A Cuban Report From A Journalist You Can TRUST

 

   For a couple of decades Lucia Newman was the world's best television reporter regarding Latin America. That was when she worked for the richest U. S. networks who now have lost most of their trust, turning to left-wing/right-wing propaganda instead of honest news. One recent U. S. poll said only 11% of Americans trust their mainstream media. Therefore, regarding Cuba, Americans are being spoon-fed anti-Cuban/pro-Miami propaganda. Yet, there is still one honest journalist that reports honestly about Cuba by interviewing everyday Cuban people on the island, and that journalist is Lucia Newman. She is now the International Latin American Expert for Al Jazeera, which allows her to report the way she wants to, which is honestly.

     This week -- the last full week of July, 2022 -- Lucia Newman filed a 26-minute honest report from Cuba. She didn't interview Cuban government officials nor vicious Miami Cubans. She interviewed everyday Cubans about why literally millions of them have left or are leaving Cuba now, suddenly dropping the island's population from about 13 million to about 11 million people. That is very important and only a great journalist like Lucia Newman, not propagandists, should tell it.

     To learn why so many mostly young, well educated, and talented Cubans are now leaving the island, Lucia Newman interviewed many of them. Even Julian Gonzalez, who is 76-years-old, is finally leaving. He has, from his home as shown above, long been one of the world's best makers of homemade shoes. He told Lucia Newsman, "I've decided to leave my country because for years, I've dreamt of showing the world my work." Yes, he is 76-years-old and has lived all his life in Cuba.  He now has made plans to move to Argentina.

  Being a great and honest journalist, Lucia Newman asked Julian Gonzalez why, after all these years, he is finally leaving Cuba to live and work in Argentina. He explained that...like many other Cubans like him...he has waited for things to change in Cuba and change with the USA's Embargo and other harmful things against the Cuban people. As you can see above, he said, "We have been told that we will overcome all the problems we are facing, but we've seen that it is not true."

    This photo was taken from Lucia Newman's brilliant and important 26-minute video report from Cuba this week entitled: "Cuba: A Deserted Revolution?" I sincerely believe you should dial it up on the Al Zazeera website or YouTube. It shows a great and seminal journalist and Latin American expert who reports honestly on Cuba, including its grave problems and its talented, well-educated, and resilient people. If Americans  ignore reports from Cuba by great, honest journalists such as Lucia Newman, Americans basically get only anti-Cuba, pro-Miami journalism regarding the important issue of a neighboring country that happens to be...Cuba. But, of course, Lucia Newman reports Cuban news whether it is positive, negative, or somewhere between. Yes, she knows the everyday people on the important island nation and she knows its contentious relationship with its northern neighbor, the United States.

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Nelson Mandela & Fidel Castro WERE Best Friends

   It is not well known in the western world but Nelson Mandela's best friend was Fidel Castro.

    As one of history's most beloved Civil Rights Leaders, the world this week -- on July 18-2022 -- observed another NELSON MANDELA INTERNATIONAL DAY.

   Known for his love "For Liberty, Justice, and Democracy," Nelson Mandela on a visit to Miami was ridiculed and embarrassed. That's because Nelson Mandela's best friend was Cuba's revolutionary icon Fidel Castro whom Mandela credited with getting him out of a apartheid prison in South Africa, which led him to becoming the President of South Africa. Mandela till 1990 had spent 27 years in prison where he had a bucket for a toilet. Then he was democratically elected President of his nation from 1994 till 1999. He died at age 95 on December 5th, 2013. To this day he is known in his country as the "Father of the Nation." Till the day he died, Nelson Mandela and Fidel Castro were Dear Friends.

      Leading up to his inauguration as President of South Africa in 1994, the one person that Mandela insisted would be with him was Castro. But his phone calls to Havana didn't convince Fidel who repeatedly said, "Nelson, it is your day, not mine. I would be a distraction, but I will be with you in my deepest thoughts." But Mandela would not accept "no" over the phone for his answer; he simply flew to Havana and in person convinced Castro to attend.

    Not only did Fidel Castro attend Nelson Mandela's inauguration in 1994 but four years later President Mandela insisted that his best friend return to address the African National Congress, during which raucous calls of "Fidel-Fidel" repeatedly interrupted Fidel's speech.

     Americans, of course, are not supposed to know of Nelson Mandela's abiding love for Fidel Castro. And, of course, Americans are not supposed to know that the two men co-authored a book together.

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Bad Times for Cubans in Cuba

  

   In Revolutionary Cuba today Alejandro Gil Fernandez is one of the island's most powerful and most important people...with titles such as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy. 

     This was the subdued Alejandro Gil today -- July 21st, 2022 -- as he spent the day addressing Cuba's General Assembly and, on state-wide television and radio, speaking directly to the island's people. He admitted that there "are not short-cuts" for the dire problem that currently hurts the Cuban citizenry -- the energy struggles that create daily blackouts. For sure, Gil mostly blamed the U. S. blockade of the island for the blackouts but he also spoke about failures of the revolutionary government.

Cubans today were told: "There are no shortcuts."

    In addition to the strong words from energy boss Alejandro Gil, Cuban television news today heard from Cuban mothers and a multitude of Cubans out on the streets explaining how the ubiquitous blackouts and inflation are affecting their families.

     Here are some of the statistics and plans that Alejandro Gil discussed with the Cuban people today as the island struggles with the blackouts, inflation, COVID, and -- of course -- with the endless U.S.-Blockade that they alone face.

Oh, yes!! The Blockade!!

     Families in the nation of Cuba are the only people in the world who have faced a Embargo/Blockade since 1962 imposed by a much more powerful nation. The current blackouts remind them that it is unending. Thousands of Cubans are leaving...or trying to leave...the island for the United States. But many are determined to try to survive in Cuba and hope for better days, such as without the Blockade. Meanwhile, truth be known, a few years ago the population of Cuba was a little over 13 million people...and now it is a little over 11 million people.

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Damning Cuba, and Profiting from it

 Cubans in Miami

    For decades rich and powerful Cubans in Miami have damned Cuba, implied that Batista's Cuba in the 1950s was a utopia for everyday Cubans, and blamed all of Cuba's problems on the Revolutionaries that chased them across the Florida Straits to Miami starting in January of 1959.

    Of course, the Cubans who have run Miami since 1959 don't seem concerned about important things like decades of starving, depriving, and making miserable the Cubans in Cuba.

     Each day, it seems, the Miami Herald blares out prime articles that damn Cuba...such as today -- July 19th, 2022.  Today the not-so-sweet Miami headline is: "A country on edge: Cubans share images of protests, police beatings and..." Such headlines imply that Batista's Cuba, prior to the Revolution, was a utopia for Cubans...but that was not exactly true.

     Indeed, Batista's Cuba was a utopian Gold Mine for the Batistianos, the Mafiosi, and U. S. businessmen...but not for everyday Cuban mothers such as those shown in the three above photos.

     The unknown history of the Cuban Revolution is the sheer fact that women were among the most influential guerrilla fighters, recruiters, and leaders -- especially Vilma Espin, Celia Sanchez, and Haydee Santamaria.

    It can easily and honestly be stated that Celia Sanchez was the most important revolutionary rebel {man or woman} as the unequaled recruiter of rebels and supplies but also as a fighter, leader, and overall decision-maker.

  One person who would know, Fidel Castro, always knew that Celia Sanchez was the main reason the rebels won the Revolution. That's why, starting in January of 1959, Celia Sanchez was the prime decision-maker in Revolutionary Cuba...with Fidel's total blessing and support. Study the above Lee Lockwood photo to comprehend that fact. While Fidel was just rocking in his chair, Celia was busily writing a rule that Fidel would then make sure became a law. That's why in the very first days of Revolutionary Cuba the new laws created the powerful Federation of Cuban Women, which also mandated that every Cuban had free food, free heath care, and free education through college!!

    Until the day she died at age 59 of cancer on January 11, 1980, Celia Sanchez remained the top decision-maker in Revolutionary Cuba.

    In fact, in 2004 in Cuba Marta Rojas told me: "Even after she died in 1980 Celia Sanchez was still Cuba's main decision-maker because Fidel continued to rule the island only as he believed Celia would have wanted him to rule it." And Marta would be the person to know that best. Starting as a key young journalist in Batista's Cuba, Marta became an anti-Batista rebel and then lived out her extraordinary life in Cuba starting in 1959 as a renowned journalist, author, and was also an intimate of both Celia Sanchez and Fidel Castro. A sweet and kind lady, Marta became my friend in 2004 and exchanged emails with me often. The Wikipedia bio of her starts with a quote from me. Born in Santiago de Cuba in 1928, she died in Havana on October 3rd, 2021.

     Marta Rojas agreed with Fidel Castro that Celia Sanchez was the most important factor that predicated the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. Moreover, Marta Rojas and millions of other Cubans today believe that Celia Sanchez is most responsible for the fact that Cuban children since 1959 have been better off, by far, than children in Batista's Cuba...even factoring in the continuous assaults from Miami and the superpower United States. Of course, the Miami Herald and Cubans in Miami will loudly dispute that.

    And, of course, the Miami Herald and the Cubans in Miami will also vehemently deny the famous words above that stand as Celia Sanchez's most famous quotation: "We rebels...get far too much credit for winning the revolution. Our enemies deserve most of the credit, for being greedy cowards and idiots."

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US Eases Some Assaults on Cuba

    International hotel chains, especially the two giants based in Madrid, have upwards of forty 5-star hotels in Cuba; and the headline shown above this week shows that Canada's Blue Diamond Resorts is increasing its business in Cuba. This is so although the six-decade-old U. S. embargo/blockade of the Caribbean's largest island blocks U. S. companies from such competition, although many would love to do so...especially ones in nearby Miami.

     As explained above, Blue Diamond Resorts "is pleased to announce" its new luxurious 250-room hotel in the heart of Havana. The new Royalton Habana will open on August 1, 2022.

    The U. S. has just given Icelandic Airlines "an application to fly up to 31 round trip flights a week between the United States and Cuba on behalf of Florida-based World Atlantic Airlines." Of course, as noted above, U. S. airlines had/have "Objections."

     The beautiful Cuban-born Ana de Armas is a Superstar actress in Hollywood, USA. In the above article Ana this week strongly points out "the prejudice against Cubans in Hollywood."

    A starring role in one of the James Bond movies established Ana de Armas as a Hollywood superstar. She was born 34 years ago in her hometown of Santa Cruz del Norte in Cuba.

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