By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Exclusive for the daily POR ESTO! of Merida, Mexico.
A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Observers of US policy argue that senator Marco Rubio has been developing a project for some time aimed at becoming the first Latino president of the United States.
The logic of those who support him within the Republican establishment rests on the idea that if the Democratic Party could achieve it with a Black person and almost did it with a woman, it may be time to shine for a Latino Republican who, theoretically, enjoys the favor of the Pentagon and of Wall Street.
Rubio’s hopeful project involves risks and many conflicts, but the young senator seems to be willing to risk a conventional political career that is going well in order to keep the Republican Party in the White House. Even more so, given the circumstance that Trump’s re-election looks increasingly doubtful considering his constant blunders exercising the presidency.
Not too long ago, Marco Rubio was seen raging furiously against Trump in his bid for the Republican nomination. Later, he’s been allying with Trump from a position of blackmail. This is because Rubio sits on a Senate committee that could result in Trump’s impeachment due to his alleged collusion with Russia once he entered the White House.
Currently, Rubio is deeply involved in the chancy accusation against Cuba for the alleged “sonic attacks”. If successful, it could win him prestige as a skilled politician who was able to get Trump a victory “out of nothing” against the rebellious island. This would be something that a dozen previous administrations –of both parties– have not been able to achieve. Rubio has disregarded the possibility that this move may carry the risk of ridicule for him and his acolytes in the adventure.
After several months of investigations and four trips to Cuba with all the facilities and official support from the top officials of the Cuban government, the Technological Operations Division of the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) officially declared that they have not found any evidence of those alleged “sonic attacks” against US diplomatic personnel in Havana.
The conclusions of the US investigators concur with those of the Cuban Expert Committee which conducted an exhaustive investigation on the alleged incidents.
With his scandalous lie against Cuba about to be exposed, Senator Rubio and his sponsors have been resorting to one manipulation after another, the last of which was to submit the case to the consideration of a Congressional Committee headed by the Florida Senator: Rubio himself.
To assess the “attacks”, several congress members and government officials testified, but the alleged victims of the attacks did not. They were excused because, being US intelligence and counter-intelligence officials accredited as diplomats in Cuba, their identities should not be revealed.
It seems evident that there has been no way to confirm the existence of the sonic attacks that Senator Marco Rubio claims. They only seem to exist in the imaginations of President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
For Trump, the whole thing could be taken as just another of his blunders, but for Rubio it could mean his political funeral. In this context, the senator fabricated his theory about the origin of the “sonic attacks” in a desperate effort to find sacrificial lambs for the big lie.
According to Marco Rubio, the attacks have been so sophisticated that they cannot even describe how they happened. They “could be the work of a) a group of Castro’s opponents with the purpose of damaging the Cuban initiatives to dialogue set forth by Obama; b) a dissenting force within the Cuban government; or c) a third country: logic pointing at Russia and Vladimir Putin. “
In the great farce of the “sonic attacks”, which already has overtones of slapstick, no guilty parties are identified and the alleged victims are not known. Evidently, they do not exist.
Used as the main sponsor of the show, was President Donald Trump of whom — as Michael Wolff points out in his book Fire and Fury-– a lot has been written. Examples: “his childish acting; psychopathologies such as delusions of grandeur and paranoia; ignorance, inability to read, listen and comply with the tasks and responsibilities of his high office.”
That is why it is foreseeable that, within a few weeks, nobody will remember the farce of Trump’s sonic attacks. These will have joined the list of his “eccentricities”. Rubio will do everything possible to get out of the scene and will think: “I lost, but it was a good try. They will blame Trump. “
January 16, 2018
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Exclusive for the daily POR ESTO! of Merida, Mexico.
A CubaNews translation, edited by Walter Lippmann.
Just at beginning of the new year 2018, on Tuesday, January 2, South Korea proposed to North Korea the holding of high-level talks on the following week to discuss the participation of both countries in the Winter Olympic Games. They are to be hosted by Pyeong Chang, a South Korean county located about 70 kilometers south of the inter-Korean border. It would represent “an innovative opportunity to improve relations,” said the south.
South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon proposed that the two Koreas meet on Tuesday, January 9, in the truce village of Panmunjom, in the Demilitarized Zone, the usual place for this kind of encounter.
If Pyongyang accepts, and the proposed meeting takes place, it would be the first contact of this nature between the governments of the two Koreas in more than two years.
The proposal came after the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, in year’s end speech, said that he would be open to dialogue with the South so that his country could send a delegation to the Olympic event to be held in South Korea, February 19-25.
So far, only two artistic skaters from the DPRK have been announced: Ryom Tae-ok and Kim Ju-ik, already qualified for the Pyeong Chang games.
Joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea was to take place, as every year, in the next few days. However, the President of South Korea, Moon Jae-in, and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, agreed to postpone them until after the Olympic Winter Games in Pyeong Chang. They want to try to improve conditions to work for an understanding between Pyongyang and Seoul.
“I think it would help enormously to ensure the success of the Pyeon Chang Winter Olympic Games that you show your intention to delay the exercises during the event” These were Moon’s words to Trump in a recent phone conversation. The US president agreed and told Moon that he could inform Pyongyang that there will be no war games during the sports event, as can be read in the transcript of the conversation
The decision to postpone joint military exercises occurred after the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, in his New Year’s message, expressed his wish that his country participate in the Winter Olympics.
Seoul had already asked Washington to consider postponing the exercises, to prevent the government of North Korea from responding by carrying out a new weapons test.
For now, North Korea’s response to the meeting proposed by Seoul for next January 9 is still pending. It is expected that the participation of the North Korean athletes in the games will be closely examined.
“Ratifying the will of our leader, we will maintain a close and sincere contact” regarding North Korean participation in the Olympic Games to be held in South Korea from 9 to 25 February,” said Ri Son-gwon, who leads inter-Korean affairs in Pyongyang, to the South Korean news agency Yonhap.
“We will hold working conversations about our potential sending a delegation to those Winter Olympics that will be held in South Korea.”
However, Ri did not specify whether North Korea would accept the offer to hold a high-level meeting on January 9, or if the talks for the time being will be limited to communication through the telephone line installed at the border. It has not been operated for two years and has been the only communications channel between the two countries.
In Seoul, Yoon Young-chan, on behalf of President Moon Jae-in, celebrated the news. “I think the announcement shows an advance towards a situation in which communication [between the two countries] is possible at all times,” he said in a brief statement to the media.
In case the high-level meeting takes place, it would be the first of this kind in more than two years between the two countries, which have remained [formally] at war for the last 65 years. It would come after a year of special tension over Pyongyang’s weapons tests, Yoon said to Yonhap.
The South Korean president, Moon, since coming to power last May, has tried to achieve a rapprochement through dialogue with the North Korean government headed by Kim Jong-un. He has also insisted that Pyongyang participate in the Winter Games.
It should be recalled that, in September 2017, Donald Trump made derogatory comments about Moon Jae-in because of his position toward Pyongyang. Trump offended the South Korean, calling him a “beggar,” for his insistence on dialogue with North Korea. “
January 4, 2018
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