Russia Loves Trump's Cuban Policy

And Is Taking Advantage of It!!

     The above photo this week reveals anew how much Russia loves U. S. President Donald Trump's ongoing efforts to reverse the massive diplomatic decency towards the island exhibited by his predecessor, President Obama. And that's rather significant considering that Russia is by far the biggest military threat to the United States. China, by far the biggest economic threat to the U. S., also welcomes Trump's antagonism towards Cuba. Both Russia and China want to increase their influence in the Caribbean and Latin America, and both anti-American powers consider Cuba a key pathway to those goals. Thus, in Cuba today more-and-more Chinese buses as well as sonar panels and wind mills are showing up. And 344 brand-new Russian Lada cars arrived on a recent Russian ship. The above photo shows a Russian locomotive arriving at the Port of Havana, one of 8 new ones in Cuba...and 28 more are on the way. The locomotive depot in Havana is being refurbished by a Russian Company.

       Russia's electrical power generating company Inter RAO has signed a new deal with Cuba to have four new power plants operating on the island beginning in 2022.

     Russia is very anxious to have its flag, as opposed to the American flag, flying side-by-side with the Cuban flag more-and-more during the Trump administration.

   Meanwhile, Revolutionary Cuba is very proud when its flag flies solo because it represents the sovereignty it earned with the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959, over the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia regime. Cuba's sovereign flag since 1959 has, symbolically and realistically, replaced five centuries of dominance by just two imperial powers -- Spain and the United States. This pivotal year of 2018 will witness the biggest political change in Cuba since Fidel Castro replaced Fulgencio Batista in 1959. Russia and China want to be more significant players in that transition than Cuba's neighbor, the United States.

      In a few weeks, 86-year-old Raul Castro will retire as Cuba's President. In 2008 Raul had replaced his very ill brother Fidel Castro, who died at age 90 on Nov. 25-2016, as President of Cuba. In April of this year Miguel Diaz-Canel will be Cuba's new President, the first non-Castro Cuban leader since 1959 and one who was, significantly, born after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. This week -- from Feb. 19th to 21st -- six Cuba-friendly members of the U. S. Congress, led by Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Representative Kathy Castor of Florida -- were in Cuba. They met with President Raul Castro and other important Cubans, including entrepreneurs, in attempts to assess the damage so far perpetrated by Trump's reversal of many of Obama's Cuban advances. And the six members of the U. S. Congress this week also wanted to meet with Miguel Diaz-Canel but he ignored their requests although he was in Havana this week meeting with African leaders. Diaz-Canel is known to be "outraged that Trump has already double-crossed many of the mutual advantages our President and President Obama negotiated. If the American people allow such things what good is it to waste our time trying to normalize relations with the United States, mutually beneficial relations. We should use that time...most or all of it...negotiating with all the other nations that are our friends." That summation and foreshadowing of Miguel Diaz-Canel's intentions was revealed by a Vietnamese delegation that had met with the upcoming leader of Cuba. And the 56-year-old Diaz-Canel envisions a Vietnamese-style Cuban economy; and he has gotten encouragement on that front from three current Presidents -- Castro, Zi, and Putin.

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The Spinning Cuban Carousel

Washington-to-Havana-&-Back!!

    Six members of the U. S. Congress -- three Senators and three from the House of Representatives -- completed their urgent visit to Havana this week. The urgency was spawned recently when two anti-Cuban Cuban-American U. S. Senators, Marco Rubio and Robert Menendez, Chaired & Co-chaired a very bitter anti-Cuban Foreign Affairs Committee session in the Senate. The six congressional members who visited Cuba this week wanted to curb the Trump administration's attempt to put America's Cuba policies back in the hands of a handful of Cuban extremists, as in the Bush presidencies. Not wanting a total reversal of President Obama's pre-Trump advances with Cuba, the six congressional members had much to discuss with top Cuban officials, especially on the eve of the island's transition to a non-Castro leader in April. The U. S. delegation was led by U. S. Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont. Leahy for decades has worked tirelessly and bravely to normalize relations with Cuba. He is shown above in this Granma photo talking directly to Cuban President Raul Castro in a session that Leahy later described as "animated at times." In addition to Leahy, the other two Senators in Havana were Ron Wyden of Oregon and Gary Peters of Michigan. The three House members on the hasty fact-finding journey were Kathy Castor of Florida, Susan Davis of California, and James McGovern of Massachusetts.

    The latest visit to Cuba by Kathy Castor this week is in keeping with her tireless effort to normalize U.S.-Cuban relations. Born 51-years-ago in Miami, she has represented the Tampa-St. Petersburg area of Florida in Congress since 2007. She met with Cuban entrepreneurs who had built successful businesses because of the Obama presidency but have been starkly and negatively affected by the Trump administration. Congresswoman Castor, who hastened back to Florida a day early because of the aftermaths of the horrendous school shootings, also met with Cuban officials regarding the alleged sonic attacks against U. S. diplomats that have been used by Trump and Cuban-American hardliners as one of their pretexts to hurt Cuba. Castor agreed with the consensus opinion on both sides of the Florida straits that Cuba wouldn't threaten its own tourism lifeline with such a ploy. She said: "I don't see a motivation of the Cuban government itself to having done harm to our diplomats, but I don't know." Castor is also direly concerned that Trump's gutting the embassies in Havana and Washington harms innocent Cubans and Cuban-Americans the most. "We urgently need to get back to a full staff because it is important for families in Cuba and my state of Florida to be able to use embassy facilities so these families can meet." Cuba for two decades has used two currencies -- the peso and the convertible peso. Economists agree the dual currencies have stifled the island's economy and production. Castor said, "They told us Cuba will stop operating under the two-currency system this year. They say it's very complicated because it effects wages throughout the island, but they do hope to end it this year. And they have told us that before too."

       After his three-day trip to Cuba this week, Congressman James McGovern said, "It was a big mistake to reduce the embassies in Havana and Washington. And it was a mistake for the State Department to list Cuba as unsafe."

    And Congresswoman Kathy Castor added one more thing about her trip to Cuba this week. She said that Senator Leahy had a private conversation with President Raul Castro about his retirement in April and the significant changes that might...or will...entail for both Cuba and the U. S. Ms. Castro said, "I wanted to talk to the presumed next President of Cuba, Miguel Diaz-Canel, but we did not get to do that."

      While Raul Castro, Cuba's out-going President, has shown an eagerness to talk with friendly Americans, like President Obama and like the six members of Congress on the island this week, the same is not true for Cuba's in-coming President, Miguel Diaz-Canel. Ignoring this week's high-level delegation from Washington was typical of Diaz-Canel who much prefers spending his most valuable time with leaders of nations far more friendly to Cuba than the United States is. Thus, the photo above shows Diaz-Canel hosting Her Excellency Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, the Prime Minister of Namibia, while ignoring requests from important Americans. He thanked her for Namibia's help as Cuba tried to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Irma, help he knows the island didn't receive from the United States. Namibia's current leader and Cuba's future leader also worked out trade and "other mutually beneficial agreements" while Diaz-Canel ignored the six Cuba-friendly Americans.

     While Miguel Diaz-Canel supported Raul Castro's historic detente with President Obama, President Trump's June 16-2017 trip to Miami -- when he turned America's Cuban policy back over to a handful of hard-line extremists -- was the "last straw" for Diaz-Canel, who is not only not a Castro but was born after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. After June 16-2017, he said: "Cuba has one enemy, the United States. The Obama window was nice but the other party closed it. Wasting our time on our one enemy makes no sense when that time can be applied to our friends. We must preserve our sovereignty at all costs against a major force, but to advance we must embrace our friends." That includes, Diaz-Canel believes, the Prime Minister of Namibia as well as the leaders of all non-USA nations, including America's biggest competitors, "if necessary, as it seems now." Indeed, in the last two years as Cuba's First Vice President, Diaz-Canel has cultivated close friendships with President Zi and President Putin while also closely studying the Vietnamese economic model.

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Cuba Gets Help vs. Rubio

David vs. Goliath for 6 Decades!!
And COUNTING!!
{Updated: Wednesday, February 21st, 2018}

      Cash-strapped Cuba may be catching a break. The Canadian company Sherritt International has a joint venture with Cuba in the production of two of the island's key minerals -- nickel and cobalt. The photo above shows Sherritt mining nickel and cobalt near Moa in the Cuban province of Holguin. Nickel prices have plummeted, hurting Cuba. But Cobalt prices are skyrocketing and Cuba is already 5th in the world in the production of cobalt behind the Congo, Russia, Australia, and Canada. Yesterday -- Feb. 20th, 2018 - - there were reports that Apple wants to buy huge amounts of cobalt directly from miners. The interest in electric cars has already made prices for cobalt skyrocket. Nickel and cobalt prices are vital to Cuba's economy.

     Born 51-years-ago in Miami, Kathy Castor all of her adult life has fought bravely and tirelessly to bring a dose of democratic sanity and decency to an American Cuban policy that, since 1959, has been dictated out of Miami and Washington by a handful of the most vicious Cuban-American remnants of the vile and overthrown Batista-Mafia dictatorship. Since 2007 Kathy Castor has represented the Tampa area of Florida in the U. S. Congress, almost singularly at times battling self-serving Miami members of Congress on behalf of decent Cubans, decent Cuban-Americans, and democracy.

   This photo of the democracy-loving Congresswoman Kathy Castor is courtesy of the PBS network. The mainstream U. S. networks are afraid to feature Kathy because they fear it might upset the anti-Cuban extremists in Miami and in Congress. It's appears to have been that way especially since 1976 when the top Cuban-American newsman in Miami, Emilio Milian, was car-bombed after he criticized extreme Cuban-American terrorism against totally innocent Cubans. While most of the U. S. media and most U. S. politicians are afraid to cross anti-Cuban extremists, Kathy Castor is not. Again this week she is leading a congressional delegation to Cuba to assess how much President Trump's designated Cuban dictator, Senator Marco Rubio of Miami, is reversing former President Obama's decent Cuban overtures that preceded Trump.

      The photo above captured a huge banner that is being pulled by an airplane over and around Senator Marco Rubio's home-base of Miami and Miami Beach. After the horrendous school massacre at nearby Parkland High School, the NY Times reported that Rubio had received $3.3 million in donations from the National Rifle Association. School marches against politicians like Rubio with begin Saturday in Washington and elsewhere around the nation. Meanwhile, the banner denouncing Rubio is merely the latest example of people in Miami expressing displeasure with Rubio but it appears his bulging war-chest remains overwhelming and it also seems that only Counter Revolutionary extremists can get elected from the Miami area to the U. S. Congress although polls show even most Cuban-Americans in Miami favor normalizing relations with Cuba. So, now Rubio's vast publicity machine will have to get cranking again.

     But the 18-year-old Emma Gonzalez in recent days has been more powerful than all 535 members of the U. S. Congress combined, especially in shaming and shaking Senator Marco Rubio for his receiving $3.3 million from the National Rifle Association. Emma, a senior, survived the latest mass school shooting-massacre at Parkland High School near Rubio's Miami base. Emma's heart-wrenching anti-NRA and anti-politician speech is still circulating around the world and has been shown repeatedly by the world's best news source, the London-based BBC. Now Emma Gonzalez and millions of students like her will lead marches in Washington and other U. S. cities on February 24th, 2018, and THEY will more effectively oppose gun-massacres in the U. S. than all the politicians, many of them bought-and-paid-for, have accomplished. Many Americans believe 18-year-olds like Emma should be elected to Congress, not bought-and-paid-for incumbents that can't be voted out of office. 

    But the mainstream United States media...and not just the right-wing Fox Network...regularly makes Senator Marco Rubio out to be a Miami choirboy, the very same Rubio that America's best investigative journalist, Ken Silverstein, calls "head and shoulders above everyone else when it comes to chicanery and corruption." After being anointed America's newest Cuban dictator by Trump, Rubio is shown above laying down his Cuban policy at a very appropriate place -- the Manuel Artime Theater in Miami that is named for a leader of the 1961 Bay of Pigs military attack on Cuba. 

    On June 16-2017 President Trump himself had ventured to Little Havana in Miami and gutlessly signed and smirkingly displayed newly signed Executive Orders reversing Obama-orchestrated sanity and decency towards Cuba. Of course, the usual Counter Revolutionary choir was in attendance, including the laughing Miami member of the U. S. Congress Mario Diaz-Balart who is directly over Trump's right shoulder. Typical of the endless stream of Miami members of Congress, Mario Diaz-Balart is the son of Rafael Diaz-Balart, a key Minister in the Batista dictatorship before becoming one of the very richest Counter Revolutionary zealots in South Florida.

     While most Cuban-Americans even in Miami favor Obama's decent Cuban policies, President Trump's Cuban dictator Rubio is busy "rolling back" Obama's Cuban policies while he should, of course, be using his bought-and-paid-for Senate seat to help Americans instead of hurting totally decent Cubans on the island. Of course, Rubio's presidential bid in 2016 got derailed when Trump labeled him "Little Marco." But, of course, Little Marco is awash in money donated by self-serving right-wingers that will keep Rubio in the Senate and finance his next presidential bid.

     Above is the graphic that fronted the Ken Silverstein article that labeled Rubio "head and shoulders above everyone else" for corruption in Washington, which is saying a lot considering that his fellow Cuban-American Counter Revolutionary zealot, U. S. Senator Robert Menendez, was recently bailed out only by a hung jury after the U. S. government had tried for five expensive investigating years and then an expensive 3-month trial in 2017 to convict Menendez of Miami-related corruption charges. This Ken Silverstein article took about ten long pages to document why it called the "For Sale" Rubio "head and shoulders above everyone else." This week, after the school shooting massacre in South Florida, Rubio has even been criticized in the mainstream media for taking what the New York Times says is $3.3 million in "For Sale" money from the National Rifle Association. Yet, the intimidated mainstream U. S. media and sufficiently propagandized U. S. citizens will not utter a whimper about Trump's anointment of Rubio as America's Cuban dictator.

 Alex Leary, the brave Washington-based journalist for the brave Tampa Bay Times, is brave enough to tell us about Tampa's brave Congresswoman Kathy Castor returning to Cuba to assess the recent damage Trump & Rubio have done to innocent Cubans and to the U. S. democracy. Alex Leary explains that Ms. Castor will meet with "small business entrepreneurs" in Cuba who benefited greatly from Obama's overtures but have been devastated by Trump's. Also, Alex Leary wrote that Ms. Castor and her delegation will visit the Trump-gutted U. S. Embassy in Havana in hopes of trying to "restore full U. S. embassy services" so direly needed by her constituents in the Tampa area, both Americans and Cuban-Americans who have or seek relations with Cuba's Cubans.

     Thanks to President Obama, Niuris Higueras, shown above with her daughter, opened a thriving business that markedly benefited her family. With the Trump election, Rubio is blamed by Ms. Higueras and other hard-working Cuban entrepreneurs for virtually destroying their livelihoods. And, yes, with the support and approval of the Cuban-American executives at the Miami Herald, Ms. Higueras and three other female Cuban entrepreneurs wrote a scathing article daring Rubio to just meet with them to hear their side of the imposing Cuban story.

     The photo-graphic above shows Niuris Higueras and Yamina Vicenta, two totally decent Cuban entrepreneurs who benefited so greatly because of President Obama and who have been hurt so mightily by "Little Marco" -- Miami's U. S. Senator Marco Rubio. Niuris and Yamina teamed with Julia de la Rosa and Marla Recio, two other young female entrepreneurs in Cuba who co-wrote the scathing anti-Rubio article with the cooperation of the Miami Herald editors in Marco Rubio's own backyard.

     And that's why the decent, democracy-loving, Miami-born member of the U. S. Congress from Tampa, Kathy Castor, is returning to Cuba trying desperately to help those Rubio-ravaged female entrepreneurs in Cuba...and try to help Kathy Castor's own Rubio-ravaged constituents, both Americans and Cuban-Americans.

    But while the Miami-born Kathy Castor has been elected and re-elected and re-elected again to the U. S. Congress from Tampa since 2007, the photo above, I believe, reflects why the U. S. Cuban policy gets a 191-to-0 condemnation in the United Nations, probably the only topic that could get such unanimity in a very diverse world. Since 1989...three decades ago...when the Bush dynasty swept Havana-born Counter Revolutionary Ileana Ros-Lehtinen to the U. S. Congress, only other Counter Revolutionary zealots such as Mario Diaz-Balart and Marco Rubio have reached Congress from Miami. This is despite the fact that poll-after-poll reveals most Cuban-Americans even in Miami favor normalizing relations with Cuba. Does the above photo also reveal that two generations of Americans since 1959 have sat on their cushy asses and allowed their precious democracy to be torn asunder by a mere handful of people?? Just asking, of course, with 2 gentle & gigantic question marks.

    Meanwhile, the above view of the Havana skyline bears the caption: "THIS IS CUBA" and "THIS IS OUR PEOPLE." There is a majority in Cuba, and a majority around the world, who believe Cubans on the island...not Cubans in Miami and Washington...should be allowed to predicate the future of the sovereign island nation.

      After the death at age 90 of Fidel Castro on Nov. 25-2016 and after the retirement as President of the 86-year-old Raul Castro in April, the next leader of Cuba will be Miguel Diaz-Canel. He is a popular education-minded teacher who grew up loving the Beatles and motorcycles. He was born after the 1959 triumph of the Cuban Revolution. But while Raul Castro worked closely with President Obama to normalize relations between the two nations, insiders in Cuba believe Miguel Diaz-Canel is so disgusted with Trump & Rubio that Cuba's soon-to-be-leader plans to de-emphasize the United States while re-emphasizing relations with "important friendly nations."

      Miguel Diaz-Canel particularly considers the still-ascending superpower China a "very important friendly nation" that he plans "to Cultivate." In fact, he already has.

      The American embargo, sharply tightened by Trump & Rubio, and dire political and economic problems in Venezuela have spurred Diaz-Canel into action already. He solicited wind-blown and solar-panel energy for Cuba, courtesy of the Chinese, as well as new oil deals with Russia, Nigeria, and Vietnam. "Wasting our time vacillating here-and-yonder on nearby hopeless causes," Diaz-Canel reportedly told Chinese President Zi, "is not nearly as fortuitous for us as dealing with China."

Diaz-Canel courting President Zi.

      And Diaz-Canel is courting President Putin. While Diaz-Canel is said to strongly agree that friendly terms with the U. S. would be far more advantageous to Cuba than any alliances with faraway powers, he is reported to have given up on that hope.

      The photo above illustrates how friendly relations between Cuba and the United States would greatly benefit both Cuba and the United States. Cubans on the island incredibly love America and Americans, if not the U. S. government. Cuba's baseball-mad people still love their all-time favorite player, Yuri Gurriel, although he is now the star First Baseman for the Houston Astros. And Yuri still loves Cuba most of all. When Yuri and the Astros won the World Series last fall, Yuri wrapped himself in the Cuban flag for two hours after the game was over, and at every television opportunity he euphorically said, "My people in Cuba. My title is for you."

     Cuba's superstar broadcast journalist, Cristina Escobar, is the only Cuban to ever ask questions at a White House news conference. She has spoken at American universities and the foreign news media, as above, often interviews her in regards to "Cuba-U.S. Relations. She repeatedly talks about her love for America and Americans, adding, "Like many Cubans on the island I learned to speak English by watching U. S. movies and listening to U. S. music." But, despite offers to defect, she staunchly says, "Cuba's fate is up to us Cubans on the island, not Cubans in Miami and Washington." Americans may not know it, and the U. S. government may not admit it, but the vast majority of the 11.25 million Cubans on the island agree with Cristina. That's why the Cuban Revolution won against overwhelming odds. 

       And that's why the vastly over-matched but pugnacious Cuban flag still waves proudly in the very warm but ominous Caribbean breezes, despite Trump & Rubio.

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Imminent Venezuelan Coup?

Foretold by the BBC?
{Updated for: Sunday, February 18, 2018}

      All day Thursday at the Cuban embassy in Washington the Cuban flag was flown at half-staff in mourning for the seventeen lives lost in Wednesday's tragic school shooting in South Florida. Jose Ramon Cabrisis is the head of the Cuban embassy.

      The London-based BBC is easily the top source for worldwide news, including the best unbiased news coverage of major United States, Caribbean, Latin American, African, Middle East, Asian, etc., events. Stephen Sackur is one of the BBC's superstar broadcast journalists. He seems to think a Venezuelan military coup, possibly tied to the USA, is imminent. A 3 minute, 26 second video on YouTube eerily documents a dangerous undercover report by Sackur from Venezuela before he was booted out of the direly troubled nation. This week -- on Feb. 13-2018 -- Sackur's program -- BBC Hardtalk -- featured a hard interview from Washington that rather chillingly seemed to be a precursor to a coup in Caracas, Venezuela.

     Stephen Sackur's chilling interview was with dissident politician David Smolansky, who has been in Washington the last three months apparently seeking support from the Trump administration to dethrone the Nicolas Maduro presidency in deeply troubled Venezuela. Still only 32-years-old, Smolansky won a term from 2013-2018 as the Mayor of El Hatillo, which is a municipality in Caracas. But he fled Venezuela, fearing for his life, and for the past three months has waged his opposition against Maduro from Washington. The BBC's Stephen Sackur this week, on Feb. 13th, asked Smolansky if he had been in contact with anti-Cuban U. S. Senator Marco Rubio and anti-Cuban U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillotson. Smolansky indicated he had but demurred on the details.

     The mere fact that David Smolansky, a high-profile opponent of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, has spent the last three months in Washington lobbying Senator Rubio, Secretary Tillerson, and possibly President Trump himself is, to say the least, ominous. It also reminds many Latin Americans of 2002 when President George W. Bush's White House included anti-Cuban zealots like Otto Reich on the eve of the coup that briefly overthrew Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a U. S. involvement that still deeply concerns a lot of Latin American nations. But the Stephen Sackur BBC interview this week with David Smolansky suggests military action against Maduro is not only ominous but imminent. Venezuela has the world's largest known oil reserves, yet it is in dire financial trouble with millions of Venezuelans lacking food, medicine, and other basic needs. Smolansky told Sackur that Venezuela should be exporting six billion barrels of oil per day but is down to just 1.5 million barrels a day. And Smolansky told the BBC that he is trying to convince the U. S. to overcome the influence in Venezuela of three particular nations -- Cuba, Russia, and China. The BBC appears convinced that Rubio and Tillerson for sure and perhaps Trump himself are on the same page with David Smolansky.

      
  The BBC's superb Canadian-born State Department correspondent in Washington is Barbara Plett-Usher. Her ominous article is entitled "Tillerson Speculated About A Possible Military Coup in Venezuela." She reported that "Canada has joined the U. S. in sanctioning Maduro loyalists" and she indicated that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's Latin American trip, which started on February 2nd in Mexico, was to solicit support against Venezuela from other Latin American nations. Ms. Plett-Usher also wrote, "A dozen Latin American countries, known as the Lima Group, agree with the U. S. messaging."

      This Reuters photo shows U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arriving in Mexico at the start of his Latin American trip on February 2nd, 2018. He also stopped in Jamaica, the island due south of Cuba. Tillerson appears to be a close ally of Senator Rubio as they rally regional support for increasing pressure on Venezuela and Cuba.

     The BBC seems convinced U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is determined to dethrone the Maduro government in Venezuela but his impetus seems not to be Venezuela's oil or turmoil. It apparently relates to complying with the dictates of Counter Revolutionary Cuban-Americans, similar to the 2002 U.S.-backed coup against Hugo Chavez. For example, the BBC starkly quoted Tillerson as saying: "If the kitchen gets a little too hot for Maduro, I am sure that he's got some friends over in Cuba that could give him a nice hacienda on the beach." Was that a subtle hint?

     Thus, as of mid-February in 2018 the BBC seems to think that U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and U. S. Senator Marco Rubio are determined to change the governments in both Venezuela and Cuba, with Cuba being the higher priority.

       When Rex Tillerson was seeking confirmation in the U. S. Senate as Secretary of State, it was Senator Marco Rubio, as shown above, who grilled him the hardest. In his second 6-year term in the Senate, Rubio's priorities appear to be two-fold: {1} Destroying Revolutionary Cuba; and {2} becoming President of the United States in 2020. And regarding both Cuba and Venezuela, the expert journalists at the BBC apparently believe Rubio has a point-man in Secretary of State Tillerson.

And by the way:

    For the past twelve years Josefina Vidal has held the highest profile position in Cuba, next to the Castro brothers Fidel and Raul, as far as the U. S. is concerned. That's because she was in charge of the Foreign Ministry's relations with the United States, and particularly during the Obama administration when Vidal brilliantly negotiated historic and remarkable deals, such as reopening embassies in Washington and Havana for the first time since 1961. But Vidal has now been replaced in that position as things have changed in Cuba. In the spring of 2006, just before he became seriously ill in July, Fidel Castro was reportedly so impressed with Vidal that he envisioned her as a future President of Cuba "with my support." But Fidel turned the Presidency over to his brother Raul in 2008 and, after a long illness, died at age 90 on Nov. 25, 2016. Also, of course, the presidential transition from Obama to Trump starting on Jan. 20-2017 has taken U.S.-Cuban relations from daylight to darkness again. And in April the 86-year-old Raul Castro will step down as President, likely replaced by 57-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel who has recently began reshaping Cuban priorities away from the United States with a stronger emphasis on friendlier countries...like China. It is believed that the reversal of many of the important advances she made with Obama had soured Vidal on negotiating with the Trump administration although there is also speculation that the decision was not Vidal's.

     Cuba's replacement for Vidal is Carlos Fernandez de Cossio. He held the same diplomatic position related to the U. S. back in the 1990s. Since then he has been Cuba's Ambassador to Canada and South Africa, two countries important to Cuba.

     The official announcement of the Vidal-to-de Cossio transition was handled by Johana Tablada who has worked closely with Vidal and held very important diplomatic positions such as Cuba's Ambassador to Portugal. With more key transitions in 2018 on the horizon in Cuba, Tablada's star will shine more brightly. 

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