Cubans Flock to Florida

 Puerto Ricans Too 

      The former Governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Fortuno, sometimes lamented both his nation's similarities and its contrasts with Cuba. Both countries are large Caribbean islands that the U. S. wrested from Spain...along with the Philippines and Guam...after an easy victory in the 1898 Spanish-American War. But Cuba's fight for independence spawned the victorious Cuban Revolution in 1959. Cuba's hard-earned and bitterly maintained sovereignty contrasts somewhat with the Puerto Rican path because Puerto Rico is a Territory of the United States. Puerto Ricans are citizens of the U. S. and are represented in the Puerto Rican-friendly U. S. Congress. By contrast, the U. S., and especially the U. S. Congress, strives on a daily basis to annihilate Cuba with a vast litany of anti-Cuba but pro-Cuban exile laws, including a fierce embargo since 1962 that has tried to destroy Revolutionary Cuba. Meanwhile, all those startling contrasts brings us back around to two more striking similarities -- both Cuba and Puerto Rico are in dire financial straits and both Cuba and Puerto Rico are seeing tens of thousands of their citizens flock to over-whelmed Florida each month. Cubans, and only Cubans, are home free with financial and political incentives the moment they touch U. S. soil; Puerto Ricans are home free instantaneously because they are already U. S. citizens. All that convoluted mayhem caused Governor Fortuno, when Puerto Rico recently couldn't make a payment on its $72 billion debt, to muse: "Sometimes I envy Cuba. Cuba faces the embargo. Puerto Rico faces the Hedge Fund billionaires. And the Hedge Funders are worse than the embargo." Much of Puerto Rico's debt is owed to Hedge Fund billionaires, for sure. Despite 5-and-6-Star hotels along with miles of yachts along its shorelines, Puerto Rico has been forced to close schools and other essentials as it tries to pay its debts while it also begs the U. S. Congress to help out. So, yes, there are many contrasts and similarities between Cuba and Puerto Rico, although some would say that the U. S. embargo of Cuba, heading toward its 6th decade, is even worse than the greedy U. S. "Hedge Funders." 

       In 2013 Fortuno barely lost his bid for re-election as governor to Alejandro Garcia Padilla. Both are young lawyers. Fortuno graduated from Georgetown University and then the University of Virginia Law School; he has been mentioned as a possible future Republican presidential or VP candidate. Current Governor Garcia Padilla, a Democrat, was educated in Puerto Rico. The two men agree on one thing: Wall Street billionaires are largely responsible for Puerto Rico's overwhelming and ongoing financial problems.

Governor Garcia Padilla wants massive U. S. help. 

Cuba & Puerto Rico in the heart of the Caribbean.

       This week CNN, obsessed with the U. S. presidential race, said that 67,000 Puerto Ricans are re-located to Florida each month, mainly to the 14 areas depicted above. With its 29 electoral votes, Florida is always pivotal in deciding the next U. S. president. CNN reported that both the Democrats and Republicans are sending squads of recruiters to Florida to court the Puerto Rican votes even ahead of the Cuban votes.

         As this Pantera Digita.com map points out, Puerto Ricans, especially in Florida and the New York area, have long been collective political and economic forces in the U. S., and that power is increasing.

The Hispanic voters in key states could decide the election.

       Between 2000 and 2012 potential Hispanic voters in key states jumped 76% but the biggest increases in Cubans and Puerto Ricans have occurred recently. Financial problems are causing Puerto Ricans to move their citizenships to the U. S. mainland. President Obama's recent detente with Cuba is expediting Cuban migrants who fear that the special legal privileges available only to Cubans may end.

       On the expensive air-land route to the U.S.-Mexican border, thousands of Cubans like the ones above have been stranded in totally fed-up Latin American nations. Cuba, pressured by these nations to speak out more strongly, has now done so. The Cuban Foreign Ministry said, "Cubans enticed and bribed to leave the island by U. S. laws that guarantee them financial, economic, political and citizenship privileges totally unavailable to all non-Cubans shocks the world with its acute discriminatory and undemocratic fallouts. Those privileges start the very moment Cubans, and only Cubans, touch U. S. soil. Cuba as well as the U. S. get hourly complaints but the U. S., the world nuclear superpower, feels it doesn't have to do anything about it." 

       After the expensive airplane flights to Latin American nations to begin the final land route to the U.S.-Mexican border, thousands of Cubans like these have been stranded for months in unsanitary and taxing conditions because countries like Nicaragua and Costa Rica have closed their borders in efforts to stop the unwanted incursions. Because of the Cold War Cuban Adjustment Act, any Cuban who touches U. S. soil is home-free with enticing rewards courtesy of U. S. taxpayers and U. S. laws designed to hurt Cuba. In the last 10 months, 46,500 Cubans have touched U. S. soil in that manner. That compares to just over 43,000 in the previous 12 months and 24,000 in 2014. The sharp uptick dates to December of 2014 when President Obama announced his plans to normalize relations with Cuba. Human traffickers reacted by putting out word that Cubans needed to immediately head to the U. S. because Obama planned to end the special Cuban privileges known as Wet Foot/Dry Foot. Obama can't change the law because it is locked in by Congress. So offshoots linger as reported this week by Reuters and other non-U. S. news agencies.

       Colombia is the latest Latin American nation overwhelmed and fed-up with the influx of Cuban migrants taxing their patience and resources. The Colombian government has deported some of them back to Cuba to discourage the Wet Foot/Dry Foot enticements. The Colombian town of Turbo is dealing with 1,297 Cubans stuck there for months on their way to the Mexican border. Colombia says 300 of them are children under 14 and the group includes 11 pregnant women. Colombia is trying to deport them back to Cuba or "to the last country they were in since leaving Cuba." Colombia says that "Ecuador is usually the last country." 

      Colombia's Foreign Minster is Maria Angela Holguin. Like all Latin American Foreign Ministers, she is fed-up with America's discriminatory Cuban laws that "infringe against all of us. I believe the UN vote is about 192-to-2 against them. Well, it is unanimity throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. Where does democracy, fairness and decency enter into the U. S. treatment of Cuba. Why does everyone have to suffer because Fidel Castro chased some dictators to the U. S. long ago in 1959. In all these decades, are you telling me that the American democracy can't do better than hurt everybody in the region while hurting Cuba?" 

        The frustrated Foreign Minister of Colombia, Maria Angela Holguin, told Reuters that "We want to handle this humanely." She wonders why the U. S. government can't address the issue of the long-standing Cuban enticements. Meanwhile, the greatest wonderment of all is the acquiescence of American citizens who are either unmindful or unconcerned about how the U. S. Cuban policy roils, angers, and bewilders U.S.-friendly Foreign Ministers...like Maria Angela Holguin of Colombia and her counterparts in the region.

         On the above map you can see the city of Turbo in northern Colombia at the Panamanian border. That's where Cubans are currently stranded as they strive to reach the U. S. border by hiking, riding or flying to Mexico. As the Marco Ruiz/Miami Herald map indicates, many Cubans have flown to Quito, Ecuador, which still puts them only about half-way to the Mexican-U.S. border. Once there, Cubans are the only people in the world who are perfectly legal and home-free the moment they touch American soil.

Wet Foot/Dry Foot is not a joke to Latin American nations. 

 This map shows Cuba to be thousands of miles from Florida. 

Thanks to Wet Foot/Dry Foot

       Venezuelans are also flocking to Miami. The photo above is courtesy of Federico Parra/Agence France Presse and it was used to illustrate a major and ominous article in the New York Times Wednesday, August 10th. The photo shows hungry Venezuelans...middle class Venezuelans...waiting in line for food at a supermarket. The article is entitled: "Middle Class and Hungry in Venezuela." It said that "9 out of 10 Venezuelans can no longer afford to buy enough food, according to a study by Simon Bolivar University." Very sad news for oil-rich but otherwise very poor Venezuela...and for its closest ally -- Cuba. 

And by the way:

       Cuba's 26-year-old phenom Erislandy Savon has a tough test ahead in his quest to win boxing's Heavyweight gold medal in the Rio Olympics. In the semi-finals he faces highly regarded Vassiliy Levit of Kazakhstan at 5:45 P. M. EST on Saturday, August 13th, which happens to be Fidel Castro's 90th birthday. In the above photo, that's Erislandy Savon in the blue during his easy victory three days ago against England's very highly regarded Lawrence Okolie. 

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Cuba-U.S. Reach Deal

  Nailing Down Air Flights 

      The last hurdle before the historic resumption of commercial air flights to Cuba in over half-a-century has been cleared. In continuing defiance of Congress's ongoing embargo, the U. S. and Cuba have agreed that U. S. air marshals will be aboard some flights to Cuba. The U. S. Transportation Security Administration said, "For security reasons, we will not divulge which flights air marshals will be aboard." American Airlines and seven other major U. S. carriers have permission to fly to ten Cuban airports. The above photo shows American Airlines pilot Kevin Mase holding a Cuban flag out the cockpit window of his Boeing 737.

    The red dots show the six cities that American Airlines will fly to. 

       The honor of making the first commercial flight to Cuba in over half-a-century goes to jetBlue Airlines. That historic inaugural flight is set for August 31st. Prior to the breakthroughs orchestrated by President Obama, only charter flights have been permitted to fly to and from Cuba because of the U. S. embargo.

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A Cuban Shines in Rio

  Another Great Boxer 
{Tuesday, August 9th, 2016}

       A 26-year-old Cuban from Guantanamo, Erislandy Savon, might be the latest in a long line of great Cuban boxers. Last night at the Rio Olympics Erislandy easily defeated Britain's highly regarded heavyweight Lawrence Okalie 3-to-0. The Reuters photo above shows Erislandy landing a stiff left jab.

Here Erislandy Savon scores big with a right hook.

       The Reuters report from Rio Monday was euphoric about the easy victory by Erislandy Savon over Lawrence Okalie. The poetic summary included these glowing words: "The Cuban gave the Brit a tutorial in the Sweet Science of Boxing. Savon boxed on cruise control." Erislandy scored a knock-down in the first round and then was content to dominate the last two rounds with crisp left jabs and strong right-crosses.

      Erislandy's uncle is the legendary Felix Savon. Felix, one of boxing's greatest heavyweights, won three Gold Medals in the Olympics -- 1992, 1996 and 2000. He hopes his nephew gets one in Rio this week.

       Felix Savon was born 48-years-ago in Guantanamo Province, Cuba. He now lives in Havana. He is shown above with his three Gold Medals. Felix now coaches young boxers like Erislandy Savon.

       But the greatest Cuban boxer was Teofilo Stevenson. Before he died at age 60 of a heart attack in Havana on June 11, 2012, the BBC called Teofilo, "Cuba's greatest and best known figure after Fidel Castro." 

     Starting at age 20 at the Munich Olympics in 1972, Teofilo was the most feared boxer in the world. He shocked Munich by knocking out five opponents, including the heralded American Duane Bobick. Teofilo then went on to win all the world amateur heavyweight titles, including 3 Gold Medals in the Olympics.

      There was a consistent worldwide clamor for Teofilo Stevenson to turn pro and get in the ring against Muhammad Ali. He was offered a down payment of $1 million to fight Ali, but refused. His explanation still shocks the capitalist world: "What is one million dollars compared to the love of eight million Cubans?" 

     The most legendary of Americans, Muhammad Ali, became Teofilo Stevenson's close friend. Once in Cuba and once in New York Ali said, "I've never been afraid of any boxer, except the Cuban Teofilo Stevenson. In our primes, I don't think I could have beaten him. I also love the man. He is a great human." 

     Teofilo Stevenson was not only a great boxer and a great Cuban patriot, he also was a fierce supporter of Fidel Castro. Teofilo only got in trouble one time. That was in 1999 at the Miami International Airport when he was in line to board a charter airplane. A 41-year-old United Airlines worker insulted Teofilo by insulting Fidel Castro. Teofilo head-butted the man, dislodging some teeth. He was arrested but allowed to leave Miami after bail was posted. He didn't return for the trial. An independent investigation indicated that the Cuban American National Foundation, fiercely anti-Castro, had arranged the verbal assault against Teofilo. Much the same, of course, happened to Castro's friend Nelson Mandela when he visited Miami. 

       And speaking of Cuban patriots, Yulieski Gurriel for 14 years was the island's and Fidel Castro's favorite baseball player. For over a decade he resisted becoming a multi-millionaire U. S. player. But at age 32 back on July 16th, Yuleski signed a guaranteed $47.5 million contract with the Houston Astros. While his agents negotiated that deal, Yulieski worked out on his own in Panama before the Astros sent him to their minor leagues, where Yulieski has hit a whopping .429 and belted a grand-slam homer Sunday, August 7th for Double-A Corpus Christi. The Astros now say they will call Yulieski up and he will make his Major League debut playing third base against the St. Louis Cardinals next week -- on Tuesday, August 16th.

        This is Lourdes Gurriel, Yulieski's younger brother by a full decade. Yesterday -- August 8th -- Major League Baseball proudly announced that Lourdes is now a Free Agent. That means all 30 Major League teams can bid for him. Lourdes, at age 22, is a super prospect and ten years younger than Yulieski.

     Prior to becoming a multi-millionaire in the U. S., Lourdes Gurriel is working out in Panama and letting his agents deal with his contract, which will far exceed the piddling $47.5 million guarantee his older brother Yulieski got from the Houston Astros, a team that now vows to also "big high" for Lourdes.

       This photo shows Yulieski Gurriel, on the left, and his brother Lourdes the day they decided to become multi-millionaire baseball players in the United States. The baseball-loving Cubans on the island still love them and don't blame them for succumbing to the lure of guaranteed millions of Yankee dollars, following the unending path of dozens of Cuban baseball stars like Cespedes, Puig, Chapman, etc., etc., etc., etc.

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A Cuban in Rio

   In the Footsteps of a Legend 

      For many years the island of Cuba dominated international competition in boxing and baseball. Felix Savon remains a Cuban legend. Born 48-years-old in the town of Guantanamo, Felix won heavyweight Gold Medals in three consecutive Olympics -- 1992, 1996 and 2000. His nephew fights in Rio de Janeiro tonight.

       Tonight in the Rio Olympics Enislandy Savon -- Felix Savon's 26-year-old Nephew, also from Guantanamo -- will begin his quest for a boxing Gold Medal to go with his uncle's three gold Medals.

          This 23-year-old Brit -- Londoner Lawrence Okalie -- will be Enislandy Savon's opponent in Rio tonight. The two world-class boxers met two months ago in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, and the Cuban Savon knocked out the Brit Okalie in the first round, but Okalie vows revenge tonight in Rio.

      Lawrence Okalie, on the left, was knocked down by Enislandy Savon's first punch 8 seconds into the first round in Tashkent and he never recovered. He told London's The Guardian he's recovered now prior to tonight's rematch in Rio against the Cuban. He said, "If I can beat the people in front of me, I'll win the gold. To become a legend, you have to do legendary stuff. This is just part of the journey to become a legend."

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Cuba, A Piggy-bank

And A Punching-Bag 

      At this point in time, I believe America's best photographer is Sarah L. Voisin of the Washington Post. Luckily, she seems to have a particular fascination with Cuba. Her photo above shows 23-year-old dancer Henry Labrada dancing on the famed Malecon sea wall with the churning waters of the Florida Straits in the foreground and the historic Havana skyline as the backdrop. It is used to preface an outstanding article in the Washington Post this weekend...August 5th, 2016...written by Mariah Balingit. The article, which also appeared in other top American newspapers including the Denver Post, is entitled: "As the Future Closes in, There is Still Time to Travel to Authentic Cuba."  Ms. Balingit and Ms. Voisin toured the entire island to obtain the pulse of everyday Cubans as they react to President Obama's herculean efforts to normalize relations with the island for the first time since Cuban exiles have teamed with the incomparable power of the U. S. government to target the island after Cuba ousted the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship in 1959. Ms. Balingit discovered this fact: "Cubans are ambivalent about the warming relations with the United States. A former hospital worker...she has seen the effects of the U. S. embargo...but she feared what more capitalism -- and more tourists -- would mean for the island. While U. S. travelers have been flying to Havana for years from foreign locales -- Costa Rica and Mexico are popular -- commercial U. S. airlines will soon offer direct flights." Later in this month of August-2016 U. S. commercial airlines will begin flying to ten Cuban cities for the first time since 1962 when the embargo designed to overthrow Revolutionary Cuba went into effect. In the decades since, only special charter flights have been permitted from the U. S. As the insightful article by Ms. Balingit points out, many Cubans are understandably concerned about the portent of a return of U. S. influence, or dominance, on the island. Back in 1952, instead of using its dominance to bring democracy to the island, the U. S. incredibly teamed with the Mafia to infamously support the vile Batista dictatorship, apparently so rich Americans could partake in the fleecing of Cuba. With transplanted Batistianos largely controlling the Cuban narrative in the U. S. since 1959, Americans are not supposed to remember such things. But, as Mariah Balingit's article points out, many Cubans are not quite so forgetful.

       This is another Sarah L. Voisin photo featured in that edifying aforementioned Washington Post article this weekend written by Mariah Balingit. This photo shows 26-year-old Cuban Yasmany Garcia at his home in Camaguey playing dominoes with three of his best friends. The observations of photographer Sarah L. Voisin and journalist Mariah Balingit paint an interesting, updated and unbiased portrait of everyday Cubans, Cubans who are not America's enemy and should not...all their lives...be hurt by the U. S. embargo and other Batistiano-inspired U. S. laws that supposedly exist to hurt, eliminate or overthrow Fidel Castro.

Fidel Castro, the young & legendary revolutionary leader.

Fidel Castro turns 90-years-old next week -- Aug. 13, 2016. 

And by the way: 

Sarah L. Voisin was born in St. Louis, Missouri.

Her photos have graced the Washington Post since 1998.

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Does Democracy Prey on Cuba?

No, But Anti-Democracy Does 

        One of America's most notable democracy-lovers is Robert Shrum. He graduated from Georgetown University and Harvard Law School. He was Senator Ted Kennedy's Press Secretary and primary speech-writer. For over three decades Mr. Shrum has been in the upper echelon of America's most prominent and respected political advisors, especially on foreign policy. To americans, Cuba is a foreign country. Like informed democracy-lovers all around the world, Mr. Shrum is ashamed of America's Cuban policy. Online you can find his article entitled: "Obama Should End America's Stupidest Foreign Policy: Isolating Cuba."  

      In the aforementioned article, Robert Shrum penned these logical and brave democracy-loving words: "For the sake of sane foreign policy, the President should now make Rubio, Cruz, and their ilk even angrier by reaching out his hand again -- and, with a stroke of a pen, begin to end the most protracted foreign policy failure in our history." The rest of Mr. Shrum's article, as you would detect if you care enough about the United States and about democracy to dial it up, is just as scathing in denouncing America's longstanding right-wing inspired Batistiano-Mafiosi policy related to Cuba since the pretext for the 1898 Spanish-American War and particularly since 1952 when the U. S. teamed with the Mafia to pillage Cuba, and then brutalized Cubans to protect the pillaging. Mr. Shrum's reference to "Rubio, Cruz and their ilk" is both very brave and very appropriate. Those two first-term Cuban-American U. S. Senators -- and fervent presidential wannabees -- will never have to respond to such critics as Mr. Shrum because the mainstream U. S. media is too intimidated, too biased or too politically correct to hold them accountable. Meanwhile, informed democracy-lovers like Robert Shrum realize that the U. S. foreign policy related to Cuba has, for what Mr. Shrum calls a "protracted" period, done more than anything else to harm America's worldwide image for such an extended part of history. Its Protraction has lingered since the 1898 Spanish-American War and particularly since 1952 when right-wingers in the Eisenhower administration decided the Mafia would be the best partner to make sure that U. S. companies such as the infamous United Fruit company could rob the island blind, as it continued to do elsewhere after the Cuban Revolution ended the Cuban thievery in 1959. Robert Shrum's reference to "Rubio, Cruz and their ilk" relates to the fact that, since 1959, a handful of Cuban-American exiles, aligned with a few right-wingers in Congress and in the Bush dynasty, have continued to dictate America's Cuban policy, a policy that Mr. Shrum correctly calls "the stupidest failure in our history."  Americans who allow this to persist are not democracy defenders.  

"Cruz, Rubio and their ilk..."
Meanwhile, Cuba has friends: 

       Cuba this week signed a major deal with France related to Havana's Jose Marti Airport. President Obama's detente with Cuba has resulted in foreign nations and tourists taking a renewed interest in the island. The sharp increase in visitors has strained Cuba's infrastructure, overflowing the capacity of hotels and creating waiting lines at restaurants, night-clubs, and airports. Cuba and France have agreed that the French-controlled firm Bouygues will now expand and run Jose Marti Airport in Havana. It is the same firm that runs all the major airports in Paris. The new alliance will soon help Cuba's entire tourism industry.

       Thanks to historic actions by President Obama to defy the U. S. Congress's revengeful iron grip on Cuban policy, later in this month of August U. S. airlines will begin regular commercial flights to ten Cuban airports. Prior to Obama, for over half-a-century only special charter flights to Cuba have been allowed. The French contract this week reflects the island's attempt to cope with the changes wrought by Obama, all of which -- as Robert Shrum so elegantly pointed out -- makes "Rubio, Cruz and their ilk" angrier. 

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