With President Miguel Diaz-Canel!!
{Thursday, April 19th, 2018}
{Thursday, April 19th, 2018}
And now {April of 2018} Cuba's 86-year-old President Raul Castro passes the baton {and his title} to 57-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel who was born after the 1959 revolutionary victory.
The historic transition gives Cuba its first non-Castro leader in 60 years. Miguel Diaz-Canel, at least at the moment, has strong popular support on the island, especially from the critical young-adult generation. Most of the revolutionary icons, including Fidel Castro at age 90 in 2016, have passed away, and others, like 86-year-old Raul Castro, are well into their 80s. The very same thing can be said about the Bay of Pigs-era Counter Revolutionary Cubans in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood.
Shown above patiently waiting in line beside his wife to vote in the recent nation-wide municipal elections, Miguel Diaz-Canel is well-liked on the island and little-known off of it. He rose in the ranks far from Havana in Villa Clara Province but still became Education Minister and then, for the past five years, the First Vice President, which meant he was being groomed to become President. Even after he became a top official in Villa Clara that put him in line to have a government car, he preferred riding bicycles or motorcycles to visit rural Cubans he felt might be overlooked.
Except when it comes to the United States, Miguel Diaz-Canel is considered less of a hardliner than the Castro brothers. But, unlike Raul Castro who worked fervently with the friendly Obama administration to normalize relations with the U. S., Miguel believes all that is now in the "past tense" with another Republican administration in Washington. He says, "They have a 2-party system and Republicans are either in power and on the verge of returning to power. Therefore, we waste our time trying to work on meaningful relations, time we should be spending with friends."
In recent years, preparing for the Cuban presidency, Miguel Diaz-Canel has made it a point to become close friends with the leaders of China {as shown above}, Vietnam, and Russia...among other non-hositle nations. He views economic Superpower China and military Superpower Russia as counter-balances to USA belligerence and he particularly wants to replicate for Cuba the highly successful Vietnamese market-style economy, which he has studied minutely and now plans to emulate in Cuba.
In the Western world, Miguel Diaz-Canel considers Federica Mogherini to be Cuba's "very best friend" and he, thus, has courted friends like her prior to his becoming Cuba's President. Mogherini is the top official in the 28-nation European Union. The Reuters photo above shows her visiting Havana on January 3rd, 2018.
This Reuters photo shows Miguel Diaz-Canel paying tribute to his idol, Fidel Castro, on what would have been Fidel's 91st birthday {August 13th, 2017} if the revolutionary legend had not died at age 90 on November 25th, 2016. With Diaz-Canel as Cuba's President, such tributes to Fidel Castro will be more-and-more frequent, not less.
Most of the Cuban narrative in the United States since 1959 has been dictated by powerful Counter Revolutionaries from Miami and in the U. S. Congress. In that milieu it is therefore understandable that most Americans are totally in the dark about two historic phenomenons: {1} How in the world did the Cuban Revolution defeat the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship; and {2} how in the world has Revolutionary Cuba survived, ever since 1959, the determined, unchecked daily efforts of the U.S.-backed Batistianos & Mafiosi to recapture such a vulnerable island? Well, the Roberto Suarez photo above provides a clue. It shows Mirthia Brossard Oris last week at the Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru. Vicious Counter Revolutionary Miami members of the U. S. Congress -- including the newly self-anointed and Trump-approved U. S. Cuban Dictator Marco Rubio -- were in Peru assailing Cuba. But Mirthia, as a part of the 100-member Cuban delegation in Peru, shouted the loudest when it came to defending or vilifying her Cuba. She then was the subject of regional interviews.
Shown above taking over a key microphone in Lima, Mirthia Brossard Onis lambasted Counter Revolutionaries like Rubio as "liars" and labeled the Cuban dissidents as "bugs paid by the empire as we all know!" To her, the hated "empire" is the USA. So Mirthia became a vocal star at the Summit of the Americas in Peru.
So who is Mirthia Brossard Oris? Well, on the island she is a leader of the Federation of University Students. Back in 1952 and 1953, the Federation of University Students included the prime anti-Batista supporters of Fidel Castro and the burgeoning Cuban Revolution. And that's why the Batista-Mafia thugs murdered many student leaders like Jose Echevarria and also shut down the University of Havana. {Yes, you may Google-Search Jose's name and see photos of his assassinated body}. From 1959 until April-2018 the Federation of University Students, as epitomized long-ago by the martyr Jose Echevarria and today by Mirthia, has remained a prime defender of Revolutionary Cuba for six decades...and counting!!
Student leader Jose Echevarria.
Just before he was murdered in Batista's Cuba March 13, 1957.
On the island of Cuba today, popular Television News Anchor Rosy Amaro Perez and Student Leader Mirthia Brossard Oris represent the crucial young-adult generation of Cubans who fiercely support the sovereignty provided to their island by the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Of Cuba's 11.2 million people, Rosy and Mirthia are in the majority. If that were not so, America's self-anointed and Washington-approved Cuban dictators -- such as the late Jorge Mas Canosa or the current Marco Rubio -- would long-ago have regained control of the coveted and always vulnerable island.
The Roberto Suarez photo above shows United States Senator Marco Rubio arriving this past weekend in Peru to take over the leadership of the Let's Overthrow Revolutionary Cuba choir. Other than making Rubio a rich and powerful man in Little Havana and in Washington, his anti-Cuban venom has not succeeded in recapturing Cuba or in imposing {or reimposing} a Miami-dominated Cuban rule.
This Rosy for Cuba image, complete with the colorful and sovereign Cuban flag, was newly added today to social media platforms to show support for Cuba's new President Miguel Diaz-Canel. Unbiased sources are aware that if Diaz-Canel is to succeed, he will need the strong support of the island's restive and well-educated young-adult generation. As of today -- April 18, 2018 -- he has that crucial support.
