Cuba Still Mourns October 6-1976

    Today is October 6th of 2022. All generations of Cubans on the island...but perhaps not Cubans in Little Havana-Miami...have since 1976 deeply mourned October 6th. On that day in 1976 a civilian airplane, Cubana Flight 455, was blown into the ocean near Barbabos. All 72 on board were killed, including two dozen teenage athletes who were returning to Havana from Caracas after winning a Central American Tournament.

    On October 6-1976 the sister and mother above were among the Cubans waiting for the arrival of Cubana Flight 455 to return home to Havana. The photo above was taken when the sister and mother had just learned that Cubana Flight 455 had crashed into the ocean and there were no survivors.

     Memorials and tears for the victims of Cubana Flight 455 still exist to this day. Historians immediately learned the names of the Counter Revolutionary Cubans deemed responsible for the bomb that downed Cubana Flight 455. In fact, now declassified U. S. documents, such as the one above, quickly named the perpetrators.

     Most people and most nations around the world believe that "Cuba should be removed from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism."  In October of 2022 it is a short list: Cuba, North Korea, Syria, and Iran.

     The U. S. has imposed an exhaustive EMBARGO against Cuba since 1962. And adding Cuba to the short list of nations that are Sponsors of Terrorism merely adds to the torment on the island, which remains acute in October of 2022.

     Of course, innocent Cuban mothers -- including the mothers of teenage athletes who died in the terrorist bombing of Cubana Flight 455 -- cry and endlessly mourn like other mothers.

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Is the Cuban Revolution Finally IMPLODING?

And Will It End By October 6-2022? 

   Since January of 1959...the month when the Cuban Revolution shocked the world by overthrowing the Mafia-backed and U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship, and spawned Little Havana in Miami...the U. S. media has been predicting the overthrow of Revolutionary Cuba daily. Now in October of 2022 the international media is predicting the same thing. Today is October 5th-2022 and the mammoth headline/article shown above is flashing around the world courtesy of The Guardian, the London-based international media giant.

     Above are just four paragraphs in The Guardian's huge article today explaining why the end of the Cuban Revolution is finally going to end.

    This photo was taken today -- October 5th-2022 -- and it was taken by Sol Palmeras. It shows a young Cuban woman standing on a Cuban beach waiting to finish watching today's Cuban sunset as it descends slowly into her beloved Caribbean Sea. This young woman has not read today's doomsday article in the The Guardian, and she happens to not believe that the Cuban Revolution is about to end.

    But when asked if she is observing what will be one of the last sunsets for the Revolution, she laughed loudly. In other words, she and many other people have spent lifetimes being told that the Cuban Revolution "will end ANY DAY NOW...you know, probably by October 6th-2022!!"

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Few Approve of US Cuban Embargo

 Yet It Flourishes AFTER 6+ Decades!!

   The photo above shows Cuba's First Lady Lis Cuesta escorting Spain's Queen Letizia around Havana.

    But more typical photos show Lis Cuesta walking the streets in Havana and other Cuban cities with her husband Miguel Diaz-Canel, the President of Cuba. Lis Cuesta is ubiquitous in her advocacy for the importance of Cuba "to survive the genocidal attempts of a few criminals in the United States to dictate terror to generations of people in Cuba, just as the U. S. helped Batista and the Mafia to dictate terror to Cubans, especially against women and mothers, prior to the triumph of the Revolution in January of 1959. That achievement compares with all the great historical worldwide achievements, and so does our survival as a nation since January of 1959."

    For sure, Lis Cuesta often uses Social Media platforms to make her points. Yesterday -- Oct. 3, 2022 -- she posted the message above on Twitter and Google. It is shown in both Spanish and English as she says "WE ARE NOT GOING TO GIVE UP THE REVOLUTION," meaning that recent attempts in the summer of 2022 by the U. S. to expand the Embargo/Blockade has direly hurt the people in Cuba but won't overthrow the Cuban Revolution.

   Indeed, any Google search {as above} about the Embargo/Blockade starts with worldwide condemnation of history's longest Embargo ever imposed by a powerful nation against any much weaker nation.

    Indeed, apart from the U. S. media organizations, worldwide sources get coverage for begging the United States to end the Embargo.

   But, indeed, at least one unbiased U. S. journalist and long-time Cuban expert, Tim Padgett, was courageous enough to discuss {above} why the U. S. has refused Cuba's request for help after recent explosions and fires have destroyed prime Cuban economic, energy, and tourist entities such as...the island's main power  plant {above} in Matanzas 65 miles southeast of Havana; the Muriel Economic Zone 30 miles southwest of Havana; and even the total destruction of the iconic Saratoga Hotel in the heart of Havana. In fact, instead of getting help from the U. S. during recent disasters and hurricanes, many Cubans in Cuba believe the fires and explosions are sabotage, not accidents.

     The huge headline and photo above were flashed around the world by the Voice of America, the vast tax-supported worldwide media source that reflects U. S. positions. This report explains why the desperate situations in Cuba are causing record numbers of Cubans to risk their lives to come to the United States. In the photo above two sisters are seen comforting their mother who was distraught when she learned that her young son had died as he was trying to survive the "dangerous trip across the Florida Straits."

    The distraught Cuban mother who lost a son in 2022 reminds Cubans of the mother and sister in 1976 {above} who lost their son and brother, a teenage athlete, when a terrorist bomb sent the civilian Cubana Flight 455 into the ocean, killing all 72 persons on board, including two dozen teenage athletes who were returning from Caracas after just winning a Central American championship.

         But, of course, in 2022 it is not just Cubans trying to cross the dangerous Florida Straits to get to the U. S., but for months thousands more have been easily crossing the porous U.S.-Mexican border to get to the U. S...as key conservative TV networks like Fox and Newsmax have been reporting daily all year. But now, as shown above, even liberal networks such as CNN are reporting that "Cubans are arriving to the US in record numbers. Smugglers are profiting from their exodus." Indeed, there are people who are "profiting" from the disastrous U.S.-Cuban relations in this new month of October in the year of 2022. And, indeed, for six+ decades the disastrous U.S.-Cuban relations have been allowed to exist because a few key people have been "profiting" from it FOR THE PAST SIX+ DECADES.

    Yes, even CNN used the word "profiting." Is that why Americans, for all these decades, have been programmed not to be ashamed of the worldwide image shown above? Even as the UN as well as most nations and people worldwide are ashamed of this image, is "profiting" by some people the reason it exists...decade AFTER decade? {Just asking, just asking}.

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November Flights to Cuba Increase

     Today is November 4th, 2022 and "early in November" supposedly American Airlines plans "to resume flights from Miami to Santa Clara, Varadero, Camaguey and Santiago de Cuba," along with its flights to Havana that even the Trump administration allowed.

     During his four years as President of the United States Donald Trump and Little Havana in Miami carved out 247 anti-Cuban provisions, including putting Cuba on the Sponsors of Terror list.

    The Biden presidency that followed Trump has kept most of the Trump provisions against Cuba in place, but not all.

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Cuba Recovers From LATEST Hurricane!!

 {Thanks to Mexico's Help}

     The Cubans in Cuba are pugnacious, resilient, and Lovely. Come hell or high water, they seem to recover from little things such as Hurricanes, Military Attacks, Embargoes, Blockades, etc., etc. This week Hurricane Ian pounded the island and only by October 1st-2022, after 5 days of blackouts, did millions begin to have their electric power restored...thanks to Mexico.

      Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel has worn his military uniform in the past five days as he toured Hurricane-ravaged areas of Western Cuba or reported back to the Cuban people on television, as shown above today. He thanked Mexico "most graciously."

     Meanwhile, while the U. S. tightens the six-year-old Embargo/Blockade against Cuba, the island searches where it can to keep its fragile economy afloat. This weekend Cuba's Prime Minister -- Manuel Marrero Cruz, 5th from the right above -- is faraway in Hanoi finalizing another financial deal with Vietnam that includes a livestock/agricultural mutual association on the island. Vietnam is already the biggest investor in Cuba's vital deep-water and ultra-modern Muriel Port Economic Development Zone located about 30 miles southwest of Havana.

    And meanwhile, on nationwide television Newscasts today on October 1-2022 Cuban reporters are thanking one particular nation -- Mexico -- for sending two huge transport airplanes to help Cuba restore power to the island after 5 days of blackouts caused by Hurricane Ian. Cuba earlier heaped massive praise on Mexico for sending helicopters and airplanes to help Cuba finally stop the fires that recently resulted from the drastic explosions that decimated the island's main Power Station in Matanzas 65 miles southeast of Havana. The two Mexican cargo planes shown above this weekend included cables and other material, as well as Mexican experts, that are helping Cuba to restore power to the island's 11 million people.

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Much of Cuba Still Dark

 

    As Thursday turned to Friday -- Sept. 29th and 30th -- much of Cuba remains in blackouts after the passage of Hurricane Ian, as reported above by the London-based Reuters News Agency.

    In the last paragraph above, Reuters says that Cuba's power plants are old and that "The country has also struggled to obtain fuel for those plants, as costs have risen with the Ukraine conflict and amid harsh sanctions from the United States."

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"Cuba Will Negotiate With The US"

   The quotation above has made headlines on September 29th, 2022. It was made by 64-year-old Bruno Rodriguez. Since 2009 Bruno has been Cuba's Top Foreign Minister, which means he has mostly been charged with dealing with Cuba's relations with the island's Superpower northern neighbor, the United States of America. Why would he make such a headline-making statement at the close of September-2022? He is aware that the U. S. has, during the Trump & Biden presidencies, expanded its six-decade-old Embargo/Blockade that, since 1962, has intended to starve, deprive, and make miserable Cubans on the island to encourage them to rise up and overthrow their Revolutionary government, which has somehow steadfastly held on to power since January of 1959 when the Cuban Revolution somehow overthrew the powerful Batista dictatorship that was supported by the powerful Mafia, the world's strongest criminal organization, and by the United States, the world's strongest nation. Recently Bruno has noted that the U. S. has been taking bids for the purpose of paying more tax dollars to anti-Cuban sources...and this comes on the heels of devastating explosions and fires that leveled a key tourist hotel in the heart of Havana, a key power station in Matanzas 65 miles southeast of Havana, etc. Coupled with that, Cuba in recent days has been trying to emerge as best it can from the expanded Blockade, from the Pandemic, from Hurricane Ian, etc., etc. So, at the end of September-2022 it is not surprising that Cuba "IS WILLING TO NEGOTIATE WITH THE UNITED STATES."

     The Hill, as you can see above, today -- Sept. 29, 2022 -- broke the story that Cuba has decided that "It will have to negotiate with the United States." The Hill and reporter Rafael Bernal are prime political sources in Washington.

     Also, as you can see above, Ben Rhodes is the man who persuaded Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez to admit that Cuba "will have to negotiate with the US."

     Of course, as you can see from the three photos above, Ben Rhodes was the man who persuaded President Barack Obama to fly to Havana in 2016. And Ben Rhodes was the man and speech-writer that persuaded President Obama to go on nationwide radio and television in Cuba and tell the Cuban people these words: "Cuba Does Not Need To Fear A Threat From the United States." Both Obama and Rhodes sincerely meant those words on behalf of the United States. But, unfortunately, they came near the end of Obama's 8-years as President.

    And, as it happened, in January of 2017 Donald Trump replaced Obama as President of the United States; and in January of 2021 the Democrat Joe Biden replaced the Republican Trump as the U. S. President.

     In the USA's two-party political system many, including Ben Rhodes, believed the Democrat President Biden, who had been Obama's Vice President for 8 years, would return to Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. Of course, at the end of September of 2022, people such as Ben Rhodes, as well as Bruno Rodriguez, have given up on that prospect.

      Thus, as September turns into October in 2022 the U. S. Blockade of Cuba continues...and it doesn't seem to matter what Americans such as Ben Rhodes think about it.

    But let it be known that on September 29th of 2022 Ben Rhodes, a 44-year-old New Yorker, is still fighting to end the blockade and normalize relations with Cuba. The photo above shows Ben Rhodes writing the words that President Obama sincerely spoke directly to the Cuban people in Cuba in 2016: "CUBA DOES NOT NEED TO FEAR A THREAT FROM THE UNITED STATES." It took a great man to write those words and to persuade President Obama to deliver them directly to the Cuban people in Cuba. That great and brave man is Ben Rhodes. He should be saluted for his herculean efforts.

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