US Bullies Cuba, Bows to China

China Is Too Big To Bully!!
{Updated: Wednesday, October 25, 2017}

      The insightful Voice of America this week used the above photo-caption to illustrate an important VOA article, the type of news that Americans won't get from its mainstream media -- such as CNN, NBC, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, The New York Times, and The Washington Post -- all of whom are obsessed, not with covering the news, but with engaging in a media coup against a sitting President, Trump, whom I also oppose but, unlike the extremely biased U. S. media, I respect the Office he holds and the Electoral Process that put him in the White House. Therefore, the mainstream U. S. media eschews news coverage and engages almost exclusively in anti-Trump propaganda. So, the two best places to get real and important news that direly impacts the U. S. are The BBC World News and Voice of America. The VOA this week, for example, explained the above photo-caption with this succinct paragraph:

                 "A road built on the world's highest mountain pass links China to Pakistan. The Friendship Highway, which cost China hundreds of billions of dollars, is a centerpiece of President Xi Jinping's ambitious plan to rejuvenate ancient Silk Road trade routes by linking China with Africa and Europe. However, since the road opened, Pakistani exports to China have dropped while imports from China increased, prompting concerns that Beijing's new Silk Road could become a one-way street."

           While China is spending "hundreds of billions of dollars" on things such as the Silk Road and on modernizing its already powerful nuclear-powered military, the U. S. is spending hundreds of billions of dollars on endless wars, such as the ongoing 16-year/trillion-dollar disaster in Afghanistan as well as the normal array of seemingly endless ongoing proxy wars, reminding some of President Eisenhower's warning that the "U. S. Military Industrial Complex" could be the biggest threat to America. The U. S. still has the world's biggest economy but that statistic is being overtaken by China, a fierce Communist nation that massive trade with the United States has helped create a projection that puts China in a position to have the world's #1 economy and quite possibly the #1 military in the not too distant future. Americans interested in such News should, I believe, rely on such sources as The BBC and The VOA.

    And once again -- on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2017 -- the Voice of America expressed its concern with China's expansion while the Batistianos in the U. S. Congress seem much more concerned with punishing Cubans on the island. The above photo-caption courtesy of the VOA today made this stringent point: "In Pakistan, China is spearheading construction of one of the world's biggest ports. Three of the most commercially important regions of the world -- the oil-rich Middle East, East Central Asia and South Asia -- converge at Pakistan's Gwadar Port. China's aim is to link Gwadar to landlocked Western China." Meanwhile, according to Marco Rubio, America shouldn't worry about China because we should concentrate on punishing Cubans on the island so they will rise up and overthrow their government... ANY DAY NOW!

America's Cuban dictator?
Batista to Rubio to...WHATEVER!

       While China's enormous trade with the United States is helping China become the world's #1 economic power, the United States since 1962 has embargoed trade with Cuba in an attempt to starve and bring misery to the Cuban people to induce them to rise up and overthrow their government, presumably so the U.S.-backed Batistiano-Mafiosi rule can return to the island. The ACN photo above shows that China loves America's genocidal Cuban policy and is enticing Cuba with important new trade offers. The Wall Street Journal headline updated that status: "A U.S.-Cuba Breach Presents an Opportunity for China." The article stated: "Beijing's trade with the island is growing fast. A reversal of President Barack Obama's outreach to Cuba would leave a bigger opening off the U. S. coast for another great military power. It likely wouldn't be Havana's traditional ally Russia, however, but China." Cuba is a U. S. gift to China.

      The United States, of course, has enough problems with mighty China in China's own backyard -- the strategically significant South China Sea where all of America's friends in the vital region are direly afraid of China. America's Cuban policy, designed merely to appease a handful of revengeful bad-losers dating back to 1959's Cuban Revolution, is a God-send for China in America's own backyard. BUT WHAT THE HELL!! No matter how much America's Cuban policy shames America and threatens its national security, we must leave Cuban policy in the hands of  Rubio, the Diaz-Balarts, etc., who...many moderate Cubans say...don't even represent the majority of Cubans in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood, but dictate the U. S. Cuban policies.

   Some months ago the Voice of America used the above Reuters photo to illustrate an article the mainstream U. S. media is either too afraid, too biased, or too politically correct to mention. Hugo Cancio is a well known Cuban-American businessman in Miami. Like most Cuban-Americans even in Miami, Hugo, who travels often to Cuba, favors normalizing relations with the nearby island. And, yes, he complains openly that he and the majority of Cuban-Americans are not represented in the U. S. Congress because, he says, only extremists Cuban-American hardliners -- from Ros-Lehtinen to the Diaz-Balart brothers to Rubio to Curbelo to...etc. -- "are THE ONLY candidates to get elected FROM THE MIAMI AREA." In other words, Hugo represents the most significant portion of America's Cuban-American community that the mainstream U. S. media doesn't dare include in its biased pro-Batistiano reporting.
           Speaking fairly about U.S.-Cuban relations, something the mainstream U. S. media is too afraid to do, the Voice of America said: "Hugo Cancio's credibility with Cubans in Cuba stems in part from his outspoken opposition to the U. S. embargo imposed since 1962, as well as his deep Cuban roots. 'He stuck his neck out in Miami and that's why Cubans respect him,' said Ralph Patino, a Cuban-American lawyer who was a fund-raiser for Obama." The VOA often reports fairly on Cuban issues.

     But amazinly, the United States boosts China's economy by having a massive $239 billion trade deficit with the Asian giant this year. Meanwhile, the U. S. shames itself in the eyes of the world with a genocidal embargo against Cuba that dates back to 1962 when it was first imposed to create starvation and deprivations, according to declassified U. S. documents, that was intended and expected to induce the Cubans on the island to rise up and overthrow their revolutionary government. AND OH YES, America's competitors and enemies, including China, love to have the above image of the Cuban embargo to hang around America's neck like a debilitating albatross.

     Even when Trump's Wall on its Mexican border makes international headlines, the U. S. is mocked for its cowardly Cuban policy by such Editorials as the one shown above. This one makes fun of the Mexican border-wall for having an opening for "Anti-Cuba Terrorists Only" -- to appease a handful of Cuban-American miscreants still seeking revenge against Cuba for the Revolution that in 1959 overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship. But for little Cuba -- the Embargo and Terror! And for big China -- a $239 billion trade deficit that favors China and is helping the Asian giant replace America as the richest nation in the world. Thus, being mocked by the "Homeland Security" Editorial exactly as depicted above is to be expected.

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Will Intimidating Cuba Work?

Probably Not!!

Photo courtesy of: WRTV in Indianapolis.

       Starting today -- Monday, Oct. 23rd, 2017 -- this group of about 120 Indiana National Guardsmen will begin preparation to deploy to the U. S. Military Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which, since 1903, Cuba considers an unlawful occupation of the island's territory. The National Guard unit today will leave for 25 days of special training at Fort Bliss, Texas, before heading to Cuba. Is this a gesture by the Trump administration to intimidate Cuba as a prelude to something more substantial?? Maybe, maybe not.

      The Cuban most attuned to intransigence or intimidation from the United States is, of course, Josefina Vidal. In that role for the past fifteen years, Vidal has never been intimidated. She merely sticks to her mantra: "Cuba will not renounce either the principles or ideas in which it has always believed." That's her mantra, and Cuba's.

Photo courtesy of: ACN.

      Perhaps not coincidentally, yesterday -- Sunday, Oct. 22nd, 2017 -- the huge Japanese Peace Boat docked in Havana Harbor, as shown above. It is the 17th time the Peace Boat has visited Cuba, more than any other country. Does this signal that Japan hears war drums beating in the Trump White House as a warning to Cuba?

    For sure, one important Cuban -- Josefina Vidal -- believes that President Trump has promised counter-revolutionary hardliners in Miami and in the U. S. Congress that "Cuba will be yours again." But that would not happen peacefully.

      And for sure, Vidal believes that the promise President Obama, Trump's predecessor, made directly to the Cuban people on his visit to the island is now just an historic memory: "Cuba does not need to fear a threat from the United States."

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Cuban-Americans Helping Cubans

From Florida to Cuba!!
{Updated: Sunday, October 22nd, 2017}

      One of the Florida-based organizations most dedicated to normalizing relations between Cuban-Americans and Cubans is Cuba One. Over one month after Hurricane Irma devastated parts of Cuba, Cuba One will take a large contingent of volunteers, mostly young Cuban-Americans, to Cuba to help with the clean-up and rebuilding. They will leave from Florida on October 25th and Cuba One has pinpointed Ciega de Avila, Santa Clara, Camaguey, and Remedios as Cuban areas most in dire need.

       The photo above courtesy of Alejandro Ernesto/EPA was taken in Remedios in central Cuba. It shows a woman holding her dog in front of her devastated home.

      The Miami Herald used the above photo this week -- Oct. 20th, 2017 -- to illustrate this headline: "U. S. Identifies Two More Victims of Mysterious Sonic Attacks in Havana." While some positive groups like CubaOne.org based in Florida try to help Cubans, the Miami Herald seems to support and promote things that harm Cubans on the island to the benefit of only a distinct minority of hard-line Cuban-Americans.

Photo courtesy: Ramon Espinosa/Associated Press.

     The magnificent statue above immortalizing Jose Marti was unveiled in Havana this week -- Friday, October 20th. It was donated to Cuba by the Bronx Museum of the Arts and it is a replica of a statue that has been in New York's Central Park since the 1950s. In this photo, Cuban school children and tourists are admiring the statue.

      Born in Havana in 1853, Jose Marti was a world-famed poet and one of Cuba's greatest independence fighters. He died on Cuban soil in 1895 fighting imperial Spain's soldiers three years prior to the U. S. victory in the Spanish-American War.

Meanwhile:

Surviving hurricanes & the embargo!!

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Moderate, Voiceless Cuban-Americans

Extremists Cuban-Americans Dictate!!

     For almost two decades, the best and most insightful journalism reaching the outside world from Cuba has been provided by Fernando Ravsberg. So, not surprisingly, his Cartas Desde Cuba/Letters From Cuba blog is also the best. Over the years even the fair-minded, London-based journalism giant The BBC has depended on Fernando's Cuban expertise and fairness to understand what's happening in Cuba and what the island's contentious relationship with the United States really entails.

      In being both precise and fair-minded in reporting from Cuba, Fernando Ravsberg has incurred the ire of the Cuban government and U.S.-based counter-revolutionaries in about equal doses, which indicates his journalistic qualifies are indeed top-notch. The best Cuban article this month -- October of 2017 -- is "The Target: Tourism in Cuba" by Fernando Ravsberg. He explains that the Trump administration's targeting of Cuban tourism is merely the latest attempt by Cuban-American extremists to starve and deprive Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow their Revolutionary government. Ravsberg is referring to de-classified U. S. documents that confirm the U. S. embargo against Cuba was imposed way back in 1962 to starve and deprive Cubans on the island to do something the Batistiano-Mafiosi exiles had been unable to do even with the economic and military support of the United States. This was Ravsberg's first paragraph in that article:

              "In the 1960s the U. S. State Department produced a document that reflected the strategy to follow in Cuba. It said in a subtle way they should provoke hunger, misery and desperation among the people to push them to rebel and overthrow their government. That has been the guide to U. S. policy since Eisenhower to date."

            After that succinct preamble, Ravsberg explained the many embargoed tactics since 1962 the U. S. government, on behalf of the counter-revolutionary extremists, had carried out against Cuba to punish the totally innocent Cubans on the island to persuade them to overthrow their government. The cruel tactics have failed decade after decade but, as Ravsberg explains, President Trump's subtle warning this month to Americans to not visit Cuba merely continues a half-century of abject failures in cruelly punishing Cubans on the island to sate the revenge, economic and political motives of only the most extremists Cuban-American counter-revolutionaries.

     As shown above, Fernando Ravsberg has infuriated the Cuban government by reporting on Cuban dissidents, but he has been fair enough to also point out that some are genuine but many are funded and supported from the United States.

     The photo above was used by Ravsberg to illustrate his article updating the latest Trump administration ploy to starve and deprive Cubans on the island to induce them to overthrow their government so, presumably, the U.S.-based Batistiano-Mafiosi dictators can FINALLY RETURN. Like hotel bombings in Havana in the past were admittedly designed to discourage tourism, a Cuban lifeline, many believe the so-called "sonic wave attacks" now being blamed on Cuba are for the exact same reasons. Surely the hotel bombings and perhaps the "sonic-wave attacks" bespeak of U.S.-based corruption that reflect more poorly on America than on targeted Cuba.

Photo courtesy of Collin Laverty.

     And speaking of corruption, the photo above highlights the lies counter-revolutionaries like Senator Marco Rubio can spout-off in the U. S. media on a daily basis. Taking full advantage of a lapdog or intimidated U. S. media and a propagandized U. S. citizenry, Rubio and his ilk claim that maintaining or expanding the embargo and other cruel measures is absolutely necessary to keep every dollar that reaches Cuba from going into the Castro bank accounts. Well, Rubio and his kind haven't hurt the Castros but they have hurt many totally innocent Cubans like Carla Leon, shown above with her parents. Carla runs a Bed & Breakfast in Havana that was thriving with mostly American customers booked via the U.S. AirB&B network that evolved in Cuba thanks to the brave and decent overtures to the island rendered by former President Barack Obama. But Carla says she began getting many cancellations as soon as Trump, goaded by the likes of Rubio, "warned" Americans not to visit Cuba. In other words, as Fernando Ravsberg opined this month, America's Cuban policies "since the 1960s" have been predicated on lies and corruption, which seems to be hallmarks of a corrupt world in which anti-corruption crusaders are out-numbered as confirmed almost daily.

      This great lady is dead. Her name: Daphne Caruana Galizia. Thus, some corrupt politicians on the Mediterranean island of Malta are feeling safer. Daphne was Malta's greatest investigative journalist and a fearless anti-corruption crusader. Her popular blog scared every corrupt politician in Malta. From her home her very last blog comment was: "There are crook's everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate." She then got into her car to drive to work and exactly one-half hour after typing those two sentences, a remotely detonated bomb ended her precious life.

     The Prime Minister of Malta is Joseph Muscot. He is 43-years-old and has been in office since 2013. Daphne Caruana Galizia, the now-dead corruption-crusader, had targeted Muscot, who released all of the appropriate statements after her murder.

         The great corruption-crusader Daphne Caruana Galizia is shown above with her husband and their three sons. The sons have demanded that Joseph Muscat resign as Malta's Prime Minister. Copies of their long and heart-wrenching letter are now included at memorials for their mother all across the grieving island of Malta.

   The beautiful, lush Mediterranean island of Malta no longer has its great corruption crusader, but she will not be forgotten. Malta has about 440,000 citizens and they speak English and Maltese. The island is a major tourist attraction.

      This great lady is still alive. Therefore, Jamaica -- the Caribbean island just south of Cuba -- still has its greatest corruption-crusader. Her name: Paula Llewellyn. Addressing the top Jamaican politicians this week, Paula said, "Crime is doubling and tripling in many of our parishes. Successive Jamaican governments have not corrected the justice system. Part of the problem is the fact that the justice system has never been as sexy for you legislators as building highways and doling out public money." Paula's corruption crusade in Jamaica is helped by a newspaper, The Jamaica Observer, that is not reluctant to be a vessel for her crusades. The energetic Paula in Jamaica and the murdered Daphne in Malta should remind us, I think, that women, who are historically far less corrupt than men, should be the top politicians...not just the top corruption-crusaders...in a more civilized world.

     And speaking of corruption, USA Today yesterday -- Thursday, Oct. 19, 2017 -- had this across-the-page Page One headline and sub-headline: Taxpayers Left In Dark On Russia Costs; Inquiries' price tag in millions -- but that's all we know." The first paragraph said: "Congress spends millions of dollars on investigations of Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election, but it's impossible to tell from public records exactly how much the inquiries cost taxpayers -- and the committees running the investigations refuse to talk about it." OF COURSE NOT!! Surely democracy-loving American taxpayers who pay for all that secrecy have no business WHATSOEVER knowing where all their tax dollars are going!!

    On August 17, 2017, the top Editorial in USA Today screamed this headline: "STOP DRUG MAKERS FROM GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER." Then the Editorial, of course, lamented the fact that the obscenely rich Pharmaceutical Industry is a giant lobbying faction in a lobby-mad U. S. government, and pleading to "stop the drug makers from getting away with murder" will not happen in what many believe is a bought-and-paid-for Congress. Corruption in Malta? Corruption in Jamaica? Corruption in the USA?

      Perhaps not coincidentally, the biggest corruption trial in the United States of America for the past few months concerns the 18 federal corruption-bribery charges against entrenched and ultra-powerful Cuban-American U. S. Senator Robert Menendez. He has long been one of the most stringent counter-revolutionaries pounding Revolutionary Cuba. After weeks of testimony, the U. S. government rested its case; the high-priced Menendez defense attorneys then asked the judge to dismiss the charges but the request was denied regarding all 18 corruption charges.

       The Menendez corruption trial is taking place in his power-base -- Newark, New Jersey. Few observers expect any omnipotent Cuban-American politician to be convicted in Newark or Miami courtrooms but after years of expensive investigations, the United States government is trying real hard to make an exception regarding Robert Menendez. A torrid relationship with Miami millionaire Salomon Melgen has resulted in the Menendez trial resurrecting reminders of the long-established Florida-Cuban-Mafia triangle connecting Miami, Newark, and the Dominican Republic. When the Cuban Revolution overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship on the first day of 1959, Dictator Batista's getaway airplane first stopped in the Dominican Republic where another U.S.-backed vicious dictator, Rafael Trujillo, ruled. Most other key Batistianos, such as Rafael Diaz-Balart, fled to Miami with Newark as a secondary target. So, it is perhaps appropriate that the Menendez corruption trial stresses the age-old Miami-Newark-Dominican Republic nexus that has shamed America and targeted Cuba for many decades.

       The Miami Cuban Mafia, from January of 1959 till today -- October of 2017 -- has maintained a tight grip on America's Cuban policies, policies that many consider corrupt and that currently are condemned in the United Nations with a 191-to-0 unanimity, which Americans are programmed to ignore. This has persisted because corrupt right-wingers in the Eisenhower administration who sicced the Mafia on Cuba in 1952 were still around when the Batista-Mafia dictators were booted off the island -- all the way to Miami and Newark, as it turned out -- by the Cuban Revolution in 1959.

    The original right-wingers targeting Cuba as a piggy-bank in the Eisenhower administration were greatly boosted by two Vice Presidential terms and three Presidential terms of the Bush dynasty, which in turn begat a U. S. Congress that has, since the 1980s, been a virtual fiefdom for the hard-line Cuban-American counter-revolutionaries. This has resulted in Batistiano-favorable laws that only Congress can overturn, and that can't happen when a handful of vicious Cuban-Americans can so easily dictate Cuban policies to the 535-member U. S. Congress.

     To be sure, most Cuban-Americans since 1959 have been outstanding citizens like Emilio Milian and today most Cuban-Americans even in Miami favor normal relations with Cuba although, of course, only vicious counter-revolutionaries get elected to the U. S. Congress. Emilio Milian was the top Cuban-American newsman in Miami in 1976 when he bravely condemned a devastating spat of terrorist acts against innocent Cubans, such as the bombing of the civilian Cubana Flight 455 that killed all on board, including two dozen teenage athletes. But that bravery got Emilio Milian silenced by a car-bomb. Since 1989, after the Bush dynasty propelled Havana-born Miami counter-revolutionary Ileana Ros-Lehtenen to the U. S. Congress, where she remains to this day, it seems only extreme counter-revolutionary Miami Cubans are eligible for top elective positions -- such as members of Congress like Marco Rubio, Carlos Curbelo and the Diaz-Balart brothers whose father Rafael Diaz-Balart was a key Minister in Cuba's Batista dictatorship and then, after 1959, one of the richest and most fervent counter-revolutionaries in Miami. Such things as the Emilio Milian car-bombing in Miami have certainly also rendered the mainstream United States media a Batistiano lapdog as opposed to being fair-minded, critical journalists.

       In fact, Hollywood movies such as Scarface have been much better at telling the truth about the Miami Cuban Mafia than the intimidated or lapdog U. S. media.

      But truth be known, even before the U. S. sicced the Mafia on Cuba in 1952 at the start of the second Batista dictatorship, the Mafia had already had a firm grip on Cuba virtually since the U. S. gained dominance over the island via the easy victory in the 1898 Spanish-American War. The graphic above, for example, chronicles the famed Mafia summit in 1946 that featured the all-time most powerful Mafiosi leader, Lucky Luciano, who also, of course, was a Mafia dynamo with Batista from 1952 till the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Yet, the U. S. government and the U. S. media today will give Revolutionary Cuba no credit for being Mafia-free, something American cities such as Miami and Newark would have trouble claiming.

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Cuba Concentrates on Friends

While Lessening U. S. Contacts!
{Updated: Thursday, October 19th, 2017}

    The Times of Israel this week -- Oct. 17-2017 -- reported that a delegation of top Israeli business-people will travel to Cuba in early December to promote trade between the two countries. It will be the first-ever such overture from Israel to Cuba. In recent years, Israel -- tightly aligned with the U. S. economically and militarily -- is the only nation in the world to join the U. S. vote in the UN supporting the American embargo of Cuba that has persisted since 1962. But during the Democratic Obama administration, the U. S. itself and Israel both abstained on that vote and thus the current UN vote opposing the embargo is 191-to-0 with the two abstentions cast by the U. S. and Israel. The upcoming visit has been organized by the Israeli Latin American Chamber of Commerce and it's good news for Cuba.

      The CEO of the Israeli Latin American Chamber of Commerce is Gabriel Hayon. He says that the Israeli government has offered "no objection" to his group's efforts to do business with Cuba. Mr. Hayon told The Times of Israel: "As per the Cubans request, we are inviting Israeli companies that are willing to invest in Cuban businesses or enter into joint ventures to engage with Cuba. Cuba is not listed as an enemy of Israel. Business is the best bridge to diplomacy. Israeli firms can provide the Cuban people with many cost-effective solutions to improve the quality of life on the island nation, to the benefit of Israelis and Cubans." The actions and words of Gabriel Hayon are a big deal, especially at a time when the current Republican President Donald Trump is reversing many of the positive overtures in U.S.-Cuban relations that his predecessor Obama forged.

      The AP photo above shows President Trump at a news conference Oct. 16th in the White House Rose Garden. He took the opportunity to stress that, "Cuba is responsible for the sonic attacks on the United States embassy staff in Havana."

      This AFP photo showed Trump at that Rose Garden news conference this week continuing to use the sonic-wave attacks to justify more and more assaults on Cuba to appease counter-revolutionaries in Miami and Congress. Meanwhile, most American and Canadian experts on Cuba believe the mysterious sonic assaults are the work of agents who would benefit from blaming Cuba, such as counter-revolutionaries in Miami or Congress or rogue Cubans on the island who oppose closer relations with the United States. In other words, like the massive wave of hotel bombings in Havana in 1997, the sonic-wave attacks seem most likely intended to discourage tourism to Cuba, the island nation that depends on tourism as its lifeline.

      As further evidence that Cuba has tired of dealing with a Trump presidency that takes its Cuban policies only from Miami or Congressional hardliners, Cuba's Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero has reacted, first off, by paying a vital visit to Canada, which is Cuba's friend and also the prime supplier of badly needed tourists to the island.

   On his visit to Canada, Manuel Marrero met hastily with tour operators, travel writers, and government officials. He told The Canadian Press news agency, "Our hotels and other tourist facilities are back in shape after the devastation caused by Hurricane Irma. Canadians will find the hotels better than before and their friends and workers in Cuba are very enthusiastic and welcoming. The best help that our Canadian friends can give to the Cuban people is traveling as tourists so that hotels realize their potential and we can get back to normal after Irma. As for the sonic-attack excuses used by Cuba's U. S. enemies, there is zero reliable evidence that a single foreign tourist has in any way been exposed to whatever or whoever is trying to severely hurt us."

    The best Caribbean newspaper, the Jamaica Observer, reports fairly on Cuban issues and it too equates the current sonic-wave attacks with the hotel bombings that Miami terrorists admitted were designed purely to discourage tourism to Cuba.

     The Gran Manzana Kempinski Hotel is fully engaged in welcoming visitors to the heart of Havana. It opened in June of 2017 as Cuba's very first Five Star+ hotel.

     The magnificent pool area atop the Gran Manzana Kempinski offers a panoramic view of Havana's historic area. It has 246 Five-Star+ very luxury rooms.

   Havana now has a jewel in the Kempinski chain.

     The CEO of the Kempinski Hotel Empire is Markus Semer. He says, "In the heart of Havana, the Gran Marzana Kempinski is a shining example of our interest in Cuba. It has all the amenities any visitor to Cuba could desire." It features 246 luxury rooms, a variety of restaurants and bars, a luscious swimming pool, business rooms, a spa, a gym, and a terrace that provides magnificent views of Havana. The Swiss company also reflects Cuba's desire to seek investments from important foreign nations.

     An Australian company, Melbana Energy, is very interested in helping Cuba develop its potential for oil and that enthusiasm is about to produce results.

      In September of 2015 Peter Strickland of Melbana Energy signed a major deal with Juan Torres of Union CubaPetroleo to develop the oil potential in Cuba's Block 9.

     And now Peter Strickland at Australia's Melbana Energy says its extensive geological surveys indicate strong potential for block 9's oil production in Cuba. Thus, plans are underway now for two wells to begin pumping by mid-2018. Mr. Strickland said, "We are prioritizing Cuban exploration. Cuba is now becoming globally recognized for a wealth of energy resources that have largely remained untapped, partly because of the long-standing U. S. embargo. We have made the tests and we know there is much oil in Block 9." Block 9 on Cuba's northern coast is close to Cuba's largest oil field near Varadero that is owned by Toronto-based Sherritt International. Varadero has a projected 1 billion barrels in one structure and is currently producing 14,500 barrels per day. Sherritt is also beginning to drill in Block 10. Regarding his Block 9, Peter Strickland says, "I take some comfort knowing that Sherritt has shown you can invest with confidence and build a long-term profitable business in Cuba."

     The photo above shows where the Australian company, Melbana Energy, will soon begin drilling for Cuban oil at its Block 9 Alameda-1 well. With Canada's long-time partner Sherritt International expanding its oil drilling in Cuba, the commitment of Australia's Melbana Energy also looks promising. It also reflects Cuba's efforts to forge important business associations with new foreign partners such as the Swiss Kempinski hotel giant as well as Australia's Melbana Energy...and even in December major business executives from Israel will be in Cuba hoping to strike some deals.

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