OPINION: Cuba's Next ...
... why, God only knows.
By Donnie Johnston
COLUMNIST
What Donald Trump and the United States are doing to Cuba is unconscionable.
The people of that Caribbean island are doing without electricity for, according to reliable news reports, as much as 20 hours a day.
Why? Because Trump, following his attack on Venezuela, has cut off oil supplies to Cuba. Venezuela was the island’s main supplier.
Do you have any idea what that means? This is a country where the high temperatures stay in the 80s and 90s. Food spoiling in refrigerators and freezers. No pumps to furnish fresh water for drinking and bathing. No air-conditioning — for the few homes that have that luxury.
And without oil, there is little transportation available.
The main reason for this embargo is because Trump wants to take the island. He has said so many times, bragging that after Iran (which was not quite as easy as he predicted), Cuba would be next. So, the United States has in effect established a siege in an attempt to force the people of Cuba to submit to American authority.
What has Cuba done to deserve such harsh treatment from a nation and a regime that claims to be Christian? Nothing. Not one thing. The people of Cuba have been going about their lives and are no threat to America.
And no, Mr. President, Cuba is not stockpiling enriched uranium to make a nuclear bomb.
America’s hate for Cuba goes back to 1959 when Fidel Castro overthrew the Bautista regime and nationalized the land and its resources, in effect driving out large American companies that had exploited the Cuban people since Teddy Roosevelt fought his way up San Juan Hill.
Before Castro, Cuba was an American resort area and vacationers flocked to Havana for the nightlife. The city even had a minor league baseball team. Sugar plantations were mostly American-owned and factories on the island provided cheap labor. Castro’s revolution changed all that.
We tried to invade Cuba (Bay of Pigs) and oust Castro in 1961, but that attempt failed, so Castro sought protection from the Soviet Union. That resulted in the Cuban Missile Crisis of October of 1962, after Russia began introducing offensive weapons onto the island.
That incident came as close to starting a nuclear exchange and World War III as ever occurred during the Cold War. Many of us remember the tension of that time and had President John F. Kennedy not kept his head and stood up to the military war hawks that wanted to bomb Cuba, it may well have been the end of civilization as we know it.
Part of the agreement to settle that crisis was the solemn promise that the United States would never invade Cuba. We gave our word and a nation.
Now comes Donald Trump, who knows nothing about honor and is trying to force Cuba into submission.
I have always contended that Cuba would become America’s 51st state, but that the people would join of their own free will once the Castro brothers were gone and communism proved an unworkable solution.
Cuban refugees have long had a government in absentia in Miami with the hope of someday reclaiming the property that their families lost in 1959.
No one — maybe even the president — knows how Trump plans to subdue Cuba but cutting off its oil supply is without question the first step. Will military force come next? Will Trump dishonor America’s “no invasion” pledge?
What is it with Trump and Hispanics? Why does he hate them? He wants to remove all Latinos from America. He has invaded Venezuela. He has established concentration camps where Hispanics are imprisoned and conditions are secreted. He made disparaging remarks about Puerto Rico, apparently unaware that it was an American territory. Now, he wants to invade Cuba.
If Cuba wants to become part of the United States, sobeit. If they want to remain a sovereign nation, that’s their right.
Trump has no respect for the law, neither national nor international. And, as his concentration camps and his treatment of Cuba prove, he has no respect for human rights.
If this is Trump and MAGA’s idea of Christianity, then the devil has America by the throat.
Amen.
Local Obituaries
To view local obituaries or to send a note to family and loved ones, please visit the link that follows.
