#Céspedes canceled

[mexicodailypost]

After cancellation of Céspedes in San Miguel de Allende, AMLO rejects discrimination against singer

Mexico City.- President Andrés Manuel López Obrador rejected that the Cuban singer Francisco Céspedes be “harassed” and “discriminated against” in the country, after the PRI mayor Mauricio Trejo Pureco of San Miguel Allende, Guanajuato, did not allow him to appear in the municipality. In the morning conference, the president expressed that the singer should enjoy all his rights in Mexico. “Now…

[dk-thrive]

The others are sleeping, at this hour: sleep cancels the day they’ve been through, and the new day appears, free of the weight of the preceding days, which I, on the other hand, preserve in these pages as if in an exorbitant account book in which no debt is ever forgiven.

Alba de Céspedes, “Forbidden Notebook: A Novel.” Translated by Ann Goldstein. (Astra House, January 17, 2023) 

[projectmafiacuba]

Overall Timeline

1492    Cuba discovered by Christopher Columbus and is claimed for Spain (Wright, 1916)

1500s    Smuggling appears in the Americas, pirates (French, English, Dutch) cause “serious embarrassment in Cuban waters (Chapman, 1927)

1515    Diego de Velazquez establishes permanent settlements and brings pestilence and Christianity, “pestilence of the repartimiento” (“system of bondage of natives to invader”) (Wright, 1916)

1523    Slaves first imported to Cuba (Chapman, 1927)

1524-28    Local patriotism rises

1533    “Negro uprising” at the “mines of Jobabo” (Wright, 1916)

1544    Population: 322 Spaniards, 1000 Cubeños, 800 black and native slaves (Wright, 1916)

1556    200 impoverished and starving Spaniards (Wright, 1916)

1700s    Smuggling becomes the “principal basis of the island’s wealth” (Chapman, 1927)

1717/1721/1723    Tobacco revolts and Cubans “express a vigorous dissent” (Chapman, 1927)

1762    British occupy Havana, Cubans introduced to trade freedom

Late 1800s    Cuban rebellion against Spain due to “Undue trade restrictions, arbitrary and unscientific methods of taxation, and the virtual exclusion of Cubans from government” (Chapman, 1927)

1810    Spanish American wars of independence, Cubans introduced to the idea freedom from Spain

1817    Population: 686,000 inhabitants total, 250,000 slaves, 115,000 “free colored persons” (Chapman, 1927)

1823    Secret society activity peaks, secret societies organize a revolt, exiles spread propaganda against Spanish

1834-1838    General Miguel Tacon is severe and embitters Cubans, agreement with smuggler Marti

1836    "Successful liberalist revolution in Spain restored the Constitution of 1812" (Chapman, 1927),

provides "Cuban representation in Spanish Cortes" (Chapman, 1927)

1843-44    Conspiracy of La Escale (suspected revolt to abolish slavery and gain freedom from Spain) brutally suppressed (Year of the Lash-400 blacks killed, 600 jailed, 400 expelled)

1868-78    Ten Years War, revolution attempt

1879-80    Little War, rebellion

1886    Slavery abolished

1894    Financial depression resulted in closed sugar mills, "Loss of ten millions of dollars in two years in one little part [Juraco] is but a sample of the facts that show what chaos this war is working" (Davis, 1897), "if the trocha at Moron is ever attacked in force it will prove to be a Valley of Death to the Spanish troops" (Davis, 1897)

1895    Revolt lead by José Martí against Spanish, “Cuba’s second war of independence” (Brenner et al. 1989)

1896    Concentration camps

1898    Spanish-American War between Spain and America, ends in US occupation of Cuba

1901    Platt Amendment added by US to Cuban constitution, creates US naval base

1902    US occupation ends

1906    José Miguel Gómez uprising against President Estrada Palma, US occupation

1909    US occupation ends

1912    Racial discrimination protest, US returns

1917    President Mario García Menocal suppresses José Miguel Gómez revolt (Chambelona War), Cuba enters WWI with Allies

1919    Cuban Oriental Park Racetrack gambling legalized

1920s US mafia begins business in Cuba (mainly rum running)

1925    Cuban Communist Party established

1927    President Gerardo Machado forces presidential term extension, Machado is repressive and faces insurgent challenges

1929    Cuban financial depression after US depression

1930s    US Great Depression, Havana becomes the major thoroughfare for drug trafficking (mainly heroin and cocaine) and is facilitated by Batista and the Auténtico (led by Ramón Grau San Martín)

1933 US Prohibition ends (decreases mafia rum running income), Gerardo Machado closes casinos, Machado is overthrown/forced to resign, mafioso Charles “Lucky” Luciano via Meyer Lansky makes deal with Colonel Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar (operations were directed by Santo Trafficante and Lansky), Carlos Manuel de Céspedes provincial president overthrown by Batista, Provisional Revolutionary government with president Ramon Grau San Martin, Batista heads army, Platt Amendment invalid via Cuba

1934    US abrogates Platt Amendment (frees Cuba from international restriction and US interference), Batista (US backed) removes Revolutionary President Grau San Martín and overthrows Provincial Revolutionary government, puppet presidents

1939-1945    World War II

1940    Batista elected president, new constitution and corrupt police state

1944    Batista leaves, Grau San Martin elected president, Grau San Martin corruption charges

1946    Havana Conference of US mafiosos led by Luciano at Hotel Nacional

1952    Batista overthrows Carlos Prío Socarrás before elections, Batista becomes more repressive

1953    Fidel Castro failed uprising against Batista (Moncada barracks attack), Lansky begins improvements on the Hotel Nacional

1956    M267 Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara guerilla war against Batista, Lansky begins building the extravagant Hotel Riviera

1958    Batista not backed by US anymore, Havana Hilton (larger than the Riviera) opens, construction for Monte Carlo de La Habana resort begins, Santo Trafficante Jr. said “[Fidel Castro]’s a guy making noises up in the hills. He’s going nowhere” (Jenkins, 2002)

1958/1959* New Year’s    M267 forces Batista out, Castro takes command,  Lansky attempts to remove cash from the casinos, Batista flees Cuba, Fidel Castro’s revolution takes over Cuba, the revolution destroys casinos and loose pigs in the Riviera, tourists and wealthy and mafiosos flee Cuba

1959    President Manuel Urrita shuts down gambling and prostitution and drug trafficking, first Agrarian Reform law removes US companies (limits land holdings, cripples mafia interests), Cuban casino workers flee to Las Vegas

1960    All large enterprises in Cuba become controlled by Castro’s government (US and mafia businesses interests are seized), US imposes embargo on Cuba

1960-1963    Angered mafia works with US government on Castro assassination attempts

Tourism back in Cuba

1960s-2004    Miguel Battle Sr. leaves Cuba to run La Corporación/The Corporation (Cuban American mafia in the US in the business of gambling, narcotics, prostitution, “intimidation, contract murders, and arson” (Minsky, 2018))

1961    US breaks relations with Cuba, Cuba becomes officially socialist, Bay of Pigs/Playa Girón

1962    Cuban Missile Crisis

1965    Revolutionary government renamed Communist Party of Cuba

1967    Che Guevara executed in Bolivia

1975    Cuban troops to Angola

1976    Revolutionary government makes socialist constitution, Castro becomes president, Cuba suspends anti hijacking agreement with US after bomb explodes on Cubana Airlines plane

1977    Cuban troops to Ethiopia, US established diplomatic ties with Cuba, US President Jimmy Carter lifts travel ban on Cuba, US and Cuba sign accord on fishing rights

1980 Mariel boatlift (Cubans flee Cuba to US en masse for refuge)

1985 Cuba suspends immigration and repatriation agreement with US, US President Reagan banned Cuban and Communist travel to the US

1986    Rectification campaign

1987    US and Cuba restore immigration agreement (Cuba cancelled in 1985)

1991    Soviet Union collapses and cripples Cuban economy, Special Period

1990s Tourism becomes major structure/”strategic development” (Castillo and Gaspar, 2018) in Cuban economy, mafia activity becomes more visible with tourism renewal

1993    Cuba allows foreign investment, Cuba secular state, US embargo strengthened against Cuba

1997    Tourism is allowed back into Cuba, the Cuban Economic Resolution intends to use tourism as a cornerstone of the Cuban economy, Cuban Economic Resolution sets the goal of more than 2 million tourists in Cuba by 2000 (Castillo and Gaspar, 2018)

Late 1990s    Tourism industry surpasses sugar becoming lead source of revenue

2000    Embargo exception for US agriculture to Cuba

2008    Castro retires

2016    Castro dies