22.2.19

Cellphones Are Remaking Cuba

With Governmental Acceptance!!
{Saturday, February 23rd, 2019}
    Colombia-born Andrea Rodriguez is the excellent Associated Press journalist in Havana. Her informative article on Feb. 22nd-2019 is entitled: "Cellphone Internet Access Bringing Changes Fast To Cuba." Using their cellphones to access the Internet is a new phenomenon in Cuba that its citizens now use to improve their daily lives and to get positive responses from their government if they complain about such things as..."bathroom improvements at schools."
       The AP's Ramon Espinosa took this photo yesterday and it shows a Cuban using his cellphone to access the "Sube" app to get a ride. Cubans in cars routinely stop anywhere to transport fellow Cubans.
     This AP-Ramon Espinosa photo used by Andrea Rodriguez shows 25-year-old Cuban Julio Aguirre Lusson in his Havana home showing off his popular cellphone-produced program on the YouTube channel known as TechnoLikeCuba. If Julio hails something in Cuba, the people react. If Julio complains about something in Cuba, the government reacts.
     The vulnerable island of Cuba is still trying to survive...the Trump administration; the stifling U. S. economic embargo that has been in effect since 1962; the endless U. S. theft of plush Guantanamo Bay {see map lower-right} that was first stolen in 1903, etc., etc., etc. But Cuba has a new President, former Education Minister Miguel Diaz-Canel; it is getting its first New Constitution since the 1970s and it encourages private businesses; and island-wide Cellphone access to the Internet is remaking Cuba for its well-educated 11.4 million citizens.
Meanwhile!!!!!!!!!!
    It might be considered a small threat by some people but ACTUALLY the message Russia's Putin sent to America's Trump IS a BIG DEAL: "I'm ready for another Cuban Missile-style Crisis if you want one." Financially, Russia  is no match for the United States but militarily it is. With the Venezuelan crisis along its border with Colombia possibly approaching a bloody crescendo this weekend, it is hoped Trump takes Putin's taunt seriously. COMMENT: While everyone agrees that something must be done to help/aid the people of Venezuela, the perception that Cuban-obsessed U. S. players {Rubio, Diaz-Balart, Claver-Carone, Bolton, Abrams} are directing the Venezuelan opposition is factoring unnecessarily into the equation and could exacerbate the bloodshed. It also might involve the heavyweight muscle of...Russia and China.
     By early Saturday morning -- Feb. 23, 2019 -- CNN reported ambulances like this were needed to carry injured people to the hospital in the Brazilian town of Boa Vista near the Venezuelan border. There were already reports of at least two dead with more violence anticipated.
      It appears Brazil, now led by U.S.-friendly right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, is providing the most troops along its border with Venezuela. The above photo in the town of Boa Vista shows Brazilian soldiers handling bags of powdered milk that is among the aid being forced into Venezuela this weekend despite Venezuelan resistance.
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21.2.19

U.S.-Friendly REGIME Changes

To Make the WORLD SAFE for Republicans!!
{Friday, February 22nd, 2019}
       The Getty Images photo above illustrates that, in the USA's two-party political system, the Republicans are the current occupants of the White House in Washington. This is 49-year-old Carlos Vecchio, Venezuela's Representative/"Ambassador" to Republican President Donald Trump's USA. Actually, calling Vecchio Venezuela's Ambassador to the U. S. is a bit of a misnomer; he represents Venezuela's self-ordained U.S.-friendly President of Venezuela, Juan Guaido. Vecchio is no newcomer to Washington; he's been there throughout Trump's two+ years as President. Thus, Vecchio has been the top architect of Juan Guaido's POPULAR WILL PARTY that -- with the guidance, money, and muscle provided by Washington's regime-change Republicans -- has for the past three weeks been recognized by Trump as the Democracy-loving presidential regime in Venezuela. Vecchio is smart, at least smart enough to know that if you want a regime-change in your Latin American nation, there is a clear pathway, NOTABLY: Wait till a Republican takes over the White House; raise your hand and proclaim you are both pro-Democracy and pro-USA; and then ask for unlimited doses of U. S. tax dollars and U. S. military muscle to replace the "non-Democratic and anti-American regime." AND THEN, presto!! With the support of the world economic and military Superpower, you have YOUR regime-change...in this case Venezuela...and perhaps even without a bloody coup because every nation in the world, particularly in Latin America, desires USAID as opposed to suffocating economic sanctions or, of course, being in the cross-hairs of the world's most powerful military. Therefore, actually, all Carlos Vecchio really needed to know to execute his regime-change back in Venezuela was to know that a Republican, Donald Trump, had been elected President of the United States as of January 20th, 2017.
     On Monday President Trump started off this week with a volatile speech in front of Cuban-Venezuelan choirs in Miami, and Trump echoed what Rubio-Vecchio-Guaido outlined for him to say -- namely, to threaten regime-changes in Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua...in that sequence of priority but with Venezuela taken care of first, Cuba second, and Nicaragua third.
     After Trump's speech in Miami on Monday, even the Voice of America -- with its international reach via radio, television, and the internet -- used the above photo/graphic to stress that Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua had NO SAFE HARBOR, meaning no place to hide...which particularly was meant as a warning to military leaders and soldiers who didn't defect.
     This Reuters photo shows Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez holding a news conference in Havana a few hours ago. He first addressed Trump's charge that Cuba has 20,000 soldiers in Venezuela propping up the harried Maduro presidency. Rodriguez said: "Our government categorically and energetically rejects this slander. Trump, Rubio, Ecchio, Bolton, Abrams...and the others in Washington...claim Cuba has 20,000 soldiers in Venezuela. We have health professionals that act as health professionals in that country. If the U. S. or its proxies harm them, the U. S. media will report they were soldiers, I'm sure. We've seen this play-out in the Americas before -- from El Salvador in 1953 to Chile in 1973...and beyond. It is normal procedure when Republicans rule the White House. It is therefore dangerous for all peoples in the Caribbean and Latin America...and, of course, it is costly for America in continuous dollars, blood, and reputation...paid by others to benefit the perpetrators."
     The Reuters article that reported on the Bruno Rodriguez news conference also included this significant quote from Cuba's Foreign Minister: "Washington has a big political and communication campaigns underway which are usually the prelude to larger military actions...coups...by the U. S. government. This is not surprising with Republicans ruling Washington and bringing back age-old, even ghost-like Cuban coup-promoters like Otto Reich and, oh MY, even the pardoned Elliott Abrams. The so-far failed imperialist coups fabricated in Washington against Venezuela and Nicaragua are being directed by Miami Cubans led by Rubio and the Diaz-Balart brothers, a family that dates back to the Batista and Mafia rule of Cuba, a fact that even the strongest U. S. media is far too timid to tell the American people about. Cuba has no animosity towards the everyday Americans or Cuban-Americans, except for their dangerous ignorance in refusing to acknowledge the well-known anti-democracy motives of coup-mongers such as Rubio, the Diaz-Balarts, Reich, Bolton, and Abrams." Indeed, the Reuters article quoted ELLIOT ABRAMS as saying that Bruno Rodriguez's claim that Cuba doesn't have 20,000 soldiers in Venezuela is "a lie." Well -- that comment from ELLIOT ABRAMS, who has been named Trump's "Envoy to Venezuela," sends shivers throughout Latin America AND in the hearts of America's most renowned and most respected Latin American experts.
    It is a well-known fact that no American knows as much about Elliott Abrams, Otto Reich, and other such Republican right-wing operatives {who re-surface and attain enormous power the day any Republican President takes over the White House} as Raymond Bonner knows. A famed Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and author, Mr. Bonner this week penned an article in the legendary magazine The Atlantic that EVERY democracy-loving American should read and heed. The Bonner-penned article is entitled: "WHAT DID ELLIOTT ABRAMS HAVE TO DO WITH THE EL MOZOTE MASSACRE." While Americans may not know much about that massacre, it is legendary throughout Latin America as related to USA Republican-directed imperialism. Raymond Bonner has done the most acclaimed investigative reporting on such historic events, and no Republican right-winger can dispute his reporting; they just hope Americans don't read it. Mr. Bonner was born in Missouri in 1942 and earned his political science degree from MacMurray College before getting his journalism degree from Stanford University and then his law degree also from Stanford.
     The United Nations, the World Court, and all other reputable sources accept Raymond Bonner's research on the Mozote Massacre that took place in 1981 in El Salvador. Along with such historic events as the Nixon-Kissinger coup in Chile in 1973 that replaced the killed democratically elected President Allende with the Kissinger-beloved and murderous dictator General Pinochet, the Mozote Massacre stands as one reason millions of Latin Americans as well as Americans such as Raymond Bonner CRINGE when a Republican White House, like Trump's, ressurrect Bush-era right-wing coup-mongers, and that now includes even the revived Bush-pardoned Elliott Abrams as one of the key operatives directing the impending regime-change in Venezuela, which is a horrid situation that more respected and less biased entities should be predicating. In 1981 in El Salvador the U. S. Republicans, including Abrams, wanted to secure a U.S.-friendly government, meaning one that would permit rich American businessmen to feast in El Salvador, as elsewhere, with U. S. companies such as the United Fruit Company at the forefront well above native companies. The U. S.-armed proxy army in El Salvador was ruthless. In the village of Mozote it arrested and tortured all the men, then killed them. It separated the women from their children, and then killed them. It then used automatic U. S. rifles to kill all of the children -- 140 of them, including babies six-months-old and younger. That's known, at least throughout Latin America, as the El Mozote Massacre. And no one questions Raymond Bonner's documented research related to it. Mr. Bonner reports that the most feared paramilitary leader in the "El Salvador Dirty War" was Roberto D'Aubuisson and that "Elliott Abrams went so far as to defend the death squads' most notorious leaders, such as D'Aubuisson." AND NOW THIS WEEK, with Elliott Abrams having resurfaced as Trump's SPECIAL ENVOY TO VENEZUELA, the great Raymond Bonner pens a must-read article in The Atlantic that is entitled: "WHAT DID ELLIOTT ABRAMS HAVE TO DO WITH THE EL MOZOTE MASSACRE." And the sub-title is: "Trump May Have Picked The Right Man To Implement His Policy In Venezuela."
       The photo above was taken the day -- Jan. 25th, 2019 -- at the State Department when Elliott Abrams was named by President Trump as the "Special Envoy to Venezuela." Abrams and all U. S. regime-change artists had a right to grin but not so when it came to Democracy-loving Latin American experts like Raymond Bonner.
     Regardless of what plays out in Venezuela, Elliott Abrams as America's "Special Envoy to Venezuela" is a cruel joke that reminds the world of the El Mozote Massacre and other similar atrocities perpetrated by Bush-era products such as Mr. Abrams. When Republicans are not in charge of the White House, they are out-of-sight as far as the public is concerned but powerfully active as right-wing consultants, head of Conservative Think Tanks, etc.
     A convenient presidential pardon {George H. W. Bush} returned Elliott Abrams to the routine status of Republican right-wingers resurfacing in each succeeding Republican White House.
    It is simply NOT FAIR to Democracy or to America when President Trump can get away with naming Elliott Abrams as the USA's "Special Envoy to Venezuela" because Abrams, like a ghost from the past, is viewed as a Poster Boy for so many regime-change atrocities. That being said, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro needs to acknowledge the dire situations in his oil-rich nation and allow decent, unbiased entities -- from the UN, the European Union, the Catholic Church, the International Court, etc. -- to resolve the problems. But neither infamous actors like Elliott Abrams nor anyone connected to a Republican White House should be involved in or allowed anywhere near such negotiations.
     And I repeat, all Americans who care about their Democracy should make a beeline to Google and dial-up the Raymond Bonner article in The Atlantic about the absurd unfitness of people like Elliott Abrams to be resurrected as point-men in the volatile Venezuelan crisis. And for sure, as strident and chilling as Richard Bonner's article is, not a single word can be disputed. If those words are left unheeded, America will likely be a bigger loser than Venezuela.
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20.2.19

Noose Tightens Around Maduro

With Cuba & Nicaragua Next!!
    The New York Times graphic above chronicles a basic fact: Venezuela is in dire need of essentials such as bread and medicine for its suffering people and the perception that President Maduro is using his military to prevent such badly needed supplies from entering his country is true. But that perception includes a caveat, which is this: Decent, unbiased people from Latin America, the Caribbean, the United Nations, the Catholic Church, and the European Union should be the ones negotiating this temporary impasse -- not Bush-era war-mongers using the Venezuelan crisis to sate their long-desired cravings to bring about a regime-change in Cuba. The Bush-era war-mongers and Cuban zealots that have resurfaced in the Trump administration will almost guarantee an extremely bloody resolution not only along the Venezuelan-Colombian border but throughout  the Caribbean and Latin America for years to come, tightly involving the USA's new anti-Cuban ally, the Latin American SUPERPOWER Brazil.
    Backed solidly by that NY Times graphic as well as the financial and military might of the United States, 35-year-old Juan Guaido has ample reason to be laughing as the self-proclaimed President of Brazil.
 And so does "Little Marco" Rubio whom President Trump has shamefully and dangerously anointed as America's new Cuban dictator. "Little Marco" Rubio is shown above a few days ago on the Colombian-Venezuelan border loudly exhorting his concern for the Venezuelan people while most brave observers believe "Little Marco" Rubio is actually concerned about recapturing Cuba and reviving his anti-Trump 2016 presidential bid. The updated map below reveals how both "Little Marco" Rubio and Juan Guaido have all the cards stacked in their favor, at least at the moment.
    This updated Reuters map explains how the noose is tightening around the neck of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, an event to be followed by a similar fate that awaits the leaders of Cuba and Nicaragua. That has been a guarantee since the latest U. S. Republican president, Trump, turned America's Cuban policies over to only the most vehement war-mongering Counter Revolutionaries, including the most famed Bush-era fanatics -- meaning the likes of Rubio, Diaz-Balart, Claver-Carone, Bolton, and now even Elliott Abrams. With nary a lone or token moderate Republican involved in Trump's Cuban-crazed inner-circle, the regime-change in Venezuela will happen with Cuba next and then Nicaragua. The Reuters map above explains that tightening noose. Right-wing governments in Colombia and Brazil were already surrounding Venezuela while taking their orders from Cuban-obsessed zealots in Miami and Washington. And now the Dutch island of Curacao on Venezuela's northern flank {see map} has also become a base for USAID operations, which also, based on the Reuters report, presumably includes USMILITARY operations.
    Even more ominous for Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua is the Reuters update illustrated by the photo above. Depending on the U. S. media for factual updates on Cuban issues...and understand that Cuba is the prime factor in U. S. designs on Venezuela and Nicaragua...is futile but the London-based Reuters and BBC are legitimate and honest sources to rely on. Reuters brilliant news agency used this photo to point out the fact that Brazil, by far Latin America's most powerful country, is about to militarily force truck-loads of aid into Venezuela, and Brazil...as a U. S. proxy...is perfectly willing to deal with the consequences if Venezuela's military tries to stop the Brazilian trucks.
     The photo above illustrates how the drastic right-wing tilt in Latin America has so drastically favored the Trump-anointed Counter Revolutionary Cuban zealots. Through four recent democratic elections...meaning the four that made Castro worshipers the Presidents of Brazil...Cuba was powerfully supported by Latin America's richest and most powerful nation, Brazil. But now Zair Bolsonaro has been elected President of Brazil. As indicated with this photo, Bolsonaro worships Donald Trump and Bolsonaro is considered by many Latin American experts to be the region's most dangerously extreme right-wing/military obsessed leader since...well, since a U.S.-backed coup installed the murderous General Pinochet as the dictator of Chile at the expense of killing democratically elected President Allende who was unwilling to favor U. S. companies such as the infamous United Fruit Company that ran amok during the U.S.-backed dictatorships of ruthless U.S.-backed dictators such as...Batista, Trujillo, Somozo, Pinochet, Videla, etc. So, today with the U. S. media afraid to compare Bolsonaro with Pinochet, U. S. citizens that may be asked to pay dearly for upcoming Latin American coups, wars, or revolutions should rely on Reuters and the BBC for their coverage of Latin American events, which are boiling at the moment.
    While the U. S. media will not explain the significance of this photo to the American people, Reuters and the BBC will. That is Brazil's new President Jair Bolsonaro shaking hands with John Bolton. As noted, it is not far-fetched to say that Bolsonaro is possibly the most dangerous U.S.-backed right-winger/military zealot in Latin America since the days when General Pinochet ruled Chile for 17 years right up until the decade of the 1990s. With Bolsonaro the new strongman in Brazil and an avowed fan of Donald Trump, it was a no-brainer that Trump would quickly send John Bolton to huddle with Bolsonaro -- with CUBA undoubtedly A or The prime topic. All his famously war-mongering adult life John Bolton has advocated a regime-change in Cuba, once ADVISING President George W. Bush that Cuba was a dire-immediate nuclear threat to the USA. And so...with Bolsonaro the new Brazilian leader...and with Bolton now Trump's National Security ADVISER, it didn't require a genius to know that Bolton and Bolsonaro would team-up to execute Bolton's age-old desire for a regime-change in Cuba. All the while...as the dire situation in Venezuela provides the Cuban pretext for Bolton and Bolsonaro...Bolton's primary cover in the United States remains the fact that even the mainstream U. S. media is too afraid or too politically correct to report fairly to the American people regarding Cuban issues.
    But the less-afraid Reuters News Agency will fairly update Americans on Cuban-related events in Latin America that might soon turn extremely bloody with long-lasting consequences beyond that. Thus, studying the new Reuters MAP depicted above is, I believe, important. It shows the noose being tied ever-more tightly around Venezuela's throat as U.S.-friendly forces in Colombia, Brazil and now Curacao are prime proxies for the USA, which also means Colombia, Brazil, and Curacao are ready to support the extreme Cuban Counter Revolutionaries now in total control of Trump's Latin American policies. To discount the Cuban aspect of the eminent coup-War maneuvers now unfolding in Latin America is something that plays conveniently into the hands of the war-mongers, like Bolton or like, even more INCREDIBLY, Trump's new "Envoy to Venezuela" -- the old and infamous Elliott Abrams, yet another Bush-product that the most respected Latin American experts {such as the great Pulitzer prize-winner RAYMOND BONNER} believe is even more dangerous than Bolton. I'll discuss that  aspect {in depth} tomorrow.
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18.2.19

Trump Outlines Cuban War

Miami Declares It Official!!
{Tuesday, February 19th, 2019}
       Just before dark Monday in Miami President Trump was introduced by First Lady Melania for his major speech explaining his plans for, in this order, regime-changes in...Venezuela, CUBA, and Nicaragua.
    Speaking lively before volatile Cuban and Venezuelan exiles in Miami, Trump was wildly supported by the well-organized choirs. His speech was carried live by the Fox News network and by local Miami stations while also being touted beforehand by powerfully well-funded and extreme right-wing  war-mongering media sources such as Breitbart. Trump began his speech by touting, in this exact order, the Top Four politicians in Florida who are demanding that Trump use the tragic situation in Venezuela to overthrow Revolutionary Cuba, and those four in order were the usual self-serving suspects -- Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Senator Marco Rubio, Senator Rick Scott, and Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart. If Trump continues his policy of allowing those four to dictate his Cuban policies...a Caribbean and Latin American War will evolve that won't just involve Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua -- the three nations Trump repeatedly assailed. The raucous crowd revealed anew that Miami, more than being a Florida or a USA city, is the hub for any faction in Latin America that wants the U. S. treasury and the U. S. military to overthrow their governments under the pretense of making it U.S.-friendly. And make no mistake, Cuba is the primary target of the war-mongers. Trump insisted that "The Venezuelan tyrant Maduro is protected by a private army of Cubans...Venezuela is a police state run directly from Havana..." Of course, the drumbeat for recapturing Cuba has been beating loudly in Miami since Jan. 1, 1959...but the Batistiano-Mafiosi faction FINALLY is convinced they have the Perfect Storm to accomplish their goal -- namely Trump as President and Commander-in-Chief combined with the Perfect Pretext, which is the situation in Venezuela. From Homestead Air Force Base in Miami to U. S. military operations in Guantanamo Bay Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, and Brazil, the U. S. has more than enough power to satisfy the Cuban extremists in the Miami region as well as the Venezuelan exiles that have now taken over much of the political apparatuses in the Miami suburbs of Doral and Weston. Meanwhile, the key question is whether the rest of the United States that is not Miami will allow the extreme war-mongers who now have control of Trump to create proxy wars in the USA's backyard?
     A U. S. President, Trump, feeling obligated to take Senator "Little Marco" Rubio's orders pertaining to Cuba is a President that is about to take us to a war that future Presidents will be forced to deal with.
    After monitoring Trump's speech in Miami, Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel fired off the Tweet shown above. It says: "Democracy and peace in Cuba was achieved by the Cuban Revolution. Those who act as gendarmes of the world are incapable of propitiating these conquests to the Latin American peoples. They only know how to offend us. Get your hands out of Venezuela. We are Cuba. We are continuity."
      Everyday Cubans on the island now know that, with Trump, "the Miami Cubans can dictate the war on Cuba that they have hoped for decades." That quote was posted on social media by a Cuban mother right after Trump's Miami speech. The "No To War" poster above also became ubiquitous on social media and it is printed in English as you can see. Cubans on the island, frankly, are surprised that..."all these years after our revolution chased them to Miami," as one Cuban from Santa Clara posted, a small handful of "career Batistianos have such a grip on a supposed democracy that consists of 325 million people. We are 11 million people on a nearby island and we must resist as we an."
    Indeed, six decades after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, Cubans on the island are astonished that the American democracy can still be dictated to by a mere handful of Cuban-Americans in Miami with direct ties back to the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship that roiled, robbed, and tormented Cuba from 1952 till 1959.
     It is no accident or coincidence that the Four Batistiano-Loving Florida Benefactors shown above in front of the White House were The Exact Same Four that Trump began his Monday speech in Miami LAVISHLY PRAISING. The Four are, left to right: Mario Diaz-Balart, Ron DeSantis, Marco Rubio, and Rick Scott. As if their political and economic powers are hanging in the balance IF Trump doesn't RE-capture Cuba for them, these Four war-mongers seem unconcerned about who will pay their war bills, but obviously they believe they and their families will be exempt from such payments. Yes, a few days ago these Four stepped outside the White House after apparently making their successful  war plans known to Trump and...LO 'N BEHOLD...these were the first Four that Trump singled out for praise in his Monday Declaration of War against Cuba, a war that will follow the elimination of Maduro in Venezuela and precede the elimination of Ortega in Nicaragua. THEN WHAT...other than another Batistiano/Mafiosi-like Americanization of Cuba?
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Venezuela: Coup or War?

We Will Soon Know Which!!
    As this Miami Herald photo illustrates, U. S. President Donald Trump considered Miami's hard-line Cubans essential to his 2016 election and considers them vital to his re-election in 2020. Thus, Trump early in his presidency went to Miami to promise the choir that he not only would reverse former President Obama's positive overtures to Cuba but also tighten the reins on Revolutionary Cuba to return control of the island over to Little Havana. Since then Trump's Vice President Mike Pence and National Security Adviser John Bolton have both flocked to Miami to more pointedly declare war on Cuba. And now today -- Feb. 18th, 2019 -- Trump will make another choir-pleasing speech in Miami portending regime-changes in Cuba and its direly troubled ally Venezuela. The Miami area is home to most Cuban and Venezuelan exiles in the USA. As always, revenge against the Cuban Revolution is high on the list of the Miami extremists but not as high as simply making financial killings whenever a Republican is President. Thus, expect Trump to return Cuba to the Sponsors of Terrorism list. That means Cuba, always unrepresented, can be sued for...whatever the Miami extremists want to sue the island for. Cuba, of course, will not directly make such payments but Republican administrations find ways to honor the "verdicts" via Cuban assets, tax dollars, or some other lucrative foibles.
   As the above Newsweek photo illustrates, top Republican officials, like VP Mike Pence in this case, flock to Miami to discuss Cuban and Venezuelan regime-change plans with key Cuban and Venezuelan exiles. The briefly successful coup that ousted Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in 2002 had those trademarks and rest assured that most of the coup-mongers in that Bush administration coup are now helping mastermind the upcoming Maduro regime-change in Venezuela.
    The photo above taken from a CNN report sent back to the USA and around the world Sunday {Feb. 17th, 2019} clearly indicates that a war in Venezuela followed by a coup in Cuba is perhaps just hours away. In the forefront above is U. S. Senator Marco Rubio dominating the headlines Sunday on the Simon Bolivar Bridge that separates Colombia from Venezuela, the bridge that is being blocked by Venezuela's harried President Nicolas Maduro to prevent USAID supplies being delivered to the Venezuelan people who DESPERATELY need it. At Rubio's right shoulder and partially obscured by Rubio's raised right hand is another U. S. Congressman from Miami, Mario Diaz-Balart whose father was a key Minister in the overthrown Batista dictatorship who then in 1959 quickly because the richest and most powerful Cuban exile in Miami determined to regain control of Cuba with the help of the U. S. economy and military. Mario Diaz-Balart's father Rafael died without accomplishing his  fervent goal but his sons Mario and Havana-born Lincoln, both of whom have been elected to the U. S. Congress from Miami, are just as determined to FINALLY overthrow Revolutionary Cuba. With Rubio, also elected to the U. S. Congress from Little Havana in Miami, now in charge of President Trump's dangerous Cuban policies, it appears the Venezuelan crisis has finally given the Counter Revolutionary extremists the pretext to regain total control of Cuba...after replacing the Cuba-friendly Venezuelan government. But the London-based BBC...not CNN or any of the U. S. media sources...is where Americans need to get their information on the Miami-to-Washington-to-Havana-to-Caracas conundrum because the U. S. media is far too biased or intimidated to explain that, in truth, the self-ordained Mother Teresa-darlings Rubio & Diaz-Balart are concerned with recapturing Cuba, not with the welfare of Cubans in Cuba, Venezuelans in Venezuela, or with Americans in America who will foot the blood-stained bills...perhaps for decades to come.
    For example, the BBC's prime reporter inside Venezuela, Olga Guerin, is the journalist that Americans and the rest of the world should depend on for updates on the Venezuelan crisis. On Sunday, Feb. 17th, Ms. Guerin again filed a BBC update explaining the dire need of a political change in Venezuela. Her report included a video of a 14-year-old Venezuelan girl fetching water from a totally polluted stream and then, in a sit-down interview with Ms. Guerin, the girl cried as she explained that they were "all going hungry" and without medical assistance. Olga Guerin is an honest journalist, not one to search for isolated cases to make propaganda points. While the oil-rich Venezuelan government is largely responsible for the nation's financial disaster, the BBC and Ms. Guerin have also pointed out that harsh U. S. sanctions, inspired by the Miami extremists, have greatly exacerbated the humanitarian problems by, for example, "using the economic might of the U. S. to scare off would-be food and medical suppliers that could alleviate some of the disastrous situation." While Rubio & Diaz-Balart can successfully use the international media to stress that Maduro is preventing tons of USAID supplies to get to the needy Venezuelan people, it is also a fact that USAID has been and continues to be a conduit for millions of dollars devoted to undermining or overthrowing the Cuban government, a truth that also undermines the blocked Venezuelan supplies being in USAID hands and USAID Boxes.
     Meanwhile, there is NO DENYING the fact that Olga Guerin and the BBC are proving to the world that dire and immediate change is needed in Venezuela. But the European Union and the Catholic Church, both of which are currently dispensing some aid and comfort to the Venezuelan people, should...along with the United Nations...be the respected entities that try to resolve the Venezuelan crisis, without any guidance from biased war-mongers like Rubio, Diaz-Balart, or any of the other Trump-anointed and renowned anti-Cubans war-mongers like John Bolton, Elliott Abrams, and Mauricio Claver-Carone who are now actively and shamefully also representing the USA in the Venezuelan-Cuban quagmire that could easily evolve into a regional war that Americans do not need.
    Throughout the Venezuelan crisis, the U. S. media is obligated to make Rubio/Diaz-Balart/Bolton/Abrams/Claver-Carone out to be sweet Mother Teresa-types. And that's WHY the brilliant, respected, and unbiased BBC should be the source for U. S. citizens to be fairly updated on what is going on in the Caribbean and Latin America. The photo above shows the BBC's Orla Guerin in her recent interview with Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro. And, yes, she asked all the tough questions...never playing footsie with the embattled leader.
    By stark contrast, CNN and the mainstream U. S. media would not mention that maybe...just MABBE!!...Rubio, backed by Cuban extremist Diaz-Balart...was on the above-depicted mission Sunday to add fuel to the war that is smoldering in Venezuela because it represents the convenient pretext for them to at long last recapture Cuba for Little Havana. Of course, Rubio also is apparently counting on the Venezuela crisis and the subservient U. S. media to rekindle his failed 2016 presidential bid. While pusillanimous and unpatriotic Americans may deserve Rubio, Cubans on the island don't deserve a Rubio/Diaz-Balart government anymore than they deserved a Batista/Luciano/Diaz-Balart government way back in the 1950s.
    It is known that "Trump's special envoy to Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, has informed Venezuela's embattled President Nicolas Maduro that he will be afforded safe passage to another country if he will step down as President." If he refuses, it is also known that an effort to force the USAID supplies into Venezuela from Colombia will be militarily-enforced, meaning that any effort by Maduro to stop that next step will result in war.
    For sure, despite the dire disaster now facing Venezuelans, as long as the the Miami-Washington axis directs the anti-Maduro forces, there will be Venezuelans and Latin Americans who will strongly resist. WHY, you ask? Well, from 1953 till deep into the 1970s Venezuelans and Latin Americans vividly remember what Americans have been taught to forget -- and that is genocidal coups in Latin America to install U.S.-friendly leaders, even if such coups...as in Chile in 1973...killed the popular democratically elected President Salvador Allende to install for 17 bloody years the murderous but U.S.-friendly dictatorship of the ruthless General Pinochet. SO...whether Americans and Canadians realize it or not...the Venezuelan lady holding the sign in the above photo does have a legitimate point.
     Yet, the fiery and self-ordained President of Venezuela, 35-year-old Juan Guaido, has a HUGE advantage over President Maduro and it's the same advantage Pinochet had over Allende back in 1973, and that is this: Guaido has the economic and military support of the world's economic and military Superpower, the United States. A prime reason for that, of course, is Guaido represents the pathway for Little Havana in Miami to quickly regain control of Cuba.
To summarze on Feb. 18, 2019:
     While I fervently believe that Cubans on the island, not extremists in Miami, should decide Cuba's fate, I also believe it is direly important that respected brokers -- such as the EU, the UN, and the Catholic Church -- should arbitrate and correct the Venezuelan crisis. Such BBC updates as the video below clearly reveal that SOMETHING must be done regarding Venezuela, but not with input from the likes of Rubio, Bolton, Abrams, Claver-Carone, and the Diaz-Balart broothers.
Tap the video below for a BBC report:
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