John Bolton THREATENS Cuba

What Does John Bolton Plan?
{Tuesday, March 27, 2018}

      Last week John Bolton replaced General H. R. McMaster as America's top National Security Adviser in President Trump's White House. That development, many liberals and conservatives believe, brings the U. S. and Israel one giant step closer to an actual military attack on Iran and an actual U.S.-backed coup in Cuba. Of all the war-hawks on America's extreme right-wing, Bolton is the most hawkish and dangerous.

     This Ethan Miller/Getty Images photo explains what is wrong with America's coerced Democracy. John Bolton is such an extremist right-wing warmonger that he couldn't possibly get the approval of the U. S. Senate for any important appointment. His "recess appointment" as U. S. Ambassador to the UN was brief and, of course, withdrawn by President George W. Bush before it faced Senate approval, one of the subtle little jokes the Bush dynasty has pulled on the American people. But right-wingers like Bolton as well as left-wingers on the other extreme in the political spectrum can become very rich and very influential by serving on propaganda Think Tanks such as Bolton's right-wing American Enterprise Institute. Also, of course, extremists like Bolton can hang around for decades making millions of political dollars with propaganda-powered Political Action Committees. Bolton has two extremely lucrative Super PACs -- "John Bolton Super PAC" and "John Bolton PAC". A key Bolton PAC donor is right-wing billionaire Robert Mercer, also a key supporter of the right-wing Breitbart News propaganda media farce. So using extremists like Bolton is how wealthy extreme entities can purchase what remains of the U. S. democracy. Yesterday -- Monday, March 26th, 2018 -- the USA Today's Editorial was entitled: "McMaster's Out. Bolton's In. Be Very Careful." That pertinent warning has reached Havana because Bolton has long violently targeted Revolutionary Cuba, and now as Trump's National Security Adviser he has his best chance to follow-up on his diabolical Cuban desires. "Bolton's In. Be Very Careful." Yes. Yes indeed, FOR SURE.

Is that why Trump chose John Bolton?

   A disciple of the war-mongering Bush dynasty, John Bolton pushed a false narrative -- Weapons of Mass Destruction -- to justify Bush's endless trillion-dollar war in Iraq.

     Retired U. S. diplomat Vicki Huddleston has a new book entitled "Our Woman in Havana." She was head of the U. S. Interests Section in Havana from 1999 till 2002 and earlier she was the Coordinator for U. S. Cuban Affairs from 1989 till 1993. Last week, alarmed that John Bolton was named President Trump's top National Security Adviser, Vicki Huddleston Tweeted that John Bolton accused Cuba of having Weapons of Mass Destruction in an apparent effort to have the U. S. military make an all-out attack on Cuba. As a product of the war-mongering Bush dynasty, Bolton led the false but successful charge that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction, and Vicki Huddleston worries about how much Bolton can influence Trump regarding Cuba.

      One example that could be cited to brand the U. S. news media as "Fake News" is the fact that, since 2006, John Boldon has been repeatedly referred to in the mainstream media as "the former U. S. Ambassador to the U. N.," which defers upon him an undeserved honor. Yes, Bolton was appointed by President George W. Bush as America's United Nations Ambassador but that is a misnomer unless it is quantified with this explanation: Bush well knew that Bolton was far too much of a war-mongerer to be confirmed by the U. S. Senate as the Ambassador to the UN. But Presidents incredibly can make short-lived "Recess Appointments" only to rescind them before the confirmation hearing in the Senate, which Bush surely did with John Bolton.

     While most Americans, including me, are staunch supporters of Israel, John Bolton and some right-wing Americans go beyond that and place Israel's welfare above that of America's. That is one reason Bolton spent 8 years vehemently denouncing and demeaning America's decent President Barack Obama. Bolton now can expound that extremism regarding any real or even perceived Israeli enemy.

      As a pro-Israel militant and extremist, John Bolton has urged America to attack Iran, something that Israel, an omnipotent nuclear power, is fully capable of doing all alone but especially in alliance with the U. S. such an attack now might be imminent.

      But closer to home, in the USA's backyard, John Bolton's appointment as President Trump's top National Security Adviser might well prove to be the final denouement to President Obama's sane promise: "Cuba does not need to fear a threat from the United States." But with Trump as President and with the right-wing/Counter Revolutionary extremist Bolton as his top militant adviser, Cuba is back in the cross-hairs the way it was in April of 1961 when less-extremist right-wingers crafted the Bay of Pigs attack aimed at recapturing Revolutionary Cuba many, many decades ago.

     Since April 16th, 2017 -- when President Trump visited Little Havana in Miami -- Cuba has considered the Obama-Trump transition the difference between war & peace, sanity & insanity. That was the day, with the huge Bay of Pigs Assault Banner 2506 as a backdrop, Trump essentially promised the few remaining anti-Castro hardliners that he would reverse the Bay of Pigs disaster for them. That promise...if indeed that's what it was...has taken on added meaning this week with Trump's new choice as America's National Security Adviser -- the war-mongering John Bolton.

      One thing is now for sure, The Dangers of John Bolton may represent the gravest danger for Revolutionary Cuba since the Bay of Pigs attack in April of 1961.

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A Cuba Americans Don't Know

And Are NOT SUPPOSED to Know!!
{Friday, March 23rd, 2018}

     The Associated Press and the Jamaica Observer this week both featured major articles about Cuba opening its first wholesale market, another sign of the changing commerce on the island. The market is selling beans, beer, sugar, cigars, and many other goods for up to 30% less than similar products sold in state-owned stores. But at least initially only cooperative workers can utilize the popular experiment but the plan is to gradually expand it across the island.  Prior to the Counter Revolutionary Trump administration in Washington, during the 8 years of the friendly and non-punitive Obama presidency Cuba had opened up 500,000 private enterprises. The market experiment above is one way Cuba is trying to adjust to the belligerency emanating from the Trump administration and Miami-Cubans in the U. S. Congress. 

     At age 62 Chris Baker is generally recognized as the world's greatest Travel Writer-Photographer. That's why he has had top-rated Travel Shows on the BBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, CCTV America, MSNBC, National Geographic Channel, and other networks. Being British, Baker doesn't have to ask Counter Revolutionaries like Marco Rubio what to say about Cuba, one of Mr. Baker's very favorite stops.

      Knowing Cuba like the back of his hand, one of Chris Baker's famous Moon books is about the Caribbean's largest, most beautiful, and certainly the most intriguing island. While the mainstream U. S. media is obliged to report only what revengeful Counter Revolutions like Rubio say about Cuba, the Brit Chris Baker is not so restrained, meaning he can tell & show the truth. For example, a few weeks ago -- hiding behind the Trump administration and the cowardly U. S. media -- Senator Rubio, speaking for the U.S.-Trump government, warned Americans not to visit Cuba because it was "unsafe," a ploy to hurt Cuba's vital tourism industry. That very same week the widely respected International Tourism Fair in Madrid named Cuba "the safest nation in the world for tourists." Well, Chris Baker, the world's top Travel expert, seconded that motion. In other words, someone is lying and it appears, as uusual, that it's the self-serving Counter Revolutionaries in the United States.

      And this week -- March 19th, 2018 -- Ann Lee, another renowned Travel Writer, penned an internationally published article entitled: "Why Cuba's Colourful Capital of Havana Should Be Your Next City Break." Like Chris Baker and the International Tourist Fair in Madrid, it is obvious that Ann Lee didn't ask Marco Rubio for permission to write her article about Cuba. That means Americans who have never been to Cuba should dial up Ann Lee's insightful article to learn a few things about Cuba that Rubio and his ilk don't want Americans to know and that explains why, for six decades, everyday Americans have been the only people in the world without the easy freedom to visit Cuba.

     This week Ann Lee's article about Cuba features Getty Images photos to take her readers around Cuba. She calls Havana, "One of the most fascinating cities in the world," pointing out that its U.S.-imposed "isolation" only adds to its fascination.

     Travel Writer Ann Lee, for example, was quite fascinated with Havana's Gran Teatro de La Habana -- the Grand Theater of Havana. It is the world-famed home of the National Ballet of Cuba as well as music-dance concerts. Visitors to Havana, including those who can't get tickets to the Gran Teatro, can hear music and dancing out on the streets or from the apartments at all hours of the days and nights in Havana, Cuba.

      Ann Lee used this photo of Playa de Este, a beach just outside Havana, and wrote: "Most people coming to Cuba head to the resort of Varadero but Playa de Este is just as beautiful." When I was in Cuba I drove the one-hour down the coastal highway to Varadero, which has been named the most beautiful beach in the world, but at the time I didn't know about Playa de Este. Ann Lee raved about its "soft white sand, dazzling blue sea, and palm trees swaying gently in the tropical breeze."

      Travel Writer Ann Lee was totally mesmerized by the unique beauty of Vinales. She wrote: "If you only have time for a one-day trip from Havana, make it Vinales -- a two-and-one-half hour drive away. The beautiful terrain of mountains, caves, and valleys makes it one of the most stunning landscapes in Cuba...and in the world."

     Even little towns like Vinales, like in Havana, have casa particulars, which are private rooms to sleep, with paladars, which are nice places to eat in private homes.

     If you want to stay at a 5-star hotel in Havana, Ann Lee suggests the Gran Hotel Manzana Kempinski. She says, "The rooms are huge but the real showstopper is the rooftop bar and pool." Ann Lee said that sipping a mojito and lounging poolside atop the Kempinski is the best way to see scintillating sunsets or sunrises in Havana.

    The photo above, courtesy of Intrepid Travel, is one Marco Rubio doesn't want to see. It shows tourists, including Americans, in Havana. For six decades Counter Revolutionary Cuban-Americans, who have been allowed to dictate America's Cuban narrative and policies, have insisted that everyday Americans are the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba. That has a two-fold purpose: {1} To destroy Revolutionary Cuba's economy; and {2} to make sure Americans can't visit Cuba because, if so, they could judge it for themselves. Unfortunately, all Republican administrations as well as the intimidated mainstream media perpetuate the Counter Revolutionary lies about Cuba. And that's why, I believe, those of us Americans who have visited the island agree with the way it is depicted by great Travel Writers like Chris Baker and Ann Lee as well as by non-intimidated tourist advisers such as the International Tourism Fair in Madrid. To believe what America's Counter Revolutionaries like Senator Rubio say about Cuba is to be gullible, stupid, or afraid.

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America's Cuban Shame

During Transition Time in Cuba!

{Emily Mendrala vs. Marco Rubio}
{Monday, March 19th, 2018}

     A very decent and patriotic American, Emily Mendrala is the antithesis to Marco Rubio. Mendrala is one of America's greatest national security experts and in that capacity she was an important advisor to Democratic Presidents Clinton and Obama. Now with a Republican, Donald Trump, in the White House, Mendrala is the Executive Director of the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas, the ten-year-old organization founded by the great American patriot Sarah Stephens. As a brilliant National Security and Latin American expert, Mendrala is the most important American championing a sane and decent U. S. policy towards Cuba, as I will explain.

      While Emily Mendrala is on the sane and decent side of America's Cuban conundrum, the self-serving U. S. Senator Marco Rubio represents the other end of that political divide. Rubio, now in his second 6-year Senate term after his 2016 presidential bid was swamped by Republican rival Trump in Rubio's home-state of Florida, is essentially America's and Trump's new Cuban dictator along the lines that future billionaire Jorge Mas Canosa was the Bush dynasty's anointed American Cuban dictator...both with the U.S.-backed goal of recapturing Cuba. Although a safe Senate incumbent till his next presidential bid, Rubio's approval rating in Florida, according to a recent poll, is 35%, which reflects the fact that only anti-Cuban Cuban-American extremists can get elected to the U. S. Congress from Miami although polls show most Cuban-Americans EVEN IN MIAMI favor normal relations with Cuba. Intimidation and a lack of democracy fuel Rubio's economic and political power, plus a cowardly and incompetent mainstream U. S. media that portrays Rubio as a choirboy, the same mainstream U. S. media that wouldn't dare mention the Cuban viewpoints of unbiased, decent Cuban experts...such as Emily Mendrala. Yet, even Rubio's Cuban-dominated home-town newspaper, the Miami Herald, has begun to point out how far-removed United States Senator Rubio is from representing his constituents, including two million Cuban-Americans, as opposed to representing himself...Marco Rubio!!

    While the mainstream United States media is obliged to promote Marco Rubio as a choirboy, America's best investigative journalist Ken Silverstein {yes, you may Google his reputation} in the notable article illustrated above stated that Rubio was "head and shoulders above everyone else in Washington when it comes to corruption and chicanery." That's quite a statement, don't you think? Yet, Silverstein's long and precise documentations, to my knowledge, have never been questioned nor has he been sued. And yet, Rubio has been designated by President Donald Trump to lead the reversal of President Barack Obama's decent and sane Cuban policies. While propagandized Americans are deigned to be too stupid, too scared, or too unpatriotic to object, great Democracy-loving Americans like Emily Mendrala are ashamed that Rubio is the latest Republican nominee put in charge of America's shameful genocidal assault on both innocent Cubans and on America's international reputation, which has taken a very loud 191-to-0 UN condemnation hit.

   While the mainstream U. S. media doesn't have the guts or the integrity to mention the Cuban views of decent Americans like Emily Mendrala, The Hill, the best and most influential Washington-based political source, this week featured Mendrala's article entitled: "In Cuba, Let's Get Back In The Game." Caring every bit as much for America's democracy as she does for innocent Cubans on the island, Mendrala wrote: "It's game time in Cuba and the United States isn't on the field, on the sidelines, or even in the stands; we're at home {alone}. Cuba is on the brink of an historic transition. In April, President Raul Castro will step down and usher in a new era of Cuban leadership. At this complex time, when diplomacy matters most, the U. S. Embassy in Havana is operating on life support."

      With unique courage, intelligence, and decency, President Barack Obama re-opened the U. S. Embassy in Havana for the first time since 1961. It was fully staffed heading into the Obama-Trump transition and vitally served both sides of the Florida Straits, including two million Cuban-Americans in South Florida who praised the manner it was helping them interact with family and friends in Cuba. Obama had also nominated a great diplomat, Jeffrey DeLaurentis, as the U. S. Ambassador to Cuba. But one man in the 535-member U. S. Congress and 100-member U. S. Senate -- MARCO RUBIO -- blocked that badly needed nomination and now one man -- MARCO RUBIO -- has been put in charge of totally gutting both the new U. S. Embassy in Havana and the Cuban Embassy in Washington. Even the Miami Herald is raving about RUBIO'S self-serving gutlessness, as are all of the greatest, bravest, and best experts regarding U.S.-Cuban relations, with Emily Mendrala being at the forefront of opposing RUBIO's affront against Americans, Cuban-Americans, and Democracy.

    Emily Mendrala and her Center for Democracy in the Americas, as her above statement indicates, has shown the U. S. Congress, the Miami Herald, and all others how Obama's Cuban policies helped everyday Cubans as well as everyday Americans and Cuban-Americans. Mendrala brought a host of young female Cuban entrepreneurs to Washington...and to Miami...so they could plead for decency. Even the Miami Herald allowed four of those female entrepreneurs to co-write a major article in which they openly blamed one man -- MARCO RUBIO -- for punishing them and their children. The vast majority of Americans and Cuban-Americans agree with Emily Mendrala but never, except when Obama was President, has the United States paid any attention to what the majority thinks about its Cuban policies and, of course, as the world's Superpower with a veto in the United Nations, the U. S. can brazenly ignore the 191-to-0 UN vote condemning America's Cuban policy. And that, since 1959, is what has made billionaires out of leading Miami Counter Revolutionary extremists like Jorge Mas Canosa and, today, like budding billionaire MARCO RUBIO.

      Because Cuba is a foreign nation, Rubio is entrenched on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Senate has to confirm major presidential appointees, each of whom is sure to be grilled by Rubio apparently to ascertain if they will help him recapture Cuba. The image above captured the moments when Rubio grilled Rex Tillerson who was President Trump's successful nominee for Secretary of State.

     And Rex Tillerson,  after becoming Secretary of State, marched to the dictatorial Cuban drumbeat of Marco Rubio. BUT this past week Tillerson was fired by Trump who then nominated CIA Director Mike Pompeo as the new Secretary of State, the most powerful position in the presidential cabinet. BUT GUESS WHAT?? Emily Mendrala, who would know, says that Pompeo IS EVEN MORE UNDER RUBIO'S ANTI-CUBAN THUMB THAN TILLERSON WAS. That's bad for Cuba, but worse for America.

    This is the actual photo when Mike Pompeo smiled up at Marco Rubio when Pompeo was being grilled by Rubio during Pompeo's Senate confirmation hearing as CIA Director, which Rubio heartedly supported. U. S. CIA Directors, starting with Allen Dulles in the 1950s and most pointedly with George H. W. Bush in bloody 1976, have traditionally been America's most ardent enemies of Cuban sovereignty, especially since the Cuban Revolution in 1959 gained independence for Cuba after 500 years of Spanish and American domination. As Trump's CIA Director, Pompeo was aligned with Rubio in turning back Obama's decency towards Cuba. So, Pompeo's impending job as Trump's Secretary of State greatly concerns Emily Mendrala just as it should concern any American concerned about a Rubio-ruled Cuban policy or...heavens FORBID...a Rubio-ruled America!!

      IN OTHER WORDS, the image above -- courtesy of Donald Trump Jr. -- should concern all democracy-loving Americans. It relates to the fact that President Trump erased the Marco Rubio presidential candidacy in 2016 by branding the Little Havana Senator as "Little Marco." Trump further got over the point that Rubio was a "whiner" when he stated that the reason he wasn't even in the Senate to vote very often was because "Congress never got anything done anyway." Of course, with that "whine" Senator Rubio was ignoring the fact that, for six decades, Congress has gutlessly rubber-stamped the embargo and all other acts of genocide and terrorism against Cuba. And then to rub in the fact that Rubio is a "whiner," President Trump pointed out that "Little Marco the whiner" initially whined that he wasn't going to run for a second 6-year term in the U. S. Senate. Of course, Little Marco {note the baby pacifier} changed his mind when his billionaire donors reminded him that his 2020 presidential bid depended on him reclaiming his high-profile Senate seat from Little Havana, which he did. But the Donald Trump Jr. graphic above, I think, should be very scary to Americans. Why? Well, it depicts a very unpopular U. S. President reading a children's book to a very unpopular U. S. Senator that the unpopular U. S. President has anointed as America's new unpopular dictator of Cuba. THAT should be enough to scare ANY democracy-loving American.

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Dawning of a New Cuba

But Havana vs. Miami Forever!!
{Saturday,, March 17th, 2018}

     Next month -- April, 2018 -- the Cuban parliament, its 605-member National Assembly -- will inaugurate the process of beginning the first non-Castro led government since 1959. Yet, the retiring 86-year-old President Raul and the iconic Fidel, who died on Nov. 25-2016 at age 90, will continue to cast vast shadows over the island's future, almost reminiscent to the heights of their on-hand leadership. The new Cuba -- after the promotion of current First Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel -- will try to drift further-&-further from its geographical Superpower neighbor to more closely engage more friendly nations, such as the dozens of Italian entrepreneurs now showing acute interest in investing in business operations at Cuba's vital Mariel Port Economic Zone, which is ultra-modern and 28 miles southwest of Havana.

     Finishing up his 3-day visit to Cuba, the President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, has met with Cuban President Raul Castro but his large contingent has included experts in health, tourism, sports, and other areas of mutual concern. The official Kenyan spokesperson Monica Juma issued this statement: "We are in Havana for the first State visit by President Kenyatta after his inauguration for the second term. This is very deliberate. Our inspiration in the early 1960s for independence and against apartheid was inspired by the 1959 victory of the Cuban Revolution. We are here to strengthen what are historic ties between Cuba and Kenya but also between Cuba and Africa." Kenya is particularly interested in Cuba's advanced vaccines and treatments for diseases such as cancer and malaria. In answer to a question, Monica Juma said, "When the big U. S. city of Chicago went past the famous embargo and summoned Cuban doctors to help lower Chicago's high infant mortality rate, we were impressed. If Cuba can do that in Chicago, they can do it in Nairobi, all of Kenya...and maybe all of Africa. But this trip was arranged before we read the Chicago story."

Chief Kenyan spokesperson, Monica Juma.

    One of America's top business experts, Roberta Matuson spent two recent weeks in Cuba. On March 14th, 2018 she penned a major article for Forbes entitled: "Business Lessons learned From Cuba." She noted the small incomes for everyday Cubans and then wrote: "You would think with those low wages, the services and quality of goods would be abysmal. Actually, I found the opposite to be true. Cuba is a beautiful country filled with warm people who have hopes and dreams like we do." Almost without fail, every single unbiased American who visits Cuba seems to return with the opinions expressed by Roberta Matuson, and I am one of those returnees. One reason, since the U. S. embargo of Cuba was first imposed in 1962, a handful of Counter Revolutionary Cuban exiles have insisted that Americans should be the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba is because those revengeful remnants from the overthrown Batista-Mafia dictatorship want to dictate the Cuban narrative in the U. S. and, sadly, for the most part they have. Thus, when Americans like Roberta Matuson visit Cuba, the false narratives spewed by a mere handful of vicious Counter Revolutionaries for six decades are exposed for the lies they are. Indeed, "Cuba is a beautiful country filled with warm people who have hopes and dreams like we do." {"...a beautiful country...warm people...hopes and dreams."}

Photo courtesy: Adalberta Roque/AFP/Getty Images.

  The photo above illustrated the aforementioned Forbes article written by Roberta Matuson. It shows a Cuban named Sady Guardiola. She makes her living as a Street Sweeper. Sady is one of Cuba's "warm people who have hopes and dreams like we do." Disputing the lies that have prevailed in the U. S. for six decades, the U. S. embargo and other assaults on Cuba have hurt everyday Cubans like Sady although to this day Counter Revolutionary Cuban-Americans like Senator Marco Rubio insist their only aim is to "hurt the Castros." That's a blatant lie. De-classified U. S. documents prove that the embargo against Cuba...from 1960 till today...was AND IS designed to starve, deprive and make miserable the lives of Cubans to induce them to rise up and overthrow their revolutionary government. Rubio & his ilk know all that, I believe, but they have neither the guts nor the integrity to admit it. Yet, for six decades in the name of America and Democracy they have been allowed to starve, deprive and make miserable the lives of totally innocent Cubans like Sady Guardiola to sate their revenge and greed. And, as the decent former President Obama pointed out, the purpose of such cruelty has failed to induce the Cubans to rise up against their government because...PERHAPS...they remember the extreme brutality of the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship THAT PRECEDED IT, and don't want its return.

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      On Sunday, March 11th, 2018, Cuba held ostensibly its all-time most important election encompassing 24,000 polling places all across the island. It chose the 605 members of the National Assembly that will, by April 19th, choose Cuba's next President, First Vice President, and five other Vice Presidents. The process will result next month in Cuba having its first non-Castro and first non-revolutionary leader since 1959. This week -- Tuesday, March 13, 2018 -- the Counter Revolutionary Miami Herald, in an article written by Nora Gamez Torres, continued to analyze Cuba's exhaustive election from America's enemy soil. The article is entitled: "Cuba Gets Lowest Voter Turnout in Socialist History as Raul Castro Prepares to Retire." Well, by late in the day Sunday some 7,399,891 Cubans had voted out of an overall population, including children, of 11.2 million. Also, the Nora Gamez Torres article highlighted the three best-known anti-revolutionary dissidents -- Jose Daniel Ferrer, Yoani Sanchez, and Rosa Maria Paya -- with their anti-Cuban takes on the election. Cuba allows Ferrer, Sanchez, and Paya to fly to Miami and to the U. S. Congress to gain anti-revolutionary sustenance and then fly back to Cuba to use it. All that being said, even Nora Gamez Torres and the Miami Herald will have trouble convincing unbiased, non-Miami, and non-propagandized Americans that Sunday's national election was unimportant.

A new Cuban leader IS important.

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Photo courtesy: Alejandro Ernesto/AFP/Getty Images.

    The photo above shows Miguel Diaz-Canel and his wife Lis preparing to vote Sunday in the central Cuban city of Santa Clara. Miguel is Cuba's Current First Vice President and on April 19th-2018 he will become the island's first non-Castro and first non-revolutionary leader since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959. The 57-year-old Miguel and his wife Lis are both educators and both are popular on the island. The aforementioned Miami Herald article this wek reported that Miguel spoke to the media for ten minutes after he voted. He said: "We are building a government-people relationship. The government we're electing will be a government that will come from the people. The people are going to participate in the decisions taken by the government, and the people also can revoke anyone who does not carry out their responsibilities. We are defending a revolution that is still under attack, amid a complicated world and regional situation, and the updating of our economic model is paramount. This election should be seen as a commitment to the historic generation that forged the revolution, and it is a tribute to Fidel. I believe it's an endorsement of Raul, our President, who's the one leading the updating."

     The photo above shows Raul Castro preparing to vote in Segundo Frente, a mountainous municipality near the eastern city of Santiago that includes the mausoleum where his wife, the legendary revolutionary heroine Vilma Espin, is buried and where Raul one day will be buried beside her. As he prepares to retire as Cuba's President next month, the 86-year-old Raul will no longer live in the capital city of Havana on the island's northwestern tip. Both Raul and his late brother Fidel -- who died at age 90 on November 25th, 2016 -- always felt more at home around Santiago, the former capital on the southeastern tip of the island. In addition to Raul, only three other top revolutionary legends remain alive and they are Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, Ramiro Valdes, and Guillermo Garcia. Raul's retirement home is being completed in Santiago, not Havana, and his ongoing influence is unknown.

     This Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty Images photo shows an elderly Cuban woman voting Sunday in Santa Clara, Cuba. The majority of women on the island have always supported the revolution even if the Cuban narrative in the United States, dictated by revengeful exils since 1959, says otherwise. Of course, if the majority of women in Cuba since 1959 had NOT supported the revolution, the Batistiano-Mafiosi exiles from U. S. soil would have regained control of the island long ago!

      But the post-Castro key to Cuba's future rests in the hands of its young-adult generation -- like the 9 healthy, well-educated, and fiercely pro-revolutionary young women depicted above. Fourth from the right, in the white blouse and black skirt, is Rosy Amaro Perez. She is a popular and influential news anchor on the island.

     This photo shows Rosy Amaro Perez and her 4-year-old daughter Mariana casting their vote in Sunday's important election. As a news anchor and as a citizen, Rosy is not shy about criticizing the government but she fiercely supports the revolution that finally made Cuba a sovereign nation in 1959 after 500 years of foreign Spanish and American imperial domination. On April 16, 2017, Rosy watched on television as President Donald Trump made a speech in Miami's Little Havana section denouncing the Herculean efforts of his predecessor Barack Obama who had tried so hard to normalize relations with Cuba. Within a few minutes after President Trump's speech ended, Rosy wrote this salient sentence on her Facebook page: "The Cuba that President Trump just described is not the Cuba I know, and I've lived here all my life."

        The photo above shows Miguel Diaz-Canel and his wife Lis Cuesta Peraza waiting in line as they prepared to vote Sunday in Santa Clara, Cuba. Next month, Miguel will be the new leader of Cuba. As he stated Sunday in the quote used by the Miami Herald, he fully realizes that his leadership role can be "revoked" if he loses the support of the majority of Cubans, which he knows he now has. But he is determined that "foreign aspects" will not revoke him. Several weeks ago in Havana, while hosting a delegation of African leaders, Miguel made this equally significant statement: "My two main priorities will be to protect Cuba's sovereignty from U. S. forces and to modernize Cuba's economy by working more closely with all nations not under America's yoke and not at the mercy of the blockade." He admires the Vietnamese economy and he is very aware of China's economic and military might.

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Miami Cubans RE-Love Cuba

HOW ABOUT THAT!!

    The major article in the Miami Herald today -- Tuesday, March 13, 2018 -- was illustrated by the photo above. It shows Cubans preparing to fly from Miami to Havana...and not just to visit. Today's Miami Herald article is entitled: "Thousands of Cuban Exiles Are Exploring An Unusual Option: Returning to Cuba to Stay." It stated that "11,176" Cubans applied to return to Cuba "to stay" in 2017 and indicated the figure is much higher this year.

     It seems the Cuban flag waving in the tropical Caribbean breezes on Cuban soil is becoming more-and-more alluring.

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