Cuba's Evolving Revolution

Truly a Sight to Behold!!

     This photo is courtesy of Ana Campoy, the superb photographer and journalist at the informative Quartz News agency. Ms. Campoy this week used this photo and a dozen others to highlight her brilliant article from Cuba entitled "If You Want To Get To Cuba 'Before It Changes,' You're Already Too Late." Her caption for this photo is: "In a better mood." Ana Campoy beautifully reported and illustrated that Cubans, like this spontaneously dancing little girl, are feeling much better about the ongoing evolution of the gritty Cuban Revolution thanks to President Obama's herculean efforts to normalize relations with the nearby island.

          Campoy's caption: "I had my fill of fresh fruit, which was hard to find on my first trip to Cuba."  

    Her caption: "Havana now has a lively shopping district." 

       Ana Campoy's caption for this photo: "It's easy to meet people in Havana, because everyone hangs out outside." These two Cuban children, like their parents, were born in a Cuba stifled by the U. S. embargo and other animus directed from Miami and Washington since the overthrow of the Batista dictatorship in 1959. At long last, President Obama, to his everlasting credit, is trying to make things better for Cuba's children.

       Ana Campoy is one of America's best photo-journalists. She works out of Dallas-Fort Worth for Quartz News and from 2007 till 2015 she did yeoman work for the Wall Street Journal. The mainstream U. S. media is generally conditioned to be biased or politically correct against Cuba. But not Ana Campoy. Her photos and personal observations this week about the Obama-abetted changes taking place in Cuba represent excellent journalism. It's easily available online at Quartz with her interesting title: "If You Want To Get To Cuba 'Before It Changes,' You're Already Too Late." It's fair, insightful, and brilliant journalism from Cuba. 

And by the way......

          ....sparrows are beautiful singers. The photo is courtesy of Bill Leman and my very favorite magazine, Birds & Blooms.

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Cuba-Florida Co-existing

   No Terror, No Wars 
{Updated: Thursday, June 16th, 2016}

       Since the right-wing extremism of the Tea Party ended my lifelong tenure as a conservative Republican, Kirsten Gillibrand has been my favorite U. S. Senator. A New York Democrat, she was named to the seat by Governor Paterson when Hillary Clinton became Secretary of State. Then Ms. Gillibrand was re-elected for her own 6-year term in 2012 with 72% of the vote, a New York record for statewide office. She comes from a family of lawyers and lobbyists and she herself was once a key lawyer for the tobacco giant Philip Morris. But in the Senate, she uniquely is not bought-and-paid-for. In fact, she is the first member of a lowly-rated Congress to post her daily meetings online every day "so New Yorkers can see who is lobbying their Senator and for what." Last night {Wednesday, June 15th} on the floor of the Senate, Ms. Gillibrand made her latest emotional plea for gun control, mocking the bought-and-paid-for members of Congress who allow 9 out of 10 people even on the U. S. terror-watch list to easily buy guns as the shooter in the horrific Orlando massacre had done this week. Like most Americans, Senator Gillibrand last night railed against the easy purchases of military weapons "that can fire 100 rounds a minute, weapons and bullets that are only meant to kill humans!" 

     The United States of America very badly needs a female President in 2017, especially Kirsten Gillibrand. Each day she is in the Senate, she goes online to prove that she is not bought-and-paid-for. That makes her very presidential.

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      This AP photo shows the home-base for Stonegate Bank in Daytona Beach, Florida. It had made history  -- Wednesday, June 15, 2016 -- when its MasterCard became the first credit card that can be used in Cuba. Its MasterCards feature art work by Cuban painter Michel Mirabel. Stonegate Bank in South Florida not only wants to be friends with Cuba, it has the courage to back up that friendship. HOW REFRESHING!!

      This Reuters photo shows a happy David Seleski, the President of Stonegate Bank, showing off his new Cuban MasterCard. He said, "This is going to be huge for American companies down here. It puts pressure on other financial institutions to come to the table. If you really look at it, a lot has happened in the last 14 months." Mr. Seleski wants his small bank in South Florida to thrive and he wishes the same for Cuba.

President Obama is black; Pope Francis is from Argentina.

Fidel, almost 90, is still around to monitor its effect.

 Has it changed Cuba more or America more? 

       Historians are still debating the answer....

....as Cuba's old revolution is turning new!

      Meanwhile, this young Cuban wearing a Barack Obama-U.S. flag T-shirt, sits on Havana's Malecon seawall and gazes northward out over the Florida Straits toward Key West, Florida. A penny for his thoughts? How about a dollar? Or what about this guess: "Why did it take so long for someone like Barack Obama to become President of the United States?" Or better yet, what's your guess about what he's thinking?

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Cuba Is Still Waiting

"To Breathe Freely"

        This photo of Cuba's Josefina Vidal is courtesy of the Americas Society and Council of the Americas. It was used to illustrate an article by AS/COA's Elizabeth Gonzalez that features new and updated comments by Cuba's Minister of North American Affairs. Vidal has brilliantly negotiated remarkable advances in U.S.-Cuban relations and she continues to work with President Obama's representatives. She told Ms. Gonzalez, "What we are doing now is clarifying the different kinds of properties that will coexist." In other words, Josefina Vidal expects much more -- namely, an end to the embargo of Cuba that has existed since 1962 "against the will" of the entire world except a handful of two generations of vicious exiles or Cuban-Americans aligned with a handful of self-serving right-wingers; a return of Cuba's Guantanamo Bay that Vidal and the rest of the world says "was stolen" by the U. S. in 1903; and an end to such extremely "discriminatory" and "anti-democracy" U. S. laws as Wet Foot/Dry Foot that are "purely designed" to hurt Cuba first and then to secondarily "enrich and empower revengeful remnants" of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship that was overthrown "decades ago" in 1959. Americans, particularly, need to listen to Josefina Vidal.

       The AS/Council of the Americas article written by Elizabeth Gonzalez is entitled: "LatAm in Focus: Josefina Vidal On A Changing Cuba." In other recent comments with Reuters, Centro de Prensa, El Pais, Telesur, etc., Vidal has offered many pertinent comments that define the current status of U.S.-Cuban relations, which have vast regional and international implications, such as: "With the window of tolerance provided by President Obama, we have helped Cubans, Americans and even citizens of the world who can be affected when a strong nation bullies a small nation to whet the appetites of a few bad characters;" "There is still so much more we can do to help everyone. Cuba fought many revolutionary wars in order to be able to breathe without being under the yoke of imperialism. The 1959 Cuban revolutionary victory has not been accepted by the United States, shaming its democracy and disappointing its friends around the world;" "Mistakes in Cuba should be made and hopefully corrected by Cubans on the island, not those working from, with or at the behest of a foreign power. Successes in Cuba should be enjoyed by Cubans on the island, not ridiculed and opposed by revengeful foreigners;" and "Cuba, like all small countries, may lose to a stronger power, but as far as Cuba is concerned it will require the annihilation of the most honorable Cubans." 

   Josefina Vidal: An honorable Cuban. 

         The French frigate Germinal is shown above sailing into Havana Harbor. Jean Marie Bruno, France's Ambassador to Cuba, was there to welcome it. The captain, Commander Michel Vaxelaire, said, "Our visit is to strengthen friendly ties." This week Cuban citizens will be allowed to board and inspect the ship.

       Yesterday -- Monday, June 13th -- Major League Baseball named Yulieski Gurriel as a free agent. He defected from Cuba along with his 22-year-old brother Lourdes, also a top prospect. Yulieski turned 32 last Thursday and since he starred in the 2004 Olympics for Cuba he has been coveted by America's 30 Major League teams. As a prize infielder, he has represented Cuba in the last three World Baseball Classic tournaments but his defection will prevent him from representing Cuba in the 2017 Classic next spring.

      Till his defection, Yulieski Gourriel was the most beloved Cuban baseball star, especially after he had for over a decade displayed extreme loyalty as opposed to becoming an instant multi-millionaire in the United States. Even though he has passed his 32nd birthday, he will still command millions because now all the 30 Major League teams can bid for him. His agent is Scott Boras, who holds the record for having baseball clients with the most contracts exceeding $25 million a year. Donny Rowland, the top international scout for the very rich New York Yankees, had told them to "not be out-bid for Yulieski." Rowland is still peeved that the Yankees let the Boston Red Sox out-bid them for top prospect Yoan Moncada, a 21-year-old switch-hitter from Cuba. A star in Cuba since he was a teenager, Yulieski's favored team has always been the Yankees and his favorite player has always been Alex Rodriguez, who is making multi-millions this year as a fading 40-year-old star. The Gurriel brothers recently attended a game at Yankee Stadium in New York. As a fan of U. S. baseball, Yulieski was surprised when the supposedly poor Miami Marlins extended the contract of Giancarlo Stanton by an additional guaranteed $300 million. Stanton is hitting .198 this season but if he never gets another hit, that additional $300 million is still guaranteed. It has been said that Stanton's contract in money-mad America finally influenced Yulieski's defection, soliciting an "Unreal!!" comment from him. But he knows such unreal money is readily available to defectors in the United States.

       Of all the current Major League baseball players from Cuba, 28-year-old Aroldis Chapman, the lefty closer for the New York Yankees, is Yulieski Gourriel's best friend. Chapman is only making $9,468,443 from the Yankees this season but his salary was $11.32 million till he was suspended without pay for the first 50 games because of a domestic incident. Chapman, who became a U. S. citizen last month, will be a free agent at the end of this season, so that's when he will get the big bucks. By then, his friend Yulieski Gourriel will also be a multi-millionaire along with an unending number of other Cuban baseball stars. 

       This photo shows 22-year-old Lourdes Gourriel on the left alongside his 32-year-old brother Yulieski. Both brothers are currently working out in Miami. Yulieski is seeking and will get a 4-year contract and he says he wants to be in the Major Leagues by August 1st. Lourdes, who will turn 23 in October, is expected to eventually make many millions of dollars more than his brother Yulieski in the American Major Leagues.

       This photo shows Yulieski Gourriel, second from the right, celebrating a victory for the Cuban National Team in Tokyo, Japan at the World Baseball Classic on March 9th, 2013. Cuba, famed as a gold mine for baseball talent, for decades dominated international competition. But those days are gone. All 30 U. S. Major League teams direly covet Cuban players and the island is daily being depleted of its best talent.

       Major League Baseball's Cuban Pipeline is saturating the United States with more-and-more Cuban multi-millionaires, including many who get the money but don't make the Majors. It also has spawned an industry built on unsavory characters, including human traffickers. To its credit, MLB is embarrassed and wants to correct that image. The Tampa Bay Rays this spring played in Havana with President Obama in attendance. MLB is discussing efforts for Cubans to play in the U. S. without defecting. And MLB is hinting, as it did strongly back in the 1950s, that Havana might well become a true Major League city one day. 

       Thanks to Josefina Vidal and the Obama administration, the U.S. and Cuba have broken many hostile barriers that, since 1959, have been instituted to benefit the revenge, economic, and political desires of two generations of the most visceral anti-Castro Cubans on U. S. soil. Some of those broken barriers, as mentioned, pertain to baseball. But, to be sure, many barriers remain, including some related to baseball.

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Cuba's Survival Plan

  It Remains A Priority 
{Monday, June 13th, 2016 -- Up- dated}

       While the U. S. media is totally obsessed with making sure that upstart Donald Trump doesn't win the presidential sweepstakes, there are actually a vast litany of other important news items that are being ignored. The photo above courtesy of South Korea's YONHAP News Agency is a prime example this week. On the left is Yun Byung, South Korea's Foreign Minister. On the right is Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez. The two men, at the behest of South Korea, held vitally important talks this week in Havana, marking the first time in history such a high-level South Korean has been to Cuba. As warlike tensions mount in the South China Sea, South Korea is a vital military and economic ally of the United States. For all these reasons, the photo depicted above is a major news item that deeply concerns South Korea, Cuba, the United States and the world. Yun Byung said, "For an exceptionally long time, our talks were very friendly, serious and candid. We had a broad exchange of views on bilateral, regional, and global issues." Yun Byung's mission to Cuba reflects the desire of South Korea and the U. S. to loosen Cuba's ties with North Korea, a dangerously unpredictable nuclear power who is a player in the China-dominated South China Sea skirmishes. But Bruno Rodriguez, speaking for Cuba, frankly replied to Yun Byung with these stoic and vidal Cuban positions: "I respect South Korea's concern and appreciate the offer to help Cuba with economic and other considerations. But understand that we are not for sale. In 1959, after our revolution ended America's imperialist control of Cuba, our revolutionary leaders, Fidel Castro himself, went immediately to the U. S. to propose friendship and democracy. Nixon told Castro that the Cuban exiles and the U. S. would recapture Cuba soon. Cuba turned to the Soviet Union and other avenues that respected and supported our sovereignty. When the Soviet Union faded, we sought other friends...along with vowing to defend our independence with a do-or-die fervor. It's been that way since the 1950s. Cuba will be America's friend if our sovereignty is respected. Cuba will be South Korea's friend if our sovereignty is respected. We are not criminals and we are not stupid. We well know we would be much better off if America was our friend and if South Korea was our friend. Having said that, our sovereignty is not for sale. To understand us, please know that you must understand that."

       This photo shows Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, second from the left in the white shirt, hosting South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung, in the black suit, in Havana this week. It was big news, and very topical. Non-American international news agencies -- such as Yonhap News -- treated it as big, topical news...especially considering the possibility that World War III might be evolving in the South China Sea disputes. Of course, the U. S. media...in its role as an anti-Cuban propaganda machine...is not about to impartially inform Americans about Cuban issues, even if it might have a bearing on World War III, which, if possible, should be avoided in this nuclear-age.

        Ben Rhodes, a 39-year-old New Yorker, is America's Deputy National Security Advisor. He has been a key advisor and negotiator during President Obama's historic efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. This week Mr. Rhodes told Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post that the openings to Cuba "are irreversible." He also said, "The trade embargo and the removal of travel limits to Cuba will be lifted sooner than people think. The fact of the matter is that the American people and the Cuban people overwhelmingly want this to happen." He believes that the commercial and cultural ties wrought by his boss, President Obama, will prevent the Republican-Miami-Congress zealots from reversing most of Mr. Obama's sanity and decency.

          Ben Rhodes is also a major speechwriter for Mr. Obama. This Wikipedia photo shows Rhodes and Barack Obama on Air Force One as the President reviews the text of a key speech that Ben wrote.

        After Air Force One landed in Cuba in April, a palpable sentence written by Ben Rhodes and then approved and famously delivered by President Obama was: "Cuba does not need to fear a threat from the United States." At least, of course, Cuba does not have to fear a threat from the United States as long as a Republican does not succeed him in the White House in January, 2017. The world understands that logic.

         With President Obama now openly and powerfully campaigning for Democrat Hillary Clinton, it appears his popularity and speaking prowess will indeed keep the Republicans out of the White House. Amazingly, in the closing months of his two-term presidency Mr. Obama's approval rating exceeds 50% while the norm would be in the 20-to-40 percent range, at best. He inherited from the Bush dynasty a financial depression, a warmongering foreign policy, a decades-old Cuban strategy designed to recapture the island that shamed America's best friends all around the world, and other right-wing disasters. President Obama has corrected much of those evils and, in the process, turned many lifelong conservative Republicans, like me, into staunch Democrats. No matter what the Miami and Congressional zealots do next, Cuba will loom in the decades to come as a catalyst in varnishing Obama's pro-democracy legacy to create a bright, shiny glow. In the pantheon of Great American Presidents, I now rank him #1, which drops FDR to #2 and Abe to #3. 

Up, up and awayyyy...to Cuba!!

       In 1962 the U. S. embargo was created for the stated purpose, according to declassified U. S. documents, to starve and deprive Cubans on the island to induce them to overthrow their revolutionary government. That cruel policy has existed ever since but President Obama has sliced remarkably into it despite the Batistiano-directed mandates to enforce it. The embargo for all those decades has, for example, prevented cruise ships from leaving the U. S. for Cuba. But Obama has boldly arranged for Cardinal Cruise Lines to make regular jaunts from Miami to Cuba with other cruise lines continuing this week to arrange their Cuban cruises. Also since 1962 everyday Americans have been the only people in the world denied the freedom to travel to Cuba, but Obama has carved up that congressional absurdity too and now there are 12 rather easy excuses for Americans to visit the island. Just this week American and five other major airlines were given permission to begin commercial flights to Cuba from Miami, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Philadelphia, and Minneapolis. Since 1962 only charter flights have been allowed.

  Up, up and awayyyy...indeed!!!

      President Obama hasn't erased all of the inequities of U.S.-Cuban relations but, more than any person since 1492, he has corrected many of the imperialist and militaristic stains against America related to its Cuba policy. From 1492, when Columbus discovered Cuba and the U. S., foreign powers coveted and fought over the island, with Spain being Top Dog for 400 years prior to the 1898 Spanish-American War when the U. S. gained control. Cubans could do nothing till 1952 when right-wingers in the Eisenhower administration -- Vice President Nixon, the Dulles brothers, etc. -- teamed the U. S. democracy with the Mafia to support the brutal-thieving Batista dictatorship in Cuba. That outrage inspired the historic Cuban Revolution, which shocked the world by finally gaining independence. But by daylight on January 1, 1959, the Batistiano-Mafiosi leaders used their getaway planes, ships and boats to escape to safer havens -- namely South Florida. In the ensuing six decades, two generations of Batistianos-Mafiosi have used Congress and Republican presidential administrations to dictate whatever they want to dictate regarding Cuba and yet they have not been able to recapture the island. Hiding behind the skirts of the world's superpower, and benefiting drastically from the propagandized apathy of U. S. citizens, two Batistiano-Mafiosi generations dictated America's Cuban policy, at least till President Obama bravely challenged it.

        This REUTERS photo, I believe, emphasizes just how much President Obama has defied the Batistiano-Mafiosi dictation of America's Cuban policy. In April he arrived in Cuba aboard Air Force One, the first sitting U. S. President to visit Cuba since 1928 when President Coolidge appropriately arrived on a warship. While in Cuba, President Obama even persuaded Cuban President Raul Castro to join him at a news conference, which involved taking questions from the media. Obama was used to that; Castro wasn't. In the above photo Castro was pretending he didn't understand a question regarding dissidents. Obama was amused, at least considering the Q & A session something Cuba needs to start getting used to.

       These Cubans never expected to see Air Force One flying low over Havana with the President of the United States aboard. But this iconic ABC-TV photo was taken in April of 2016. It indeed happened!!!!!!

President Obama about to peacefully land in Havana.

      In stark contrast to Obama's peaceful flight to Cuba in April of 2016, back in 1960 the U. S. airplane flights to Cuba were by warplanes based in nearby Florida {study the above photo-caption} to mercilessly bomb Cuban farms. Of course, to this day Americans are supposed to deny the AP photo and caption above. That's because, beginning on January 1 of 1959 the overturned Batista-Mafia dictatorship fled to South Florida and, from that day to this day, the Cuban narrative in the U. S. has been mostly controlled by the transplanted Batistianos and Mafiosi. If you still deny that, re-study the above photo and caption.  

        On April 15, 1961, a squadron of B-26 bombers like this one took off from Nicaragua to bomb Cuba into oblivion. The pilots and Cuban exiles, at great expense to taxpayers, had trained in Nicaragua where the U.S.-friendly Somoza dictatorship ruled supreme. The B-26 bombers were to soften up Cuba for the Bay of Pigs ground attack which commenced two days later. The cowardly attack even had disguised the B-26 warplanes as Cuban planes so the U. S. could claim the attack was strictly by Cuban forces. The neophyte President Kennedy had inherited the attack plans devised by right-wingers in the Eisenhower administration. The CIA, led by Allen Dulles, had assured Kennedy that {1} Fidel Castro would run for his getaway airplane the moment he heard the bombs dropping on Camp Colombia at the edge of Havana; and {2} the Cuban people would turn against Fidel when they realized the attack had begun. Of course, unlike the Batistianos, Fidel didn't have a "getaway airplane" and he raced to the front-lines to defend Cuba. And no Cubans turned against him. But as far as Americans know, the attackers and not the defenders were the righteous heroes. The Bay of Pigs losers have dictated the Bay of Pigs narratives.

 Fidel Castro on the front-lines at the Bay of Pigs. 

      This AP photo was taken on April 15, 1961. It shows Cubans bravely holding their ground and firing back at a U. S. warplane flying very low on a strafing and bombing run. It was a quick and easy defense for Cuba, shaming the U. S. once the facts were quickly exposed, starting at the United Nations in New York where Adlai Stevenson, the respected U. S. ambassador, had been famously caught in cover-up lies. Later, the duped President Kennedy screamed: "If I could, I would blow the CIA to smithereens!!" History also registers the fact that, in the week prior to his Nov.22-1963 assassination in Dallas, Kennedy had told Pierre Salinger and his other close aides that his "top priority" was to normalize relations with Cuba. Kennedy and all of his successors in the White House since 1963 never came close to reining in the Cuban exile/right-wing control of America's Cuban policy...at least till Obama. That attests to Obama's presidential greatness.

      This week President Obama was a superstar guest on Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show on NBC-TV. They talked and did some skits. At one point, Obama mentioned Cuba as one of his great successes. Obama's skills as an orator and communicator are unequaled by his vast array of political opponents. So, of course, are his guts, intelligence and decency. And that's why I rate him #1 with FDR sliding to #2 and Abe to #3.

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Attacking Cuba's Friends

The Purges Are Mounting

        These three women are, left to right, Dilma Rousseff, Michelle Bachelet and Cristina Fernandez. Each of them has been democratically elected and re-elected as Presidents of important Latin American countries -- Rousseff in Brazil, Bachelet in Chile, and Fernandez in Argentina. And all three have been staunch and very important supporters of Cuba. But a third significant thing they have in common is this: All three of them have come under massive assaults from what they believe are U.S.-friendly right-wing elements.

        As this montage indicates, the three Latin American female stalwarts till recently were among the most powerful women in the world...along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, lower-left, and America's Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, lower-right. Cristina Fernandez, upper-left, has finished her two-terms as Argentine President and was stopped by term-limits. She has been succeeded by the anti-Cuban and U.S.-friendly Mauricio Macri. Fernandez's last term in office was harassed by what she called two "parasitic U. S. factors, right-wingers and hedge fund creeps." Michelle Bachelet, lower-middle, is also under duress in her second term as Chili's President and also, "at least in part," she blames right-wing U. S. elements. That's extremely interesting and pertinent because Ms. Bachelet's father was one of the murder victims of the blood-thirsty Pinochet dictatorship. Pinochet ruled for 17 bloody years after U. S. right-wingers put him in power via the infamous coup in 1973 that resulted in the death of the very decent and democratically elected President Salvador Allende. There are even today trials in Chile, Argentina, and other Latin American nations to seek justice concerning such past atrocities. The historic background and topicality of Ms. Bachelet personifies past Nixon-Dulles-Kissinger-Bush imperialism in Latin America although Americans are supposed to ignore the everlasting effects. Dilma Rousseff, upper-right, is the most important of the much-maligned, Cuban-loving and harassed Latin American female Presidents.

       Assaults on Cristina Fernandez, Michelle Bachelet and, especially, on Dilma Rousseff are also, to a significant degree, assaults on Cuba, possibly originating or at least enhanced to combat President Obama's ongoing efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. While the three historic Latin American female Presidents are being attacked from the far-right, so are the Cuba-friendly male Presidents in the region -- Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Rafael Correa in Ecuador, Ollanta Humala in Peru, etc. But the assaults on Dilma Rousseff are the most significant, the most gutless and the most egregious.

      Dilma Rousseff has been suspended as President of Brazil as impeachment proceedings shame Latin America's most powerful nation just weeks before it plays host to the Rio Olympics. She correctly calls it "a coup." Most observers agree with Norm Chomsky who says, "She is being impeached by a gang of thieves." In fact, most of those in the Brazilian Congress who have led the impeachment against her are themselves charged with crimes. Dilma is not; she is basically being charged with spending too much of Brazil's economy on the poorest Brazilians, the people she fought so doggedly for as a guerrilla fighter in her youth and during her two-terms as President. Indeed, during this first full week of June-2016, two recorded phone calls from impeachment advocates prove that their assaults on Dilma were designed to protect them from criminal corruption charges by preventing President Rousseff from pursuing them.

         For many years Lucia Newman was the top broadcast journalist on Latin American issues for CNN and she is now the highly respected Latin American Editor for Aljazeera English. Ms. Newman yesterday conducted a 26-minute interview with Dilma Rousseff at Palacio da Alvorada, Brazil's official presidential palace where Dilma is confined while she mounts her impeachment defense. The entire interview is easily accessible online and, yes, you do need to access it to hear Dilma's words. She told Ms. Newman, "I am a victim of injustice. I believe that by defending democracy I will win back the trust of the Brazilian people."

        As she fights for her political life, Dilma Rousseff is supported by a determined team of lawyers, politicians, and many millions of poor people who believe...who know...she is indeed the victim of an injustice, a coup.

      Dilma Rousseff is now 68-years-old. She's been a fighter all her life against injustice and for poor, disenfranchised people. But the rich and powerful right-wingers she fought against as a youth are similar to the ones she is fighting against now. She's remains a warrior and vows to defend herself against impeachment. But the odds are stacked against her in what many consider a corrupt Congress.

President Rousseff's Vice President was Michel Temer.

       When her Vice President, Michel Temer, double-crossed her, Dilma Rousseff's days as the twice democratically elected President of Brazil were numbered. Temer, like many of the Congressmen opposing her, has been charged with corruption. But today Michel Temer sits in her presidential chair in Brazil.

Yes, President Dilma Rousseff...will be...impeached.

Brazil's poor people still love Dilma very much.

Dilma supporters at the Cannes Film Festival in France.

These Cannes movie stars know what a "coup" is.

       Pro-Dilma protesters in Brazil believe that U. S. billionaires -- like the Koch Brothers -- are trying to purchase the U. S. democracy and they are also trying to re-shape Brazil's democracy. In other words, Dilma is accused of "going overboard" in trying to help poor people, and greedy rich billionaires don't like that.

       This Wikipedia photo shows Dilma Rousseff with her well-to-do family. That's Dilma standing up in the middle. She, the future President of Brazil, was born on December 14, 1947 in Belo Horizonde, Brazil.

Dilma as a precious, precocious toddler in Brazil.

      As a very beautiful young girl, Dilma Rousseff was appalled at how a U.S.-backed military dictatorship was treating Brazilian peasants. Inspired by the success in 1959 of the Cuban Revolution against the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship, Dilma became a guerrilla fighter against that Brazilian dictatorship.

Dilma was captured, becoming prisoner #3023.

        This photo shows Dilma being sentenced to a brutal military prison where, for over two years, she was unmercifully tortured. Even today several Latin American nations are still holding investigations and trials of suspected perpetrators of those military dictatorships. The U. S. recently has reluctantly provided some information. And as the President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff was asked to testify at the United Nations.

        This heart-wrenching Washington Post photo shows Dilma Rousseff fighting back tears in a speech at the United Nations when she was asked, as Brazil's President and as a victim, to testify before the UN Truth Commission about the unspeakable torture she endured during her imprisonment at the hands of the brutal military dictatorship. She complied, in detail. Later, more composed, she said "Such dark days of foreign imperialism and military dictatorships must not afflict modern generations in Latin America and the Caribbean. But those who know about such things are duty-bound, I believe, to tell that history, as painful as it is for me to do so here today. Victims or their families deserve justice, however belated. And the perpetrators still living deserve punishment and even the perpetrators now dead deserve to be scorned." If you ignore the other Dilma photos, please study this one as, at the United Nations, she was re-living being tortured.

Dilma when she scared corrupt right-wingers.

           Dilma is still powerful. Time Magazine in big red letters highlighted this quote from her: "I will struggle all my might until the coupmongers are defeated." Her struggle is both brave and honorable.

        This Reuters photo is modern, just days old. It shows Dilma wiping away a tear when she found out she was being suspended as the two-term democratically elected President of Brazil. The coup that will codify her impeachment awaits her. Just like when she was brutally imprisoned as a young woman, the rich and corrupt son-of-a-bitches have won. Dilma has lost. So have the poor people. And so has democracy.

Dilma Rousseff: Cuba's troubled friend.

Dilma Rousseff: Brazil's great lady.

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