Mark Wignall | A smile, a giggle, the cruelty

“The Trump administration is deliberately plunging Cuba into a national and humanitarian crisis, and the US-imposed blockade of oil imports is wreaking havoc on daily life for Cubans,” was the general view, captured by journalists of the hunger and suffering of Cuba.

A few days ago, US President Donald Trump was interviewed on Air Force One, where his view on the Cuban crisis was sought. A smile creased his face, then a giggle and genuine glee as he digested cruelty as a very useful geopolitical tool. Hunger has its pressure points, and Trump knows how to trigger them. .

When scores of mothers and grandmothers must listen to the sometimes subdued sounds of youngsters trying to navigate through pangs of hunger, pretty soon there will come a breaking point where the threat to government will rattle and dislodge the little that is left.

As a long-suffering people, there are not many that stand in front of the Cubans. Of course, that should not be taken as meaning that the people are prepared to gird their loins for a few more years and listen to the constant sobbing. Trump, it is certain, will expose them to an economic state of nothingness, caring little how much longer they must endure hunger and starvation.

Both Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are quite familiar with the times when the CIA would target a nation and set in motion policy to ‘make the economy scream’. GOP’s conservative foreign policy is quite good at pushing aside the history it dislikes. Like the ending of the rule of Batista and the mafia and Castro’s communist rise and seizure of many US-owned multinationals.

The resultant pushback by America and the 70-year blockade has frozen the Cuban economy. The US’s next move on the additional oil blockade is to tighten the noose on Cuba and slowly choke it to death.

President Obama’s Cuba policy in 2014 brought about the reopening of embassies and his historic visit in 2016. Obama wanted to see Cuba as a self-empowered nation until Congressional engagement was prepared to give Cuba that extra push.

EXTRA GLEE

Trump has a visceral hate for Obama, and at this time, it is certain that he feels extra glee in the face of Obama’s helplessness over present Cuba policy.

Those officials in positions of power in the US State Department cannot afford to be idealists. They will have to locate a geopolitical player and an economic hustler preferably with the name Castro in his makeup. Hard cash will have to be forked over and socio political guarantees signed to and seeking a workable fix.

Some of the latest reporting indicates that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was in talks with the grandson of Raul Castro. Hmmm. A huge ranch somewhere in the Dakotas, a few horses, a bank account with funds easily floating and a man seated in Havana willing to crawl to the slow music of the US State Department?

Even the most hard-hearted like Trump who would never be moved by some of the newly dead Cubans being buried in cardboard would not necessarily feel added delight at dogs hacking at homeless people begging for death. So someone in Havana will have to play a US ball made in China, a Castro; his family and fellow thugs and the convenience of Midas’ touch will coexist on a ranch, a Venezuelan tanker, cleaner streets, the barest of medical supplies, and the US Chambers of Commerce in long-term talks to satisfy Mr Rubio’s fevers and his dream..

Oh, and less hunger and sobbing of Cuban children at nights. Could the Americas and the Cubans live with that?

THE BIRDS, AND ROYALTY, DO IT

A few weeks ago, he used to be called Prince Andrew. Then came Jeffrey Epstein and the dirt of paedophilia among powerful men. Prince Andrew lost his title, and in his cover up on the Epstein matter, the law just recently came for him.

Even before the cops came for him, he was simply Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. Six unmarked police vehicles came for him at 3 a.m. Because of what the Epstein files said about him. It all came down to suspicion of public misconduct. He is 66 years old. How shameful.

One suspects that others in Britain will be dragged into this sordid matter. And it cannot be ruled out that where the Epstein matter began, in the United States, other dominoes may fall. Some British people who are old enough may recall that those with a stiff upper lip went through sexual scandals something like this way back in 1963.

In that year, when President Kennedy was assassinated, John Profumo, a 48-year-old politician, walked much too close to 19-year-old model Christine Keeler. A sexual relationship developed. It turned out that Keeler was also touching toes with a man who was the senior naval attaché at the Soviet Embassy. The press carried it as the Profumo Affair.

The scandal toppled the Conservative government in 1964. Many are betting that the Epstein matter may make a turn and begin to topple the US dominoes which, long ago, have been violently shaking.

Mark Wignall is a political and public affairs analyst. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and mawigsr@gmail.com.