To Leave OR Stay in Cuba

 

     As this blazing headline heading up to Christmas-2021 attests, Patrick Oppmann at CNN, like other mainstream journalists assigned to report on Cuba, are always obliged to only tell negative stories about the island...and only stories that appear to be first approved by Little Havana Cubans who rule Miami. In this huge report Oppmann reminds us that all of the 11.2 million Cubans on the island yearn to bolt across the Florida Straits to partake in the ultra-Wealth and the other ultra-Democratic rewards endemic to Miami. Indeed, many get-rich Cubans in Cuba want to get to Miami-USA -- as do a billion+ other get-rich citizens of other nations. Also, propagandist-styled U. S. journalists such as Patrick Oppmann could report on the many young, well-educated, ambitious Cubans that are leaving the island for myriad reasons, especially to Spain these days. So, if Oppmann is not allowed to discuss that phenomenon, permit me to discuss it.

  For example, this is Liliana Guerra Abad preparing to celebrate Navidad/Christmas-2021 in Vigo, Spain. Liliana graduated from the Journalism School at the University of Camaguey in Cuba. All Cubans...at least since the triumph of the Revolution in 1959...are provided totally free educations through college. In areas such as Journalism and Medicine, Cuba thus is overrun with a plethora of well-educated Journalists, Doctors, etc. Starting in her early 20s, Liliana was a talented reporter/anchor on television news programs in Cuba. Now she does the same job in Spain...but she still loves Cuba.

    After graduating from the School of Journalism at the University of Havana, Armando Cala quickly became a talented reporter/anchor on television news programs in Cuba. Now Armando is one of the most ubiquitous celebrities in Madrid, Spain, as a journalist, as a business student seeking his Masters Degree, and as a male model of expensive clothing. And, yes, Armando still loves Cuba...and he epitomizes why many Cubans leave Cuba, which are often reasons other than hating the Revolution.

    The tumultuous relationship between Cuba and the United States from 1492, 1776, 1898, 1952, and 1959 especially includes things such as the Mariel Boat Lift. Several times Revolutionary leader Fidel Castro helped Cubans who wanted to leave for Miami leave FOR MIAMI. Fidel Castro especially suggested that any Cuba being paid by the U. S. or just "lovers" of the U. S. should go to the U. S. with Fidel's help. And OH YES, Fidel made sure that he could empty his prisons and jails by sending his known criminals to Miami!! One of those times was from April 15th till April 30th in 1980 when Castro told Cubans who wanted to leave for Miami to go to the Mariel Port that is 28 miles southwest of Havana. During that time some 125,000 Cubans and about 25,000 Haitians took Castro's advice. Of course, Americans since 1980 have basically not been told the true history of the Mariel Boat Lift. But, perhaps, the great Hollywood producer/screen writer Oliver Stone remembered the truth of the Mariel Boat Lift in his famed movie "Scarface."

    All-time Hollywood greats such as producer Martin Bregman, director Brian De Palma, and screenwriter Oliver Stone were responsible for "Scarface" and it is still popular in 2021. The movie begins with a real black-&-white video of Cubans that Fidel didn't want arriving in Miami as a part of the Mariel Boat Lift in April of 1980. The movie then zeroes in on Tony Montana as the fictional Cuban who ravaged Miami as the USA's vicious Drug Kingpin.

    In the legendary movie Scarface, actor Al Pacino played Tony Montana as the Cuban who took over the deadly drug trade in Miami. Above is how Wikipedia's long depiction of Tony Montana's character ravaged Miami but...as also explained in the famed and great documentary "Cocaine Cowboys"...the drug trade in Miami WAS VERY INSTRUMENTAL IN "CREATING MIAMI'S LUSCIOUS, MAGNIFICENT SKYLINE."

     And one more comment about the April-1980 Mariel Boat Lift. Yes, Fidel Castro considered that he had succeeded in his quest to largely empty his prisons and jails by helping many of his expensive criminals get to Miami-USA.

    Indeed, in 1959 Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution drastically changed Cuba forever. But, it also drastically and uniquely changed the United States of America forever!!

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Is Cuba A Threat to the U.S.??

 Or Is Cuba Just A Potential U.S. Gravy Train?

(Like It Was Prior to the Revolution!!}

    In December of 2021 -- the United States has important problems domestically -- COVID, Inflation, a dangerous open southern border, surging crime in major cities, etc. -- and internationally -- trying to avoid wars it can't win against China over Taiwan and/or with Russia over Ukraine, etc. Yet, indications in December-2021 make it seem that the Biden government in Washington remains obsessed with claiming that Cuba is the USA's biggest threat as it continues the previous Trump administration's obsession of projecting little, Blockaded Cuba as a threat surpassing or on par with many of the real upfront threats the United States is facing. 

    The FBI notice {above} flashed the notice that "Cuba ransomware delivered via Hancitor" is even becoming a big threat to "Cybersecurity and Infrastructure" via "ransom payments," etc. 

     Cuba's veteran Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said, "It is, unfortunately, endemic to the U. S. narrative to sanitize aspects of violations made by U.S.-friendly nations while piling on even outrageous accusations against Cuba, one after the other. Back in the 1960s and 1970s the U. S. not only tolerated but supported the brutal crimes of regimes by the U.S.-backed murderous dictatorships of Batista in Cuba, Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, Somoza in Nicaragua, Pinochet in Chile, and so on and so on. It was and is all about rich Americans donating some of their loot to politicians in effort to have the support of the U. S. government. Students of history, and even anyone with a Google computer, can easily learn why Nixon and Kissinger backed the bloody coup that caused the death of the extremely decent and popular Democratically elected and Cuba-loving President of Chile, Salvador Allende, to install the extremely murderous 17-year reign of General Augustus Pinochet, a brutal murderous but...more importantly...U.S.-friendly dictator. If the Revolution that has governed Cuba since 1959 turned its potentially lucrative island over to U. S. businessmen and the Mafiosi, we would be caving into a U.S.-friendly posture. We choose not to do that based on the extreme brutality that the U.S.-backed Batista killers employed  -- coupled with no education and no healthcare at all for everyday Cubans -- that spawned the Revolution. Lying about that in 2021 plays well with the American people but not with this latest generation of Cubans on the island. Of course, by lying to the American people, the U. S. government and the U. S. media are not letting the American people understand why the strongest nation in the world, almost within sight of our shores, has been unable to regain dominance of this island. Maybe, around Christmastime of 2021, it is time that the American people finally asked why Revolutionary Cuba evolved in 1952 and 1953...and why it has survived for all these decades since 1959. My generation and the other generations in Cuba today remember the extreme thievery and brutality coupled with the no-education and no-healthcare for the everyday Cubans during the 1950s in the U.S.-friendly and U.S.-promoted Batista dictatorship. That answers, if the Americans should ask, why the Revolution started and why it endures today."

Everyday Cubans in Batista's Cuba!!

    Brave Cuban mothers like these took to the streets during the Revolution to protest the Batista use of assassins who murdered the children of these mothers as a warning and to try to dissuade them from objecting to what was happening to their families. Marches like these helped to galvanize the non-Batista Cubans and the non-Mafia Cubans on the island to give the support the Revolution needed to do the impossible, which was to defeat the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia rule of the island. The Batista-Mafia memories of the 1950s have since 1959 helped sustain the Revolution.

    And photos like this one remind many Cubans in the closing days of 2021 of why they need to protect the Revolution. This sister and mother had been waiting at the airport in Havana for the arrival of their brother and son to return, along with two dozen other teenage athletes, with their Gold Medals after winning a Central American Championship in Caracas. But when this photo was taken...and it was taken on October 6th-1976...this sister and mother had just learned that Cubana Flight 455 had crashed into the ocean and there were no survivors among the 72 passengers. And this was a particularly bad year...1976...for extreme terrorism against totally innocent Cubans that, to this day, many Cubans in Cuba blame on the Bush dynasty, Miami Cubans, and the United States...the same government that puts Revolutionary Cuba on the USA's SPONSORS OF TERRORISM list.

Yes, there was terror in Batista's Cuba.

    And yes...there has been continued terror against Revolutionary Cuba that Cubans in Cuba blame on Miami Cubans paid for and tolerated by the U. S. government. Of course, in Miami courtrooms in which Cuba was not represented, many millions of dollars been awarded. Of course, a family in Cuba is not allowed the same such lawsuits...even if DECLASSIFIED U. S. documents {as shown above} would tend to support their cases.

LASTLY:

     The photo above shows a crowded Mafia-owned casino in Batista's Havana in 1957. Because rich U. S. companies were also partaking in the fleecing of Cuba, the U. S. government roundly encouraged tourism to Cuba...well knowing that the Batistianos and the Mafiosi were also making gigantic hauls of those U. S. dollars via gambling, prostitution, drugs, etc., etc.

    Back in the U.S.-backed Batista rule of Cuba in the 1950s, the top-line U. S. entertainers such as Frank Sinatra lured tons of U. S. tourists to Cuba...making ultra-rich benefactors out of the Batista and Mafia dictators but also making millions of dollars for rich U. S. businessmen.

    But since the Cuban Revolution took over Cuba at 3:00 A. M. on the morning of January 1, 1959, the U. S. has tried to destroy and starve Cuba via the 1961 Bay of Pigs military attack;  the 1961-till-today Embargo/Blockade; etc., etc. One means of trying to starve Revolutionary Cuba is to try to keep tourism off the island, a tourist-loving island that...unlike in Batista's Cuba!!!...pays for guarantees of free education through college and free healthcare for life for all Cubans!!! Meanwhile, study the map above and please note that the U. S. government today massively promotes tourist dollars to the rest of the Caribbean...especially the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic. Even during these Winter Days of 2021 everyone of the 30 Major League Baseball teams have built and operate year-around state-of-the-art baseball stadiums and practice facilities in the Dominican Republic, bringing billions of tourist dollars to the DR; and in the last weeks of 2021 the Bahamas has raked in billions of tourist dollars from hosting huge U. S. golf tournaments, important college basketball tournaments, business meetings, etc., etc. In other words, if Cuba was remotely treated like the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, and the other Caribbean nations, I assume Cuba would be the richest nation in the Caribbean, wouldn't you?

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A BIG man in Cuba is MAD!!!

 

    At 6-feet-5 and 300 pounds, Mejain Lopez is a BIG MAN and he is MAD in Cuba this weekend {Dec. 15-2021}. He loves the Revolution and Fidel Castro's legacy, he is happy with the way homegrown vaccines have curbed the COVID-19 pandemic, he is pleased about how the government is trying to improve the economy, he is proud that the island is holding off the latest efforts from Miami and Washington to regain control of his nation, etc., etc. But Mejain is boiling mad!!!

     The legendary Mijain Lopez this year won his 4th Olympic Gold Medal in wrestling, this time in Tokyo. He has just been named Cuba's National Athlete of the Year. Yet...he didn't win Athlete of the Year in his own Province, which is Pinar del Rio.

        Above is how OnCuba News -- which is really an excellent daily source for unbiased Cuban news -- explains why Mejain Lopez is so mad this weekend...and yes it is a big deal in Cuba if he is mad!! It seems that boxer Arlen Lopez, who also won an Olympic Gold Medal in Tokyo, was named the National Athlete of the Year in Pinar del Rio, the Province where both of them live. WOW!!

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Cuba to be Invaded by Florida???

 

    "Starting in January 2022 American Airlines will have four daily Miami-Havana flights." As shown above, those flights start at 8:00 am; 9:45 am; 10:34 am; and 3:15 am.

     In the second line above: "The AA website also advertises other flights originating from different points of the Union to Havana, including New York, Tampa, Houston, Denver, Chicago, Detroit, Las Vegas, San Francisco. In the third line above: "It was recently learned that Southwest Airlines will reactivate its daily Fort Lauderdale/Havana flights as of February 17."

WOW!!!!!

     The U. S. is not permitted, it seems, to ever mention the opinions of non-dissident Cubans on the island but, in truth, they are opinionated, smart, well-educated, and active on Social Media: "Wow!! Since our own scientists have conquered the COVID pandemic, we are now accustomed to seeing Spanish, Russian, Vietnamese, Argentinian, Canadian, Mexican and many other airplanes bringing tourists to our island. But reading online about American, Southwest, and those other major U. S. airlines scheduling all their flights to Cuba is...well, a little worrisome. The Trump-Biden rule in Washington is bent on starving us into submission, so I wonder if maybe we are about to be invaded instead of visited by all those U. S. airplane landings. I sure as hell don't trust Rubio and Menendez as far I could toss them. Cuban women are mothers and patriots who equate Miami and Washington with the Bay of Pigs. We are ready."

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Cuba Soldiers On vs. Blockade

     This week in mid-December of 2021 Cuba hosted the 11 nations of the Bolivarian Alliance/ALBA and the session included the three Presidents -- Diaz-Canel of Cuba, Ortega of Nicaragua, and Madura of Venezuela -- that Little Havana/Miami/USA, three formidable foes, have been determined to eliminate during the Trump-Biden administrations. Interestingly enough, but the most celebrated visitor this week in Havana was the President of Bolivia, Luis Arce. The photo above shows Diaz-Canel introducing Arce to one of the celebrity lines.

        After long meetings with Cuba's undisputed leader, Miguel Diaz-Canel... President Arce held many meetings with other top Cubans. Above that is Arce in the middle on the left facing Cuba's Prime Minister Marrero.

     There are reasons that, among all the key visitors to Cuba this week, that Luis Arce, the President of Bolivia, was spotlighted.

      Of Course, it was President Arce that President Diaz-Canel marched most ceremoniously down the elaborately rehearsed military/band line.

      The two photos above explain why Cuba puts so much of an emphasis on the Presidency of Luis Arce in Bolivia. During the Trump presidency the U. S., more severely than ever, tried to eliminate four regional governments in particular, in this order: Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia. Briefly...what many considered a bloody coup replaced Bolivia's President, Evo Morales -- Cuba's longtime dear friend -- with Jeanine Anez, a dear friend of the U. S. and Miami.

         And so...Jeanine Anez became Bolivia's anti-Morales new president from November 12-2019 until November 8-2020. That was when an election in Bolivia replaced her with President Luis Arce.

     Although the coup had chased Cuba's dear friend Evo Morales out of the country, he did get to raise the hand of Luis Acre as the new President of Bolivia. Luis Acre is Evo Morales's man and Acre had been Evo's longtime Finance Minister. 

     The Morales-Arce forces in Bolivia believe that  54 Morales followers had been killed/murdered during the coup that briefly put Jeanine Anez in power.

     And, as shown above, Jeanine Anez was arrested for her part in the coup and put in prison.

     The photo above shows Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel spotlighting Bolivia's President Luis Arce in Havana this week although 10 other important and Cuba-friendly Presidents were also on the island. The significance pertains to several factors, one is the coup that briefly put the U.S.-friendly Jeanine Anez as the leader of Bolivia before the Bolivian people installed the Cuba-friendly Luis Arce as the new President of Bolivia. In Havana this week, President Arce said, "The continuing effort of Miami and Washington to undermine and overthrow the governments of Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia mainly exposes the U. S. belligerence and mainly harms the everyday people of these four proud nations that want to decide their fates."

    Indeed, Bolivia is a very important nation in Latin America. The BBC News map above clarifies that fact. Bolivia is bordered by Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, and Peru. That location makes Bolivia very special. Bolivia also has almost 12 million people, slightly more than Cuba has. For sure...Cuba, the United States, and Miami would love to have a government they like in Bolivia. After surviving a coup in Bolivia, at least at the moment Cuba has a dear FRIEND back in charge of Bolivia.

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