Two Cubans: Yoani Sanchez & Melba Hernandez

With Two Very Different Stories
{Updated: Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013}

         The above AFP photo shows Cuban dissident Yoani Sanchez arriving in Brazil on the first leg of her 80-day worldwide anti-Castro tour Monday, February 18, 2013. As she debarked at Recife, she said, "Long live democracy. I want this democracy in my country, too" according to the AFP article from Sao Paulo on Feb. 19th. She was "welcomed by friends, supporters and journalists...and also by pro-Cuban protesters who waved signs accusing her of being 'Yoani: agent of the CIA.'" She said she didn't think the Cuban government would prevent her returning to the island at the end of the tour. "I want to stay in Cuba, to help the Cubans," she said. "I don't want to be a migrant Yoani Sanchez in another country."

    Melba Hernandez, the legendary Cuban depicted above, says, "Yoani Sanchez, once she gets to Miami on her world tour to demean Cuba, should stay forever in Miami. That's where she belongs." 

                                     

       Melba Hernandez knows more about Fidel Castro, Cuba, dictators, and democracy than Yoani Sanchez will ever know. Melba was born in 1921 in Cruces, Las Villas province, Cuba. She graduated from the University of Havana Law School in 1943 and was known as a fierce children's advocate.

    The above photo shows Melba Hernandez standing behind the bench in the white blouse next to her best friend, Haydee Santamaria. The two women sitting on the bench are Haydee's sisters, Aida and Ada. This iconic photo was taken by young journalist Marta Rojas and the original is kept today in the Archives Section of Casa de las Americas, the famed Latin American journalism/arts foundation that Haydee created in Havana in 1959, with  similar branches later opening in Paris, France, and Madrid, Spain.

       The above Marta Rojas photo shows Melba Hernandez on your left with Haydee Santamaria. By the time this photo was taken, Melba and Haydee had made an indelible vow: They would overthrow the U. S. - backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba or they would die trying. At these moments in time, the two young women were conspiring with Haydee's brother Abel and with a young lawyer named Fidel Castro to make their first audacious rebel attack against the Batista-Mafia regime. Melba and Haydee not only helped plan the attack, they were participants. Melba, Haydee, Abel, and Fidel rented a farmhouse in Oriente province outside the southeastern city of Santiago de Cuba. In that farmhouse the plan was finalized for 138 rebels to attack the Moncada Army Barracks on the edge of Santiago while 26 other rebels, led by the then teenage Frank Pais, attacked a smaller Batista barracks in Bayama as a diversion.

The Moncada Attack began at 5:00 A.M. on July 26, 1953. 

      It was a disaster for the rebels because Batista's Moncada soldiers {above} were far better armed and they had been tipped off about the attack. All of the rebels were either killed or captured. As was Batista's custom, each prisoner was tortured, to solicit information, and then murdered. As that grim process unfolded, the New York Times and other media exposed it, creating embarrassment in Washington. Among the prisoners were Melba Hernandez, Haydee Santamaria, and Fidel Castro. Haydee's brother Abel and her fiance were tortured to death and then their warm testicles rubbed over Haydee's chest while she was tied to a chair. But before Melba, Haydee, and Fidel were tortured and then murdered, the U. S. induced Batista to cease the gruesome torture-murders, at least while the media was managing to chronicle them. Thus, Batista conducted show trials and sentenced Melba, Haydee, and Fidel to prison.

     While in prison, Fidel Castro got word to urban underground leaders Celia Sanchez and Frank Pais to make the failed Moncada attack the theme of the rebellion. Thus, "M-26-7" posters -- meaning "Moncada 26th of July" -- became ubiquitous and, to this day, that symbol is used to define the revolution.

   To appease his supporters in Washington, Batista allowed trusted journalists to interview the two imprisoned females, Melba Hernandez and Haydee Santamaria. In the photo above, that is the young, black Havana journalist Marta Rojas talking with prisoners Melba Hernandez, in the middle, and Haydee Santamaria! Marta was also permitted to interview the imprisoned Fidel Castro. Unknown to Batista, Marta supported the rebels. Amazingly, Marta took notes Fidel had written to Celia Sanchez from his cell in her bra and got them into the underground and on their way to Celia far away in the Sierra Maestra! 

     After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on Jan. 1-1959, the young journalist Marta Rojas {above} introduced Fidel Castro for his very first televised speech to the Cuban people!

A young Marta Rojas was already a renowned Latin American journalist.

Marta Rojas {in the center above} was an award-winning Vietnam War correspondent.

On the left above, Marta had some close calls on the Vietnam War front-lines.

       Marta Rojas today -- as a journalist, author, and historian -- knows more about Fidel Castro, the Cuban Revolution, and Cuba than any soul alive, including Yoani Sanchez. My favorite Marta Rojas book -- "Tania: The Unforgettable Guerrilla" -- was first published by Random House in the 1970s. Of course, no one is sponsoring a world tour for Marta to express her views on Fidel Castro or Cuba.

The above Tracey Eaton photo shows Marta Rojas in her Havana home.

     From July-1953 till May-1955 Fidel Castro was Prisoner #3859 on the Isle of Pines in Batista's Cuba. But the Moncada attack had made him the super hero in the eyes of the vast majority of Cubans.

     Herbert Lionel Mathews {left}, a key writer for the New York Times, loved Fidel Castro and hated Fulgencio Batista. His scathing articles embarrassed the U. S. to such an extent that Washington induced Batista to free Fidel from prison. Batista complied but, of course, put a team of assassins on Fidel's trail with the intention of killing him on the outside beyond the prying eyes of journalists like Mathews.

Thus, on May 15-1955 Fidel Castro {above} left Batista's prison! 

         As a free man, although quite cognizant of the murder squads tailing him, Fidel's first order of business {above} was to meet and comfort Melba Hernandez {left} and Haydee Santamaria, the two female rebels who had been unmercifully tortured for almost two years in Batista's prison.

     Haydee Santamaria then rushed to the Sierra Maestra where she and Celia Sanchez would carve out niches as history's two all-time greatest female revolutionary warriors. The photo above shows Haydee and Celia leading a guerrilla detail in the Sierra Maestra. Their facial expressions, fearless and determined, defined both of them as well as the revolutionary war that defeated Batista.

      In December, 1956 -- after his recruitment exile to the U. S. and Mexico -- Fidel Castro finally joined the two female guerrilla fighters in the Sierra Maestra. In the above photo, that is the heavily armed Celia Sanchez {center} and Haydee Santamaria showing Fidel how to handle a weapon they gave him.

    Two weeks earlier {above} Celia Sanchez had given Fidel his first telescopic rifle in the Sierra Maestra. This is the first photo ever taken of them together although, via the exchange of notes while he was in prison, they had already become everlastingly worshipful of each other.

      And never in his long life would Fidel Castro forget that Celia Sanchez and Haydee Santamaria {above} were the two greatest warriors, male or female, in the revolutionary war against Batista.

      After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on Jan. 1-1959, the three most powerful people in Cuba were the three soul-mates pictured above -- Fidel flanked by Celia and Haydee. That fact, of course, is conveniently denied to this day by the losers of the Cuban Revolution who re-established their ultra-powerful dictatorship in nearby Miami. In all the decades since 1959 the Cuban exiles in Miami have found it convenient to demonize the macho men of the revolution but impossible to demonize Celia and Haydee, the angelic female guerrilla fighters who opposed the Batista regime because of its abuse of Cuban children, a glaring mistake that eventually doomed the powerful Batista-U.S.-Mafia rule in Cuba. Celia died of cancer on Jan. 11, 1980. Shortly, devastated by Celia's death, Haydee committed suicide. 

      Celia Hart Santamaria {above}, the daughter of Haydee Santamaria and fellow rebel Armando Hart, confirmed in a famous 2005 essay about Haydee and Celia that her mother's suicide was solely because of Celia Sanchez's death. Celia Hart, who was named after Celia Sanchez, became a prolific writer but she and her older brother Abel, who was named after Haydee's brother Abel, were both killed in a car wreck in Havana on September 7, 2008, as they drove to assist Cubans left homeless by three back-to-back hurricanes. In her 2005 essay Celia Hart also identified Reynaldo Coloma as Haydee's finance that was tortured to death, along with Haydee's brother Abel, when they were Batista prisoners in 1953.

    The repetitious murders of children in Batista's Cuba, intended as a warning to potential dissidents, infuriated the female half of the Cuban population and eventually spelled defeat for Batista's dictatorship. Quite clearly, as explained by historian Terence Cannon in his book Revolutionary Cuba, Cuban women -- Celia Sanchez, Haydee Santamaria, Vilma Espin, Melba Hernandez, Tete Puebla, Marta Rojas, etc. -- provided the decisive edge in the war against Batista. In the year 2013, women are the majority in Cuba's National Assembly. And since 1959 there have been no murders of children to quell dissent.

The photo above shows Melba Hernandez and Haydee Santamaria in Batista's prison.

     The above photo shows Melba Hernandez and Haydee Santamaria as Batista prisoners. It was a day in which they were being taken back to their cells after having been unmercifully tortured in the basement.

     Melba Hernandez is still alive and therefore a living legend in Cuba and around the world. Two modern countries -- Vietnam and Cambodia -- have recently awarded Melba their highest civilian honors and medals for her yeoman work on behalf of children in those two countries. As an anti-Batista warrior and as a humanitarian obsessed with the welfare of children, Melba has a plethora of memories...about Celia, Haydee, Batista, Fidel, the Cuban Revolution and Revolutionary Cuba. She is a Cuban treasure.

Yoani Sanchez has just embarked on a lucrative, 80-day anti-Castro tour. 

Perhaps Melba Hernandez could embark on an 80-day anti-Batista tour.

Today's {Feb. 20th} Jamaica Observer gem: Jobs to China for cheap labor.

********** 

America's Top Cuban Expert And Her Must Reads

The island of Cuba has been a unique player on the international stage since the 1950s.

      Cuba's larger than life existence in the Caribbean and its closeness to the world superpower U. S. A., just 90 miles south of the Florida Keys, projects the island as a significant force in both America's history and America's topicality. One aspect of its uniqueness -- the reconstitution of the overthrown U. S. - backed Batista dictatorship on U. S. soil in January of 1959 -- has produced the most lasting impact on the U. S. democracy, revealing just how malleable and fragile it is. The reaffirmation of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in South Florida, Union City (NJ), and Washington (D.C.) has, arguably, been the most indelible and the most nefarious event in the history of the American democracy, which got its foundation in 1776. For that reason, I believe in the year 2013 Americans should not still be getting their daily doses of Cuban information from the reconstituted Batistianos who, for the most part, have a firm stranglehold on both the U. S. government and the U. S. media when it comes to Cuba.

      That backdrop brings me around to a lady named Julia E. Sweig. She knows more about Cuba and U. S. - Cuban relations than any living soul. Moreover, she is unbiased in dispensing information about those two topics. And that is precisely why, I believe, you will rarely see or hear her on biased, slanted, or politically correct Cable News, Talk Radio, etc. But if you want to know about the true history and topicality of Cuba and its relationship to the U. S., Ms. Sweig's incomparable insight is readily available. She is the Director of Latin American Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and that organization's Website highlights her incomparable expertise and insight. Her books are also excellent portraits of Cuba and its unique place in the Caribbean, Latin America, and the world.

     Julia Sweig's 2004 book "Inside the Cuban Revolution" remains the best source of information on how the female-powered urban underground paved the way for Fidel Castro to shock the world by becoming the first and only revolutionary to overthrow a U. S. - backed dictatorship.

    Julia Sweig's 2009 book "Cuba" indeed had the correct sub-title: "What Everyone Needs to Know." On April 15-2013 an updated book entitled "Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know" by Ms. Sweig will be published. I've already pre-ordered my copy from Amazon and so should you if you want the unvarnished truth about Cuba, including the good, the bad, the beautiful, and the ugly. For important and accurate information about Cuba, Julia Sweig is your prime source unless, of course, you prefer slanted, self-serving propaganda or hyperbole from self-serving sources, either pro or con.

     If you have the opportunity to see and hear Julia Sweig speak about Cuba, take advantage of it to compensate for the fact that you will rarely see her on television "news" shows...for the reason stated earlier. Of course, if the mainstream media such as the New York Times or the BBC want a history lesson on Cuba or topical data on the island they consult her. But it's also easy to read her Cuban updates on the "Council on Foreign Relations" Website. The latest major article penned by Ms. Sweig is entitled "The Post-Castro Era Is Today." With unique insight, she explains why that is so.

Above is one way birds stay warm on cold Virginia nights.

Yes, the nine siblings above are real ducklings loving the warm water.

**************

Past Support of Dictators Still Haunts America

The U. S. Atonement Is Overdue

      Amazon.com, the world's top book-seller, loves me. In the past few months I've bought and read nine hardback books -- all biographies. The one I just finished was Sissy Spacek's 2012 memoir "My Extraordinary Ordinary Life."

      Sissy Spacek's 1980 portrayal of Loretta Lynn in "Coal Miner's Daughter" won her the Oscar as "Best Actress" and crowned her rise to super-stardom in Hollywood. 

     In the past three decades Sissy Spacek has justifiably won many accolades and her new memoir is gripping. Of particular interest to me was her remembrance of going on location in Mexico in 1980 to film the movie "Missing." It was a pulsating movie set in Chile and was based on the 1973 U. S. - inspired overthrow of the democratically elected Salvador Allende whose death enabled the U. S. to install the murderous dictator Augusto Pinochet for the next 19 very bloody years. On Page 204 of her excellent memoir, Sissy Spacek wrote these words regarding her preparation for her leading role in that movie: "I have to admit I knew next to nothing about the political turmoil going on in South and Central America during the 1970s. But preparing for the movie was a quick education. I was shocked and disillusioned when I learned of our government's complicity in so much brutality and suffering." Sissy Spacek is a very intelligent and well educated American. And she grew up in a political setting in Texas; her grand-father was a dear friend of former President Lyndon Johnson. But it is not surprising to me that Sissy Spacek first learned of a monumental event -- the U. S. role in the overthrow of the democratically elected Allende government in Chile to install the murderous but "U. S. Friendly" Dictator Pinochet -- accidentally as she studied for a movie role.

      General Pinochet was such a murderous fiend for almost two decades that he famously ordered the bloody murders of a Chilean diplomat and his beautiful American aide, Ronnie Moffet, within sound of the White House in Washington, D. C. in 1976. To this day Chile, like other Latin American nations, is still trying to come to grips with the ashes and bones left behind by "U. S. Friendly" dictators of decades past. Chile, for example, has begged key Americans such as Henry Kissinger (a renowned Pinochet-supporter) and George H. W. Bush (CIA Director in 1976) to provide their ongoing investigations with specific information and Chile has been rebuffed in those efforts. Such anti-democracy tendencies by the U. S. from the 1950s into the 1980s helped inspire the waves of democratic elections that finally swept over Latin America. The American democracy since the 1980s should have been strong enough that intelligent, well educated Americans like Sissy Spacek could have been told about the U. S. over-throwing beloved democratically elected Presidents like Allende to install killer dictators like Pinochet, especially when the justifications included allowing rich American businessmen to rape and rob helpless nations during the reigns of "U. S. - friendly" dictators, something they could not have done under  democratically elected  governments.

      Monuments and statues honoring the beloved Salvador Allende abound today throughout Latin America, especially in Chile and Cuba, but not in the United States.

The photo above shows the Salvador Allende Hospital in Havana, Cuba.

     Salvador Allende and Fidel Castro were dear friends. At the meeting above, Castro had just told Allende that the CIA was backing a coup to overthrow him. Shortly -- on Sept. 11, 1973 -- Allende died defending his presidential palace with the engraved AK-47 rifle that Fidel Castro had given him as an inaugural gift. Sissy Spacek and other Americans, I believe, have a right to know about such things...even if...it might cause them to ponder: The decent, democratically elected President of Chile, Salvador Allende, was a dear friend of Fidel Castro; the murderous dictator Pinochet, who replaced Allende, was a dear friend of President Richard Nixon and his top adviser Henry Kissinger. Is there...something wrong with that picture? Yes, I think there is. I think Americans like Sissy Spacek have a right to know the truth about Salvador Allende and Augusto Pinochet, and why Chile to this day is still trying to come to grips with those dark days, without much help from classified U. S. data that could shed additional light on the events that gave rise to Pinochet's rule and longevity, putting an end to Chile's initial efforts to embrace democracy. 

     Sissy Spacek, for example, should finally hear from Henry Kissinger why he was so fond of General Pinochet and why he advised President Nixon that they could not accept the democratically elected Salvador Allende as President of Chile. Many democracy-lovers await Kissinger's explanation.

         The bloody, broken glasses above were the ones President Allende was wearing when he died in his office at Palacio de la Moneda in Santiago, Chile.  Latin Americans are much more attuned to the significance of those historic glasses than Americans are and that fact bespeaks of the glaring lack of transparency in the U. S. democracy, as Sissy Spacek alluded to in her splendid biography.

****************************

Sen. Menendez Is America's Problem, Not Cuba's

Illustrates Failure Within U. S. Democracy

     The above photo by Doug Mills that depicts a concerned Senator Robert Menendez was used to illustrate a major article in the New York Times on Feb. 1-2013. It was entitled: "Senator Has Long Ties to Donor Under Scrutiny. The revelation saw the light of day this past week when the FBI raided the offices of an extremely wealthy Miami eye surgeon, Dr. Salomon E. Melgen. The New York Times reported, "Dr. Melgen...has always been happy to help out his friend, Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey." Then the Times explained how Sen. Menendez has returned the favors with Senate bills that reward Dr. Melgen in his dealings with the Dominican Republic. It turns out that Sen. Menendez, conveniently, "is Chairman of the Senate subcommittee that holds sway over the Dominican Republic" and that, with such power, Sen. Menendez, for example, "subsequently urged officials in the State and Commerce Departments to intervene so the contract would be enforced, at an estimated value of $500 million." The "contract" was one involving the Dominican Republic that vastly enriched Dr. Melgen's fortune that, in turn, has richly backed Sen. Menendez's political career. Menendez, the former Mayor of the Cuban-exile bastion of Union City, New Jersey, was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives in 1993 from that district. He was then appointed to the U. S. Senate before being elected as an incumbent, with Dr. Melgen's hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funds helping to explain how and why incumbents are almost unbeatable in the upper realms of the U. S. democracy. When it comes to the Dominican Republic and Sen. Menendez, even the Dominican Republic's own government is overwhelmed. The NY Times article pointed out that the $500 million largess for Dr. Melgen was described by Miguel Cocco as "an exorbitant giveaway" to Dr. Melgen.  {Cocco was the Dominican Republic's Customs Director who tried but failed to block the deal} The NY Times pointed out that the close ties between Sen. Menendez and Dr. Melgen "go back to the 1990s" when they spent holidays together at Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic where Dr. Melgen has a home in the "gated oceanfront resort where houses cost as much as $20 million." The NY Times says that "a super PAC" known as Majority PAC "poured $582,500 into New Jersey to support Mr. Menendez's re-election effort. One of the organization's biggest donors? Dr. Melgen's company, which donated $700,000 between June and October." The problem with such nefarious out-of-state money re-electing people like Senator Menendez in a district in the state of New Jersey is this: Once in the U. S. Congress, they can then make laws that affect people adversely in all 50 states, not to mention innocent people in other countries, such as Cuba or the Dominican Republic. The NY Times article included this sentence: "In Florida political circles, one Miami Democrat explained, it is understood that anyone seeking a federal appointment that requires Mr. Menendez's blessing should first get Dr. Melgen's backing. 'If you needed Bob, you had to see Melgen,' said the Democrat. 'Everybody in Miami knew that.'" Wow! A bit startling but not exactly a revelation to anyone who has the slightest knowledge of what the NY Times called "Florida political circles" or what is commonly referred to as "hardline Cuban exiles running amok and generally unchallenged in business or politics." 

         The above photo of Sen. Menendez -- by Alex Wong/Getty Images -- illustrated a Los Angeles Times article on Feb. 1-2013 that blared this headline: "Sen. Robert Menendez Under Growing Scrutiny Over Ethics Questions." This article indicated that a Dominican Republic contract benefiting Melgen and urged by Sen. Menendez was worth up to "$1 billion." The LA Times ended its long article with this sentence: "A review of records shows Menendez has at times used his role on the Foreign Relations Committee to advocate for Melgen." No kidding. But perhaps the first two sentences of the LA Times article is even more scary: "Sen. Robert Menendez, the powerful New Jersey Democrat who this week was named chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is facing a Senate ethics probe...the review comes on the heels of an FBI raid on Melgen's medical offices in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Tuesday night and Wednesday as part of an investigation into what sources called possible Medicaid fraud." USA Today has had front-page articles revealing South Florida as the "epicenter" and "ground zero" for Medicare fraud, prescription-pill fraud, etc., that costs all Americans dearly. And so, this very week Sen. Menendez becomes the "Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee." And guess what? Foreign Relations include the Dominican Republic and Cuba.

         And guess what? Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Miami -- another Bush-ordained Cuban-American -- has served a long stint as Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee in the other congressional chamber, the House of Representatives! Born in Havana, she has been a member of the U. S. Congress since 1989 when Jeb Bush was her Campaign Manager. The U. S. Congress consists of just two chambers, with radical anti-Castro Cuban-Americans holding the Foreign Relations Chairmanships on both sides of the aisle! Now you ask, "Can things possibly get any worse?"

Yes! If Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio capture the White House in 2016 as some predict!!!

  

         So, Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen has been around for decades and thus must have a huge collection of pens, like the one above, that she gets as souvenirs commemorating the most stringent anti-Cuban legislation signed into law by the Bush dynasty. I personally would not care if every chairmanship in the U. S. Congress and every chair in the Oval Office were held by Cuban-Americans but I would prefer Cuban-Americans other than those anointed by the Bush dynasty.

            Or...Cuban-Americans not propped up by extremely rich men like Saloman Melgen {left} from South Florida using ungodly amounts of apparently ill-gotten money to fund the political campaigns of people like Sen. Menendez {right} in another state. Such schemes circumvent the democratic process in which voters from Menendez's own district should predicate the election without the interference of bushels of outside money, a situation not allowed by any other pro-democracy nation. Melgen and Menendez, in other words, help explain why the approval rating of Congress languishes in the single digits but yet it is almost impossible to vote them out of office!

Thus, we can expect more Melgens and Menendezes!

       The democracy-loving Sarah Stephens {above) is the Executive Director of the Center for Democracy in the Americas. Her Cuba Central column this week stated:

        "In public, Senator Bob Menendez is never a shy skeptic about certain kinds of travel. He bitterly opposed reforms in 2009 to allow Cuban Americans unfettered travel rights to Cuba, and later teamed up with Senator Marco Rubio to oppose opening up people-to-people travel for most other Americans. When the Center for Democracy in the Americas was organizing a Cuba trip for Senate chiefs of staff, he...warned all of their colleagues not to allow their staffs to go. At John Kerry;s confirmation hearing, he scolded Senator Jeff Flake, who joked about using 'spring break' to disrupt the Cuban government's hold on the island. Like other hardliners, Menendez suggested that travel to Cuba was about little more than sexual tourism, as he did in his speech against Cuban American family travel four years ago. Had Senator Menendez heeded his publicly expressed doubts about travel in private, he might not be in the hot water he finds himself today. His story has moved swiftly from a lurid set of accusations. According to NBC News, the raid ostensibly 'concerned a separate criminal probe conducted by the FBI and the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, which typically investigates Medicare fraud. However, agents were also looking for evidence in the other case concerning the alleged under-aged prostitutes' and two airplane rides Menendez and Melgen took to the Dominican Republic."

          In other words, Americans concerned about their democracy should tune out the likes of Fox News and tune in truthful sources such as the Center for Democracy in the Americas.

         And in other words, Sen. Menendez is against the freedom to travel for others but not for himself. His office admits he took two illegal trips to and from the Dominican Republic on jets owned by Melgen. Whether or not the trips involved prostitution with under-aged Dominican Republic girls, as various sources including the Miami New Times are alleging, they were illegal because Sen. Menendez did not report them or pay for them as required by Senate rules. After the quid pro quo scandal broke, Sen. Menendez wrote Mr. Melgen a check for just under $60,000 to pay for those airplane trips to the Dominican Republic. But the Melgen stain is one the Senator can't wash out.

        This week's Menendez-Melgen-Dominican Republic saga reminds Cuban watchers that two of the most visceral anti-Castro haters were Richard Nixon and Rafael Trujillo. The photo above shows Nixon lovingly reminding Trujillo how much Washington loved and appreciated him. At the time, of course, Trujillo was in the midst of his three-decades run as the brutal, thieving dictator of the Dominican Republic. Before and after he supported the U. S./Cuban-exile Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba in April of 1961, Trujillo himself had tried to overthrow the Cuban Revolution and on at least three well-known times sent agents to Cuba to kill Fidel Castro. Countless magazines and books, then and now, have documented just how brutal Trujillo was. He once famously murdered about 22,000 Haitian men, women, and children on a whim. That atrocity alarmed all of the Caribbean and Latin American nations, but not Trujillo's prime supporter, the United States. In fact, the official U. S. reaction to the uproar caused by the murders of the Haitians produced one of history's most famous quotes.

      Cordell Hull {above} was the U. S. Secretary of State when Trujillo murdered the Haitians. Hull's official reaction is recorded for history: "Trujillo is a son-of-a-bitch. But he's our son-of-a-bitch." And so he was. People throughout the Caribbean and Latin America still cringe when they are reminded of that quotation, and many of them were reminded of it this week as they learned about the Dominican Republic connection to the Menendez-Melgen saga. The problem, however, is: Americans don't seem to care enough about their democracy to cringe at even the most egregious anti-democracy policies of their government. For example, Americans seem not quite smart enough to ponder: "Uh, let's see. The U. S. supported fiends like Trujillo, who hated Castro. The U. S. teamed with the Mafia to support the fiendish Batista, and both the Mafia and Batista hated Castro. Uh, what if Castro and not the U. S. was aligned with Trujillo, Batista, the Mafia, and other such fiends. Huh? Now, hey! If we could tie Castro to the likes of Trujillo, Batista, and the Mafia...then...uh, huh...we could, uh, send over a, uh, drone to fix him for, uh, good!" Such a lack of "smarts" hurts a lot of people, including innocents in places like Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba and...the United States of America.

Cuba and the USA are next-door neighbors.

And the bible says the mighty wolf doesn't have to devour the little lamb.

On a gentler topic, the little guy above is the prettiest bird I've seen this week.

********************