-barred agent to force Cuba to repay billions of dollars to what is called The Cuban London Club that is made up of creditors who claim a Cuban debt that dates back to the 1980s. The debt, of course, includes interest as well as Buchheit's astronomical fees. In addition to the always disastrous U. S. embargo and a recently devastating single hurricane that caused over $13 billion of damage, Cuba in recent years has been using a significant portion of its available cash to pay back long-ago foreign debts to the so-called Paris Club nations as well as Mexico and Russia. But those nations have also been generous by reducing those debts with the understanding that those nations could invest heavily in what could be a thriving Cuban economy if or when the U.S. embargo EVER ENDS. However, that won't happen as long as Counter Revolutionary extremists can dictate to Republican administrations and to the Republican-dominated U. S. Congress.  For example, at Lee Buchheit's direction, Cuba has been given 50 days from Feb. 5-2018 to respond to the new and harsh demands from the so-called Cuban London Club. Those affluent debtors are represented by the ultra-powerful New York lawyer Buchheit while he also represents Trump's U. S. Treasury department. Buchheit's authorization also reveals, of course, that the Trump bullies are willing to assist anyone and/or anything that might destroy Revolutionary Cuba.

    This Trump stooge also has just joined the Destroy Cuba Club. Cuba, probably unwisely, has approved Philip Goldberg as Trump's new Charge D'affires at the U. S. Embassy in Havana. Goldberg was recently the U. S. Ambassador to Bolivia but he was booted out of that country for allegedly trying to undermine the Bolivian government. So now that apparently, at least in the eyes of the USA Trump-Rubio Counter Revolutionaries, makes Goldberg a prime leader of the U. S. Embassy in Havana. America's democracy-loving President Obama opened the U. S. Embassy in Havana for the first time since 1961 but America has not had an Ambassador in Cuba since 1961, just heads of a U. S. mission in Havana. Goldberg also won't be an Ambassador in Cuba and as the Charge D'affairs at the Embassy he will inherit a totally gutted staff already depleted during Trump's first year as President. But presumably Goldberg in Havana will be able to undermine the Cuban government just as he supposedly did while in Bolivia.

    After he bravely re-opened the U. S. Embassy in Havana for the first time since 1961, President Obama, as shown above, nominated highly respected Jeffrey d'Laurentis as the U. S. Ambassador to a fully staffed Embassy in Cuba. Every unbiased source in Washington, as far as is known, agreed that Jeffrey d'Laurentis was the perfect American diplomat to be Ambassador to Cuba. But nuances in the U. S. democracy have always hurt Cuba...such as the illegal undeclared U. S. wars against Cuba since 1959. And such as allowing one Counter Revolutionary in the 535-member U. S. Congress...in this case Senator Marco Rubio from Little Havana in Miami...to block the d'Laurentis nomination by Obama to be America's very capable Ambassador at a fully staffed U. S. Embassy in Havana. So instead of that, Rubio has his wish -- the anti-Cuban zealot Philip Goldberg in charge of a totally gutted but anti-Cuban Miami-infested nest in Havana.

     The Cuban Revolution succeeded, against overwhelming odds, because of super heroines like Celia Sanchez, a fact often emphatically pointed out by Fidel Castro.

     Revolutionary Cuba has survived, against overwhelming odds, because of super-powerful women like Mercedes Lopez Acea. She is shown above with President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea on her current 5-nation Africa tour this week. With Raul Castro set to retire as Cuba's President in a few weeks, Mercedes is currently Vice President of the Cuban Council of State and wields enormous power on the island. She knows, especially with Trump having replaced Obama as U. S. President, Cuba's international friends are more important than ever. Ghana yesterday begged Cuba for additional help in eradicating Africa's deadly scourge of mosquito-driven diseases such as Malaria, and Mercedes was quick to sign new Ghanaian agreements. The African continent loves Cuba and 29 African nations are currently benefiting from Cuba's help in medical and hygiene sectors. Also, over 30,000 Africans have graduated free-of-charge from Cuban universities and 10,000 more are presently studying at Cuban universities, as Mercedes stated at a news conference in Ghana Monday, February 12th, 2018. 

      The anointment of Rubio as Trump's new American Dictator of Cuba needs to be taken and judged for exactly what it is: A continuation of Trump's June 16-2017 promise to the few remaining Bay of Pigs veterans in Miami's Little Havana that he would reverse both Obama's Cuban decency and the Bay of Pigs April-1961 defeat. When Cuba this past week approved credentials for Philip Goldman to take over as head of the gutted U. S. Embassy in Havana, it indicated that Cuba is not fully aware of the Trump-Rubio menace that can use the full extent of unlimited American power against its very vulnerable island. Cuba's survival cannot be taken for granted.

   Somehow since 1959, Revolutionary Cuba has survived the air-land-and-sea Bay of Pigs attack in April-1961; a record number of assassination attempts; an amazing number of well-funded, well-orchestrated, and well-protected terrorist attacks; history's longest {1962 till today} and cruelest economic embargo ever imposed by a powerful nation against a weak nation; and the omnipotent threat represented by the photo above. This photo dates back to the 1980s when the Bush dynasty anointed Cuban-born future Miami billionaire Jorge Mas Canosa as America's Cuban-Dictator-in-Exile fully recognized by Republican presidents and by the United States Congress. Canosa for sure was far smarter, more motivated, and more powerful in that role than Rubio will ever be for Trump but unlike the Bush-Canosa War to Recapture Cuba, the current Trump-Rubio effort seems much less constrained by domestic or international opinions, meaning that Trump-Rubio appear to believe that even nuking the vulnerable island would solicit no objection from propagandized Americans and even outraged foreign objections would not faze the world's Superpower. So, Trump's anointment of Rubio as the U. S. Cuban dictator may well be even more potent than the Bush dynasty's anointment of Jorge Mas Canosa.

       Dark clouds like the actual ones above have, metaphorically and literally, hovered over Havana each day since January 1, 1959, when the Cuban Revolution chased the leaders of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship to U. S. soil. The Revolution itself shocked the world, but not as much as its survival for six decades shocked and confounded it. The Bush dynasty crystallized the fact that all Republican administrations since 1952 -- Eisenhower-Nixon-Ford-and-Reagan and especially Bush the Elder, Bush the Younger, and now Trump -- have shamed America and Democracy with the imperialist wars on Cuba. The current American generation in 2018 that permits the Trump-Rubio outrage deserves the Trump-Rubio regime, but not Cuba. In the photo above, a Cuban left hand is acknowledging the dark cloud descending over Havana and it is emblematic of the fact that 11+ million totally innocent Cubans in 2018, and the years beyond, deserve a decent U. S. President even though, at the moment, it appears the vaunted USA democracy may no longer be capable of producing such a leader or to correct what also is a dysfunctional, money-crazed Congress. Cuba is a sovereign country but it pays the biggest prices for USA failures and, as Secreatry Tillerson reminded Jamaica this past weekend, Cuba is also the one nation that will not be allowed by America's Batistianos to reap any rewards as a USA neighbor and, of course, as the only little nation to overthrow a U.S.-backed dictatorship, and a really bad one.

But as of today, the Cuban flag still waves.

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The Cubanization of America

Its Origin & Its Fruition!!
{Updated: Sunday, February 11th, 2018}

      The Cubanization of America got its origin in 1952, shortly after the United States came out of World War II as the strongest and richest nation in the world. At the time, the U. S. and its Democracy were the world's most respected nation and government. Then in 1952 right-wing thugs high up in the Eisenhower administration teamed the U. S. Democracy with the Mafia to support the Batista dictatorship on the nearby island of Cuba, where the U. S. had gained dominance after the 1898 Spanish-American War. The U. S. support of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba beginning in 1952 was designed so rich American businessmen could partake in the wholesale rape and robbery of the island nation. Most pivotal of all, U. S. citizens never objected to the insult to Democracy even when they became aware that Batista was a brutal-thieving dictator and the other two primary decision-makers in Cuba were the top echelon of the Mafia -- Batista's friends Lucky Luciana and Meyer Lansky as shown above.

      But the Batista-Mafia-U.S. dictatorship in Cuba made two incredible mistakes, the first of which is illustrated by the above photo. While raking in a vast amount of loot from drugs, prostitution, gambling and other unsavory enterprises -- massively buttressed by the influx of U. S. businesses and tourists -- the greedy Batistiano-Mafiosi leaders didn't even bother to throw crumbs at the majority peasants, such as the mother and children above. Backed by the United States of America, the strongest nation in the world, and by the Mafia, the strongest criminal organization in the world, Batista did not believe he had to waste any money on the peasants.

      But it was the second Batistiano-Mafiosi mistake that spelled doom for the U.S.-backed tyrants. Apparently as a warning to the non-elite Cubans not to resist, the Batista dictatorship began to routinely murder children. This spawned, as shown above, fierce and famous anti-Batista marches by the bravest and most outraged women on the island. The huge sign above decried "The assassinations of our children; Cuban mothers." It was marches like these that created the Cuban Revolution, which neither the leaders in Havana nor Washington took seriously until it was too late to defeat this female-provoked outrage. The Cuban mother in the center wearing the light jacket was the mother of the murdered little Willie Soler. Today in Cuba the William Soler Children's Hospital is named for him. And although it is hard for Americans to admit, Cuban children today are fiercely cared for and everyone of them is assured totally free and excellent health care and college educations.

      The photo above shows a modern-day Cuban child celebrating her 4th birthday with her best friends. All five are fiercely loved, protected, very safe, and cared for.

    This newly turned 4-year-old Cuban child is fiercely taken care of on the island today, but if she has to look warily over her shoulder, it's because right-wing thugs in the nearby Superpower, based on still-viable de-classified U. S. documents dating back to 1962, ARE STILL trying to starve, deprive, and make miserable little girls like this in a sovereign country to entice them to hate their government. If Americans don't like that succinct and accurate assessment, then perhaps they should do something about it. The black-&-white photos are real; and so is this color photo.

     

     
    It took the long-shot Cuban Revolution from 1952 till 1959 to shock the world by defeating the vile, murderous U.S./Mafia-backed Batista dictatorship.

   But the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on Jan. 1-1959 chased the Batistiano-Mafiosi leaders to a new sanctuary in nearby South Florida, with Little Havana in Miami soon becoming their U. S. capital from 1959 till this very day in 2018. In April of 1959, barely three months after their victory, the two revolutionary leaders -- Fidel Castro and Celia Sanchez -- embarked on a 12-day friendship visit to the United States. But by then the extreme wealth of the Batista-Mafia kingpins had overwhelmed the political and social spheres in South Florida, especially the Miami area. And by then U. S. tax dollars had created powerful anti-Castro paramilitary units and sent hundreds of the most vehement anti-Castro zealots to train at Fort Benning in Georgia as U. S. soldiers, and this included the future Leader-in-Exile Miami billionaire Jorge Mas Canosa, the future anti-Castro terrorist kingpin Luis Posada Carriles, etc., etc., etc.

     The 12-day visit of Fidel Castro and Celia Sanchez in April of 1959 was culminated when President Eisenhower's Vice President, Richard Nixon, surprised Fidel Castro by telling him that his Revolution would be overthrown "within a few months."

   As this photo illustrates, Castro was surprised by Nixon's brazen braggadocio threat. Fidel had been reluctant to visit the U. S. so soon after the Revolutionary victory but he verily worshiped Revolutionary heroine Celia Sanchez and she persuaded him because she firmly believed the new Cuba badly needed the U. S. as a friend and trading partner. Celia had arranged the trip and been assured by the U. S. State Department and the U. S. Society of Newspaper Editors that Fidel would meet directly with President Eisenhower, whom Celia respected. But Nixon and the Dulles brothers -- among the architects of the 1952 Batista-Mafia-U.S. alliance -- had persuaded Eisenhower to take a golfing trip while Nixon met with Fidel, who at the time was being hailed as a hero in the United States AND all around the world.

     When they were back on Cuban soil in April of 1959, Celia Sanchez, with the 100% backing of Fidel Castro, was the prime decision-maker. And significantly, she was far more outraged than Fidel by the Nixon threat, which she took to heart. It was then that she laid down what could rightly be called Revolutionary Cuba's manifesto: "The Batistianos will never regain control of Cuba as long as I live or as long as Fidel lives." She died of cancer at age 59 on Jan. 11, 1980; he died of old age at 90 on Nov. 25, 2016. Against overwhelming odds, Celia Sanchez's bold proclamation incredibly stood the test of time, including such assaults as the April-1961 Bay of Pigs air-land-sea military attack; the 1962-until-today economic embargo; and an ungodly series of deadly and unpunished terrorist attacks against totally innocent, decent Cubans.

      This is one of the many memorials in 2018 honoring the 73 innocent victims of the terrorist bombing on Oct. 6, 1976, of the civilian Cubana Flight 455 airplane. Luis Posada Carilles, trained in explosives at Fort Benning in Georgia where he became a U. S. Army officer in the early 1960s, was born on Feb. 15-1928 in Cienfuegos, Cuba. He turns 90-years-old next Thursday as an honored citizen of Miami, Florida, USA.

     Also incredibly, from January of 1959 till February of 2018, The Cuban Mafia in Cuba has been allowed to operate on U. S. soil as The Miami Cuban Mafia.

   This photo of Cuban-American newsman Emilio Milian in Miami chronicles the rise of the Cuban Mafia on U. S. soil as first a powerful economic force and then an ultra-powerful political force...first in South Florida and then in Washington. The decent Emilio Milian complained on the air about the Cuban Mafia in Miami murdering innocent Cubans and Americans. Then Emilio was silenced by a favorite tool of the Cuban Mafia, a car bomb. Of course, the local, state, and federal authorities seldom, if ever, prosecuted such deeds. The car-bombing of Emilio Milian took place in 1976, perhaps the bloodiest year for the Cuban Mafia in the USA and perhaps that was because the anti-Castro zealots in Miami believed the omnipotent Bush dynasty had their backs. 1976 was the only year future Vice President and President George H. W. Bush was the CIA Director. A few days removed from the Emilio Milian car-bombing in Miami, the two most-famed and most-protected anti-Castro terrorists -- Posada & Bosch -- were tied to the bombing of the civilian Cubana Flight 455 that killed all 73 passengers, including two dozen teenage athletes. And it seems that the Milian car-bombing in 1976 merely served as a warning to the media. 

   Incredibly, in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, Hollywood seemingly has been Freer and Braver than the mainstream media when it comes to chronicling the historic transfer of the Mafia capital from Havana in Cuba to Little Havana in Miami, Florida, in 1959. A case in point is the 1983 movie Scarface that is still a cult favorite on cable television. It was directed and written by Hollywood heavyweights Brian De Palma and Oliver Stone, and it starred top-tier actor Al Pacino as Tony Montana. The movie starts out by showing actual video of drug-running, anti-Castro Cubans arriving in Miami after the Revolution. The Tony Montana character emerged as the murderous Cuban drug-kingpin in Miami, mimicking the actual fact of the drug-infested terror that gripped Miami throughout the 1960s and deep into the 1980s. It was killing so many in the cross-fire that President Reagan at one point sent his VP George H. W. Bush to Miami to try to quell some of the violence. In the famed Cocaine Cowboys documentary, Miami's and America's top crime reporter at the time, Edna Buchanan, pointed back at the magnificent Miami skyline and remarked that it was built by the Cuban Mafia's drug trafficking. Also, as movies like Scarface and documentaries like Cocaine Cowboys, 638 Ways to Kill Castro, etc. explained, the Cuban Mafia's enormous wealth easily overwhelmed South Florida beginning in 1959 and lasting till this day, especially with the political power it has purchased and the Cuban billionaires that also emerged when Cuban businesses such as Bacardi Spirits and the Fanjul Sugar monopoly transferred to far-more-lucrative U. S. soil. In fact, the enduring fame of Scarface is probably tied to the indelible fact that Hollywood has been Freer and Braver in telling the Miami Cuban Mafia story than the scared mainstream United States media has dared to tell.

     This is the famous attire -- white jacket and red shirt -- worn by actor Al Pacino when he played Tony Montana, the murderous Cuban drug-king in Miami.

   The photo-montage above shows the Tony Montana character on the left and...INCREDIBLY...U. S. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen DRESSED AS TONY MONTANA on the right. It was her way, apparently, of mocking the enormously successful transfer of the Cuban Mafia in Cuba to the Cuban Mafia in Miami. Ros-Lehtinen was born in Havana in 1952 and brought to Miami after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution by vicious anti-Castro zealots. She grew up to become the first of many Miami Cubans tied to the Bush dynasty to be elected to the U. S. Congress and she has been there since 1989 when Jeb Bush, to solidify his very successful ties to the Miami Cubans, was her Campaign Manager. If you study the photo-montage above, it is natural to assume that Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen is mocking the success of Miami's and Congress's Cuban Mafia but, of course, don't mention it.

    But all that brings us right up to date in February of 2018 with the significance of Havana-born/anti-Castro zealot Ileana Ros-Lehtinen representing Miami and the Bush dynasty in the U. S. Congress from 1989 till today. This week -- on Feb. 7, 2018 -- the U. S. State Department, on behalf of the congressional Cubans, embarked on the latest of countless Republican schemes since 1959 to overthrow Revolutionary Cuba's government. This new tax-devouring scheme is officially called the CUBA INTERNET TASK FORCE. Like the Cuban Embargo from 1962 till today, like the enormously lucrative Radio-TV Marti anti-Castro propaganda machine in Miami from the 1980s till today, etc., the CUBA INTERNET TASK FORCE is designed to induce the Cubans in Cuba to rise up and overthrow their government. But like...the Embargo, Radio-TV Marti, the Bay of Pigs attack, numerous assassination attempts, countless terrorists acts such as car-bombings, hotel-bombings, airplane-bombings, etc., etc, the CUBA INTERNET TASK FORCE will, in all likelihood, do two things: {1} Fail; and {2} cost American tax-payers and American prestige dearly. On Feb. 8th, 2018, in a Reuters article written by Sarah Marsh, a Tweet by Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was quoted. It said: "It's vital that the Task Force works to counter the Castro regime's control over the airwaves and its political propaganda." That Tweet from the lifelong anti-Castro zealot Ros-Lehtinen, by the way, is memorable. Entrenched since 1989 as a Miami member of the U. S. Congress, backed by the Bush dynasty, she is notable for such things as illegally while a member of Congress calling for the "assassination of Fidel Castro" after such assassinations had been illegal since the Ford presidency. Also, Ros-Lehtinen's ties to such infamous and easily documented Miami-Cuban terrorists as Posada & Bosch remain to this day topics the mainstream U. S. media is afraid to divulge. Yet, that very same mainstream U. S. media...both on television and in print...will eagerly promote anything Ros-Lehtinen has to say. Her Tweet published by Reuters on Feb. 8, 2018 about the newly minted Anti-Cuban Task Force is by an unafraid London-based news agency but it chronicles, I think, the Cubanization of America that has been ongoing since 1959.

     The Cubanization of America would not be all that bad if the 2+ million moderate and decent Cubans were the orchestrators, as opposed to a handful of extremists related to the Bush dynasty. And the reason it is possible...or probable...is the buffaloed mainstream U. S. media that meekly serves as a propaganda tool for the extremists,  as least by not reporting even well-known facts. For example, Jeb Bush was the best-funded of the 17 Republican presidential candidates in 2016 and his push...or that of his son George P. Bush, etc....will continue in the future to have a third Bush presidency. Yet, Jeb's and the Bush dynasty's ties to Orlando Bosch and Posada Carriles won't rise to the level of being political obstacles.

    Beyond the mainstream U. S. media, any Goggle search would reveal realms of data on the Bush ties to the most extremist Cubans. That would readily include de-classified U. S. documents and even the famed Jeb Bush's written and successful appeal, as partially delineated above, to his dad, President G. H. W. Bush, on behalf of Orlando Bosch, who died in Miami in 2011 at age 84 as a heralded Cuban hero.

Yes....Orlando Bosch? Who?

Orlando Bosch & Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. 

   The photo above shows Jeb Bush imitating a halo around Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's head after he, as her Campaign Manager, had used the power of the Bush dynasty to make her the first Cuban from Miami to become a member of the U. S. Congress in 1989, a position she very safely holds till this day. But since the 1950s, as proven by de-classified U. S. documents, Jeb's dad George H. W. Bush had tightly aligned with anti-Castro extremists. So Jeb in 1989 solidified his controversial political and economic ties to the Cubans in Miami by guiding the famed anti-Castro zealot Ros-Lehtinen to the U. S. Congress. And controversial or not, it made Jeb a two-term Governor of Florida and, in 2016, a highly funded, largely with billionaire Cuban-American dollars, Republican presidential candidate against Donald Trump.

  The photo above is quite appropriate. It shows Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen being kissed by President George W. Bush while Governor Jeb Bush smiles his approval. The Bush connection not only put Ros-Lehtinen in the U. S. Congress from Miami in 1989 but it has also helped put a steady stream of other viciously Counter Revolutionary Miami Cubans in the U. S. Congress including the Diaz-Balart brothers -- Lincoln and Mario -- whose father Rafael was a key Minister in Cuba's Batista dictatorship. And Bush-connected Miami Cubans in the U. S. Congress also include Senator Marco Rubio, newly anointed as President Trump's key anti-Castro point-man. Of course, the weird 2000 presidential election that put George W. Bush in the White House will eternally be remembered as the Florida farce that kept Democrat Al Gore, who got the most votes, out of the White House. So the 2000 presidential election was George W. Bush's reward from the Miami Cubans, just as his brother Jeb's two terms as Florida's Governor were Jeb's reward from the Miami Cubans. But to illustrate just how tight the Miami Cubans are with the Bush dynasty, consider this: In 2016 Marco Rubio, a Miami Cuban mentored by Ros-Lehtinen, was a highly funded presidential candidate. But instead of supporting Rubio, Ros-Lehtinen supported Jeb Bush against both Rubio and Trump in the money-crazed Republican sweepstakes.

    This photo likewise reveals one of the Cuban-related tragedies for the Cubanized United States democracy. It shows Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen lovingly pinching the cheek of John Boehner who, at the time, was the most powerful Republican in the U. S. Congress. What this photo illustrates is that Ros-Lehtinen and the extremists anti-Castro Cubans in Miami and in Congress have always had the support of powerful Republicans from the 1950s until today, and that is so even when such historic and topical alliances have been notably and shamefully anti-democratic.

    This photo shows three Bush-connected Miami Cuban- Americans in the Cubanized United States Congress -- Ileana Ros-Lehtinen flanked by Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart, the sons of the key Batista Minister Rafael Diaz-Balart who became one of the richest and most vehement Counter Revolutionaries in Miami. Rafael, in fact, formed The White Rose, the first paramilitary unit in South Florida. While Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart are still vicious Counter Revolutionaries in the U. S. Congress, Lincoln Diaz-Balart resigned his safe seat for what he said at the news conference was even stronger White Rose-type Counter Revolutionary tactics.

     Although the majority of Cuban-Americans even in Miami favor Obama-like normal relations with Cuba, it seems only Counter Revolutionary extremists can get elected in Miami. And once in the U. S. Congress, they all seem to flock to the Foreign Affairs committees in the House and Senate. Cuba is a foreign nation. As the image above indicates, Ros-Lehtinen wielded her Counter Revolutionary baton vociferously when she Chaired the House Committee on Foreign Affairs...as have Counter Revolutionary zealots Marco Rubio and Robert Menendez when they Chaired the Senate's Foreign Affairs Committees. It's in keeping with Cubanizing the United States Congress.

    In fact, last month -- January, 2018 -- Rubio chaired and Menendez Co-Chaired a vicious anti-Cuba session in the U. S. Senate, as shown above. They, of course, called as "expert witnesses" such infamous Bush-connected Counter Revolutionaries as Otto Reich. This January-2018 photo reveals, I think, how drastically the U. S. democracy has been so unwittingly altered by the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Rubio reached the U. S. Senate from Miami with his bio loudly still proclaiming that his parents escaped the tyranny of Castro's Cuba for the freedom of Miami. Then it was pointed out that Rubio's parents escaped the Batista tyranny in Cuba long before Americans ever heard of Castro. Now early in his second 6-year term...till he runs again for President...Rubio was profiled by respected journalist Ken Silverstein in an easily dialed-up article that labels Rubio "head and shoulders above everyone else" when it comes to chicanery & corruption. Of course, aside from the acutely and minutely documented claims in the Ken Silverstein article, the mainstream U. S. media treats Rubio as a choirboy and Menendez as a saint. Yet during a 3-month trial in 2017, and after an extensive and expensive 5-year Federal Investigation, it took a hung jury in his hometown of Newark to get Menendez off on 18 serious Federal charges related to corruption and bribery. But Menendez and Rubio are entrenched in the U. S. Senate forever it seems, just as Ros-Lehtinen has been in the House since 1989 and the Diaz-Balart brothers have had either one or two seats in the U. S. Congress for going on two decades. The Federal government in 2017 said it would re-try Menendez but in 2018 it has announced it will not do so, apparently because of the expense and the possibility of another hung jury. So Menendez is expected to be re-elected to a third term in the Senate in 2018 and Rubio's Senate seat is safe forever.

    Since the 1950s the American people have meekly put up with every salacious anti-American & anti-democratic assault on innocents Cubans while shamefully allowing for the Cubanization of the U. S. government. The handshake above, therefore, will be readily tolerated by this pusillanimous and unpatriotic generation of Americans. This handshake epitomizes President Trump essentially anointing Senator Marco Rubio as the latest USA Cuban dictator, ala Batista-Luciana back in the 1950s and the Bush-anointed Jorge Mas Canosa in the 1980s. Out of over two million moderate and well-qualified Cuban-Americans, it seems the Cubanized U. S. democracy only anoints Counter Revolutionary extremists, such as "Little Marco" as Trump called him. 

      The U. S. democracy has existed for 241 years and counting. But since a crucial mistake in 1952 exacerbated by the Bush dynasty in 1989, the undeniable onset of the Cubanization of that precious gift to the American people has put it on a precipitously slippery slope. Can the U. S. democracy as envisioned by the Founding Fathers correct that precarious situation? The photo above clearly indicates that the answer is, "Probably not."

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