President Jimmy Carter Cared About Cuba

 Other U. S. Presidents Want to Own it!!

    From 1977 till 1981 Jimmy Carter was President of the United States. He served just one 4-year-old term but he was perhaps the smartest {IQ wise} and most decent {for sure} President in United States history. He is now 98 years and last week chose to live out his final days at home in Plains, Georgia with only hospice care, declining further medical help. Among the U. S. presidents, Jimmy Carter displayed the most decent concern for the Cuban people in Cuba, and he was also the most frank U. S. leader regarding U.S.-Cuban Relations.

    In this speech at the University of Havana, as shown above, Jimmy Carter said: "I did not come here to interfere in Cuba's internal affairs, but to extend a hand of friendship to the Cuban people and to offer a vision of the future for our two countries and for all the Americas." Unfortunately, no other U. S. president has ever displaced such decency to either Cuba or to the Americas.

     In his long and heartfelt speech at the University of Havana, President Carter said: "I appreciate President Castro's invitation for us to visit Cuba, and have been delighted with the hospitality we have received since arriving here. It is a great honor to address the Cuban people." Both as U. S. President and as a U. S. citizen, Jimmy Carter showed respect for the Cuban people in Cuba, not just for the rich and politically powerfull Cubans in Miami and in Washington.

     In his speech to the Cuban people, Jimmy Carter said: "There are some in Cuba who think the simple answer is for the United States to lift the embargo, and there are some in my country who believe the answer is for your president to step down from power and allow free elections. There is no doubt that the question deserves a more comprehensive assessment." The unique decency, honesty, and intelligence of Jimmy Carter has meant that he has been the only U. S. President to assess U.S.-Cuban relations with such sincere words.

      As U. S. President and as a U. S. citizen, Jimmy Carter was not afraid to show respect for Fidel Castro...something that no other prime U. S. leader or would-be politician was/is allowed to do or was/is courageous enough to do.

      As President of the United States and as America's longest living ex-President, Jimmy Carter actually knew Fidel Castro. Moreover...Jimmy Carter said, as both men were nearing 90-years-of-age, "Instead of making political or financial advantages from disparaging everything about Fidel Castro, perhaps we need a government that is capable of discerning, or even admitting, that there has always been enough Cubans on the island who worship Fidel Castro, and that helps explain his longevity as well as his legacy. We should be honest when we assess why he has survived so long." In other words, Jimmy Carter -- as a U. S. President and as a U. S. citizen -- lived his 98 years on this earth as a unique man...and even unique enough to have both the courage and the insight to view Cuba as a sovereign nation, not just as a playpen and a piggy-bank.

*&***********************&*

Revolutionary Cuba Has Lasted For 64 Years

 .....AND COUNTING!!

     Somehow...in January of 1959 the Cuban Revolution defeated the U.S.-backed & Mafia-backed Batista dictatorship and then the new leaders of Cuba, as shown above, rode triumphantly into Havana. And, even more amazing, in February of 2023 Revolutionary Cuba is celebrating its 64TH ANIVERSARY.

     Although she died of cancer 43 Years AGO, in 1980, Celia Sanchez Manduley remains a prime reason for both the triumph and for the longevity of the Cuban Revoluion. Moreover...she was feisty enough and insightful enough to have famously explained why and how the out-gunned rebels won!!!!!

     As a fearless and frontline guerrilla fighter during the Revolution, Celia Sanchez knew precisely why the rebels won their anti-Batista war.

   And after the triumph of the Revolution...with the 100% support of Fidel Castro...it was Celia Sanchez who laid down and wrote down the parameters that have sustained the Revolution for all these decades, including after her untimely death from cancer at age 59 on January 11th, 1980. Therefore...let it be known that history registers the definitive Celia Sanchez quotation that explains why and how her Revolution somehow won in 1959 and somehow in 2023 still rules Cuba: "We rebels...get far too much credit for winning the revolution. Our enemies deserve most of the credit, for being greedy cowards and idiots."

    For sure, the rebels would not have won the Cuban Revolution in 1959 without the unique determination and brilliance of Celia Sanchez. And, for sure, in February of 2023 Celia Sanchez remains the prime reason that the Revolution, somehow, still controls Cuba. Thus...it is appropriate in February of 2023 that her words still define her pugnacious island nation: "We rebels...get far too much credit for winning the revolution. Our enemies deserve most of the credit, for being greedy cowards and idiots."

*&***********************&*

Cuba's 11-Year-Old Genius

 

     A nice article today -- February 19, 2023 -- from Cuba. The 11-year-old Andy Maqueira is making headlines internationally for being a Table Tennis champion.

     This On Cuba News photo shows Andy Maqueira of Cuba {up front} winning his last international match against Jason Liu of the USA.

*&***********************&*

A Birthday That Cuba Cherishes

 

    The Commander Juan Almeida was born in Havana on February 17th of 1927 and died in Havana on September 11th in 2009. This week in 2023 his birthday, as usual, is being celebrated from Havana on the southwestern tip of the island to Santiago de Cuba on the southeastern tip. AND FOR GOOD REASON!!!!!

    From the start and to the end of the Cuban Revolution, Juan Almeida was at Fidel Castro's side as a vital guerrilla fighter, Commander, and General. And after they won their revolution on January 1st of 1959, Juan Almeida remained as one of the most powerful leaders in Cuba till the day he died in 2009.

     Both Fidel and Juan considered July 26th of 1953 as the start of their Revolution. That was the day they attacked Batista's Moncada Garrison in Santiago de Cuba...an ill-advised and over-matched unit of out-gunned rebels that got shot to pieces. Fidel and Juan survived but were captured and then imprisoned on the Isle of Pines, Batista's main prison. But they got out on May 15th of 1955 and resumed their Revolution. Knowing Batista had assassins monitoring their movements, they escaped to Mexico where they met a newly graduated Argentine doctor named Che Guevara who wanted to join the Cuban Revolution. Those three along with 78 other rebels then embarked on the dangerously over-loaded yacht named Granma to sail to the southeastern coast of Cuba so they could join the anti-Batista guerrilla unit led by the brilliant Celia Sanchez. But Batista got tipped off when the Granma yacht left Mexico and his spotter planes watched them reach Cuban shores. Ambushed, only 17 of the 81 rebels survived on or near the beach but the survivors included Fidel and Juan as well as other notables such as Raul Castro, Che Guevara, and Camilo Cienfuegos.

   This historic photo shows the incomparable Celia Sanchez giving Fidel Castro a telescopic rifle after she had saved the lives of the 17 Granma survivors.

    During their long lives in Revolutionary Cuba, both Fidel Castro and Juan Almeida repeatedly credited the heroism of Celia Sanchez for saving their lives and "saving the Revolution."

   One night in February of 1958  in his diary after he finally began to  believe the rebels could win their war, Che Guevara wrote these words about Celia Sanchez: "Once we do win this thing, let's not forget that it was because of Celia Sanchez."

    This photo and caption shows Juan Almeida and Celia Sanchez making sure a little Cuban girl had food to eat. Both Juan and Celia were vital to winning the Revolutionary War and then both remained powerful leaders in Cuba till they died. Juan died of a heart attack in 2009 at 78 and Celia died from lung cancer in 1980 at age 59. All of his adult life Juan wrote songs and he dedicated several of them to Celia, including "Dama un traquita"/"Give me a sip." In another of his songs he wrote, "Let me tell you about Celia, the flower that won the war for us."

Celia Sanchez

Juan Almeida

*&***********************&*

Mexico's Love Affair With Cuba!!!!

    This is now mid-February in 2023. Last week Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel and his wife Lis, for the 5th time recently, flew to Mexico to visit their friend Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the President of Mexico. As you can see by the photos below, the two Presidents exchanged and placed around each other's necks their two nations' highest medallions awarded to foreigners.

     After the exchange of medallions that was viewed live via Newscasts in both countries, Cuba's Diaz-Canel and Mexico's Obrador, as shown by the photos below, delivered televised speeches that stressed the "genocide" that Cuban families have suffered from for the past six decades because of the U. S. Embargo-Blockade that began in February of 1962.

    As Cuba's President and First Lady watched and listened intently, Mexico's President Obrador used a large poster to show and to tell them how Mexico is planning to help the long-besieged Caribbean nation survive the U. S. Embargo/Blockade.

     Of Course, the mainstream U. S. media mostly ignored the important North American visit of the Cuban leader to again meet with Mexico's leader, but as you can see by studying the three images directly above the Associated Press, the USA's largest News Agency that is used by thousands of U. S. newspapers, mocked the latest Obrador-Diaz-Canel meeting as "The latest chapter in Mexico's love-fest with Cuba." Of course, the AP and the rest of the mainstream U. S. media routinely mock any international leader, such as Mexico's President Obrador, that tries to help Cuban families on the island that, for generation-after-generation, must try to survive the extreme cruelties of the endless U. S. Embargo-Blockade.

     But, of course, the mainstream U. S. media, which thinks the Embargo-Blockade of Cuba is a wonderful part of the USA's foreign policies, has its own "love-fest" with the brutal and thieving Batista-Lansky-Mafia dictatorship that ruled Cuba in the 1950s prior to the victory by the Cuban Revolution. Batista and Lansky were nice Cuban leaders because they permitted, in exchange for massive financial & military kick-backs, rich U. S. companies to also enjoy the spoils of robbing and raping Cuba...until a little revolution intervened.

        Three things {above} that the U. S. media ignores are: The Mafia rule of Cuba from 1952-1959; the reasons for the Cuban Revolution from 1952-1959; and the U. S. EMBARGO of Cuba from February of 1962 until February of 2023.

     The U. S. Cuban policy, as shown by the two graphics above, supported the Mafia rule of Cuba before 1959 because of financial reasons. And since 1959, to appease a few rich Cuban-Americans in Miami-Dade County, the U. S. democracy ignores world opinion, and even the opinions of most Cuban-Americans in Miami-Dade County, to maintain, for over six decades, a draconian Cuban policy that apparently longs for something akin to the days of Batista & Lansky from 1952 till 1959.

    From the 1950s till FEBRUARY of 2023, perhaps the two best headlines that define the saga of U.S.-Cuban Relations are: "Cuba in Miami" and "A Caribbean Mob Story. The Mafia in Havana." 

*&***********************&*

Valentine Day''s Love/Hate for Cuba

Havana vs. Little Havana!!

    On Valentine's Day-2023, on February 14th, this Cuban television journalist in Havana shows her love for Cuba and for her station Cubavision International.

     But as usual...the Hate for Cuba from Little Havana in Miami remains palpable on Valentine's Day-2023 -- February 14th -- and the rest of the media all year around. The top-left headline today -- "Cuba Dares Biden to Look Away" -- is written by the Wall Street Journal's longtime Cuban hater Mary O'Grady. The bottom-left headline today -- "Mexican's president's medal to Cuban dictator is an outrage/His words at the ceremony...{were outrageous, etc.} were written by the Miami Herald's longtime Cuban hater Andres Oppenheimer. Those two articles on Valentine's Day-2023 represent the usual propaganda-driven media in the United States that polls indicate that 90% or so of the American people "don't trust" -- nor should!!! For decades O'Grady & Oppenheimer have used their mainstream media profiles to suggest that dictator Batista was a saint and his rule of Cuba prior to the Revolution was saintly...and, of course, they use that Batistiano saintliness to contrast with anything and everything Cuba has done since 1959 when the Cuban Revolution rid the island of Batista, despite his massive support from the Mafia and the United States.

      On Valentines Day -- February 14th, 2023 -- and every day of the year, the mainstream U. S. media rams down the throats of the American people that their Embargo/Blockade, which began in February of 1962, is still a wonderful thing and that it provides the world with a wonderful image of the United States. Of course, almost everyone else around the world believes it constitutes "history's longest genocide ever imposed by any large nation against any much smaller nation."

*&***********************&*