April 11th in 2024 Shows More Dark Days for Cuba

 

    In 1492 the lands that became the United States and Cuba were close neighbors, and 1492 was the year that esplorer/discoverer Columbus famously first landed on the southeastern tip of Cuba at what is now the city of Baracoa. Columbus then famously wrote in his diary that the Baracoa area was "the most beautiful land these eyes have yet seen." From 1492 until 2024 CUBA's beauty and its location have remained its prime curse, not its treasure. That's because, almost since 1492, the world's imperative powers -- most notably Spain and the United States -- have not only coveted CUBA but also attacked it and gone to war to  control it. In that vein, from 1492 until 2024 the island and the nation of  CUBA, uniquely in history and in longevity, have had to try to defend itself, creating untold hardship for its people. Today, for example, is April 11th, 2024, and the news from CUBA today is mostly sad, as shown below:

     Just before the helicopter crash in Santiago de Cuba today -- April 11th, 2024 -- that killed three Cuban soldiers, the island was celebrating the anniversary of an event that involved independence icon Jose Marti, as shown below:

     Every Cuban knows that Jose Marti, after landing at Cajobabo "to join the Necessary War", that he was soon killed in the Battle of Rio Cauto on May 19th in 1895 fighting Spanish soldiers that had controlled Cuba for decades. Marti's death was in vain because he and many other great independence fighters, including brothers Antonio & Jose Maceo Grajales, had died in the two "neccesary wars" that tried, in vain, to defeat Spanish soldiers on CUBA'S soil. But Marti and the others are remembered lovingly today for what they tried to do; the major airport in Santiago de Cuba where the three Cuban soldiers died in the heliocopter crash today -- April 11, 2024 -- is named "Antonio Maceo Grajales Airport," for example.

     And today Jose Marti is revered in Cuba as a Independence Fighter almost on a par with Fidel Castro...and uniquely Marti to this day is lovingly revered not only in Cuba but also in the United States and around the world. Marti was born on January 28th, 1853, and went on to become an internationally famous and rich poet/author in New York, Paris, London, etc. But he gave up all that fame and fortune to return to Cuba to try to gain independence for his beloved Cuba, only to die fighting Spanish soldiers on May 19th, 1895, in the Battle of Rio Cauto.

     But, of coursse, during all those many, many decades that imperative powers like Spain were dominating Cuba, the United States violently wanted to do the same. Please note the historic quotations shown above, starting with Thomas Jefferson in 1817 declaring, "If we ceize Cuba we will be masters of the Caribbean." 

     Well, in 1898 -- a mere three years after Jose Marti died fighting the Spanish soldiers -- the United States knew it was powerful enough to easily defeat Spain and become the "masters of the Caribbean. So in 1898 the United States easily won the quick & bloody SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR on Cuban soil, putting the U. S. on its path to becoming the world superpower...but also spawning Fidel Castro's Cuban Revoltution that, on January 1st of 1959, shocked the world by overthrowing the U.S.-backed & Mafia-backed Fulgencio Batista dictatorship.

    Incredibly, Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution has ruled Cuba from January 1st of 1959 till today, which is April 11th, 2024!!!!!!!!!!

    Today -- April 11th, 2024 -- the two most famed Cuban Independence Fighters historically and topically remain Fidel Castro and Jose Marti. At age 42, Jose Marti died in Cuba in 1895 fighting Spanish soldiers. At age 90 in 2016 Fidel Castro died peacefully from old age in Havana, leaving him just a notch more notable than Jose Marti as Cuba's most successful Independence Fighter.

     Of course, today on April 11th-2024 Fidel Castro's Revolutionary Cuba is still just a few miles due south of the United States. After the U. S. Bay of Pigs military attack in April of 1961 failed to overthrow Revolutionary Cuba, the U. S. EMBARGO of CUBA has existed since 1962.

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Most Cuban-Americans DON'T Want to Starve Cubans

But Little Havana/Miami Cubans Are Not AMONG Them!!

    This week -- in April of 2024 -- the photo and caption above shows this Airbus Condor Airliner landing at Varadero Beach on the northern coast of Cuba, just a few miles from the United States. Tourists have voted Varadero Beach as "The Best Beach in the World." Since 1955 Condor Airlines -- headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany -- has been one of the world's most important international airlines. Like other worldwide companies, Condor Airlines -- afraid of the U. S. economic Embargo/Blockade of Cuba that has existed since 1962 -- has refrained from doing business with Cuba, including the Caribbean island's prime tourist attractions. So, if you will, permit the media in poor little embargoed Cuba to make a BIG deal this week about Condor Airlines beginning to bring planeloads of tourists to Varadero in Cuba.

    Of course...although Varadero has been voted as the "Best Beach in the World" by international tourists, the U. S. Embargo/Blockade since 1962 has included Varadero as one of the numerous places in Cuba to be blockded from receiving tourist money although world-famed Varadero is just a few miles due-south of rich and tourist-obsessed Florida!!

    Of course, rich and tourist-obsessed Little Havana USA in Miami craves tons of tourist dollars while making sure that the U. S. government keeps its strict economic Embargo against Cuba that has blocked and starved the Cuban economy for six decades since 1962.

    If you study the caption and photo above, uinderstand that it is a microcosm of U. S. Relations with Cuba since 1898understand that it is a microcosm of U. S. relations since 1898, which was the year that the U. S. launched its easy military victory in Cuba to win the Spanish-American War, which gave the U. S. control of Cuba replacing the long occupation of the island by Spain. By 1903 the U. S. was building a massive military base on one of Cuba's most vital ports at Guantanamo Bay...a U. S. military base that now includes an infamous U. S. federal prison as well as lucrative recreation facilities, restaurants, etc.  So...what does the caption and photo shown above tell you?? It shows U. S. President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, signing the infamous Helms-Burton Act into law on March 12th in 1996. From that day to this day in April of 2024 the Helms-Burton Act has empowered and enriched counter revolutionary Cuban-Americans while massively harming Cubans in Cuba. President Clinton very reluctantly signed it into law. Please note how scared Clinton was when he looked up at counter revolutionary U. S. Senator Bill Menendezz. Also looking over Clinton's shoulder, you should note, was another ultra-powerful U. S. Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart from Miami's anti-Cuban stronghold of Little Havana in Miami. If you comprehend the awesome power that the controversial Bob Menendez and Lincoln & Mario Diaz-Balart have had in the U. S. Congress for decades, you can comprehend the vast power that Little Havana/Miami has had over Havana. And also comprehend for example, that the father of the Miami-based Diaz-Balart brothers in Miami was a powerful Minister in the Batista dictatorship in Cuba before the Revolution chased him to Miami in 1959. With that in mind, judge whether you think a reluctant President Clinton was scared when he signed the Miami-beloved Helms-Burton Act into law on March 12th of 1996. And, with that in mind, understand that there is no chance that the Helms-Burton Act will ever be eased by the U. S. Congress or by the U. S. Presidents that have followed President Clinton.

    One of the many Cuban-Americans who massively denounce the U. S. Cuban policies that benefit anti-Cubans in the U. S. but starve, deprive, and make miserable Cubans in Cuba is Carlos Lazo, a professor in Seattle. Carlos is shown above when, followed by some of his students, he rode his bike the 3,000 miles from Seattle to Washington to beg President Trump to stop strarving Cubans in Cuba while enriching politically powerful U. S. Cubans. President Trump would not listen to Carlos but only tightened the sanctions against Cuba. Then Carlos walked the 300 miles from Little Havana in Miami to Washington to beg President Biden to stop starving Cubans in Cuba instead of always bowing to rich U. S. Cubans. But, like Trump, President Biden has refused to listen to Cuban-Americans such as Carlos. To his credit, Carlos Lazo raises money and then defies the U. S. government by flying food, medicine, and hygiene products to Cubans in Cuba.

     In the United States there are many Cuban-Americans named Carlos, including Carlos Lazo but also others such as Carlos Gimenez, a politician in Miami. Born in Havana in 1954,70 years ago, Gimenez served as Mayor of Miami-Dade County in Florida from 2011 till 2020 and now, of course, he is in the U. S. Congress along with a bevy of other Cuban-Americans. One day the U. S. democracy might elect a leader in Miami or have a Cuban in Congressto that might not support the U. S. Embargo of Cuba, the Helms-Burton Act, etc., etc. But don't count it.

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Cuba Enters April-2024 Just Barely Surviving

The Gloom is shown in worldwide headlines!!

    The photo above and the headlines above in this first week of April in 2024 show a Russian Ship providing Cuba with some much-needed oil but power blackouts, food shortages, and other dire deprivations are causing predictions about the "collapse" of Cuba's revolutionary government that has ruled the vulnerable island-nation since January of 1959 when the overthrow of the U.S-backed/Mafia-backed Batista administration was chased out of Havana...all the way, as it turned out, to Little Havana in Miami a few miles north of Havana.

    Incredibly, the victorious Cuban Revolution survived massive assaults such as the air-land-&-sea Bay of Pigs military attack in April of 1961...but massive assaults continued daily until, in 1962, the U. S. legalized an EMBARGO designed to starve, deprive, and make miserable the Cuban people until it caused them to rise up and overthrow their own government. It took over six decades to accomplish its mission, but finally in April of 2024 the EMBARGO is working.

     Even if Revolutionary Cuba is overthrown or merely collapses in April of 2024, the Cuban Revolution and its longevity has shocked the world with perhaps history's best example of a very small nation resisting the designs of a world Superpower for over six decades!!   

   But in April of 2024 the latest generation of Cuban parents who have lived all their lives surrounded by the U. S. EMBARGO seem to have finally succumbed to what the faces of their children are telling them. Before you deny that, study the four photos shown directly above today.

     The Storm Clouds that have plagued Cuba for centuries have proved less of a problem than its geographical location, as the TV Weather Photo above shows. Even the weather reporter fully knows that the natural storms didn't doom Revolutionary Cuba, but merely being just a few miles south of  the superpower United States has finally doomed the eternally vulnerable island.

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Russian Oil Arrives in Cuba on Easter Weekend...

 ....but it's too little & too late!!

    Today -- on March 31st of 2024 -- the Reuters News Agency on Easter Day informed the world that a Russian oil ship has docked in Cuba. Unfortunatedly it is much too late to markedly help the power outages and the food shortages that Cuban families are suffering. Earler this week Bloomberg News in the USA updated the Cuban oil and food shortages, as shown below:

     As the Bloomberg News article this last weekend of March 2024 {above} reported on the dire Cuban situation, many sources in Miami and in Washington are using the dire power and food shortages in Cuba to call for "REGIME CHANGE IN CUBA" as shown above...and the Miami and Washington anti-Cuba sources quickly, as always, dismiss any fault of "the US trade embargo imposed after the 1959 revolution." Of course, the wonder is that a drastic EMBARGO of a very small nation by the world's SUPERPOWER took six long decades to accomplish its goal.

      And so...on March 31st of 2024...Miami and Washington still claim, as they have done for six decades, that their EMBARGO against Cuba is/was meant to help the Cuban people, not to starve them. Well, after six decades, the EMBARGO has finally reached its goal, which was to starve Cubans in Cuba to induce them to overthrow their revolutionary government. Now...the question is how Miami and Washington will handle their victory, and that remains to be seen.

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Caribbean Sunsets Descend on a "collapsing" Revolutionary Cuba

 

    On this last weekend of March in 2024 even the super-great Cuban photographer known as Molina has posted photos indicating that Cubans on the island understand that "food shortages and power blackouts" are now signaling "that the sun is finally setting on this 65th year of Revolutionary Rule in Cuba." It will not be an April 1st joke that later in this year of 2024 that the Cuban Revolution will finally end. Instead the news will be told by true worldwide headlines buttressed with videos such as the YouTube clip below that will explain why this has happened.

      Today -- on March 29th in 2024 -- if you Google the question "Is there hunger in Cuba? some of the answers that pop up start with updates about the "blackouts...hunger" in Cuba and include Cuba blaming it on "the U. S. trade embargo imposed after the 1959 revolution." Of course, to close out March of 2024, other major Cuban headlines include offshoots such as today's revelelation that war-torn "Russia Sends Cuba First Oil in a Year to Ease Blackouts and unresst." 

All maps still show that Cuba is still the largest island in the Caribbean and just a few miles south of Florida.

    But Cuba's location -- much too close to Miami -- finally in 2024 proved to be too close indeed. The rich and politically powerful Miami Cubans, as shown above, are finally ending the historic Cuban Revolution, but it has taken 65 incredible years to do it.

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President Diaz Blames US for new Cuban Protests

 

   January 1st of 2024 marked the 65th anniversary of the victory of the Cuban Revolution over the US-backed & Mafia-backed Batista dictatorship...and it has been 62 YEARS since the devastating US economic EMBARGO began in 1962 as one of the violent efforts by the US to overthrow Revolutionary Cuba. Considering that the US is the world's economic & military Superpower, and is just a few miles from Cuba's northern border, it is astonishing that any small nation could long survive such a EMBARGO by a neighbor that is the world's most powerful and most influential nation, meaning that other nations must abide by the EMBARGO. The fact that Cuba has survived the US EMBARGO for over six decades is incredible!! But in the past five years both the Trump & Biden adminisstrations in Washington have tightened the EMBARGO by putting Cuba on the US List of Nations that Sponsor Terrorism, an ultra-punitive measure that drastically strengthens the EMBARGO. Of course, the U. S. media, especially the Miami Herald and writers such as Nora Gamez Torres, routinely blame Cuba -- not things such as the US EMBARGO -- for the food shoirtages and power blackouts that are more-than-ever impacting everyday Cubans on the island, many of whom are now finding wayss to emigrate to the US while others protest on Cuban streets...while the Miami Herald and others gleefully seem to mock the turmoil fueled by hunger and blackouts in Cuba in late March of 2024.

    In this next to last week in March of 2024 above are the Top Cuban Headlines flashing around the U. S. and the world, including Bloomberg News among those telling Americans that "Cuba is on the Brink of Collapse." But in the lower-right above it is the NBC News headline that is the best because it at least permits Cubans in Cuba, not just in Miami, to speak about the situation.

     Above are some of the quotes from Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel that NBC News reported, and the first three paragraphs of the major video-audio-and-written report by three major NBC News journalists is shown below:

    It is impressive, I think, that NBC News in late March of 2024 allowed comments such as this from Cuba's president Miguel Diaz-Canel as he blames the U. S. for the protests in Cuba that he knows are threats to his Revolutionary government: "They're always looking for justifications and turning things around. The most absurd thing is that they have applied a criminal blockade against us for more than 65 years. That is the absurdity." What the U. S. calls a EMBARGO is known as a Blockade in Cuba.

   The above report by NBC 6 News in Miami on YouTube shows that the Miami media closely monitors Cuba's problems, such as the March-2024 uptick of blackouts and hunger on the island.

    It was "Proclamation 3447" back in 1962 that legalized the EMBARGO/Blockade against Cuba. In these final days of March in 2024, more than six decades later, it is still legal. Cuba, as shown by the billboard sshown above, says the Blockade is "The largest and longest genocide in history." It appears that most of the world agrees with that definition.

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