GMA will be going to Moscow, too – early next year

During his six-year term in office, FVR – former President Fidel V. Ramos, known then as El Tabako (for his big, unlit cigar) – was also dubbed FVR Viajero. This was owing to his non-stop foreign travels, and for the fact that after he returned from each expedition, he announced he had "brought home the bacon."

Indeed, all the bacon we saw was the pork barrel of the senators and congressmen, but this didn’t deter FVR from going off again and again, accompanied by a court of camp followers which resembled the baggage train of an Oriental potentate. Citizen Ramos continues to go forth monthly, even weekly today, to give speeches, attend innumerable conferences, and act as elder statesman or "eminent person" in one enterprise after another.

I hope the imperial travel bug has not bitten our present President, La Gloria, as well.

Right now, she is in Havana, Cuba, for the conference of 69 countries belonging to the so-called Non-Aligned Movement which was founded in 1981 in Bandung, Indonesia, by the late Indonesian President, Sukarno; Premier Zhou En-lai of the People’s Republic of China; India’s late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru; and a host of leaders (present at the creation was our own General and Foreign Secretary Carlos P. Romulo) who wanted to state they were non-aligned between Moscow and Washington, DC. Over the years, however, the Non-Aligned Nations became non-aligned mainly against the United States and the "Western Colonial Powers." Bung Karno called them the "Necolim" and the "Oldefos" in his passion for catchy acronym-inventing.

Today, with Cuba’s anti-norteamericano Lider Maximo (Maximum Leader) Fidel Castro Ruz hosting the NAM summit, through his 75-year old brother, Raul Castro (who’s even further Left than El Caballo himself), there’s a move to convert the 14th NAM summit into a more radical anti-US alliance, with an anti-Yanqui lobby led by the El Commandante who devoutly wishes to inherit Fidel’s mantle, Venezuela’s pugnacious Hugo Chavez Frias.

According to videos, Hugo visited Fidel in hospital for a cheery reunion – although it is quite possible that despite that posed cameo appearance, the strongman who ruled Cuba for 47 years (since he and his Barbudos dethroned the Dictator Fulgencio Batista on New Year’s Eve 1959 – sending Batista fleeing abroad) may be dying from his latest intestinal surgery. At age 80, Fidel is not well – but his anti-American and anti-Bush rhetoric resonates still.

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What will our Presidenta de la Nacion say in Havana (in her excellent Madrileña-toned Spanish, of course) in defense of her friend, George Dubya and her ally, the Estados Unidos?

I met Fidel in July 1961 – precisely a day after we endured a two hour speech of his under the scorching sun in the Plaza on the occasion of the 26 de Julio, the Cuban national day. (The "26th of July Movement" had served as Fidel’s rallying point in his rise to power in 1959).

Fidel was ebullient, having just crushed the American-sponsored "invasion" by Cuban emigres on April 17, 1961. He crowed that the invading group has been a push-over. He, too, revelled in the fact that he had been Jesuit-trained (he went to the Colegio Dolores in Santiago de Cuba and later, the uppity Colegio de Belen in the capital, Havana). Knowing the Jesuits well, one of the first things he had down when he took power was to expel the Jesuit fathers from Cuba.

He went to the University of Havana to study law, and his professor in Criminal Law told me in Miami, Florida, when I returned from six weeks in Cuba, that Fidel had had an eidetic memory (meaning his memory-work was perfect), but had always flunked out when tasked to resolve a practical or legal problem. In short, he had breezed through the theoretical portions of every examination without effort, usually writing the answers down word for word. When given the simplest of legal problems to solve, Fidel would often break down completely.

Here’s what I wrote of him in The Evening News in September 1961, in a series of eleven articles I wrote explaining the "new" Cuba and why the invasion in the Bahia de Cochinos had failed:

"Fidel is not a thinker – but he absorbs the thoughts and ideas like a sponge. In order to talk glibly about economics, he sits and listens to his economic experts for hours. The next day finds him reeling statistics and economic dicta off with ease and confidence before a crowd or on one of his innumerable television appearances. In this way, perhaps his closer advisor, the Argentine-born Communist Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who is his Minister of Industry and Planning, has profoundly influenced the policies and public statements of Castro . . . He is a man of vigorous action, great personality and possessed of amazing powers of recall." Mind you, this was written in September 1961.

Some years later, Che Guevara went off to Bolivia to try to foment revolution there – probably to prove his theories expounded in his book, La Guerra de los Guerrilleros. He and his band were cornered by American-trained Bolivian Special Forces and Che was captured in October 1967. On orders from the Bolivian High Command, Che was shot. Photographs of his naked corpse, his head propped up on a pillow to certify recognition, were sent around the world.

Castro, who had grown a bit jealous of the popularity of his comrade (who actually hailed from Rosario, Argentina), really grieved at Che’s death. According to his intimate friend, Celia Suarez, he locked himself up in his room and kicked and punched the walls in anger and frustration. Of course, this grief did not prevent him from subsequently pointing out why Che Guevara had failed in Bolivia, among his other "failures."

In any event, Fidel from beginning to the present, hates the USA. His earliest slogan was "Sin cuota, pero sin Amo." (No US sugar quota, but no master). When I was in Havana for a month and a half, huge billboards declared: "Si los Yankys (sic) no pueden vivir al 90 milias de un Pais Socialista, que se muden!" (If the Yankees don’t want to live 90 miles from a Socialist country, they should move!). Sus. The Norteamericanos not only refused to move. They kept Guantanamo Naval Base which is right smack in Cuba.

And there they also set up the maximum security prison, "Gitmo", where they kept thousands of suspected al-Qaeda prisoners and jihadis despite international uproar and the angry complaints of Amnesty International and other human rights groups. Fidel and his army and milicianos couldn’t do anything about it.

This will be one of the issues raised, embarrassingly, at the NAM summit in Cuba – with the fires stoked by Hugo Chavez who, with his oil charriot, is mobilizing votes in the United Nations to give him and Venezuela a seat in the UN Security Council.

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What Fidel did prevent and defeat was that stupid invasion at Playa Giron in April 1961. Dubbed Operation Pluto, the invasion plan had been hatched during the Eisenhower administration – then inherited by the fledgling John F. Kennedy. Recruitment as made among the 40,000 anti-Castro Cuban exiles mostly living in Miami.

The first training camps were set up by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operatives in the Everglades, then Homestead, and New Orleans (Louisiana) and Houston (Texas). More bases were set up on Visques island, off Puerto Rico, and in Panama. Later, the finalists underwent training in Guatemala and San Jose Buenavista. Among the crew contracted to train the potential invaders, aside from CIA experts, were a motley crew composed of German, Polish, and Ukrainian instructors – including our own Col. Napoleon "Pol" Valeriano, veteran of the Huk campaign.

JFK didn’t know what to do when he inherited the plan, but he declared that no US troops or air force personnel would be used in "any fighting in Cuba." This silly public statement, out of the blue, helped alerted Fidel that something was afoot. In any event, some details had already "leaked" to newspapers and magazines. You know US newspapers, they reveal everything, especially details marked "SECRET".

On April 15, air strikes were flown by Cuban refugee fliers against some of Castro’s airfields. The missions, flown by 16 crickety B-26s were intended to knock out Castro’s air force. The attack failed because, aside from his six propeller aircraft, Fidel had three jet-powered T-33 jet trainers, which he had fully armed. Those jets shot the propeller-driven rebel aircraft down with the greatest of ease.

The invasion, with Fidel’s primitive air force having the upper hand, went to pieces. The assault fleet of cargo ships, converted fishing boats, and renovated Landing Craft Infantry (LCI’s) sailed into the Bay of Pigs on April 17, putting the first waves of the 1,500 man force ashore. The rest was tragedy for the attackers. Fidel’s infantry and militia forces from Cienfuegos, Matanzas and Cavadonga, supported by well-disciplined artillery and tank forces poured into the gap.

Fidel, as he explained to us, was in the vanguard of the counter-attack, during everything personally. His jets and Sea Fury fighters screamed in to strafe and bomb the invaders. Five rebel vessels were sunk in the Bay. None of the rebels’ slower-moving B-26s were shot down from the skies. A 175-man paratroop group which had been dropped earlier further inland was wiped out.

When their ammunition ran out, the remaining 1,214 of what was supposed to have been a "liberation" army surrendered. They were taken captive to the most cruel Cuban prisons, including Principe prison in Havana itself.

It had been madness, of course, to have dispatched 1,500 "invaders" against Fidel’s 200,000 man armed forces of army, militia, and armor, already equipped by the Soviets, the Czechs and Poles which stuff considered comparatively modern at the time. I guess the Americans and the exiles believed the entire Cuban people would rise up against Castro to join them in overthrowing Fidel and his Socialist regime. If they think the same thing will happen now, if Fidel dies, perhaps they had better recast their expectations.

As for the NAM conference, abangan the final brave but surely non-applicable Resolutions.

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La Gloria’s travels are not over, once she returns from her 12-day odyssey. I must say her energy is phenomenal. The President has whisked her way through Helsinki (Finland), Brussels (Belgium), and London (England), to Cuba – and will next fly to Honolulu, Hawaii to celebrate the centenary of Filipino "workers’ " migration to the plantations there.

After her return to Manila, her next trip will be to Nanning, in the People’s Republic of China, and then Xiamen to visit the home province of the Taipans, which is Fujian (Fookien) and probably the hometown of Dr. Jose Rizal’s great-grandfather, David Lamco. (Can’t be sure of the spelling, but in my visit there four years ago, I think it was named Jing Jiang – forgive me if I’m wrong). Then there’s the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Do you think that’s all? When she met Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, he extended her an invitation to go to Moscow on a state visit which she promptly accepted. For this reason, our envoy to Russia, old-timer Ambassador Ernesto Llamas who’s supposed to be retiring shortly was extended one more year, to prepare for La GMA’s state visit to the Russian Czar, Putin. This may take place April or May, when it’s warmer. (It snows in frozen Russia, in April and even in early May.) Why this sudden yen to visit Moscow. La Emperadora must have seen all those newsreels of snappy, goosetepping Kremlin Guardsmen trooping down Red Square (at either the Spassky or Redeemer Gates), and those elegant receptions and banquets in St. George’s hall inside the Kremlin. Karasho. What a photo opportunity. Oh well. The Palace line will probably be that we can get "oil" or gas from Russia’s vast reserves, even from Siberia where much oil is waiting under the permafrost.

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ERRATA most embarrassing: In last weekend’s column, I erroneously referred to Japan’s former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone as "the late" Nakasone. He is still very much alive . . . I also unforgiveably misspelled the name of my old friend, the late Akio Morita of SONY as "Fujita." Sanamagan. I remember when the radical nationalist Shintaro Ishihara, later elected Governor of Tokyo, wrote his startling book, "The Japan that Can Say No," which, to our surprise, was co-authored by Morita. Morita was then president of the KEIDANREN, and had recently bought into Hollywood. (He had acquired Columbia Pictures and launched SONY in America). I rang him up and said, "Akio-sensei, why did you author that anti-American book with Ishihara?" The late CEO of SONY, Morita, sheepishly replied: "Max, I wrote my half of the book without seeing what Shintaro had written in the other half!" This is a cautionary tale. When you agree to "co-author" anything, read the entire manuscript – in fact, inspect the fine print!