U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks to Andres Oppenheimer on Cuba

“Obama administration would ask Cuba — a military dictatorship that has not allowed a free election in more than five decades — to help persuade Venezuela to hold free elections and uphold democratic principles sounds preposterous.”

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article31048407.html

Miami Herald columnist Andres Oppenheimer speaks to Secretary of State John Kerry in advance of his historic visit to Cuba on Friday. Video by Miami Herald/CNN en Espanol Miami Herald/CNN en Espanol

If you ask me what was the most interesting thing that Secretary of State John Kerry told me in an interview last week, it wasn’t any of his statements about human rights in Cuba that made headlines, but his open admission that the United States and Cuba are talking about ways to solve the Venezuelan crisis.

During the interview, which took place in Washington shortly before his Aug. 14 trip to Havana, Kerry told me that the United States wants Venezuela to comply with Organization of American States inter-American human rights requirements, and that Venezuela’s upcoming Dec. 6 legislative elections take place with credible international observers.

When I asked Kerry whether the United States has discussed Venezuela’s political and economic crisis with Cuba during the two countries’ eight-month-old talks to normalize bilateral ties, Kerry nodded. “Yes,” he responded. “We talked very specifically about America’s desire to have a relationship with the Venezuelan people that raises the ability of the people of Venezuela to be able to be protected, respected, represented and actually see their lives improve.”

Asked what was Cuba’s response, Kerry said that “they (the Cubans) did not make any promises. But, hopefully, they will represent (to Venezuela) that what we are doing with them now is beneficial, so why shouldn’t Venezuela also go the same road?”

In other words, the Obama administration has asked Cuba, which now has full diplomatic relations with the United States, to help convince Venezuela to normalize relations with Washington, and — this is my own interpretation of Kerry’s words — to release political prisoners and press Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to allow credible international observers during the December elections.

Kerry did not dare to demand from the Cuban Stalinist regime to free the Cuban political prisoners and to respect the human rights of the enslaved Cuban people

John Kerry, from his book, The New Soldier
"We will not quickly join those who march on Veterans' Day waving small [American] flags, calling to memory those thousands who died for the 'greater glory of the United States.'..."

"The John Kerry quote comes in the epilogue to "The New Soldier," the book put out by Vietnam Veterans Against the War [VVAW]. The book's cover features a group of not-particularly sober-looking anti-war protesters (vets, presumably) flying the American flag upside down [while mocking the historic flag raising event at Iwo Jima]":
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1203164/posts

Note John Kerry's name at top right of The New Soldier

"We will not quickly join those who march on Veterans' Day waving small (American) flags, calling to memory those thousands who died for the 'greater glory of the United States.' "

So John Kerry would have a difficult time marching with those waving small American flags yet had NO problems marching with those waving HUGE VIETCONG FLAGS?

"Pictured above: VVAW-supported demonstration during the Washington Spring
Offensive, April - May 1971. Notice the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong flags."

"...if the United States were to set a date for withdrawal the prisoners of war would be returned."-J.F. Kerry

"Under questioning from the Committee, Kerry referred to the democratically elected government of South Vietnam -- our allies -- as a "dictatorial regime, the Thieu-Ky-Khiem regime," while respectfully calling the North Vietnamese communist regime we were fighting by its oxymoronic official name, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and the murderous Viet Cong's political arm by their preferred "Provisional Revolutionary Government.":
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/chavez042804.asp
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John Kerry and the VVAW--Hanoi's American Puppets?
"Two recently discovered documents captured from the Vietnamese communists during the Vietnam War strongly support the contention that a close link existed between the Hanoi regime and the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) while John Kerry served as the group's leading national spokesman."
http://www.wintersoldier.com/staticpages/index.php?page=puppets
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Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) Complete FBI files:
http://www.wintersoldier.com/index.php?topic=VVAWFBI

ORWELLIAN OR JUST AN OPERA BUFFA

Castro’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez, Gives Kerry a Tour of Stolen American Property in Cuba

More infamy. You need to see the videos which need to go on our website on the repression in Cuba, Ileana Ros denouncing the State Dep for lying, etc

From CapitolHillCubans.com:

The absence of Cuba’s courageous dissidents from the flag-raising ceremony at the U.S. Embassy — despite there clearly being ample space in the courtyard — wasn’t the only poor imagery during Secretary of State John Kerry’s trip to Havana.

After the ceremony, Kerry held bilateral talks with Castro’s Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodriguez, at Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX).

Thereafter, Kerry and Rodriguez held a joint news conference.

But unlike the joint news conference after the opening of the Cuban Embassy in Washington, D.C., which was held at the State Department — the Havana news conference wasn’t held at the MINREX

Instead, it was staged at the luxurious, Hotel Nacional.

Thus, the images of Kerry and Bruno shaking hands over the “Hotel Nacional de Cuba” sign — and of Bruno giving Kerry a tour of the property (see here).

This might seem charming and diplomatic — except the Hotel Nacional is stolen American property.

As the Library of Congress reminds us, “The Hotel Nacional was inaugurated the evening of December 30, 1930. After 60 years of operation by its American owner, the Cuban government took over the building paying not a cent.”

The American owner was the InterContinental Hotels Corporation (IHC), which at the time was a subsidiary of Pan American World Airways.

The InterContinental Hotels Corporation still has a U.S. certified claim for its majority interest in the Hotel Nacional, along with other minority investors.

Upon being seized by the Castro regime in 1960, it was placed under the control of Comandante Osmany Cienfuegos, who would later become a member of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party and Minister of Tourism.

Today, the Hotel Nacional remains the crown jewel of the Gran Caribe Hotel Group, S.A., a shadow company of Castro’s Ministry of Tourism, which is headed by Colonel Manuel Marrero Cruz, a confidant of Raul Castro.

Col. Marrero Cruz previously ran Gaviota, S.A., a similar shadow company of the Cuban Ministry of the Armed Forces (MINFAR).

From Kerry down the line — to all those businessmen, journalists and Members of Congress — who partied to the tune of “normalization” at the Hotel Nacional, it was a celebration of larceny and profits for the Cuban dictatorship.

Castro couldn’t have asked for a better marketing gimmick, while Kerry couldn’t be more oblivious to the insult.

Meanwhile, reports indicate the Obama Administration is keen on skirting U.S. law, in order to encourage more American travelers to illegally traffic in stolen property in Cuba.

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