Cubans Await Normal U.S. Ties

The Island and U. S. Adjust to Detente
Updated: Friday, January 30th, 2015

      This AP/Roberto Carlos Sanchez photo was taken this week {Wednesday, Jan. 28th} at the Summit of the Community of Latin American States in San Antonio de Belen in Costa Rica. It shows Cuba's 83-year-old President Raul Castro addressing the forum and making a very pertinent reference to the detente that Mr. Castro and U. S. President Barack Obama announced to the world on Dec. 17th, 2014. The ongoing detente is attempting to accomplish what many consider the impossible, which is to normalize relations between the two countries. At this week's very friendly forum in Costa Rica, Raul Castro said: "If three problems aren't resolved, this diplomatic re-approachment wouldn't make any sense." He then stated three basic demands:

#1: U.S. must return Guantanamo Bay to Cuba.

#2: U.S. must lift the trade embargo.

#3: U.S. must remove Cuba from its Sponsors of Terrorism list.

       As strong as those three "demands" were this week in Costa Rica, the early word is that key Obama diplomats were not surprised or "taken aback." They realize Mr. Castro was speaking to the choir because all Caribbean and Latin American nations agree with him on those three points. The above photo shows Mr. Obama and Mr. Castro when they met briefly at the Nelson Mandela memorial in South Africa in December, 2013. Raul Castro took advantage with this comment, "Mr. President, we need to have sane relations." It was, many believe, enough to expedite Mr. Obama's efforts in that regard, quickly resulting in secretive but high-level diplomacy at various locales, including Canada. That led up to the December 17th announcements in both countries and then the January 22nd and 23rd diplomatic meetings in Havana. The three points Raul Castro raised in Costa Rica Wednesday will convince pro-embargo zealots that Cuba does not want to normalize relations. That is wrong, of course, just as the U. S. Cuban policy, dating back to 1952 when the U. S. teamed with the Mafia to support the brutal Batista dictatorship in Cuba, has been wrong and just as hurtful to the image of the U. S. democracy as it has been to the island of Cuba.

      This graphic depicts a pugnacious and cute little Cuban schoolgirl proudly toting a Cuban flag while she lets Uncle Sam, the U. S. scrooge, know how she feels about the harsh U. S. embargo. Undoubtedly, she feels just as strongly about the U. S. theft of Guantanamo Bay. And she probably would also like to give Uncle Sam a whack on the noggin for keeping Cuba on its State Sponsors of Terrorism list. And you know what? Every nation in the Caribbean, every nation in Latin America, and every nation in the world {except the U. S. and U.S.-dependent Israel} agrees with her. Go girl!

The fourteen provinces of Cuba

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Up, up and away toward Cuba!!

      American Airlines President Scott Kirby has announced that he plans to begin regular flights to Cuba from Miami. Delta, United, JetBlue, and Southwest airlines say that they will compete for such flights. Already American Airlines has about 20 charter flights a week to Cuba. U. S. ports, farm enterprises, and many other American businesses are also mulling ways to benefit from President Obama's plans to create at least a degree of detente with Cuba. Thus, similar daily headlines will occur.

     Fidel Castro has issued a public statement about the ongoing diplomatic efforts of Cuba and the United States to normalize relations. He wrote: "I don't trust the U. S., nor have I exchanged a word with them. But this does not mean I reject a peaceful solution to conflicts. We will always defend cooperation and friendship with all the people of the world, including our political adversaries. My brother Raul has taken the pertinent steps in accordance with his prerogatives and the powers given to him." The statement by the 88-year-old Fidel Castro was first published in Monday's Granma newspaper on the island but then quickly picked up by the international news media.

      The photo above was taken on January 8th of 2014, over a year ago, and is the last time Fidel Castro has been seen in public. He attended an art exhibit in Havana that day. The last photo taken of him in his home was on August 21, 2014 with Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro. In July of 2014 Fidel's son Alex took photos of his father hosting China's President Xi Jinping and Russia's President Vladimir Putin in Castro's home. Fidel's last "Reflections" column was on October 18, 2014 when he wrote about Africa's Ebola crisis. Because he had not been seen in public since January 8, 2014 and not photographed at home since August 21, 2014 and not been published since October 18, 2014, reports surfaced that he had died. A respected Spanish newspaper briefly reported online that he had, in fact, died. That was quickly squashed but not before it predictably set off the latest rounds of celebrations in Miami. He has had three very close calls...the last one was in December...since he almost died back on July 26, 2006 when he was first felled by an omnipotent respiratory illness.

    On Saturday and Sunday of this past weekend {Photo courtesy: AFP} a major sports event took place in Havana. Agence France Presse and other international news organizations gave it front-page headlines. Some 372 athletes from 29 nations took part in the Triathlon as they biked, swam, and ran in a hugely exciting and successful event. The 25 Americans who participated raved about how they were received, with several of them shedding very visible tears as they stood for the U. S. national anthem and then staunchly advocated further U.S.-Cuban detente.  

     Cuba has announced its roster for the upcoming Caribbean Baseball Classic that will be held in Puerto Rico from February the 2nd through the 8th. {Photo: baseballdecuba.com} The Cuban squad headed to Puerto Rico will feature the three right-handed pitchers shown above -- Norge Ruiz, Freddy Asiel Alvarez, and Hector Mendoza. The competition will be stiff from other strong teams -- the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. Major League scouts from the U. S. will be on hand to particularly monitor the Cuban and Dominican players. Also, as Cuba realizes, non-baseball scouts will be looking to entice Cuban players to defect as an added bonus, which is to hurt Cuba, and to make money on human trafficking.

    Alfonso Urquiola will be the manager the Cuban team in the Caribbean Baseball Classic next month in Puerto Rico because his Pinar del Rio squad, celebrating above, is Cuba's reigning championship team. {Photo: baseballdecuba.com}.

      Frederich Cepeda, this switch-hitting outfielder, will lead the Cuban squad in the Caribbean World Series the first week of February in Puerto Rico. Last year Frederic led Cuba to the championship in the highly competitive Central American and Caribbean Games in Veracruz, Mexico. In 2009 Frederich hit a resounding .500 with 3 homers in six games and 24 at bats in the World Baseball Classic. He has been the best player in Cuba in the past decade. He has also seen a plethora of lesser Cuban players defect to the United States with guaranteed contracts in the $70 million range. Cepeda, while playing for Cuba in other countries, has also had numerous opportunities to defect and, for sure, he has had to resist continuing pleas to leave the island for the American Major Leagues and live as a multi-millionaire in the U. S.

      Frederich Cepeda, shown above in his #23 uniform for the Yomiuri Giants in the Japanese Major Leagues, has become a millionaire thanks to his contract in Japan. The Cuban government allows Frederick to play in Japan as long as he promises to return and play for his Cuban team, which is Sancti Spiritus. Frederich has kept that promise out of his love for the island and his family. Cuba has normal relations with every country in the world, except the United States. If, although it's a long-shot, Cuba normalizes relations with the U. S., the extreme recruitment of the island's abundance of baseball talent by the 30 U. S. Major League teams would be drastically altered.

     Josefina Vidal, Cuba's audacious and no-nonsense Minister of North American Affairs, addressed the issue of Cuban baseball last week when she represented Cuba in the historic diplomatic meetings in Havana. So, her thoughts on the topic are pertinent because if, indeed, the U. S. and Cuba are able to normalize relations it can come about not by intimidating her but by reaching accords with her. When the question surrounding "the barrage of $70 million offers from the U. S. to entice Cuban baseball players" came up, here is the way Josefina Vidal addressed the issue:

               "I am aware that this island produces far more great baseball players, far more great doctors, and far more great ballet performers -- per capita -- than the United States can ever hope to produce. That is because, I believe, that Cuba devotes a much bigger portion of its wealth to training such young talent and giving them the opportunity to evolve. I am also aware that extremely rich American entities, such as the 30 Major League baseball teams, can shower defecting Cubans with, as you said, 70-million-dollar guaranteed deals if they defect. That, of course is a lure many cannot resist. Yes, I understand the greed of U. S. baseball teams intent on improving their teams. But, coupled with that, what I most resent is the fact that the other motive -- to hurt Cuba -- comes into play from revengeful criminal elements. Cuban baseball players on the island and when they play in other countries are besieged with offers from both elements -- the rich baseball teams and the criminals who only want to hurt Cuba. But, please understand, those criminals besiege Cuban doctors serving abroad and Cuban ballet stars performing in other countries for two unmistakable reasons -- because we have devoted the most to training baseball players, doctors, ballet stars, and such. The U. S. doesn't really need to recruit Cuban doctors but our doctors serving abroad, whom we have trained totally free, are repeatedly offered obscene bonus dollars to defect because it hurts Cuba. The same with our baseball players, our ballet stars, and others. The Miami Ballet regularly entices Cubans to join the Cubans it has already enticed. The ballet units in New York, San Francisco, London and other cities also desire Cuban stars even more than natives of their own countries, apart from hurting Cuba. But the U. S. allows criminal activity related only to Cubans because it hurts Cuba. As this island's main defender of such policies, I am amazed that the Western Hemisphere's most famed terrorists are anti-Cuban terrorists freely protected and honored in Miami. The special U. S. laws related only to Cuba entice Cubans to risk their lives to touch U. S. soil, in which case they are home free with special privileges not available to people in nations not named Cuba. Lastly, having lived in the United States and to this day closely monitoring the U. S. media, I am aware that the U. S. Congress is totally controlled by anti-Cuban extremists on anything related to Cuba. But what astounds me is that the main U. S. media...newspapers, television news...is either unwilling or unable to tell the truth about relations between our two countries. Americans, I have noticed, are thus unable to judge such things as...well, whether are not a civilian Cuban plane loaded only with innocents, mostly children, should or should not have been blown out of the sky by terrorist bombs, and whether or not such well-known terrorists thrive in the U. S. while the U. S. lists Cuba as a Sponsor, not the victim, of Terrorism. The rest of the world can make such judgments. But not Americans. What does that say about Americans and their love of democracy? Oh, gosh! I'm sorry. I did not mean to ask a question. That's your job. Did I answer your question about Cuban baseball players?"

      Josefina Vidal has a reputation for tirelessly answering questions related to Cuba's relations with America. Karen DeYoung, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post journalist, made that very point in her coverage of last week's diplomatic meetings in Havana. Ms. DeYoung seemed amazed how "easily" Ms. Vidal confidently detailed her replies in fluent Spanish or English. Other major unbiased and un-intimidated journalists -- such as DeWayne Wickham of USA Today, Sarah Rainsford of the BBC, and Daniel Trotta of Reuters -- have long considered Ms. Vidal the best source for truthful and insightful information regarding U.S.-Cuban relations. She is the single best hope if there is soon to be anything resembling a normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States. For all those reasons, she has emerged, after the Castro brothers, as the most pilloried Cuban by propagandists who benefit from and thus powerfully desire a continuation of hostile relations between Cuba and the United States. Asked about that, she gave Reuters this reply: "I sleep very well at night because I don't fight for dollar bills or to condone criminals who harm Cuban children and then brag in the U. S. media that such things are 'big blows' against Fidel. If that doesn't answer your question, say so and I will gladly explain it further."  

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Cuban-U.S. Negotiations Will Fail

Normalizing Relations Has No Chance

      Roberta Jacobson, America's very capable Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, made history yesterday when she landed in Havana. She is the highest U. S. delegate to go to Cuba for serious diplomatic discussions in decades. Her trip is so historic that top American journalists -- such as NBC anchor Brian Williams -- hosted their programs from the island. Sadly, Ms. Jacobson's courageously hopeful mission on behalf of President Barack Obama is doomed to fail and will end up as yet another waste of time and money in yet another sincere but hopeless effort to normalize relations between the two neighboring countries.

       Alex Lee, Roberta Jacobson's top assistant, actually did much of the talking on behalf of the U. S. in yesterday's first round of diplomatic talks in Havana. That's Mr. Lee in the center above. At the end of the day he spoke highly of "the production and collaborative nature of today's discussions." But a later quotation Mr. Lee made to reporters was far more telling because it was a statement that reveals why these heralded discussions will be fruitless. Mr. Lee said: "The policy locally known as Wet Foot/Dry Foot very much remains in effect." You may re-read that sentence, because it was the highlight of Wednesday's round of U.S.-Cuban diplomacy.  And as long as the U. S. is not willing to budge on that issue, there is zero chance that Cuba will seriously consider normalizing relations with its superpower neighbor.

      Josefina Vidal, Cuba's Minister of North American Affairs, is second from the right in the above photo at Wednesday's crucial diplomatic session in Havana. Like Mr. Lee, her initial statement summarizing the meeting was diplomatic: "Cuba aspires to have a normal relationship with the United States, in the broader sense but also in the area of migration." When pressed by reporters to expand on that sentence, she was not as diplomatic. She said: "U. S. programs designed to hurt Cuba by enticing our baseball players, our ballet stars, our doctors, and others of our best-trained talent is reprehensible. Rich and powerful countries like the U. S. should cooperate with smaller countries to mutually benefit everyone. It is no secret to anyone that the U. S. brain-drain and talent-drain from Cuba is designed purely to hurt Cuba. It also entices and endangers lives, creating a gravy train for human traffickers and other despicable criminals. U. S. laws relative to Cuba, such as Wet Foot/Dry Foot, are enacted and enforced to benefit a few powerful but unsavory characters while hurting Cubans on the island and everyone else. Such laws also mock the U. S. democracy, but superpower status can make them facts of life, decade after decade. We are here to discuss such things, but not to be mistreated and not to be disrespected because we are an island and our enemies, while very few on the international scale, happen to have the support of the world's biggest treasury and the world's strongest military. Cuba has moral right on its side regarding its sovereignty. Cuba has the world on its side regarding its sovereignty. Cuba hopes it will also, someday, have the U. S. democracy on its side."

  Any sane, rational, unbiased person on the planet desires a normalization of relations between the U. S. and Cuba. Although Cuba is a mere island, its larger-than-life impact on the international stage, far out of proportion to its size and wealth, is based purely on the failed, greedy, and cruel relationship it has with the United States, whose incomparable world influence is based on its unmatched military and economic power. Democracy lovers around the world, and the most patriotic Americans, are {or should be} ashamed that the world's greatest democracy maintains a Cuban policy that mocks both democracy and decency. Yes, Cuba's government since 1959 leaves a lot to be desired, but so did the U. S.-backed dictatorship that preceded it and, based on that historical example, so would a U.S.-backed government that succeeds it. Thus, Cubans on the island should chart the course Cuba will take -- not self-serving revengeful Cubans hiding behind the skirts of the world's richest and strongest nation, and not a foreign country in a region that has fought so hard to defeat imperialism. But the current status of U.S.-Cuban Relations will not be markedly altered by the heralded and historic diplomatic sessions now taking place in Cuba. That's because normalizing relations between the two neighbors, while benefiting the vast majority of people, would mitigate against the interests of a few who have the wherewithal, thanks to a right-wing cabal in the U. S. Congress, to maintain a policy that most Cubans, most Americans, most Cuban-Americans, and most people around the world abhor. In a saner, better world, Americans would be expected to admit that America's Cuban policy is undemocratic.

Alex Lee, USA: 

"The policy known as Wet Foot/Dry Foot very much remains in place." 

Josefina Vidal, Cuba:

"This is reprehensible."

     In his State of the Union message Tuesday night, President Barack Obama received universal praise when he described America's Cuban policy with this sentence: "When you do something that doesn't work for 50 years, it's time to try something different." The next day President Obama sent a diplomatic delegation to Havana led by Roberta Jacobson and Alex Lee. Except for providing a big show for visiting journalists, they may as well have stayed home. The prime anti-Cuban salvo aimed at Cuba's Josefina Vidal was: "The policy locally known as Wet Foot, Dry Foot very much remains in effect." That's both a no-brainer and a no-starter as far as Ms. Vidal is concerned. It appears that Ms. Jacobson and Mr. Lee purposely sabotaged this week's diplomacy in Cuba because they well knew Vidal's firm position on such anti-Cuban tactics as Wet Foot/Dry Foot and the noxious USAID-funded efforts to stir up dissent on the island. Since December 17th, President Obama's announced plans to normalize relations with Cuba have garnered far too many headlines. A ten-foot snowstorm will blanket Havana before Josefina Vidal will agree to what Ms. Jacobson and Mr. Lee proposed yesterday. But thanks anyway, President Obama. At least your announced plans sounded sane and brave, which in itself was briefly refreshing.

     This Reuters photo shows a calm, collected, and confident Josefina Vidal representing Cuba in yesterday's first day of diplomatic discussions with the United States in Havana. Most unbiased U. S. journalists seeking pertinent information relating to Cuba depend on Ms. Vidal. In June the Washington Post sent a staff to Havana for a long interview with Ms. Vidal. She stunned them with comments such as: "The U. S. is facing the risk of becoming irrelevant in the future of Cuba." Coming from the highly respected Ms. Vidal, the Post subsequently has written many articles referencing that quotation. The huge article in today's Washington Post about yesterday's diplomatic overture in Havana was written by renowned journalists Karen DeYoung and Nick Miroff. They called Josefina Vidal "A powerful, up-and-coming figure in the Cuban hierarchy." She is indeed powerful already and there are many Cubans, including Fidel Castro, who hope she will one day be the leader of Cuba. As I have documented in this space, five years ago Fidel Castro personally told Ms. Vidal, "You are the closest thing to Celia Sanchez that Cuba will ever have. You will have my support if you ever want to be the next leader of Cuba." She replied, wiping away a tear, "That is not my plan or desire, but I will never stop fighting for Cuba. Your words alone are the greatest honor I have ever received or will ever receive. Thank you."

     This Getty Images photo shows Josefina Vidal yesterday in Havana standing between Cuban and American flags. She said, "Geography has made us neighbors. Diplomacy should make us friends. We were not meant to be enemies, now or ever."

      As Cuba's top diplomat and minister on all things related to the United States of America, Josefina Vidal is very much at ease negotiating or answering questions.

        Today in Havana Cuba's Josefina Vidal and America's Roberta Jacobson will discuss opening important embassies in the two capitals of Havana and Washington.

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Cuban Diplomacy Gets A Chance

The Best Chance In Five Decades
Wednesday, January 21, 2015

     This Getty Images photo was taken yesterday -- Tuesday, January 20th -- a few hours prior to President Obama's State of the Union message in which he affirmed his determination to normalize relations with Cuba, and one day before top diplomats -- America's Roberta Jacobson and Cuba's Josefina Vidal -- begin face-to-face meetings in Havana today trying to negotiate a normalization of relations between the two neighboring countries. This photo shows a Cuban mother and daughter strolling through a vegetable market in the Vedado neighborhood of Havana yesterday.

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SBeBeginning today, Wednesday, these two veteran diplomats will meet in Havana and engage in the first truly serious attempt in five decades to minimize the antipathy between two important neighbors, the United States and Cuba. On the left above is Roberta Jacobson, the United States Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. On the right above is her Cuban counterpart -- Josefina Vidal, Cuba's Minister of North American Affairs. These two brilliant, dedicated diplomats have held important but mostly un-publicized face-to-face meetings before, both in Washington and Havana and even in Canada. But this week, their sessions in Havana will be spotlighted amid grave expectations, hope, and, to be sure, fierce opposition from self-serving dissidents on the island and from self-serving Cuban-Americans in the U. S. Congress. But President Barack Obama, unlike ten previous American Presidents, has confronted that opposition, leading to the diplomacy in Havana this week. Jacobson and Vidal have now developed special rapport. They respect each others acute dedication and skill in representing their respective countries. Moreover, unlike many high-ranking American and Cuban officials since 1959, they trust each other. If, indeed, there is a real chance to normalize relations between the two nations, the opening salvo this week is in good hands -- the steady and remarkable hands of two women who have their nations, not themselves, as their prime interests.

     While most American journalists lack the courage or impartiality to report fairly regarding Cuban issues, Gwynne Dyer has a bit more freedom to discuss the core issues of U.S.-Cuban relations. He is a London-based Canadian journalist, syndicated columnist, and military expert. His columns are in 175 major newspapers across 45 countries. On the eve of this week's U.S.-Cuban/Jacobson-Vidal meetings in Havana, Mr. Dyer wrote these words in The Christian Science Monitor: "President Barack Obama's decision last month to re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba was a good idea. Unfortunately, Obama's good idea is not really going to change things that much. The Republican Party now controls both Houses of Congress and the embargo cannot be ended except by Congressional consent. That will not be forthcoming. It makes political sense for Republicans to oppose Obama's initiative and they have no interest in allowing him a victory that they have it within their power to thwart." Mr. Dyer is among the many top international journalists who find it hard to believe that a nation as great and as powerful as the United States has, for going on six decades and through two generations, allowed a handful of self-serving Cuban-Americans, and their right-wing Republican sycophants, to dictate a Cuban policy that remains so devastating to America's reputation.

     Starting today in Havana, Roberta Jacobson, America's top diplomat when it comes to Cuba and the Western Hemisphere, will represent America. She will tell her Cuban counterpart, Josefina Vidal, that the U. S. does not want Cuba to impose a travel restriction on its diplomats in Cuba once the U. S. embassy is opened there. And she will insist that there must be no limitation on the number of U. S. diplomats in Cuba. Also, Ms. Jacobson will demand that Cubans have free access to visit the American embassy. And she will insist that the United States be allowed unimpeded shipments of goods and materials to the embassy.

     Josefina Vidal will tell Roberta Jacobson that Cuba will agree to all those things as long as there is mutual reciprocity, meaning the island must be treated with respect as a sovereign nation. Ms. Vidal and Ms. Jacobson are not strangers; in their previous meetings they have both represented their nations well and gained mutual respect for each other. Ms. Jacobson has assured President Obama that Ms. Vidal is both sincere and dedicated and that she does not have to double-check with anyone before she speaks for Cuba. "She wants normal relations with the U. S. but she wants respect for her country's sovereignty," Ms. Jacobson told President Obama. "But she knows the U. S. is a superpower with 315 million people while Cuba is an island with 11 million people. So, she knows Cuba needs normal relations with us more than we need normal relations with them."

   One indication as to how effective Josefina Vidal has been in representing Cuba in the past fifteen years is the fact that the ultra-powerful and usually unchecked anti-Cuban forces in the U. S. spend a lot of time disparaging her. More often than not, the well-financed anti-Cuban blogs refer to Ms. Vidal as "the Cuban spy expelled from the U. S." Caroline Kennedy invited Ms. Vidal to be a guest speaker at a major historic function at the Kennedy Library in Boston, and Ms. Vidal was the one who received the standing ovation. Ms. Vidal was exemplary when she represented Cuba at its Interests Section in Washington. She is today held in high regards by President Obama and Roberta Jacobson.

     One sticky topic Ms. Vidal will bring up to Ms. Jacobson this week is America's Wet Foot/Dry Foot policy, one of many U. S. laws designed to benefit only Cubans off the island while harming everyone else, including Cubans on the island. Cubans who touch dry U. S. soil are the only would-be immigrants in the world who are home free. All others are subject to incarceration and/or deportation. This has long irked Cuba as well as all other nations, especially those in the Caribbean and Latin America. It is a part of the Cuban Adjustment Act and codified by such blatantly pro-Cuban exile congressional laws as the infamous Torricelli Bill and the even more infamous Helms Burton Act. All Democratic presidents have been ashamed of such discriminatory laws but each of them, including Obama, have repeatedly been told that only Congress can change those laws and Cuban-exile extremists control Congress when it comes to Cuba, with or without a Republican majority.

           There is, of course, no logical reason in a democracy for such laws that benefit only Cuban exiles with the revengeful bonus of hurting Cuba. Ms. Vidal will remind Ms. Jacobson of that again this week. Ms. Jaconson, in turn, will ask Ms. Vidal if Cuba is willing to seriously discuss property the Cuban government naturalized after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Ms. Vidal will say, "Yes, we will but please understand that you must also consider important Cuban grievances in that regard and you must also consider that much of the property claims against Cuba are false claims or the property in question was obtained by fraudulent means." Ms. Vidal in the past has complained bitterly about anti-Cuban judgments in Miami courtrooms when Cuba was not represented. This time, however, it appears such decisions and such negotiations will be conducted in Havana and Washington, not Miami. Thus, Cuba will be represented.

       Both Josefina Vidal and Roberta Jacobson are quite familiar with the famed movie "Scarface." They have discussed its theme before and they will again this week in Havana. In "Scarface" Al Pacino stars as Tony Montana, a Cuban who arrived in Miami courtesy of the Mariel Boatlift that took place in 1980 when Fidel Castro, mourning the death of Celia Sanchez, invited any Cuban that wanted a free and permanent trip to the U. S. to get on boats at the Marial Port. Some 125,000 took him up on it. History registers the fact that Fidel emptied his prisons and mental hospitals with thousands of Cubans he wanted to get shed of. Among them was...Tony Montana. "Scarface" begins with actual black-and-white footage of Cubans from Mariel arriving in Miami. Soon, Tony Montana and other Cubans murderously controlled Miami's lucrative and out-of-control drug trade, not unlike the way Miami was when President Reagan sent Vice President Bush to Miami to "stop that slaughter." On Monday, January 19th, the New York Times had a long article written by Lizette Alvarez and Kristin Hussey entitled "Cubans Convicted In U. S. Face New Fears of Deportation." Unlike all other immigrants in the United States, Cubans cannot be deported after serving prison time, even for murder and rape. However, as the New York Times pointed out, Cubans fear that if the U. S. and Cuba normalize relations, all those special laws pertaining only to Cubans may go by the wayside. Wow! As if the Republicans in the U. S. Congress needed another reason to oppose Obama! Tony Montana, if he had survived that bloody shoot-out in his Miami mansion in "Scarface," would have understood how vital it is for a few Miami Republicans in Congress to forever keep U.S.-Cuban relations...abnormal. 

 

   Ed Cox is a big-time lawyer-lobbyist in New York. He is the son-in-law of former President Richard Nixon. He is also the State Chairman of New York's Republican Committee. Not unexpectedly, Mr. Cox has spent the last few days excoriating New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. The Governor has informed his staff to arrange a trip to Cuba so he can lead a delegation to the island in hopes of helping secure business deals that would help the people of New York State. Of course, right-wing Republican politicians such as Mr. Cox believe government officials should only help the people already rich enough to contribute to political campaigns, a prime reason conservative Republicans like me are not too fond of right-wing Republicans.

    Rich, liberal Democrats like New York Governor Andrew Cuomo sometimes believe even those who are not super-rich must be considered important members of a democracy, especially when they constitute a rather large majority. Ed Cox called Cuomo "Castro-like" for planning a business trip to Cuba. "Castro-like," "Nixon-like," "Obama-like,"...whichever is more democratic should come out the winner. Right now, the Obama-like and Cuomo-like efforts to normalize relations with Cuba are far more democratic and much more decent than being "Cox-like" or "Nixon-like."

 In recent years even Democratic Presidents have not mentioned Cuba in their State of the Union speeches. That will change tonight. President Obama will mention his efforts to begin the process of normalizing relations with the neighboring island, a process that already entails more guts and more success than the previous ten American presidents combined have managed to accomplish. Also, in his State of the Union message tonight President Obama will speak eloquently about the vast and growing wealth disparity in the United States. He will outline sane and decent plans to narrow that gap, knowing full-well that his efforts to do so with outrage money-hungry right-wing Republicans in Congress.

    This Stephen Crowley/New York Times photo shows Alan Gross and his wife Judy shortly after he was freed from a Cuban hospital-prison back in December. Tonight Mr. and Mrs. Gross will sit with First Lady Michelle Obama during President Obama's State of the Union address. Mr. Gross was a part of a five-person prisoner swap between the two nations, a deal that preceded the December 17th announcement that the U. S. and Cuba had agreed to try to normalize relations.

     The deal that freed Alan Gross attests to the acumen and diplomatic skills of Josefina Vidal, Cuba's Minister of North America Affairs. She truly epitomizes David vs. Goliath. She direly wanted to send Mr. Gross home three years ago and she surely didn't want him to die or, as he threatened, to commit suicide in Cuba. She was aware the American people were being told that Cuba out of pure meanness arrested Mr. Gross while he was merely a tourist on the island. But Ms. Vidal held an international news conference, complete with evidence, to show that the well-paid Mr. Gross was sent to the island by a U. S. entity that knew he was violating Cuban laws. Her news conference convinced unbiased skeptics, and she also stressed that Cuba needs tourists and they are totally safe on the island as long as they are lawful. She also, for three years, maintained that the anti-Cuban zealots in the U. S. hoped Mr. Gross would languish in his Cuban prison so they could use it to assail Cuba. But while making her points on the matter, Ms. Vidal, a quintessential diplomat and a shrewd negotiator, was not going to back away from her contention that Mr. Gross was "lawfully convicted and the U. S. government, if not the U. S. people, knows it." In the meantime Allan and Judy Gross sued those who had sent him to Cuba on the dangerous mission. And guess what? Within a few days after leaving Cuba, Mr. Gross got a check for $3.2 million. And it wasn't a Cuban check.

The United States and the island of Cuba.
Diplomacy at last!
Come hell, high water, or Republicans.

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Cuba and the U. S. Media

Democracy Deserves Better
Monday, January 19th, 2015

     This AP photo shows U. S. Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont arriving in Havana Saturday. He led a U. S. delegation that met with Cuban officials last weekend to discuss President Obama's plans to normalize relations with Cuba. Senator Leahy told the BBC, "We have all been to Cuba before and we all support the President's new directions for our policy toward Cuba." Such support for President Obama is crucial.

      Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on behalf of his state's businesses and farmers, told his staff Friday to prepare for him to lead a trade delegation to Cuba in the very near future. Powerful Democrats, such as Senator Leahy and Governor Cuomo, are eager to take advantage of the momentum generated back on December 17th when President Obama announced his plans to break a long cycle of enmity towards the island by normalizing, as best he can, relations between the two neighboring countries. However, this weekend's encouraging efforts by Senator Leahy, Governor Cuomo and others will be met by continuing hostility from a second generation of Cuban exiles and their right-wing Republican associates who have benefited -- politically, economically, revengefully, etc. -- from antagonistic relations between the United States and Cuba. 

     This photo courtesy of the White House shows President Barack Obama making a brave and historic phone call to Cuban President Raul Castro on December 17th, 2014. Since 1959, when the Cuban Revolution overturned the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship, there have been eleven American Presidents, seven of whom served more than one 4-year term. But except for now, in the second half of President Obama's second term in the White House, no U. S. president has had the courage and the will to seriously begin the sane and decent process of normalizing relations with Cuba. Other democratic Presidents -- Kennedy, Carter, and Clinton -- tried but were easily quashed by a few Cuban exiles and their easily acquired sycophants. Republican Presidents since 1959 -- Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush-#1, and Bush-#2 -- have been totally aligned with the most extremist Cuban exiles and their acolytes in the U. S. Congress to fashion a Cuban policy designed solely to benefit them at the expense of hurting everyone else, especially totally innocent Cubans on the island. A prime reason this has been allowed to happen is the increasingly incompetent, intimidated, biased, and commercialized U. S. media, which the Founding Fathers in their wisdom envisioned as their democracy's prime protector. On Friday, January 15th, 2015, many of President Obama's plans to begin the normalization process with Cuba were implemented, including making it much easier for Americans to have the freedom to travel to Cuba and even to engage in limited commerce with Cubans. That alone is light years removed from the five-plus decades of Cuban dictates devised by zealots in Miami and Washington to keep Americans from judging for themselves issues related to the nearby island. Freedom to judge would have mitigated against being told what to think when it came to Cuba. Complicit in this denial of freedom has been that intimidated, incompetent, biased, and commercialized media that has found it safer and more rewarding to bend to the dictates of a self-serving few.

For example............................................

     ............as far as the mainstream media in the U. S. is concerned, Americans are supposed to get their Cuban information from the likes of Alan Gomez. He is the Miami-based "Cuban expert" for USA Today, America's largest newspaper and one that I have subscribed to since 1982, the year the visionary Allen Neuharth founded it. On January 15th, the day after the world was informed of President Obama's vast new and specific plans to normalize relations with Cuba, Mr. Gomez used a vast amount of USA Today's ink and space to impart such sensational news as: "When Castro dies, Cuba natives who have been waiting so long for the day will rejoice. Some will uncork decades-old bottles of champagne they've been saving for the occasion. Governments in South Florida have plans in place for dealing with the spontaneous street parades expected throughout the region." Wow! On a day when less biased, real journalists were discussing the first major changes in U.S.-Cuban relations in over five decades, Mr. Gomez was reminding Americans of these "facts": Every Cuban on the island longs for the day when the 88-year-old Fidel Castro dies; and every Cuban-American longs for the day when the descendants of Fulgencio Batista, Rafael Diaz-Balart, Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano, Santo Traficantte Jr., etc., will regain control of Cuba so the people on the island can once again be treated like sweet Mother Teresa would have treated them! For over five decades, as the U. S. media spiraled downward, that is the type vitriol and distortions Americans have been repeatedly spoon-fed by an industry the Founding Fathers long ago believed was crucial to the defense of the American democracy. And nothing has exploited that American weakness more than the island just 90 miles south of Key West, Florida. As anointed by USA Today, America's largest newspaper, Alan Gomez is a "Cuban expert," so you, like a lapdog, are supposed to believe everything he writes.

      When it comes to Cuba, the electronic media in the U. S. is even worse than the printed media, starting with such well-known right-wing propaganda machines as Fox News. As the above promo illustrates, Jose Diaz-Balart has had his own one-hour "news" program on MSNBC since July 14th, 2014. Prior to that he was a fixture on NBC, the celebrated anchor on Telemundo, and a ubiquitous anti-Castro speaker across the United States. The 54-year-old Jose Diaz-Balart got his journalistic start at WTVJ-TV in Miami and his statue escalated as the mainstream U. S. media gradually turned over its Cuban narrative to anti-Castro zealots. Jose Diaz-Balart's father Rafael was a key Minister in the Batista dictatorship in Cuba before emerging as one of the richest and most powerful Cuban exiles. Two of Jose's brothers -- Lincoln and Mario -- have been elected to the U. S. Congress from Miami; another brother, Rafael Jr., is a wealthy banker. Jose's Aunt Mirta was Fidel Castro's first wife; Jose's uncle is the 88-year-old Fidel Castro himself. But the Diaz-Balarts -- in Miami, in the U. S. Congress, and in the U. S. media -- remain virtually unchallenged in their vapid anti-Castro zealotry.

  Anti-Castro zealots, including blood relatives such as Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart from Miami, are ubiquitous on America's T-V screens whenever a Cuban issue arises. In the image on the left, Mario Diaz-Balart is telling the world what an awful "appeaser-in-chief" President Obama is for daring to attempt to bring a measure of sanity and decency to America's Cuban policy. The Castro obsession by one-trick ponies voted into the U. S. Congress from Miami obscure the fact that there are many other non-Cuban issues in this nation's corral. And the flagrancy of the problem lies in the fact that, as far as the mainstream U. S. media is concerned, only the minority views such as those espoused by the Diaz-Balarts deserve to see the light of day while the U. S. media generally dodges anything resembling a balanced approach to the Cuban equation, which creates even more negative connotations.

     Marco Rubio, the U. S. Senator from Miami, repeatedly shows disrespect for President Obama and for the office of President as he tries to ride his one-trick pony named "Cuba" all the way to the White House after a brief stint in the Senate. Rubio is so infatuated with television cameras that he holds the record for appearing on all six network Sunday morning news programs in one morning! His unending vitriol-saturation regarding President Obama's "Cuba policy shift" included braggadocios about his becoming the new Chairman of the Senate's Western Hemisphere Committee, from which he promised to block President Obama's "Cuba policy shifts." Incredibly, Rubio has long been labeled one of the Republican Party's "most serious" presidential candidates in 2016. After the obvious disrespect he displayed towards President Obama and the office, it is apparent calmer, more mature people advised him to back off on Cuba...at least a bit. Then Rubio actually relented...well, uh, as Chairman I, uh, will listen to, uh, both sides. Rubio rode his pony "Cuba" all the way to the Senate from Miami with his bio claiming his parents escaped the tyranny of Castro's Cuba for the freedom of Miami. It was later pointed out that his parents had, uh, escaped the Batista tyranny in Cuba. No, Rubio will not carry through with his plans to run for President in 2016 because it would jeopardize his entrenched seat in the Senate. But, guess what? He's being advised to put his pony "Cuba" out to pasture and learn to ride some bigger horses -- such as "Economy," "Jobs," "Health Care," etc. In the meanwhile, the U. S. media will continue to make sure that, with few exceptions, only self-serving zealots such as Rubio and the Diaz-Balarts get to express their opinions regarding Cuban issues.

   Sarah Stephens is the Founder and Executive Director of the Washington-based Center For Democracy in the Americas. A great proponent of decency and democracy, she is also the greatest, most unbiased, and most tireless American expert on U.S.-Cuban relations. That's why you seldom see her opinions expressed on television or in newspapers, not even to balance out the ubiquitous, self-serving views of Alan Gomez, the Diaz-Balarts, Marco Rubio, etc. Each Friday Ms. Stephens writes the "Cuba Central - The Blog" segment. On Friday, January 16th, she wrote: "What Obama has done -- while his predecessors didn't and somehow couldn't -- is to open a considerable amount of political space for actors other than government officials and public servants to do the hard but necessary work of bringing Cuba and the United States closer together. Many Cuban Americans have labored bravely for decades in a hostile environment in which the expression of moderate views was met with disapproval -- and in some cases with force -- from bullies and extremists. The hands are now stronger in the effort to change the conversation in their community because they now have the President leading the charge as well as lots and lots of allies. By changing the policy and setting a new tone at the top, the President has encouraged a more diverse, democratic, and decent debate." For six decades, America's Cuban policy has been indecent and undemocratic. Ms. Stephens wants to change that.

      This photo shows U. S. Senators Marco Rubio of Miami and Bob Menendez of Union City meeting with famed Cuban dissidents, including the most famous of all, Yoani Sanchez, who can now fly to Miami, Washington, and back to Havana. Some people believe that sessions such as this should dictate America's Cuban policy. But some people -- including, I believe, President Obama and Sarah Stephens -- believe it is time that the majority of Americans, Cubans, and Cuban-Americans are also included in the multi-dimensional Cuban conundrum. It is also time the U. S. media had the gumption to present a balanced Cuban narrative.

      In the aforementioned quotation, Sarah Stephens lamented the fact that, "Many Cuban-Americans have labored bravely for decades in a hostile environment in which the expressions of moderate views was met with disapproval -- and in some cases with force -- from bullies and extremists." Ms. Stephens could have been referencing Emilio Milian. Emilio, a Cuban-American, was the News Director at WQBA Radio in Miami. He bravely maintained that Cubans in Miami should cease their terrorist acts against innocent Cubans or Americans. He was car-bombed. The democracy-loving Sarah Stephens obviously believes that such "bullies and extremists" who silenced Emilio Milian should not forever dictate America's Cuban policy. At last, the United States has a President who apparently agrees with her.

Against imposing opposition, he at least is trying to help both Cubans and Americans.

May his legacy be sure to register that salient fact.

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Today Is A New Day For Cuba

As U. S. Tries A Fresh Approach

      A new day dawned today -- January 16, 2015 -- for the United States and Cuba. For the first time in over half a century, a brave new attempt initiated by President Barack Obama, and encouraged by Cuban President Raul Castro and Pope Francis, has drastically changed relations between the two neighboring nations. Beginning today, some of the initiatives come to fruition and begin taking effect. Yes, they include the world's most famed cigars, which Americans can now purchase on the island and bring up to $100 of them home. That's significant because in 1962 President John Kennedy told Press Secretary Pierre Salinger not to announce the strict embargo against Cuba till he, the President, had received one thousand of the Cohiba cigars.

       Only after he received the 1,000 Cuban cigars did President Kennedy officially sign into effect an embargo against Cuba in 1962 that, according to de-classified U. S. documents, was intended to starve and deprive Cubans on the island to rise and overthrow Cuba's revolutionary government, which the U.S.-Cuban exile attack at the Bay of Pigs in 1961 had failed to do as have terrorist acts such as bombing Cubana Flight 455 and many failed attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro. Since 1962, the year President Kennedy got his cigars, the embargo against Cuba has been greatly enhanced, especially since the 1980s when the Bush dynasty began to empower and advise Cuban-exile zealots how to take control of the U. S. Congress in order to dictate America's Cuban policy. {Julia E. Sweig on Pages 101-102 of the Second Edition of her seminal book "What Everyone Needs to Know About Cuba" explains how Miami's most zealous Cuban exiles, with help from the Bush dynasty, slyly pulled off that still-mitigating caper}. But now back to those cigars, the ones President Kennedy enjoyed in 1962 and the celebratory one the young lady is enjoying today.

      Last month, on Dec. 17-2014, President Barack Obama quite bravely announced his intentions to normalize relations with Cuba although he well knows, to this very day, a handful of Cuban-Americans maintain a tight grip on the U. S. Congress on all matters related to Cuba. But as President he has executive powers and a veto privilege that, combined with a dose of courage, can at long last bring a measure of decency and sanity to U.S.-Cuban relations. Thus, beginning today there are a dozen new avenues for Americans to travel to Cuba. Airlines and travel agents will be able to provide services to Cuba without a specific license. U. S. travelers to Cuba will be able to use credit cards and spend more money while on the island. U. S. tourists can bring back up to $100 in alcohol and tobacco products. Americans will be able to send $2,000 every three months to the island instead of the current $500 limit. And, starting today, Americans can bring back $400 worth of souvenirs from the island.

   To be sure, the Herculean efforts of President Obama -- including and beyond what he authorized and put into effect beginning today -- will face omnipotent opposition from a second generation of Cuban exiles and their sycophants who have -- revengefully, economically, and politically -- gained mightily from the embargo and other massive hostilities that have embroiled U.S.-Cuban relations since 1959, when the Cuban Revolution overthrew the not-too-saintly Batista-Mafia dictatorship on the island, only to see the leadership flee and resurface, more powerful than ever, on U. S. soil. For sure, in a U. S. Congress in which both components -- the Senate and the House -- are now dominated by Republicans, a handful of Cuban-American politicians have huge advantages over a Democratic President such as Mr. Obama when he tries to promote democratic principles. But with the actions implemented today, President Obama has far exceeded the decent but easily crushed efforts of Presidents like Kennedy in 1963, Carter in the 1970s, and Clinton in the 1990s. Therefore, President Obama proved today that the United States democracy has not yet totally evolved into a Banana Republic that blissfully ignores what the majority of its citizens desire and deserve.

            This photo was taken by Andrea Bruce for the New York Times. It shows a young Cuban playing baseball on a street in Santiago de Cuba, the former capital and second largest city located on the island's eastern tip. It was one of several photos that illustrated an insightful article written by William Neuman and entitled: "On the Open Road, Signs of a Changing Cuba." Cuba has indeed changed merely by surviving, evolving, and learning to exist in a world in which its neighbor, the strongest nation in the world, has tried, for 56 years, to regain control of it, reminiscent of the 1950s when the U. S., the world's most famed democracy, teamed with the Mafia to support the vile Batista dictatorship. Cuba's survival has included the 1961 Bay of Pigs attack, numerous assassination attempts, the 1976 bombing of the civilian Cubana Flight 455, and a cruel embargo that now is closing in on six decades -- all to appease a handful of two generations of the most extremists Cuban-exile benefactors. The young baseball player above, like most of the adults on the island, have been punished all their lives because of a gigantic, imperialist mistake that had its origin way back in 1952 when a few right-wingers high up in the U. S. government, such as the Dulles brothers, decided to align with the Mafia to support a Cuban dictatorship that, with kick-backs, allowed U. S. businesses, such as the Dulles-related United Fruit Company, to rob the island blind. The fact that the U. S. democracy, in all the decades since 1952, has been unable to correct this injustice to this day baffles America's best democracy-loving friends around the world. The photo above of the young Cuban baseball player, taken in the first week of January-2015, reflects hope that this young boy will grow up in a sovereign nation, hopefully a democratic one, that is not plagued by the avaricious designs of revengeful usurpers in a foreign nation nor oppressive forces on the island. The hope evolves around the Dec. 17th-2014 announcement that President Obama plans to normalize relations with Cuba. Sadly, despite the strides implemented today, those plans will likely fail -- just as President Kennedy's in 1963 and President Clinton's in 1996 failed. Like in 1952, 1963, and 1996, in 2015 America's Cuban policy is dictated by a U. S. Congress that continues to view the lush island of Cuba as a piggy-bank, a cash cow, and a punching bag. This young baseball player merely represents a third generation of Cubans being used as pawns in a grossly flawed, undemocratic Cuban policy that, in 2015, is far more harmful to America's image than it is to Cuba's.

        This photo was taken a few days ago by Andrea Bruce for the New York Times. It shows a Cuban grandmother {on the second floor} and mother {on the first floor} carefully watching their grandchild as the girl leaves for school. The little girl is very clean and neatly dressed. She is also being well-educated totally free and has excellent health care totally free. And Cuban children like her are among the safest on the planet, well protected by their families and also watched over by the block-by-block Committees for the Defense of the Revolution. But this little girl and her mother have been punished all their lives by an American Cuban policy dictated for decades by two generations of revengeful, greedy, and power-hungry Cuban exiles and their easily acquired acolytes who partake of the homogenized spoils. Since 1959 the revolutionary Cuban government has made many mistakes, especially from an economic standpoint, but excruciating threats and pressure from nearby foreign soil provides much of the deprivation for this beautiful little Cuban girl. Some may think that mansions and other gluttonous possessions in Miami or exultant political power in Washington is worth persecuting this little girl in future decades just as her mother has been persecuted in past decades. But there are some, such as President Obama, who disagree. This little girl is worth more than those mansions in Miami and all that power in Washington.

      Enrique Krauze is surely one of the world's greatest democracy-loving Cuban and Latin American experts. As a New York Times editorialist, Mr. Krauze has a powerful forum to inform the world how harmful to America and to democracy the U. S. policy regarding Cuba really is. Yet, in propagandized America, a Fox News connoisseur with a 5th grade education and no knowledge of the Cuban conundrum is more significant when it comes to Cuban issues than the brilliant, well-educated, and well-informed Mr. Krauze. In the first week of January-2015 Mr. Krauze wrote the New York Times' editorial entitled "End of Anti-Americanism?" The question mark was his, not mine. He wrote: "Cuba has been the epicenter of anti-Americanism in modern America. As a political ideology it was born during the Spanish-American War of 1898, the Cuban Revolution in 1959, and may now, through a singularly courageous move by President Obama, have begun its final decline. The agreement to re-establish diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba will face serious problems..." Mr. Krauze, of course, was aware of the "serious problems" a handful of self-serving pro-embargo zealots and benefactors can exact on a democracy in which money, intimidation, and propaganda can out-weigh even a significant majority of people. He then detailed a few historic facts that Americans are not supposed to consider: "The Spanish-American War of 1898 united the countries of Hispanic America against the United States and basically reconciled them with Spain...the United States continued to support authoritarian dictatorships like the Somoza family business in Nicaragua. America's claim to be a fountain of democratic values lost its credibility. In 1947 Mexican historian Daniel Casio Villegas predicted: 'Latin America will seethe with unrest...capable of anything.' The Cuban Revolution fulfilled that prophecy. The American boycott of Cuba has remained as an outmoded and divisive force. In reestablishing relations with Cuba, the United States renounces its 'imperial destiny' and recovers much of its moral legitimacy needed to uphold its democratic values." In other words, an intelligent, informed person, such as Enrique Krauze, is 100% correct in pointing out how America's Cuban policy, decade after decade, has so greatly harmed the United States and democracy merely to appease a few self-serving American right-wingers and a few self-serving Cuban-Americans. The fact that most Cuban-Americans and the entire world desire more normal relations with Cuba matters little. Thus, the words by Mr. Krauze will be out-gunned because the mainstream media has primarily evolved into an incompetent, intimidated instrument susceptible to promoting a propagandistic web of lies. The dominant factor, and what has extended America's dismal Cuban policy for decades, is a proselytized America that accepts an extremist stranglehold on its democracy.

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