Coincidence? Irony? Hypocrisy?
What happened to justice?
Each day I post in my Substack.com Notes the corresponding daily story from the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI). The story from May 12, 2026, grabbed my attention. An excerpt from it is immediately below:
On May 12, 1898, the State of Louisiana adopted a new constitution with numerous restrictive provisions intended to exclude African American men from civic participation. At this time in the U.S., women of all races remained barred from voting, while Black men had recently gained the right to vote under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The new Louisiana Constitution, however, created a poll tax, literacy and property-ownership requirements, and a complex voter registration form all designed and enforced to disproportionately disenfranchise Black male voters.
On April 21, 1898, the US declared war on Spain to purportedly “cut the chains that subjugated the Cuban people”. The excuse to declare war was the accidental boiler room explosion, attributed to Spain, on the U S battleship Maine in Havana Harbor. But American designs on the rich island predated that tragedy.
It is strangely coincidental that the new Louisiana Constitution suppressing African American suffrage was adopted a mere three weeks after the US declared war on Spain.
As early as the 1850s, American business interests had backed an incursion into Cuba by Narciso López that sailed from New Orleans, Louisiana. The southern states of the US wanted to add a slave state, and the Cuban sugar industry had been built on the backs of African slave labor.
In 1898, at the start of the Spanish American War, Cuban patriots were in the middle of a War of Liberation that had been raging for decades. Those patriots were a multiracial mix of fighters that included in its ranks both officers and enlisted men descended from African slaves who had labored in Cuban plantations.
Also, it is important to note that the American Forces that participated in the Spanish American War included thousands of African American troops that while in uniform were subjected to the oppressive racial segregation practices of the Jim Crow laws of post-Civil War American society.
In 1898 Spain surrendered to the US occupying forces— not to the brave Cuban patriots who had been fighting for freedom for decades. In fact, the American Forces disarmed the Cuban fighters following Spain’s surrender. Similarly, the Treaty of Paris ending The Spanish American War was signed by the US and Spain, with no Cubans included.
The Cuban population remained under the control of a world power, this time the US, until May 20, 1902. The Cuban Constitution took effect on that day and was forced to contain the provisions of the Platt Amendment that allowed the US to intervene in Cuban affairs at will.
I am unable to reconcile the intentions of the current POTUS to “liberate” Cuba with the reality of US intervention in Cuba over decades. The US intervention in 1952 supported dictator Fulgencio Batista, who was later overthrown by Cuban citizens, including Fidel Castro’s forces, on January 1, 1959.
I abhor the hypocrisy of proposing the liberation of Cuba through bellicose actions, blockades, embargoes, etc., when the real intention of the POTUS is to take economic control over the island.
The US government needs to clean up its own house, rife with corruption such as the Epstein scandal that taints the POTUS administration.
Understanding leads to justice, which leads to peace. I urge all Americans to work for understanding and peace that would allow the US to compassionately address the needs of humanity, including Americans.
“Understanding leads
to justice, which leads to peace.”
Onus on U.S.
Manuel, I m sorry for all the suffering of the Cuban people Including you and your wife’s families. I am sorry for the part the U.S. has and continues to play in causing that suffering.