Spys, Conflicts as Cuba-US Hatred Worsens in 2024!!

    As shown above, the London-based worldwide reach of BBC News, in a war-torn world, is also focused in mid-APRIL of 2024 on telling the world about the endless conflicts pitting the superpower United States against its small neighbor Cuba. A former key U. S. ambassador, Victor Manuel Rocha, in a federal courtroom in Miami "has just been sentenced to 15 years in prison for working as an agent for Cuba." Of course, Rocha is not the only key U. S. government official to get a long sentence in a U. S. federal courtroom by getting convicted of spying for Cuba while working in major positions within the U. S. government. Remember the famed Cuba Five Cubans who went to Miami to investigative known anti-Cuban terrorists such as the ones that downed the civilian Cubana 455 Flight airplane, killing all 73 on board; the Cuba Five tried to report their findings to the FBI but were arrested and sentenced to up-to-life terms in U. S. Federal Prisons. But, of course, Ana Belen Montes remains the most famed such Cuban spy.

The Cuban Five

Ana Belen Montes

   Of course, Ana Belen Montes remains the all-time top U. S. official that turned into a legendary spy for Cuba. A graduate of the University of Virginia and Johns Hopkins University, Montes quickly made a name for herself in the U. S. Justice Department in Washington and then for 17 years she became the top U. S. Cuban expert at the U. S. Defense Intelligence Agency {DIA}, where her intimate knowledge of US-Cuba Relations evolved into her many years of being a Spy for Cuba!! While spying for Cuba, Montes in 1997, in the DIA photo shown above, was sstill receiving one of her many awards for her meritorious service to the U. S. government. But...in 2001 she was arrested as a CUBAN SPY and sentenced to 25 years in a U. S. federal prison. After serving 20 years, she was released in her 60s in 2023 and she quickly ended up as a free woman in Puerto Rico, which is a close Caribbean neighbor very near Cuba.

     The astounding history of US-Cuban Relations features Ana Belen Montes as one of the primary players, a stardom that she richly earned. She famously went from being the top Cuban EXPERT in the U. S. government to being sentenced to 25 years in a Miami courtroom for SPYING for Cuba during her 17 years as a heralded star {and Cuba expert} within the U. S. government.

This is Ana Belen Montes the day she was arrested.

Below is what she said the day she was sentenced.

our

    When she worked in the U. S. government as the top Cuban expert, Ana Belen Montes became privy to what she cogently said to the judge during her sentencing: 

     "Your honor, I engaged in the activity that brought me before you because I obeyed my conscience rather than the law. I believe our governement's policy is profoundly cruel and unfair, profoundly unneighborly, and I felt morally obligated to help the island defend itself from our efforts to impose our values and our political system on it. We have displayed intolerance and contempt towards Cuba for most of the last four decades. We have never respected Cuba's right to make its own journey towards its own ideals of equality of justice. I do not understand why we must continue to dictate how the Cubans should select their leaders, who their leaders must be, and what laws are appropriate in their land. Why can't we let Cuba pursue its own internal journey, as the United States has been doing for over two centuries." 

    Above in quotations are the exact words that Ana Belen Montes wrote and then calmly read in the Miami courtroom to the judge that sentenced her. She, for sure, well knew that she would not receive any sympathy in a Miami courtroom but she was accepting her 25-year sentence. Above in Pink you can read just one paragraph of her beautifully written and soulfully delivered very long statement, and above you should read it all and also study all of it.

     Above you can see an update from BBC News about Ana Belen Montes being released from a U. S. federal prison in Texas after serving 20 years of her 25-year sentence. She is now living in her native Puerto Rico and "focused on living a private life" and "She has also called attention to difficulties facing the people in Puerto Rico and on the ongoing U. S. embargo against Cuba." 

    Puerto Rico, where Ana Belen Montes now calls home, is Cuba's close neighbor in the Caribbean, as you can see on the above map. Puerto Rico is a U. S. Territory and Cuba has, since the victorious Cuban Revolution in 1959, has faced things from the U. S. such as the 1961 Bay of Pigs military attack, the massive U. S. Embargo since 1962, terrorist acts such as the deadly bombing of the civilian Cubana Flight 455 airplane in 1976, etc., etc., etc. As you study the map above, also note that since 1898's SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR, which was a quick and easy U. S. victory over Spain fought in Cuba, the U. S. has dominated Puerto Rico officially as a U. S. Territory and has also endeavored to dominate Cuba, as expert Ana Belen Montes so cogently explained, by such acts as the Bay of Pigs attack in 1961, the Embargo since 1962, placing the Guantanamo Bay U. S. Military Base in Cuba since 1903, the horrific Embargo against  Cuba that began in 1962 and now in April of 2024 is stronger than ever, etc., etc., etc. So...Cuba and Puerto Rico, close neighbors as shown on the above map, also have been twin pawns in things such as the easy imperative U. S. victory in 1898's SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR.

    Now livng privately and freely in Puerto Rico, Ana Belen Montes is still brave enough and decent enough to denounce the U. S. EMBARGO on Cuba, a travesty that has tormented Cuba and shamed the United States for over six decades -- since 1962!! In other words, Ana Belen Montes today remains one of the few Americans brave enough to speak freely and accurately about U.S.-Cuba Relations and Conflicts that have existed almost since Columbus discovered both lands in 1492, but especially since 1898 when the United States used the SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR that it fought on Cuban soil Cuba to add Puerto Rico as a Territory and to surround Cuba in the fasshion depicted in the notable Carlos LaTuff depiction shown above, which remains the international image of the dreadful EMBARGO.

      And lastly, in April of 2024 the headline from BBC News as shown above informs the world that tightly embargoed Cuba is facing "food shortages" -- which, of course, is a euphemistic way of saying that in APRIL of 2024 some people in Cuba are starving. From her new home in nearby Puerto Rico, Ana Belen Montes believes the EMBARGO is a Cuban & American travesty.

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

April 11th in 2024 Shows More Dark Days for Cuba

 

    In 1492 the lands that became the United States and Cuba were close neighbors, and 1492 was the year that esplorer/discoverer Columbus famously first landed on the southeastern tip of Cuba at what is now the city of Baracoa. Columbus then famously wrote in his diary that the Baracoa area was "the most beautiful land these eyes have yet seen." From 1492 until 2024 CUBA's beauty and its location have remained its prime curse, not its treasure. That's because, almost since 1492, the world's imperative powers -- most notably Spain and the United States -- have not only coveted CUBA but also attacked it and gone to war to  control it. In that vein, from 1492 until 2024 the island and the nation of  CUBA, uniquely in history and in longevity, have had to try to defend itself, creating untold hardship for its people. Today, for example, is April 11th, 2024, and the news from CUBA today is mostly sad, as shown below:

     Just before the helicopter crash in Santiago de Cuba today -- April 11th, 2024 -- that killed three Cuban soldiers, the island was celebrating the anniversary of an event that involved independence icon Jose Marti, as shown below:

     Every Cuban knows that Jose Marti, after landing at Cajobabo "to join the Necessary War", that he was soon killed in the Battle of Rio Cauto on May 19th in 1895 fighting Spanish soldiers that had controlled Cuba for decades. Marti's death was in vain because he and many other great independence fighters, including brothers Antonio & Jose Maceo Grajales, had died in the two "neccesary wars" that tried, in vain, to defeat Spanish soldiers on CUBA'S soil. But Marti and the others are remembered lovingly today for what they tried to do; the major airport in Santiago de Cuba where the three Cuban soldiers died in the heliocopter crash today -- April 11, 2024 -- is named "Antonio Maceo Grajales Airport," for example.

     And today Jose Marti is revered in Cuba as a Independence Fighter almost on a par with Fidel Castro...and uniquely Marti to this day is lovingly revered not only in Cuba but also in the United States and around the world. Marti was born on January 28th, 1853, and went on to become an internationally famous and rich poet/author in New York, Paris, London, etc. But he gave up all that fame and fortune to return to Cuba to try to gain independence for his beloved Cuba, only to die fighting Spanish soldiers on May 19th, 1895, in the Battle of Rio Cauto.

     But, of coursse, during all those many, many decades that imperative powers like Spain were dominating Cuba, the United States violently wanted to do the same. Please note the historic quotations shown above, starting with Thomas Jefferson in 1817 declaring, "If we ceize Cuba we will be masters of the Caribbean." 

     Well, in 1898 -- a mere three years after Jose Marti died fighting the Spanish soldiers -- the United States knew it was powerful enough to easily defeat Spain and become the "masters of the Caribbean. So in 1898 the United States easily won the quick & bloody SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR on Cuban soil, putting the U. S. on its path to becoming the world superpower...but also spawning Fidel Castro's Cuban Revoltution that, on January 1st of 1959, shocked the world by overthrowing the U.S.-backed & Mafia-backed Fulgencio Batista dictatorship.

    Incredibly, Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution has ruled Cuba from January 1st of 1959 till today, which is April 11th, 2024!!!!!!!!!!

    Today -- April 11th, 2024 -- the two most famed Cuban Independence Fighters historically and topically remain Fidel Castro and Jose Marti. At age 42, Jose Marti died in Cuba in 1895 fighting Spanish soldiers. At age 90 in 2016 Fidel Castro died peacefully from old age in Havana, leaving him just a notch more notable than Jose Marti as Cuba's most successful Independence Fighter.

     Of course, today on April 11th-2024 Fidel Castro's Revolutionary Cuba is still just a few miles due south of the United States. After the U. S. Bay of Pigs military attack in April of 1961 failed to overthrow Revolutionary Cuba, the U. S. EMBARGO of CUBA has existed since 1962.

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

Most Cuban-Americans DON'T Want to Starve Cubans

But Little Havana/Miami Cubans Are Not AMONG Them!!

    This week -- in April of 2024 -- the photo and caption above shows this Airbus Condor Airliner landing at Varadero Beach on the northern coast of Cuba, just a few miles from the United States. Tourists have voted Varadero Beach as "The Best Beach in the World." Since 1955 Condor Airlines -- headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany -- has been one of the world's most important international airlines. Like other worldwide companies, Condor Airlines -- afraid of the U. S. economic Embargo/Blockade of Cuba that has existed since 1962 -- has refrained from doing business with Cuba, including the Caribbean island's prime tourist attractions. So, if you will, permit the media in poor little embargoed Cuba to make a BIG deal this week about Condor Airlines beginning to bring planeloads of tourists to Varadero in Cuba.

    Of course...although Varadero has been voted as the "Best Beach in the World" by international tourists, the U. S. Embargo/Blockade since 1962 has included Varadero as one of the numerous places in Cuba to be blockded from receiving tourist money although world-famed Varadero is just a few miles due-south of rich and tourist-obsessed Florida!!

    Of course, rich and tourist-obsessed Little Havana USA in Miami craves tons of tourist dollars while making sure that the U. S. government keeps its strict economic Embargo against Cuba that has blocked and starved the Cuban economy for six decades since 1962.

    If you study the caption and photo above, uinderstand that it is a microcosm of U. S. Relations with Cuba since 1898understand that it is a microcosm of U. S. relations since 1898, which was the year that the U. S. launched its easy military victory in Cuba to win the Spanish-American War, which gave the U. S. control of Cuba replacing the long occupation of the island by Spain. By 1903 the U. S. was building a massive military base on one of Cuba's most vital ports at Guantanamo Bay...a U. S. military base that now includes an infamous U. S. federal prison as well as lucrative recreation facilities, restaurants, etc.  So...what does the caption and photo shown above tell you?? It shows U. S. President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, signing the infamous Helms-Burton Act into law on March 12th in 1996. From that day to this day in April of 2024 the Helms-Burton Act has empowered and enriched counter revolutionary Cuban-Americans while massively harming Cubans in Cuba. President Clinton very reluctantly signed it into law. Please note how scared Clinton was when he looked up at counter revolutionary U. S. Senator Bill Menendezz. Also looking over Clinton's shoulder, you should note, was another ultra-powerful U. S. Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart from Miami's anti-Cuban stronghold of Little Havana in Miami. If you comprehend the awesome power that the controversial Bob Menendez and Lincoln & Mario Diaz-Balart have had in the U. S. Congress for decades, you can comprehend the vast power that Little Havana/Miami has had over Havana. And also comprehend for example, that the father of the Miami-based Diaz-Balart brothers in Miami was a powerful Minister in the Batista dictatorship in Cuba before the Revolution chased him to Miami in 1959. With that in mind, judge whether you think a reluctant President Clinton was scared when he signed the Miami-beloved Helms-Burton Act into law on March 12th of 1996. And, with that in mind, understand that there is no chance that the Helms-Burton Act will ever be eased by the U. S. Congress or by the U. S. Presidents that have followed President Clinton.

    One of the many Cuban-Americans who massively denounce the U. S. Cuban policies that benefit anti-Cubans in the U. S. but starve, deprive, and make miserable Cubans in Cuba is Carlos Lazo, a professor in Seattle. Carlos is shown above when, followed by some of his students, he rode his bike the 3,000 miles from Seattle to Washington to beg President Trump to stop strarving Cubans in Cuba while enriching politically powerful U. S. Cubans. President Trump would not listen to Carlos but only tightened the sanctions against Cuba. Then Carlos walked the 300 miles from Little Havana in Miami to Washington to beg President Biden to stop starving Cubans in Cuba instead of always bowing to rich U. S. Cubans. But, like Trump, President Biden has refused to listen to Cuban-Americans such as Carlos. To his credit, Carlos Lazo raises money and then defies the U. S. government by flying food, medicine, and hygiene products to Cubans in Cuba.

     In the United States there are many Cuban-Americans named Carlos, including Carlos Lazo but also others such as Carlos Gimenez, a politician in Miami. Born in Havana in 1954,70 years ago, Gimenez served as Mayor of Miami-Dade County in Florida from 2011 till 2020 and now, of course, he is in the U. S. Congress along with a bevy of other Cuban-Americans. One day the U. S. democracy might elect a leader in Miami or have a Cuban in Congressto that might not support the U. S. Embargo of Cuba, the Helms-Burton Act, etc., etc. But don't count it.

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

Cuba Enters April-2024 Just Barely Surviving

The Gloom is shown in worldwide headlines!!

    The photo above and the headlines above in this first week of April in 2024 show a Russian Ship providing Cuba with some much-needed oil but power blackouts, food shortages, and other dire deprivations are causing predictions about the "collapse" of Cuba's revolutionary government that has ruled the vulnerable island-nation since January of 1959 when the overthrow of the U.S-backed/Mafia-backed Batista administration was chased out of Havana...all the way, as it turned out, to Little Havana in Miami a few miles north of Havana.

    Incredibly, the victorious Cuban Revolution survived massive assaults such as the air-land-&-sea Bay of Pigs military attack in April of 1961...but massive assaults continued daily until, in 1962, the U. S. legalized an EMBARGO designed to starve, deprive, and make miserable the Cuban people until it caused them to rise up and overthrow their own government. It took over six decades to accomplish its mission, but finally in April of 2024 the EMBARGO is working.

     Even if Revolutionary Cuba is overthrown or merely collapses in April of 2024, the Cuban Revolution and its longevity has shocked the world with perhaps history's best example of a very small nation resisting the designs of a world Superpower for over six decades!!   

   But in April of 2024 the latest generation of Cuban parents who have lived all their lives surrounded by the U. S. EMBARGO seem to have finally succumbed to what the faces of their children are telling them. Before you deny that, study the four photos shown directly above today.

     The Storm Clouds that have plagued Cuba for centuries have proved less of a problem than its geographical location, as the TV Weather Photo above shows. Even the weather reporter fully knows that the natural storms didn't doom Revolutionary Cuba, but merely being just a few miles south of  the superpower United States has finally doomed the eternally vulnerable island.

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

Russian Oil Arrives in Cuba on Easter Weekend...

 ....but it's too little & too late!!

    Today -- on March 31st of 2024 -- the Reuters News Agency on Easter Day informed the world that a Russian oil ship has docked in Cuba. Unfortunatedly it is much too late to markedly help the power outages and the food shortages that Cuban families are suffering. Earler this week Bloomberg News in the USA updated the Cuban oil and food shortages, as shown below:

     As the Bloomberg News article this last weekend of March 2024 {above} reported on the dire Cuban situation, many sources in Miami and in Washington are using the dire power and food shortages in Cuba to call for "REGIME CHANGE IN CUBA" as shown above...and the Miami and Washington anti-Cuba sources quickly, as always, dismiss any fault of "the US trade embargo imposed after the 1959 revolution." Of course, the wonder is that a drastic EMBARGO of a very small nation by the world's SUPERPOWER took six long decades to accomplish its goal.

      And so...on March 31st of 2024...Miami and Washington still claim, as they have done for six decades, that their EMBARGO against Cuba is/was meant to help the Cuban people, not to starve them. Well, after six decades, the EMBARGO has finally reached its goal, which was to starve Cubans in Cuba to induce them to overthrow their revolutionary government. Now...the question is how Miami and Washington will handle their victory, and that remains to be seen.

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