Cuban Realities Often Distorted

Both Past and Present
Updated: Sunday, August 30th, 2015

        Elio Delgado-Legon is the type Cuban that Americans are not supposed to know, perhaps accounting for the fact that, to appease anti-Castro zealots, Cuba is the one place in the world everyday Americans are not allowed to visit. But Elio, a prolific writer and blogger, is easy to know. Havana Times, the top Cuban-related website edited by Circles Robinson, allows both sides of the two-sided Cuban conundrum to be aired and that includes Elio's "Diary" articles. Elio writes: "I am a Cuban who has lived for 78 years {since 1937}, therefore I know full well how life was before the revolution, having experienced it directly and indirectly. As a result, it hurts me to read so many aspersions cast upon a government that fights tooth and nail to provide us a better life. If it hasn't fully been able to so so, this is because of the many obstacles that have been put in its way." The biggest obstacle, Elio believes, remains the embargo imposed in 1962. Elio was a rebel fighter in the Cuban Revolution because of his acute resentment of the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship that he says was led by "gangsters," meaning Batista and his Mafia friends such as Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano, and Santo Trafficante Jr. Elio resented the foreign connection between the Mafia and the U. S. government role. Even more than the robbery of the island, Elio objected to the extreme brutality the "gangsters" showered on helpless peasant dissenters. When a doctor's daughter named Celia Sanchez and a young lawyer named Fidel Castro provided a glimmer of hope as an alternative to Batista, Elio became a guerrilla fighter and to this day fiercely defends the Cuban Revolution and abhors what he believes has been two generations of a counter-revolutionary Batistiano dictatorship on nearby foreign soil with its capital being Little Havana, the politically powerful section of Miami. 

This photo was taken by Elio Delgado-Legon, the old guerrilla fighter.

        While the views of a Cuban such as Elio Delgado-Legon are seldom, if ever, aired in the U. S., anti-Castro dissidents such as Yoani Sanchez {center above} are afforded rock-star treatment in the U. S., with her blogs, books, and now her well-funded digital newspaper widely promoted and/or published by the fawning U. S. media. In the AP/Getty Images photo above, visceral Cuban-American Anti-Castro U. S. Senators Marco Rubio and Bob Menendez are playing host in the U. S. Congress to Yoani Sanchez. Her lucrative publicity tour of Miami, Washington, and other major cities around the world is interesting considering that everyday Americans, who are neither anti-American nor anti-Cuban, do not have the freedom to visit Cuba. Proselytized and propagandized Americans are not supposed to question their lack of freedom to travel to Cuba, nor are they supposed to wonder how Yoani Sanchez is free to fly back-and-forth between the two neighboring nations. Upon her return to Havana, Ms. Sanchez announced she had the wherewithal to start her digital newspaper, which is not quite as unbiased as venues such as the excellent Havana Times, which, indeed, is neither a anti-Castro nor a pro-Castro propaganda machine.

        Meanwhile, Cubans on the island are facing water problems of epic proportions. The Huffington Post and Reuters report that Cuba is experiencing its worst drought in 112 years. The Cuban Meteorology Institute rates the provinces of Artemisa, La Habana, Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo as drastically low on water, which has to be trucked-in by the government to over one million Cubans that are most affected. The provinces of Sancti Spiritus and Ciego de Avila have no water reserves usable by humans or animals. Cuba's historic rainy season is usually May through October, but Cuba's Meteorology Institute says that El Nino's warming of Caribbean seas has "changed things." Cauto, Cuba's second largest river, is dry in places. {The Toa River that starts in Guantanamo Province is the largest in Cuba and has 70 tributaries.}

The 14 Cuban Provinces coping with their worst drought in 112 years.

"Abaja El Bloqueo" {"Down With The Blockade"}

        When Cubans on the island are suffering from natural calamities, they particularly dislike man-made calamities, namely the U. S. blockade/embargo that hampers the Cuban government's efforts to help them. 

            This photo reflects how the drought is affecting a once fertile watershed of the Cauto River. Eric Benitez, the Director of Aqueducts in Granma Province, says, "80 thousand people in my province are now suffering. We are drilling 11 new water wells and getting in as much pumping equipment as we can."

So, the drought and the embargo are Cuban realities.

Some More 1898-2015 Cuban Realities:

         Although Columbus discovered both Cuba and the United States in 1492, this photo from 1898 began the modern history of U.S.-Cuban relations. By the late 1700s the renascent United States was craving Cuba, once offering to trade Florida for the lush, strategically located island. But for decades the United States was merely one of many imperialist powers who lusted after and fought wars for Cuba. The photo above in 1898 reflects the fact that, once and for all, the U. S. saw an opportunity to gain control of Cuba from imperial Spain, which was deemed far too weak to fight far from home to defend it. But the U. S. needed a pretext to go to war. BOOOOOmmmm....! Suddenly there was a Pretext! A U. S. warship, the USS Maine, blew up in Havana Harbor, killing scores of young American sailors. "Remember the Maine!" became the battle-cry, the long-desired excuse for war. After an easy victory in the Spanish-American War in 1898, the U. S. had sole dominance of Cuba. Many expected the world's greatest democracy to shower Cuba with democracy. Indeed, the island was ripe for democracy after being brutalized and robbed by imperialist powers from 1492 till 1898. However, democracy was not exactly what the U. S. had in mind for Cuba. In a democracy, the Cubans would have been prime beneficiaries of the island's vast resources. But...in a dictatorship, via kickbacks, U. S. businesses could siphon off the resources while buying up the island. Yes, indeed..."Remember the Maine!" But..."Forget democracy!" soon became the applicable slogan.  

         This 1933 photo depicts the haunting evolution of Cuba with the compliance of the U. S., an evolution that sparked a revolution. In the photo above, holding his hat over his left knee, is a two-bit, Mafia-connected army sergeant named Fulgencio Batista. His first coup in the 1930s brutally assaulted the island. Batista and his cronies amassed enough money to last their lifetimes. Batista retired to live out his life among his equally wealthy Mafia friends, especially Meyer Lansky who was kingpin Lucky Luciano's financial guru. The Jewish Lansky had enough money to also retire for life in Florida and to assist his beloved Israel, but Lansky expressed this wish to Batista: "I've always wanted the mob to own its own country." That request was granted. In 1952 Batista's second coup established another Batistiano-Mafiosi dictatorship in Cuba. And once again the vile dictatorship was supported by the U. S. even though everyone knew that all the leaders -- Batista, Luciano, Lansky, etc., etc. -- were all infamous Mafia figures.

             Americans have always been fascinated with Cuba, its beauty and its mystery. This 1947 photo shows famed baseball manager Leo Durocher in Havana with Jackie Robinson. This was the year that Jackie was promoted from Triple-A Montreal to the Brooklyn Dodgers to break the color barrier in baseball.

           Beginning in 1952, the five main businesses in Cuba were gambling, drugs, prostitution, brutalizing dissidents, and kickbacks from the U. S. companies who also partook in or overlooked the debauchery. 

        Instead of being shamed by the U.S.-backed cesspool of sin that Cuba became during the second Batista dictatorship, wealthy Americans celebrated the degradation while other Americans simply didn't have the courage or will to object. The photo above shows A-list American entertainers -- Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner -- celebrating their honeymoon in 1951 in Havana. By the mid-1950s, Cuba had replaced Las Vegas as the Mafia's top playpen and money-maker with constant shiploads of drugs going to Miami.

        This photo shows Fulgencio Batista in 1952 as he took over as the U.S.-and-Mafia-backed dictator of Cuba. The sign on his car reads: "Batista -- He Is The Man." And he was too. A powerful dictator backed by the most powerful criminal organization in the world and by the most powerful country in the world, seemed invincible. And he was too, till he began brutalizing Cuban children as a warning to their parents and older brothers not to dissent. Cuban mothers reacted with uncommon bravery, vociferously taking to the streets to protest. A young Cuban lawyer noticed that half the population, the female half, was ready to die in a revolution against Batista. Soooooo....what if he could tap into that outrage? He pondered that question, and decided that he could. As it turned out, he was right. "Batista -- He Is The Man" had a rival.

          Cuba's Athlete of the Year in 1948 didn't envision Cuba as a Mafia playpen. His name was/is Fidel Castro Ruz. As a law student in Havana, he got into a street fight with three U. S. sailors when he objected to them urinating on a statue of Jose Marti. Although his father Angel was a millionaire plantation owner, Fidel famously never cared about money and he strongly resented the dire living conditions of Cuba's majority peasants during the Batista-Mafia dictatorship. Before he exited law school, he foolishly believed he could lead a peasant revolution that could overthrow the dictators, who were backed by the military might of the United States. Fidel and about 120 other lightly armed rebels, including Haydee Santamaria and Melba Hernandez, attacked the powerful Moncada Garrison on the edge of Santiago de Cuba on July 26th, 1953. They were easily shot to pieces, most killed outright or executed later. But Fidel, Haydee, Melba and a few others were imprisoned. Batista's plan was to murder Fidel but, as the hero of the peasants, he was high-profile and closely monitored by admirers that included the influential New York Times reporter Herbert L. Matthews. So, Fidel was imprisoned for almost two very long years on the Isle of Pines.

       Richard Nixon, President Dwight Eisenhower's Vice President, was Batista's main supporter during the 1950s. This photo was taken in 1954 with Nixon on the right and Batista on the left. They were toasting each other on the rape and robbery of Cuba, which the politically ascending Nixon helped orchestrate.

      This photo shows President Eisenhower shaking hands with his honored guest, Cuba's ruthless dictator Fulgencio Batista. The malleable Ike, the supreme hero of World War II, was old, had heart trouble, and loved to golf during his two-term presidency. Taking advantage of those facts, Vice President Nixon and two other powerful right-wingers -- Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and CIA Director Allen Dulles -- made the anti-democratic, right-wing decisions that supported such vile dictators as Batista. In this photo as Eisenhower and Batista shake hands, that's John Foster Dulles in the middle. Decades later we would learn that the Dulles brothers had financial interests in businesses, such as the infamous United Fruit Company, that were robbing helpless countries like Cuba blind. Decades later, of course, Americans would see President Nixon on television telling the American people "I am not a crook" at a time when it was abundantly clear that he was. But "decades later" revelations didn't do Cuba any good in the 1950s.

         This photo shows Dictator Fulgencio Batista on July 27th, 1953, informing the nation of Cuba and his backers in Washington that "the criminal rebel uprising on the southeast of the island has been totally wiped out at Moncada." Not quite. The brutal way his henchmen had treated the Moncada prisoners, and the unconscionable brutality that became worse than ever against the peasants, not only kept "the uprising" alive but kept it growing...and growing...and growing...!! It became obvious to New York Times journalist Herbert L. Matthews that "Havana and Washington couldn't lose in Cuba if they were smart enough to do two simple things -- throw at least some crumbs and services to the majority peasants and stop murdering children." By the time he wrote that sentence, Mr. Matthews seemed to cogently realize that "Havana and Washington" were neither smart enough nor prescient enough to do either of those two things.

            After the ill-fated Moncada attack in July of 1953, Fidel Castro was in prison and Batista still had the firm support of the Mafia and the U. S. government. But his sheer brutality was his undoing, especially the murders of children to supposedly quell dissent. Instead, it outraged mothers who took to the streets to defy Batista. Photos like this were also used by New York Times reporter Herbert L. Mathews to make sure that Washington knew what was happening in Cuba, not just the thievery but the murders of children.

         Do-or-die female guerrilla fighters like Haydee Santamaria and Celia Sanchez, on the heels of the female marches, made the Cuban Revolution largely a female-powered revolt, an historic first.

          This photo in 1956 shows Batista's soldiers executing a rebel. Anyone remotely suspected of aiding or even sympathizing with the rebels was routinely executed, many after being inhumanely tortured. For example, Haydee Santamaria's brother and fiance were both famously and brutally tortured to death.

           This 1953 photo shows Lucky Luciano, the all-time most powerful Mafia kingpin, in Havana flanked by some of his U. S. and Cuban supporters. That's Lucky third from the left on the bench in the light-colored suit. This was the year Lucky began shipping shiploads of cocaine to Miami and from there to all other major U. S. cities. Charles Luciano earned his nickname, "Lucky." Thomas Dewey, a young New York prosecutor, had gotten Luciano sentenced to prison for 55 years on a prostitution charge. But even in prison Lucky still ran the Mafia, which controlled such vital American entities as the New York waterfront. The U. S. government, to Mr. Dewey's chagrin, insisted on freeing Luciano so he could help the World War II effort. For supposedly helping protect New York Harbor from sabotage and German U-boats and for supposedly helping the U. S. and England invasion of his home nation, Italy, Luciano actually was given his freedom although barred from the U. S. That was no problem. After World War II, and especially after his friend Batista's coup in 1952, Cuba was as American to Lucky Luciano as New York had been to him. 

             Fidel Castro's first major speech as the leader of Cuba -- in the first week of January, 1959 -- resulted in this iconic photo. Some white doves were released to highlight the now peaceful nature of the Cuban Revolution. One of the doves actually landed on his shoulder and a video revealed it stayed there a rather long time. Later, tame white doves were placed on Fidel's other shoulder during another speech.

The staged pigeon on Fidel's right shoulder to commemorate the first pigeon.

         This photo soon after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 is far more definitive than the image of the white dove. From the get-go, Fidel's only notable advantage over the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship was his realization that Cuban women, who constituted half of the island's population, were the most maligned throughout the Batista domination. Fidel correctly surmised Cuban women were also the most outraged. He took advantage of that outrage and that's why Cuban women such as Celia Sanchez, Haydee Santamaria, Melba Hernandez, Tete Puebla, Vilma Espin, etc., turned the tide against Batista.

          The aforementioned Herbert L. Matthews used his forum as a top New York Times reporter to denounce Batista and praise Castro both during and after the Revolutionary War. At one key point in the war in 1957, Batista's vastly superior army was winning. He assured both Havana and Washington that Fidel Castro had been killed by his vastly better-armed soldiers. Celia Sanchez knew it wasn't so but the rumor was hurting her vital recruitment of rebels and supplies. She had to prove that Fidel was still alive and still fighting. Celia and her best rebel, Haydee Santamaria, proved to the world that Fidel was still alive. Celia and Haydee themselves went to a designated rail-head and personally fetched Herbert L. Matthews. The two physically fit women somehow managed to get the unfit Matthews over rivers, rocks, and thickets to take him high up into the Sierra Maestra Mountains to meet his rebel hero, the still-living Fidel Castro.

        This is one of the most historic photos of Cuba's iconic Revolutionary War. That is Herbert L. Matthews interviewing Fidel Castro at a rebel camp high up in the Sierra Maestra Mountains. Celia Sanchez and Haydee Santamaria had risked their lives to take Matthews to Fidel so the New York Times could prove that Fidel was still alive. It worked. This photo and three consecutive front-page articles in the New York Times proved that Batista had lied or was mistaken about Fidel being dead. Moreover, those front-page articles in America's top newspaper sharply boosted Celia Sanchez's recruitment of rebels and supplies.

         During the crucial two-month period in 1957 when Batista had convinced a lot of people that Fidel was dead, Celia Sanchez knew differently because she fought beside him by day and slept beside him wherever they camped at night. But she had a vital supply line that stretched across the island and all the way to Caracas, where she received weapons, and another to Miami and New York City where she had money pipelines. She had a messenger contact Matthews to arrange the rail-head rendezvous with her and Haydee because the rumors of Fidel's demise were hurting her recruitment of rebels, supplies, and money. The very day Celia got word via messenger that Matthews would be waiting at the rail-head, she and Haydee took off. Celia and Fidel were quintessential night-owls, during and after the war. During the wartime night above, that's Celia holding the candle in their tent so they could study some notes. 

       Herbert L. Matthews hated Batista and loved Fidel. Those two passions helped reshape Cuba. After the Moncada attack, Batista executed or tortured to death the survivors -- except the Castro brothers and the two women participants, Haydee Santamaria and Melba Hernandez. As noted earlier, Haydee's fiance and brother were unmercifully tortured to death, for example. And the same fate was ticketed for the Castro brothers, Haydee, and Melba...except for the fact that important people, such as Herbert L. Matthews, were monitoring their imprisonments. This saved their lives and put pressure on the U. S., which induced Batista to grant them amnesty in 1955 after almost two years in prison. Death squads were put on Fidel's trail but safe houses, orchestrated by his soul-mate Celia Sanchez and his lover Naty Revuelta, kept him alive till he escaped to the U. S. and Mexico and, in December of 1956, finally joined Celia Sanchez's rebel unit in the foothills of the Sierra Maestra. The above biography of Fidel Castro was written by Herbert L. Matthews.

        Herbert L. Matthews knew that during and after the Revolutionary War Fidel never down-played the leading role Celia Sanchez played during the war and the leading role she and Vilma Espin played after the war. Celia in this photo is the studious one and Vilma the gaily smiling rebel. This photo is copyrighted by Yale University and was taken in 1958 by the great and fearless war corespondent Dickey Chapelle.

      Dickey Chapelle survived many major wars till she was killed while photographing U. S. troops during a battle in Vietnam on November 4, 1965. At a memorial service for Dickey Chapelle in Wisconsin, there was a beautiful spray of flowers that had this tag: "Our dear friend, forever love in our memories; Celia & Vilma." 

            Herbert L. Matthews was one of the journalists who knew that, after the Revolutionary War, this photo depicted Revolutionary Cuba's Big Four. That's Vilma Espin on the left and Celia Sanchez on the right flanking the Castro brothers. By Fidel's own reckoning, Celia was #1, Fidel #2, Vilma #3, and Raul #4. By this time, Vilma was Raul's wife and Celia was Fidel's eternal soul-mate. If you extended the Big Four to a Big Seven in 1959, you would have Camilo Cienfuegos #5, Haydee Santamaria #6, and Che Guevara #7. Pundits and anti-revolutionary zealots dispute those rankings but the two most knowledgeable journalistic insiders of that era -- Carlos Franqui and Herbert L. Matthews -- concurred, as do Cuba's three best still-living and unbiased historians -- Marta Rojas, Pedro Alvarez Tabio, and Roberto Salas in Cuba today.

           Of all the defining moments in U.S.-Cuban relations, this photo chronicles what might well be the most defining of all. On April 15, 1959 -- barely three months after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution -- this iconic handshake between Cuba's new leader Fidel Castro and America's Vice President Richard Nixon was staged for the cameras. They had just finished a hostile closed-door two-hour-and-twenty-minute talk in Nixon's office. A surly Nixon summarized the conversation with these words: "You have just three weeks to decide...resign, leave, whatever. If not, within three months we will again have total control of Cuba."

         Fidel knew immediately that Nixon had double-crossed him. But he would make no drastic reaction until he discussed it with Celia Sanchez. This was Fidel's demeanor as he listened to her reaction, the definitive one. With Fidel's concurrence, Celia was Cuba's decision-maker. She realized, after the revolution, Cuba needed good relations with the nearby military and economic superpower. She quickly arranged the U. S. visit by dealing with the American Society of Newspaper Editors. The U. S. State Department assured Celia that Fidel could meet with President Eisenhower, whom Celia trusted. Fidel was to tell him that Cuba would hold an election that fall in which the U. S. could closely monitor and in which, if the U. S. desired, neither Fidel nor Che Guevara would be candidates. {With that concession prior to the trip, Celia envisioned 27-year-old Camilo Cienfuegos as the winning candidate in the fall election}. Fidel never got to meet Ike because Nixon's wing of the White House made sure Eisenhower was out of town on an unscheduled golf trip. With the demeanor depicted above, Celia was told by Fidel of the Nixon double-cross and threat. She started her reply with this short sentence, "Then the revolution isn't over, is it, Fidel?" Her uninterrupted reply lasted "a full ten minutes" according to Carlos Franqui, the journalist who had accompanied Celia, Fidel, and Camilo to the U. S. on the 12-day trip in April of 1959. Celia summarized her soliloquy to Fidel with this sentence, according to Carlos Franqui: "It was do-or-die for us every day to win the Revolution and now it will be do-or-die every day for us to protect it. That's not the way I wanted it."

         Back on Cuban soil, Celia and Fidel spent the next few weeks traveling around the island to inform key revolutionary supporters of the "strictly defensive posture we are forced now to take, even ahead of the social changes we fought so hard for." It was on these trips that Celia told Fidel, "There are two nuclear world superpowers. One is the U. S. and the other is the Soviet Union. We must now choose one of them."

          In 1960 -- the year after his ill-fated 12-day, Nixon-marred trip to the U. S. -- Fidel was back in the U. S. for this UN speech. He assailed "the imperialist aggression of the United States against my country."

         At a news conference outside the UN building in 1960 Fidel made an even more definitive and defining statement. The video excerpt of that statement has been aired thousands of times since, including hundreds of times since the U. S. and Cuba in 2015 reopened embassies in the two capitals. Speaking in English, Fidel said in a clip re-aired multiple times recently on U. S. television: "I love Americans. Americans are good people. But the U. S. government has aggression against Cuba. Khrushchev wants to defend Cuba." Yet, it was not until after the military Bay of Pigs attack in April of 1961 that Fidel was persuaded to announce that Cuba was "permanently" a socialist country aligned with the Soviet Union.

        The Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba, like a lot of the U. S. policy related to Cuba since the 1950s, added to the Castro mystique as a David-vs.-Goliath phenomenon. The CIA had predicted to President Kennedy that Fidel would run to his getaway airplane when he heard the bombs falling on Camp Columbia, the military airfield on the edge of Havana. Fidel, in Celia Sanchez's 11th Street apartment, heard the bombs but he ran to the front-lines to lead the defense. The startling Bay of Pigs victory massively impressed the leaders in Moscow, including Deputy Premier Anastas Mikoyan, a great admirer of Celia Sanchez after he had earlier learned, on a trade mission to Havana, that "the tiny woman in Havana, I swear, is a really big power."

 Anastas Mikoyan visited Cuba in February of 1960. 

          In 1961 Nikita Khrushchev, the dictator of the nuclear-superpowered Soviet Union, was delighted to fill the wide void in U.S.-Cuban relations. For Cuba, it was a survival mode that extended into the 1990s. With the demise of the Soviet Union, although Russia remains a nuclear power, Cuba has had to invent various other survival modes because, even with thawed relations in 2015, a small number of second generational Cuban-American Batistiano-types continue to dictate the U. S. Congress's approach to Cuba.

         The last eleven U. S. Presidents have had defining moments with Fidel Castro but Richard "I am not a crook" Nixon had the most lasting effect. Fidel and Cuba revealed Nixon's right-wing crookedness but it was non-Cuban factors, of course, that caused Nixon -- on August 9, 1974 -- to become the only U. S. President to resign in office. But Nixon is emblematic of the fact that anti-Cuban criminals generally get lifetime free passes, a continuing consequence of deposed Batista leaders viciously regrouping on U. S. soil.

         This photo is an historic example of why Fidel called Nixon "a bully, a coward, a criminal." This photo was taken in Nixon's hometown of San Clemente, California, when President Nixon hosted Soviet Premier Brezhnev. Both Nixon and Brezhnev had too much to drink. In the moment captured above, Brezhnev is casting a lecherous eye at the shapely movie star Jill St. John. Nixon hobnobbed with powerful dictators.

       Fidel and Cuba have generally gotten along well with Democratic U. S. Presidents but, of course, not Republican leaders. In 1972 George McGovern, the Democratic U. S. Senator from South Dakota, lost his presidential bid to Richard Nixon. It was also a loss for Fidel and Cuba. The above photo was take on May 8, 1975, as Fidel was driving Senator McGovern around Cuba. He appeared to stop to tell ABC-TV's famed newswoman Barbara Walters, "Barbara, wait here. After I bring George back, I'll take you for a good ride."

And he did. It was not the only car ride or boat ride Fidel took Barbara on.

Roberto Salas took this photo of Fidel Castro in New York City -- April, 1959.

Roberto Salas photo from 1960: Earnest Hemingway and Fidel Castro.

        Because the Cuban narrative in the U. S. since the 1950s has been controlled by remnants of the ousted Batista dictatorship, and their easily acquired sycophants, perhaps the biggest of many distortions relates to Celia Sanchez. Because it has obviously been easy to vilify Fidel Castro and Che Guevara and it would be impossible to similarly vilify the child-loving doctor's daughter, the transplanted Batistianos have chosen to ignore Celia Sanchez's dominant decision-making role in the Cuban Revolution and in Revolutionary Cuba, accounting for American's limited knowledge of her. But all Cuban insiders -- Franqui, Tabio, Salas, Rojas, etc. -- acknowledge her significance. Roberto Salas, in his book, said, "Celia made all the decisions for Cuba, the big ones and the small ones." Marta Rojas, in a 2005 email, told me, "Since Celia died of cancer in 1980, Fidel has ruled Cuba only as he precisely believes Celia would want him to rule it." So, yes. Cuba's seminal reactions to the Batista dictatorship and to Richard Nixon's double-cross in April of 1959 were Celia Sanchez's reactions. Her vivid imprint is why Cuba today is still a sovereign island.

      Many historians and pundits who hate Fidel Castro admit that the survival of Revolutionary Cuba since 1959 is attributable to Fidel Castro's out-fighting and out-smarting his multitudes of powerful enemies. And speaking of smarts, what about the prescient quotation Fidel make in the above speech in 1973!! "The U. S. will come to talk to us when they have a black president and the world has a Latin American Pope." The United States in 2015, as Fidel Castro celebrated his 89th birthday, is talking to Cuba. And the United States has a black president, something no one else could have predicted in 1973. and Pope Francis, who will visit Cuba in September, is a Latin American born in Argentina. Yes, Fidel Castro, 1973: "The U. S. will come to talk to us when they have a black president and the world has a Latin American Pope." Amazing! 

         In 1961 Fidel Castro, as depicted above, began to sign new Cuban laws that included the appropriations of U. S. companies and properties that he considered stolen or ill-gotten during the Batista-Mafia dictatorship. This affront to superpower America was after the warning by Vice President Richard Nixon in April of 1959 and after the U.S./CIA/Cuban exile attack at the Bay of Pigs in April of 1961, an attack that only resulted in cementing Fidel's legendary reputation as a revolutionary icon. To this day, backed by their dominance of the U. S. Congress on Cuban issues, U. S. companies and alleged property owners are still demanding reparations for the properties Fidel appropriated in the above photo in 1961. Reparations? They might get a couple of pennies on the dollar if...if...the U. S. meets Cuba's demands -- which include at least $118 billion the embargo has allegedly cost Cuba, the return of Guantanamo Bay, and compensations to thousands of Cubans for such terrorist acts as the downing of the civilian Cubana Flight 455 airplane. In other words, good luck on reparations although some U. S. companies are now willing to forget claims as long as they can invest in Cuba now that President Obama has sharply thawed relations with Cuba. 

           This photo from 1961 shows the U. S. flag being folded after it was removed from the U. S. Embassy in Havana. From that day till the summer of 2015, U.S.-Cuban relations were in a Cold War state of affairs.

This photo shows Fulgencio Batista {middle} in exile in Spain in 1962.

Batista died of a heart attack at age 72 in Marbella, Spain, in 1973.

Fidel Castro turned 89-years-old at his home in Havana on August 13th.

            Here in the summer of 2015 this AP/Andrew Harnik photo shows the Cuban flag flying at the U. S. embassy in Washington for the first time since 1961, emblematic of a new era in U.S.-Cuban relations.

In Havana the U. S. flag now flies at the newly opened U. S. embassy.

Powerful Miami politicians still dictate a strong anti-Cuban agenda.

But President Obama is trying to help Cubans.

Mr. President!!

 &******************&

Cuba-American Political Extremists

Moderates Unwelcome

         This AP photo shows Senator Ted Cruz campaigning for President at the Iowa State Fair. The photo was used by The Huffington Post to illustrate an article that was entited: "TED CRUZ CRITICIZES JIMMY CARTER ONE DAY AFTER CANCER ANNOUNCEMENT." Out of respect for a great man, Jimmy Carter, I will not repeat what Ted Cruz, a cruel wimp when compared to Mr. Carter, said. But it is a reminder that Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio -- the two Cuban-American first-term U. S. Senators and Republican presidential contenders -- are convinced they can say or do anything and get away with it because, after all, they are Cuban-Americans and the infamous Helms-Burton Act mandates that Cuban-Americans in the U. S. have special rights and privileges others do not have. I think Cruz, Rubio, and Helms-Burton are insults to America and to democracy. Moreover, I believe Cruz, Rubio, and Helms-Burton are insults to the vast majority of Cuban-Americans who are, by their nature and culture, particularly decent, skilled, and talented.

         As first-term U. S. Senators, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have made a lot of volatile noise but no substantive contributions to the U. S. Senate, except to feather their own political nests. Mostly they have fluttered around the nation courting billionaire donors to pad their ever-bulging PACs; of the 100 Senators, Rubio is #100 when it comes to actually being on hand to vote. And mostly they have railed about shutting down the government, assailed any and all the major accomplishments of President Barack Obama, and bragged about ending all of the positive advancements Obama has made regarding U.S.-Cuban relations. Cruz and Rubio reached the U. S. Congress by latching onto the coattails of the Bush dynasty -- Cruz in Texas and Rubio in Florida. They are also darlings of right-wing outfits such as The Tea Party and Fox News. In addition, USA Today reports the astounding amount of campaign contributions Cruz and Rubio have gotten from right-wing and Jewish billionaires. In fact, Letters-to-the-Editor in the Miami Herald have complained about Rubio and Cruz being such well-paid lobbyists for Israel they are ignoring Latinos.

         This photo is courtesy of Flint Magazine. The Versailles Restaurant in the heart of Miami's Little Havana neighborhood is the hub of politics and other things dear to Cuban-Americans, such as Fidel Castro. Polls show the majority of Cuban-Americans even in Little Havana disagree with Cuban-American hard-line extremists vowing to maintain a Cuban policy that has harmed everyday Cubans on the island for going on six decades. There are several million Cuban-Americans, including two million in Florida, and most of them are moderates who oppose such things as the archaic, cruel embargo against Cuba. So, one may legitimately ask, why are only Cuban-American anti-Castro extremists such as Rubio, Cruz, Menendez, Ros-Lehtinen, the Diaz-Balarts, etc., etc., members of the U. S. Congress and why are extremists like Cruz and Rubio the two Cuban-American presidential candidates, especially in an era when conservative Republicans like me would love to be able to support a non-extremist Cuban-American for President???

        I believe Americans should have the patriotism, guts, and decency to criticize Senator Ted Cruz for shamefully criticizing Jimmy Carter, of all people, the day after Mr. Carter announced that he was undergoing radiation treatment for melanoma that had spread from his liver to four spots on his brain. Of all the American presidents from George Washington to Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter is the most decent human being. As a lifelong conservative Republican, I didn't vote for Mr. Carter, a Democrat. But since his 1977 to 1981 presidency right-wingers have usurped the Republican Party. Additionally, I have studied the true greatness of Mr. Carter, including his 28 books. A shameless and tactless Ted Cruz assailing Mr. Carter is reprehensible. If he survives his struggles with cancer, Mr. Carter will turn 91-years-old on October 1st. A lot of lesser men, with Ted Cruz being the latest, have opposed Mr. Carter's sheer decency. 

Jimmy Carter

{Unless otherwise noted, photos are courtesy of AP/Getty Images}

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Cuba: Now and Then

Forever Fascinating Then and Now
Updated: Tuesday, August 26th, 2015

         Yesterday -- Tuesday, August 25, 2015 -- the very influential Israeli media force -- "The Times of Israel" -- used the above AP photo at the top of an incredible article written by Raphael Ahren. The article, picked up by other international media outlets, was entitled: "Obama left Israel In the Cold When He Revived Ties With Cuba." Among a truly astounding litany of weird sentences was this one: "Israel was caught totally off guard by the American about-face." The article mentioned that Israel was/is the only nation in the world that supports the U. S. embargo in the UN vote each October. Mr. Ahren was fair enough to admit that the stand-alone Israeli vote in the UN is tied to the incredible financial and military support the U. S. provides Israel yearly. It is also well known, even if the U. S. and Israel refuse to admit it, that AIPAC, the ultra-rich-and-powerful Israeli lobby, dominates the U. S. Congress pertaining to any issue that concerns Israel. BUT CUBA? It's a delusion...or at least it should be...for Israel to believe America's Executive Branch, which is separate from Congress, has to get permission from Israel before it conducts foreign policy that really doesn't directly concern Israel. Cuba is in America's backyard, not Israel's. The U. S. President, even beyond Congress and certainly beyond foreign nations, is responsible for setting U. S. foreign policy. Cuba is a foreign country. Yes, an incredible article but not all that surprising because, now and then and then and now, Cuba has a role on the international stage far out of proportion to its size or its population.

      Cuba, Jamaica, and all the other nations in the Caribbean have often, over the decades, been devastated by hurricanes. But global warming and warm El Nino waters have changed things, creating major drought conditions. The Jamaica Observer is the best at chronicling the Caribbean with brilliant cartoons, such as this one begging Hurricane Danny this week not to pass them by because even a drenching from a hurricane would alleviate some of the dire drought conditions.

        Cuba, the largest and most populated island in the Caribbean, is being plagued by the twin evils of the U. S. embargo and a devastating drought. The embargo has been in effect since 1962 for the purpose of depriving the Cuban people to entice them to overthrow their Revolutionary government. The drought has been acute since 2004. The Cristobal Herrera/AP photo above shows citizens of Holguin having their buckets filled up by what are now ubiquitous tank trucks as the government tries to provide water needed for drinking, cooking, bathing, and other necessities. Holguin is a city of 300,000 located 435 miles southeast of Havana. The current drought has adversely affected Cuban cities and farms all across the island, severely testing the citizens and the government. So the drought is both then and now for Cubans, and so is the much longer duration of the U. S. embargo. Here are some more then and now highlights.

        Of course, the most devastating then and now in U.S.-Cuban relations remains the pernicious U. S. embargo of Cuba, a plague since 1962 on both the island and on the image {above} of the United States.

The Batistiano-contaminated U. S. Congress wants to continue the embargo forever.

         In the 1920s right up until the Cuban Revolution victory on January 1, 1959, America's top mobsters loved Cuba. This photo was taken in 1930 and is courtesy of the State Archives of Florida. That's Al Capone, the all-time most famous Mafia kingpin, in the middle flanked by Havana mayor Julio Morales and lawyer J. Fritz Gordon. Capone owned mansions in Havana and Varadero Beach, Cuba, as well as Miami, Florida.

         In 1946 Lucky Luciano, the all-time most powerful Mafia kingpin, called a famous Organized Crime Conference in Havana. It was held at the famed Hotel Nacional, then a veritable beehive of Mafia activity.

Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner celebrated their honeymoon in Havana in 1951.
Frank Sinatra famously adored Mafia kingpins.

        In the 1950s during the U.S.-backed Batista/Mafia dictatorship, Cuba was a playpen for rich and famous Americans, including Hollywood elite, who flocked to the island. This photo is courtesy of The International Center of Photography. Sloppy Joe's Bar in Havana was a prime watering hole. At the bar above is Barbara Stanwyck, a superstar actress in her prime. To her right is Robert Taylor, a superstar actor in his prime.

       This photo, also courtesy of The International Center of Photography, was taken in 1959. In the Havana Cubanas uniform is Camilo Cienfuegos. Camilo was just 27-years-old and his popularity rivaled Fidel Castro's as one of the most heralded Revolutionary Commanders that had overthrown the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in the first week of 1959. Camilo had commanded the rebel unit that captured Santa Clara, the last major battle, before they raced to Havana only to discover that the Havana-Mafia leaders had fled.

            This photo shows the well-armed Camilo Cienfuegos and Fidel Castro after capturing Havana, with Camilo seeming to be quite puzzled and disappointed that the Batistianos had fled instead of fighting. 

        This photo is courtesy of Andrew Moore/Yancy Richardson Gallery, New York. For decades Cuban baseball teams dominated international competition in both the Olympics and the Pan-American Games.

       In recent years, a more determined and better greased pipeline has resulted in the U. S. Major Leagues siphoning off Cuba's unique abundance of baseball talent. This photo montage shows Aroldis Chapman, the Cuban-born lefty for the Cincinnati Reds. The backdrop depicts the latest mansion Chapman has purchased in South Florida. A plethora of Cuban defectors have recently signed huge baseball bonus contracts exceeding $70 million, with all the money guaranteed whether or not they ever make the Major Leagues. Similarly talented American players would receive bonuses of only about $3 to $5 million because they would be drafted and only the team that drafts them can sign them. But all Cubans in the U. S. have had special benefits since the Cuban Revolution chased the Batista dictatorship to U. S. soil in January of 1959. All 30 Major League teams get to bid on Cubans, accounting for their exorbitant bonuses. Then if they are good Major Leaguers, the salaries, not to mention the endorsements, become really exorbitant, bordering on obscene. Giancarlo Stanton, a 25-year-old outfielder for the Miami Dolphins who has been injured much of the past two years, recently got a guaranteed $325 million added to his already multi-million-dollar contract...in a country in which one in five children have hunger problems. The vast disparity between the rich and poor is strikingly apparent to all the defecting Cuban baseball stars.

         Yoenis Cespedes is a 29-year-old Cuban outfielder with the New York Mets. A few nights ago he had five hits, including three homers, in one game. Players like Cespedes not only make huge salaries in the U. S., they often make far more from endorsements. Note the Nike swoosh on Yoenis's undershirt. The influx of Cuban defectors means Cuba is no longer the dominant baseball nation in international competition. But an all-Cuban team of U. S. Major Leaguers could beat the nationals of any other nation, including the U. S. and the Dominican Republic. Off the top of my head, this is my current All-Cuban Baseball Team:

1B -- Jose Abreu, Chicago White Sox

2B -- Adeiny Hechavarria, Miami Dolphins

3B -- Yunel Escobar, Washington Nationals

SS -- Jose Iglesias, Detroit Tigers

LF -- Yoenis Cespedes, New York Mets

CF -- Yasiel Puig, Los Angeles Dodgers

RF -- Jorge Soler, Chicago Cubs
Catcher -- Yasmani Grandal, Los Angeles Dodgers

DH -- Kendrys Morales, Kansas City Royals

Starting Pitcher -- Jose Fernandez, Miami Dolphins

Relief Pitcher -- Aroldis Chapman, Cincinnati Reds

       Aroldis Chapman and Yoenis Cespedes reuniting in the U. S. as multi-millionaire American superstars. Cuba then and now, now and then, and forever will always be tied to the United States, for better or for worse. Baseball is just one example.

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Embargo Shames America

So Does The Cuban Adjustment Act

       Ivette Leyva Martinez is one of a myriad of Miami-based journalists who write endlessly about Cuba and, although typically and vehemently anti-Castro, she's one of the best. A major article last Friday penned by Ms. Leyva began with these words: "In yet another shameful spectacle for the defenders of the Cuba Adjustment Act, 14 people stood before a Miami federal court this Thursday on charges of contracting false marriages and committing immigration fraud to take advantage of the benefits afforded by the legislation. The alleged leaders of the fraud network recruited Cuban citizens who were eligible for permanent residency in the United States under the CAA and arranged fraudulent marriages with foreigners willing to pay for the services in order to evade the immigration regulations applicable to them. The CAA has been in effect since 1966. Over 30,000 Cubans a year still use the law to obtain permanent U. S. residency..." The insightful article by Ms. Leyva points out what every brave, decent, and intelligent American already knew: A plethora of U. S. laws, rammed through an intimidated or bought-and-paid-for U. S. Congress, have for decades been designed to benefit Miami Cubans, hurt Revolutionary Cuba, and harm non-Miami Cubans.

      The Cuban Adjustment Act is purely designed to benefit Cubans and purely meant to discriminate against everyone else. It is one of an endless array of anti-democratic Cuban ventures that are consequences of two dramatic blights on the U. S. democracy: {1} Teaming with the Mafia in 1952 to support the brutal, thieving Batista dictatorship so rich U. S. businessmen could also partake of the rape and robbery of the lush, nearby island; and {2} when the Cuban Revolution overthrew the Batista-Mafia dictatorship on January 1, 1959, the U. S. allowed the ousted Batistianos and Mafiosi to reconstitute their dictatorship on U. S. soil with the Little Havana section of Miami their new capital. The Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 came about after numerous assassination attempts, the Bay of Pigs attack in 1961, the embargo enacted in 1962, etc., etc., had failed to recapture the island. Unlike any other people in the world, Cubans who touch U. S. soil are home free as permanent residents and immediately draw monthly welfare checks, get on Medicare, are put on fast tracks to citizenship, etc., etc. Primarily the Cuban Adjustment Act was to encourage Cubans on the island to get to Miami via any possible means so as to undermine Fidel Castro's government. A secondary objective, as with all such Cuban-related laws, was/is to enrich and empower the already rich and powerful Cuban-Americans in Miami and Union City, New Jersey. A U. S. Congress that has largely become a bought-and-paid-for enterprise greatly exacerbated the greed and revenge motivations of the Miami Cubans. Discussing the Cuban Adjustment Act in Progresso Weekly, Mayte Gonzalez wrote: "The U. S. Congress is contaminated with politicking that has paralyzed the legislative process in general."

       It has been cogently argued that George H. W. Bush -- as Vice-President under Ronald Reagan and then as President himself -- anointed anti-Castro zealot Jorge Mas Canosa as the leader of the Cuban government-in-exile in the 1980s. From that point on Mr. Canosa not only became a reputed billionaire in Miami but the architect of an extraordinary stream of anti-Castro/pro-Cuban exile laws. That Bush-Canosa connection is best understood by reading two seminal books: Julia E. Sweig's "What Everyone Needs To Know About Cuba" and Anne Louise Bardach's "Cuba Confidential: Love and Revenge in Miami and Havana." The most cogent advice the newly anointed Mr. Canosa ever got, according to Julia E. Sweig, was to study AIPAC, the ultra-powerful Israeli lobbying arm, and replicate it. Mr. Canosa took that advice and created The Cuban-American National Foundation. The rest is history. Since then both Israel and Miami have had firm grips on the U. S. Congress when it comes to any and all laws affecting those two entities.

          This cogent photo shows George H. W. Bush handing out souvinir pens to anti-Castro zealots Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Jorge Mas Canosa after yet another cogent anti-Castro/pro-Cuban exile bill was officially signed into law. Cogent is indeed the applicable word to describe the Bush-Canosa connection, but there are other more damnable words. Once anointed, Mr. Canosa had no trouble at all gaining sycophants in the U. S. Congress such as Robert Torricelli, Jesse Helms, Dan Burton, etc. Perhaps you have heard of the Torricelli Bill and the Helms-Burton Act. If not, read the two aforementioned Sweig and Bardach books and you'll comprehend how such cruel laws started and have kept the U. S. democracy on a downward spiral.

       While Cuban-born Jorge Mas Canosa was George H. W. Bush's favorite anti-Castro Cuban, Cuban-born Mel Martinez was/is George W. Bush's favorite anti-Castro Cuban. A political power in Miami, Mel Martinez became a national power thanks to the Bush dynasty. He became a U. S. Senator, a member of George W. Bush's cabinet, head of the Republican Party, etc. The Bush dynasty has accounted for much of the extreme power of the Miami Cubans and they want the Bush dynasty to continue for future decades, such as with Jeb Bush and Jeb's son George P. Bush, already the ultra-powerful Land Commissioner in Texas.

         This photo explains why Jeb Bush became the two-term governor of Florida and why, in 2015, Jeb is the top Republican candidate to succeed Barack Obama as President of the United States. In this photo, that is Jeb standing next to Mel Martinez, the Cuban-born former U. S. Senator from Miami and former key cabinet member in the George W. Bush presidency. Jeb's bid for the Presidency is fueled by rich and powerful long-time supporters of the Bush dynasty, such as Mr. Martinez. Standing behind Jeb and Mel Martinez in this photo are the Diaz-Balart brothers of Miami, Lincoln and Mario. They are the sons of Rafael Diaz-Balart, a key Minister in the Batista dictatorship who quickly became one of the richest and most powerful of the anti-Castro Miami Cubans. Rafael's Havana-born son Lincoln Diaz-Balart was elected to the U. S. Congress from Miami but gave up the safe seat to re-build the White Rose anti-Castro movement that his father had started in Miami shortly after the revolution changed things in Cuba, Miami, and Washington. Mario, Rafael Diaz-Balart's son born in Miami, has also been elected to the U. S. Congress from Miami and Mario remains there as one of the prime anti-Castro zealots. Anti-Castro Bush zealots and anti-Castro Miami-Cubans believe they alone should dictate America's Cuban power. And they have done so.

        This photo shows Jeb Bush in 1989 putting a halo around the head of Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Miami's anti-Castro zealot who had just been elected to the U. S. Congress. Jeb Bush had been her Campaign Manager. It was one of the things that endeared himself to the Miami Cubans and later accounted for his two-term stint as Florida's governor. Ros-Lehtinen has been entrenched in the U. S. Congress since 1989.

       There are now five members of the U. S. Congress from the two old Mafia strongholds of Miami and Union City, with these three -- Marco Rubio, Bob Menendez, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen -- being the prime anti-Castro zealots along with Mario Diaz-Balart. The Cuban-Americans all try to become head of congressional committees that most affect Cuba. Ros-Lehtinen, for example, has been Chairwoman of the House Foreign Relations Committee. Menendez has been Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. and Rubio is now the Chairman of the Western Hemisphere Committee. Unfortunately, Cuba is a foreign country and is in the Western Hemisphere. It is also interesting to note that Rubio is sacrificing his first term in the U. S. Senate to be a Republican presidential candidate. Rubio is a protege of Jeb Bush, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Mel Martinez, and other powerful political brokers; plus he is Cuban-American. But guess what? Ros-Lehtinen, Martinez, etc., are strong supporters of Jeb Bush's presidential bid. The Bush-Cuban exile connection has reshaped the U. S. democracy, and not in a good way. Both Jeb and George P., with strong support from the Cuban-American elite, could block Mr. Rubio's path to the White House.

          Displaying Herculean guts and decency, President Obama -- in the homestretch of his two-term presidency -- has used his executive powers to defy a money-contaminated U. S. Congress to attach some sanity to America's Cuban policy. The reopening of embassies in Washington and Havana for the first time since 1961 seemed impossible, but he accomplished it. Yet, Miami Cubans and right-wing Republicans still control Congress and that's why the U. S. embargo and other hostilities against Cuba remain in effect.

         This graphic not only embarrasses President Obama but it embarrasses all democracy lovers around the world. The embargo against Cuba is the longest and cruelest in history. It dates back to 1962 when it was created for the purpose, according to declassified U. S. documents, of starving and depriving Cubans on the island to entice them to overthrow Fidel Castro. Except for hurting millions of totally innocent Cubans as well as the U. S. democracy, it hasn't worked. The embargo is now 53-years-old and Fidel Castro is 89-years-old. Like the Cuban Adjustment Act, Wet Foot/Dry Foot, Torricelli, Helms-Burton, and the rest of the contaminated Congressional laws related to Cuba, the embargo is designed to hurt Cuba and benefit a handful of Cuban-Americans economically, politically, and revengefully. The embargo has shamed democracy-loving Americans for over five decades. It should not be allowed to shame our children.

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Cuba Beware: A Trojan Horse

May Target Havana!!!

      This image of a Trojan Horse is courtesy of Void Magazine/voidlive.com based in Jacksonville, Florida. According to historical and mythological legends, in 1194 BC the Greeks had fruitlessly tried for a decade to capture the city of Troy during the Trojan War. The Greeks finally devised a stratagem: They built a huge wooden horse and put it on wheels. They made a faint at the fortified city walls, and then retreated, purposely leaving the horse behind. The soldiers defending Troy were intrigued and rolled the horse through the opened gates. Inside the horse, hidden in its belly and neck, the Greeks had planted 32 of their best soldiers, who exited the mammoth wooden horse and created havoc that included reopening the gates so the returning Greek army could enter. In that manner, very famously, the Greeks captured the city of Troy. A "Trojan Horse" has metaphorically come to mean any trick or stratagem that causes a target to foolishly allow a hostile force into its well-fortified bastion, such as a fort or a supposedly impenetrable city. In this digital age, a malicious computer program that salaciously tricks users into clicking onto a fake ad or email and thus allows thieves to access the computer is called "a Trojan Horse." Is Havana, like Troy, susceptible to a Trojan Horse because of improved U. S. relations? It's a theory well worth pondering.

         Not for a second am I suggesting that President Obama's Herculean efforts to normalize relations with Cuba involve a Trojan Horse strategy. But, there is no doubt that counter-revolutionaries in Miami and Washington, and a handful of well-heeled dissidents on the island, are well aware that having greater and less transparent access to the island, a byproduct of Obama's welcoming-hand approach to Cuba, is providing them a Trojan Horse-type opportunity after six decades of being unable to crack the Castro veneer. Luckily for Cuba, the island's most important American expert knows all about Trojan Horses.

        Josefina Vidal is Cuba's Minster of North American Affairs and her decision-making authority is stronger than even that title would indicate. She was Cuba's prime negotiator over the course of the past 25 months, enabling President Obama to use his executive power to bring some sanity to U.S.-Cuban relations despite the self-serving hostility of a Batistiano-loving U. S. Congress. Among other things, Vidal knows all about Trojan Horses. She doesn't want Havana to be equated in history or mythology with Troy. She is, however, aware that some powerful Americans and Cuban-Americans are as anxious to capture Havana in 2015 as the Greeks were to capture Troy in 1194 BC. With that in mind, the last two things that Vidal conceded prior to the re-opening of embassies in Washington and Havana for the first time since 1961 were: {1} very reluctantly she agreed to allow U. S. minsters to leave their embassy in Havana and travel freely around the island; and {2} very reluctantly she agreed to allow U. S. ministers to bring un-inspected diplomatic pouches into Cuba. Remember, Vidal for over a decade has been Cuba's primary monitor of the unending regime-change programs, lavishly created and funded in Miami and Washington. She is aware that the reopened U. S. embassy in Havana can be like the Trojan Horse was in Troy. As much as Vidal desires normal relations with the U. S., as epitomized by the reopened embassies, she is fully capable of "battening down the hatches," which to her means "sacrificing U. S. relations altogether in favor of a defensive posture that relies on much more friendly foreign support, especially when it comes to trade."

         Josefina Vidal is hoping that ultra rich and powerful Cuban-Americans like Carlos Gutierrez are not equating improved U.S.-Cuban relations with the Trojan Horse that spelled doomed for Troy centuries ago. But you had better believe that Vidal is well aware of a startling about-face Gutierrez has made regarding Cuba. He was born in Havana in 1953. His father was a wealthy owner of a pineapple plantation in Batista's Cuba. After the Cuban Revolution overthrew Batista in January of 1959, Gutierrez's father fled to Miami when Carlos was six-years-old. As an adult, Carlos became CEO and Chairman of one of America's best-known companies, Kellogg. Gutierrez also was Vice-Chairman of Citigroup, the far-flung financial giant.

        From 2005 till 2009 Gutierrez was Secretary of Commerce in the George W. Bush administration. That Bush presidency, as far as Vidal and others were concerned, turned Cuban policy over to viciously anti-Castro zealots/militants such as Otto Reich, Roger Noriega, and...Carlos Gutierrez. All of Latin America still cringes over the Bush presidency, especially Reich and Noriega, celebrating the brief coup that overthrew Venezuela's Cuban-friendly President Hugo Chavez. Vidal also palpably remembers how Gutierrez handled the U. S. reaction to two back-to-back hurricanes that devastated the island, destroying over 240,000 homes. Many countries sincerely offered aid. So did the U. S., insincerely. Gutierrez held a news conference saying x-number of U. S. tax dollars would help Cuba's recovery. It was a ruse that still irritates Vidal. He said the financial aid would not go to the government, meaning as far as Vidal was concerned it was merely an additional way to fund dissidents. Gutierrez held more news conferences, pompously raising the amount of tax dollars the U. S. was ready to provide Cuba. Gutierrez, Vidal still believes, was making fun of Cuba during a time when the people on the island were suffering from the brutal hurricanes. Vidal does not trust any American closely aligned with the Bush dynasty, economically or politically.

      Carlos Gutierrez is now 61-years-old and an extremely rich man. His power and influence resides mostly in his huge bank accounts but also in a plethora of enterprises such as the Albright Stone Bridge Group. Back on July 20th he was a very ubiquitous visitor to Havana where he attended the flag-raising at the new U. S. embassy. The photograph above was taken in front of the embassy during a long interview with Gutierrez conducted by NBC's top political correspondent Andrea Mitchell. In that interview, which you may want to dial up online, Gutierrez lavishly advocated friendly relations with Cuba. WOW! He even lavished praise on Cuban President Raul Castro, pointing out how many new entrepreneurs he was seeing on his return to Cuba. His lavish praise has been analyzed by Josefina Vidal. Is Carlos Gutierrez's about-face akin to the Trojan Horse stratagem that the Greeks used so successfully against Troy? Maybe! Maybe not?

        This photo of Josefina Vidal was taken this week as she was being interviewed by Reuters, the London-based international news agency that covers Cuba like a blanket. Thanks to Reuters, we know that Ms. Vidal knows what a Trojan Horse is. That means Cuba may remain a sovereign country a while longer.

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Cuba's Unique Beauty

Tourism Is Surging

       The renowned photographer Juan Suarez has presented a magnificent portrait of Cuba as reflected by a stunning menagerie of 25 photos, such as this one, featured on the Havana Times.org website. He wrote: "We visited the keys north of Ciega de Avila in the resort area known as Jardines del Ray, which includes Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo. The popular tourist destination has exuberant vegetation, exotic birds, a colony of pink flamingos, and one of the best beaches in the country, Playa Pilar."

         This Juan Suarez photo shows a crowded beach at Cayo Coco now attracting more tourists. As Presidents Obama and Castro began to ease animosity between the two nations, the number of trips abroad by Cubans increased by 23.7 percent in 2014 and that has sharply increased in 2015. Likewise, President Obama has used executive power to allow more Americans to visit Cuba in defiance of the U. S. embargo that has harmed Cuba since 1962 and prevents most U. S. citizens the freedom to visit the island.

This Juan Suaez photo highlights the pristine white sands of Cuban beaches.

      This map shows Ciega de Avila, the area photographed by Juan Suarez, on the north-central coast of the alligator-shaped island of Cuba. Just off the coast of Ciega de Avila you can also detect the white sands of Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo in the area known as Jardines del Ray, now a prime tourist attraction.

       This important photo was taken yesterday {August 20th} in Brasilia, Brazil. It is used courtesy of Veslei Marcelina/Reuters. That's Dilma Rousseff, the President of Brazil, pointing out something to Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany. Brazil has by far the largest economy in Latin America and Germany has by far the largest economy in Europe. The two ultra-powerful women yesterday signed an agreement on climate change ahead of the much-anticipated global climate talks that will be held in Paris in December.

   German Chancellor Angela Merkel also yesterday vowed to boost Brazil's stagnant economy and to help elevate the mood of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Cuba's and Fidel Castro's dear friend. The 67-year-old Rousseff is less than a year into her second term as Brazil's President. It's been rough. A massive scandal at the state-owned Petrobas oil firm coupled with a slowing economy has reduced Rousseff's popularity to single digits and prompted massive street demonstrations demanding her resignation or impeachment. She has always been a strong economic supporter of Cuba, so her political status in Brazil is extremely important to the island. Perhaps the boost from the Merkel visit will help Dilma...and Cuba. 

 And by the way.........

      ................I learned something new about robins this week. The photo above was taken by Roland Jardahl and is used courtesy of Birds & Blooms Magazine. The caption to this photo stated: "American robins have as many as three broods in a year, with each nesting cycle lasting about a month from egg laying to the fledgling of babies. That means they don't finish their nesting till late August. Female robins lay and incubate the eggs but both parties care for the young." I thought that robins had just one brood of babies each spring, not up to three throughout the summer.  

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