Cuba Looks to China for Vital Tourism

 ...as the island tries to survive the US EMBARGO!!

     In April & now in May of 2024 headlines around the world by respected international media sources, such as London-based Reuters and Madrid-based El Pais, have stressed that Cubans in Cuba are direly facing "food shortages and constant blackouts as the six-decade-old US embargo has been severely tightened in the past five years by both the Trump and Biden administrations in Washington." The U. S. media, meanwhile, mostly ignores the crisis facing Cuban families -- except for blaming it all on Cuba and, strangely, claiming there is no US embargo or blockade of the island that the world knows has existed since 1962. The photo and caption above shows Cuba trying to cope with the crisis by trying to "Reconnect-Rebuild-Innovate" Cuba's tourism. 

    Cuba's Minister of Tourism is Juan Carlos Garcia. He says, "If you look around the world you will notice that countries large and small -- from superpowers such as the United States and China to little countries like Cuba -- you will see that all countries crave tourism as a means to get super rich if you are a large nation or merely to survive if you are a small nation trying to obtain enough money to support your citizens. In that regard, if you look arund the world you will note that Cuba is the only nation facing an endless economic blockade engineered by a superpower nation that desires to starve the economy and the families in Cuba. To deny that this has existed for six decades is to be a damn liar, but there are a lot of scared liars who are afraid of the United States or merely want to be financial or military friends of the United States. Cuban families facing hunger and blackouts know the facts first-hand, and so do Cuban leaders like me who want to help them. As tourism Minister, I wish for flocks of tourists from a few miles away in the United States just like Batista had in the 1950s, but unlike Batista and Luciano we don't indugle in kick-back dollars. Surely in 2024 Cuba would prefer tourists from the United States and elsewhere but, mostly, we must depend on tourists from just a few countries that don't bend to the U. S. blockade...such as faraway China." 

      Indeed, in May of 2024 Cuba's desperation for tourism has caused Cuba to get more cozy than ever with China. The two countries have agreed to new policies encouraging more visitors to Cuba from China as announced by Cuba's Tourist Minister Juan Carlos Garcia, and, as you can see below, the news also is being reported by China's News Agency Xinhua:

    The Cuban minister in charge of relations with the United States is Carlos Fernandez de Cossio. A respected diplomat even in Washington and Miami, he says: "Using its unique superpower status and influence, the United States can dictate its Cuban policies even knowing the rest of the world might believe it is not only wrong but even genocidal to masses of people in a small, vulnerable country. For this to exist for over six decades is a testimony to a handful of benefactors making the decisions while the vast majority of U. S. citizens are expected to remain silent. And when the compliant U. S. media daily propagadizes to American citizens that those making the Cuban decisions in the U. S. are good people and that all Cubans from revolutionary leaders to current President Diaz-Canel are bad people, then it doesn't matter what the small country says or proves. In a fairer world, one in which might doesn't dictate right or wrong, the U. S. would not be able to maintain a genocidal economic blockade on generations of people in a small country. In that regard, the American people, I believe, should be allowed to know that the Cuban Revolution in the 1950s evolved because the U. S. supported Cuba's vile dictator Batista...and that was at a time when other regional vile dictators such as Trujilo in the Dominican Republic and Somoza in Nicaragua and later vile dictators such as Pinochet in Chile, the Shaw in Iran, and others had U. S. support. Sure, the motives were to reap money out of such countries by kick-backs to friendly dictators, but sometimes the U. S. should consider motives that don't involve money." Below is a two-minute video on CBS News/YouTube in which Carlos Fernandez de Cossio discussed US-Cuba Relations from Cuba's viewpoint:

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Huge NY Times Report From Cuba!!

 Both accurate and informative!!

    As April turned into May in 2024 the United States is involved in two major international wars, is experiencing masssive protests in major universities from coast-to-coast, and a masssively contentious presidential campaign is also raging. Yet...the New York Times has just produced a huge article from Cuba -- using many pages and many photos such as shown above -- to report on how the Caribbean's largest island-nation is trying to survive a dire financial crisis, one exacebated in large part by the tightening of the six-decade-old U. S. Embargo against Cuba. A prime way in which Cuba is trying to cope is by allowing and encouraging thousands of new private entreprenuel business enterprises, as the New York Times explained using numerous photos and paragraphs...some of which are shown below:

     Please study this mammoth article in the NY Times because it sent a top journalist, David C. Adams and a top photographer, Eliana Aponde, to actually report first-hand about what is happening in Cuba -- not merely staying in a U. S. newsroom and just reporting negatives about the nearby island. In this huge article, the New York Times reflects truthfully about how Cuba is trying to desperately survive a dire financial crisis in May of 2024.

    Above, as you can see above, David C. Adams and Eliana Aponte of the New York Times tell and show us that two young Cuban brothers are working in their thriving, new private business.

A young Cuban couple's new successful Food business.

A new, much-needed private market in Havana.

Cuban entrepreneuers in their new beverage business.

     The New York Times is to be credited with sending two of its top journalists to Cuba and reporting to the U. S. and to the world what is actually happening on the desieged island-nation. As shown above, the New York Times even has the insight and courage in May of 2024 to report the basic fact that the "decades-long U. S. economic embargo has led to a collapse in domestic production, rising inflation, consstant power outages and shortages of fuel, meat, and other necessities."  In sharp contrast to the rest of the vibrant anti-Cuba mainstream media in the U. S., such as the heralded Miami Herald and the Jose Bezos-owned Washington Post, this updated NY Times report from Cuba actually told the truth about current 2024 offshoots of the endless U. S. embargo against Cuba that has existed since 1962.

    At least...the New York Times starts off May of 2024 admitting what the rest of the world has known for decades, namely that the families in any small nation that have lived for decades surrounded by a massive economic EMBARGO imposed by any powerful nation will soon face "shortages" of food, meaning starvation, along with other drastic results such as "a collapse of domestic production, power outages," etc., etc., etc!!!! To lie about that is not what either the United States nor Democracy should be about. And below is some more truth from the updated report from the NY Times article from Cuba:  

      At least, as shown above, the NY Times article admits that the Cuban government in May of 2024 is doing positive things to TRY to survive the U. S. EMBARGO.

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Yes, CUBA LEADERS HURT CUBA!!

     One of the world's media sources that has an international reach is El Pais, which means The People. It is headquartered in Madrid, Spain's capital city. Media sources in the United States routinely and daily seem to savor and headline anti-Cuba articles...but when someone such as El Pais publishes extremely disturbing news about the Cuba government's treatment of its people, it should be considered factual and not just anti-Cuban propaganda. In this first week of May-2024 the El Pais headline and article shown below is deeply disturbing.

      The El Pais article that began circling around the around on May 2nd of 2024 says: "At the age of 22, Mayelin Rodriguez Prado received the heaviest of the sentences the Cuban government handed down to a group of 13 people who demonstrated in August 2022 in the municipality of Nuevitas, in central Cuba. Prado, who is the mother of a little girl, will serve 15 years in prison for publishing the protests through the social network Facebook." 

    The 15-year prison sentence handed out to 22-year-old Mayelin Rodriguez Prado should be condemned around the world and in Cuba...starting with Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel.

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What Daily U. S. Headlines Say About Cuba?

Well...it's not Positive!! 

     Even this photo taken at night from space shows clearly that the superpower United States and the Caribbean island of Cuba are very close neighbors.

     As late as the 1950s -- when the top Mafia kingpins and military dictator Batista ruled Cuba -- the United States had extremely close relations with Cuba and wildly sicced top U. S. companies as well as tons of U. S. tourists to the nearby island...creating vast fortunes for the MAFIA, the Batistianos, and U. S. businessmen.

      But on January 1st of 1959 Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution shocked the world by chasing Batista, the Mafia, and the U. S. businessmen off the island.

        Thus, since 1959 the "DIALOGUE" between the United States and Cuba has been uniformly warlike as the Superpower US tries mightily to overthrow the Cuban Revolution that overthrew Batista, the Mafia, and the ultra-rich United States businessmen.

    Thus...HELLO!! Since 1959 the media headlines related to poor little Cuba have echoed the need for the overthrow of the mean Revolutinary Cuban leaders -- suggesting that, when that happens, the next time the foreign leaders will be a lot nicer to the everyday Cuban people on the island. HELLO!!!!!!

     Since 1959, and now that we have entered May of 2024, it seems that the US and worldwide Cuban headlines {such as those shown above} are always unformly negative and always suggesting that the demise of Revolutionary Cuba is about to occur ANY DAY NOW...except that since the revolutionary victory in 1959 a lot of days have come and gone!! 

   Indeed, entering the month of May in 2024 there are many photos from Cuba with captions such as shown above: "Long lines form and frustration grows as Cuba runs short of cash." 2024 marks the 65th anniversary of Cuba's revolutionary rule, so why is Revolutionary Cuba "short of cash?" Well, for one thing, it's not exactly a SURPRISE.

65 Years is a LONG time!!

And so is 62 Years of the U. S. EMBARGO!!

    Well, in May of 2024 one reason Cuba is "short of cash" might be the sheer fact that Cuba, for the past 62 years, happens to have been surrounded by an economic EMBARGO enforced by the richest and strongest nation in the whole world. Some historians say that NEVER IN HISTORY has any other small nation except Cuba been forced to suffer for so long from such an EMBARGO devised by and maintained by any much-larger nation. Thus...in May of 2024 it is no wonder that Cuba is "short of cash" and, obviously, the prime wonder is the fact that Revolutionary Cuba has exisited this long -- since 1959 till MAY of 2024!!

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Vidal & Cossio Speak for Cuba

    Veteran diplomat Josefina Vidal for many years was Cuba's primary negotiator in its vital relations with the United States, including all 8 years of President Barack Obama's administraation in Washsington from 2009 till 2017, and then she was Cuba's Ambassador to Canada. Now, as shown above, she remains a key Minster in Havana. In April of 2024 she reminds the United States that. "By tightening your decades-old genocidal Blockade in the past five years, the U. S. is assaulting another generation of children on this island. Back in the 1950s when the U. S. dominated Cuba during the vile Batista dictatorship, the uncontrolled plundering of Cuba left the everyday Cubans with no health care, no education, and not even food. That is why, when the revolution took over in January of 1959, the first new rules guaranteed free health care and free educations through college and free food when needed for all Cubans. To this day in 2024, those rules remain despite the genocidal desires of the United States. Thus, for Cuban officials like me, 65 years after the revolution's victory, we must still work tirelessly to try to protect our children from powerful imperative forces. And in April of 2024, while the U. S. spends money on bloody foreign wars and keeps spending money to maintain the Blockade and its unneeded and unwanted Military Base on Cuban soil, we in Cuba have to make sure our precious children survive the Blockade." 

     In April of 2024, for example, Cuba's free care includes maintaining its "Polio Vaccination Campaign" as mothers in Cienfuegos, shown above, eagerly bring their children to the clinics.

     And speaking of Josefina Vidal, Americans remember her standing between Cuban & US flags while negotiating with the Obama administration in both Havana and Washington TO FINALLY NORMALIZE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE TWO NATIONS.

     Both history and the Google search above regissters the fact that the brilliant diplomacy by Josefina Vital along with the diligence of President Obama's desires in 2016 actually, for the first time ever, normalized relations between Cuba and the United States. But, as shown above, that "was undone  by the Trump administration" that replaced President Obama on January 20th, 2017. And, unfortunately, since January 20th of 2021 the new President Biden, Obama's Vice President for 8 years, has refused to overturn Trump's extreme anti-Cuban measures such as "undoing" Obama's historic attempt to normalize relations with Cuba.

    The historic photo above was taken on March 17th of 2016 on a rainy day in Havana when President Obama -- along with his wife and two daughters -- arrived at Cuba's Jose Marti Internaitonal Airport. Prior to that moment, no U. S. President had visited Cuba since 1928 when President Calvin Coolidge arrived in Havana on a U. S. warship.

    On his trip to Havana in March of 2016 President Obama punctuated his fervent desire to normalize relations with Cuba by allowing his major speech to be shown live on national television stations all across Cuba. As shown above, President Obama told the Cuban people: "Cuba Does Not Need To Fear A Threat From The United States." Unfortunately, of course, since those words warmed the hearts of the people in Cuba, the rich and politically powerful Cuban-Americans in Miami and in Washington quickly took advantage of the end of President Obama's 8 years as President "to undo" the normalizations of relations between the United States and Cuba. "Cuba Does Not Need To Fear A Threat From The United States." Of course, that sentence is now meaningless and, of course, no one will ever be held accountable for eliminating it.

    While top Cuban diplomat Josefina Vidal amazingly negotiated the Obama administration's desires to NORMALIZE relations with Cuba, in April of 2024 Cuba's top diplomat now negotiating relations with the United States is the well-respected Carlos de Cossio. Indeed, in this last week of April-2024 the U. S. officials have been meeting face-to-face with Carlos de Cossio about issues such as the migration of Cubans to the United States, as a vast number of Cubans are trying to land in nearby Florida or try to cross at the US-Mexican border. Carlos de Cossio has reminded the U. S. this week that, "If you are concerned about how many Cubans are migrating to the United States, stop denying that the Trump and Biden administrations have severely tightened the Blockade, which started in 1962, to create genocidal food shortages and blackouts in Cuba. Lying about that is your problem as well as ours, and that is fueling migrations from Cuba."

    The DEMOCRACY NOW! television-radio network that is anchored by Amy Goodman, has the above updated interview with Cuban diplomat Carlos de Cossio. The entire interview is on the worldwide YouTube internet giant. You can easily access the entire interview on YouTube by using the caption shown above: "Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister: Deliberate U. S. Policy "Destroying Cuban Economy" Drives Migration." And, yes, Americans should at least listen to what Carlos de Cossio is telling U. S. officials regarding Cuban migration to the United States.

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Are Cubans Actually Starving in April of 2024?

 Actually, the answer is Yes!!

But who should be blamed -- Cuba or the US??

    Latin America's greatest Editorialist/Cartoonist is Carlos LaTuff, a Brazilian. It so happens that for many years LaTuff has problably been the most effective person in the world in denouncing the U. S. Embargo/Blockade of Cuba, which began in 1962 and LaTuff believes it was a criminal act in 1962 and, six decades later it has been shamefully strengthened in the past five years by the Trump and Biden administrations in Washington. Of course, LaTuff's massive influence informing the world about the issue is countered elsewhere, notably in the U. S. where the pro-Embargo movement reigns supreme. But below he details the pervasive side of the issue that, indeed, is causing some very disturbing food shortages in Cuba in April of 2024. So, let's start with Carlos Latuff:

    Yes, except in the U. S., the unique talent and passion of Editorialist/Cartoonist Carlos Latuff remains the primary influence that reflects the world's view of the U. S. Embargo/Blockade of Cuba that, incredibly, has existed for over six decades, or shortly after the Cuban Revolution in 1959 overthrew Cuba's US-backed/Mafia-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista. But, in vast contrast to the great Carlos LaTuff, the pro-Embargo/Blockade forces in the U. S. since 1959 -- primarily in Miami/Little Havana and, of course, in Washington, have wildly dictated the government's and the media's reasoning for the Embargo/Blockade -- claiming that it is designed to HELP the Cuban people, not to starve them. And, moreover, the U. S. media claims it is solely Cuba's fault for the starvation on the island, certainly not any fault of the EMBARGO.

     Total opposition to Carlos LaTuffs's opinion of the EMBARGO are people such as Orlando Gutierrez Boronat who was born 65 years ago in Havana, Cuba. Because his views mirror those in Miami's rich and politically powerful Little Havana USA, the U. S. media lavishes mammoth coverage on such anti-Cuban opinions. Of course, it seems that in both the U. S. government and in the U. S. media only opinions of powerful pro-EMBARGO Cuban-Americans are allowed in the U. S. media or within U. S. political circles.

    In these closing days in April of 2024, please note the blistering pro-Embargo article shown above written by Orlando Gutierrez Boronat: "Cubans are starving because their regime is no power-hungry." Of course, as far as the U. S. media is concerned it doesn't matter if the starving families in Cuba blame the endless U.S. EMBARGO, no one is supposed to care what the starving familes in Cuba think? What does count, of course, is what the rich & politically powerful Cuban-Aamericans in Miami/Little Havana think!!  "The Embargo?" "What Embargo?"

    Above are two of the pargraphs of the latest article written by Orlando Gutierrez Boronat that is  getting typical pro-EMBARGO resonance in the U. S. in April of 2024. Indeed, as you see, the old Little Havana refrain for the past six+ decades has harped on how rich Batista's Cuba was till the Revolution intervened but it doesn't explain that, while the Batistianos & Mafiosi & U.S. bussinessmen were making wild fortunes in Batista's Cuba, the everyday Cubans on the island were without adequate food, shelter, or education.

The wild & rich days in Batista's Cuba.

     But in Batista's wild & rich Cuba no one bothered to toss a few crumbs to everyday Cuban families, and Carlos LaTuff and others believe that led to a Revolution.

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