The Truth is seldom pure and never simple.

Oscar Wilde

Ukraine has next to nothing to do with Latin America, other than two nuclear powers are playing chicken, and the rest of the world is just standing by. With propaganda and total bullshit piling up everywhere, there’s not much to say other than not every nation, or faction in a nation, is going to read the situation the same way. This is a site on Mexico, and my broadly Latin America. So, we posted from the Cuban media a few days ago. Today, we’re looking at the Mexican left-leaning media: José Blanco, Estados Unidos vs. China y Rusia in today’s La Jornada, my translation. Take it or leave it, this is what’s being said.

Our contemporary ethos is to be intensely anti-war. War is resoundingly rejected, morally condemned regardless, an unpardonable crime, an inhuman aberration. Russian rejection of its war against Ukraine has almost unanimous approval in the Western media. The same goes for the voices on the right, the “center” and the left. Democrats and Republicans in the US, Bergoglio [Pope Francis] and some “Soviet” leftists (there are some, defending Lenin against Putin), have all embarked on that holy crusade. Great!

But, since the fall of the USSR, the US alone –or accompanied by the rest of NATO–, has bombed Panama, 1989; Iraq, 1991; Kuwait, 1991; Somalia, 1993; Bosnia 1994, 1995; Sudan, 1998; Afghanistan, 1998; Yugoslavia, 1999; Yemen, 2002; Iraq, 1991-2003; Iraq, 2003-2015; Afghanistan, 2001-2015; Pakistan, 2007-2015; Somalia, 2007-2011; Yemen, 2009, 2011; Libya, 2011, 2015; Syria, 2014-2016. Endless massacres year after year. Today’s holy crusaders of all stripes had the opportunity to be outraged, but weren’t. No that anyone shouldn’t be outraged about the war in Ukraine but, damn it, you sure wonder where those holy crusaders were between 1989 and 2016. Or even berore: 1989, the US bombed 16 countries and hundreds of thousands of bombs dropped, millions dead, since 1950.

NATO was created in 1949 to defend the West from possible attacks by the USSR. In 1989 the Soviet world collapsed and therefore NATO’s raison d’être disappeared; but not NATO, which began bombing Yugoslavia. From an Atlantic alliance for defense, NATO went on the offensive. Unrestrained, it expanded eastward, adding countries, armed with the latest weapons, the countries of the [former] Warsaw Pact, the Baltics and others, until it encircled Russia. It had yet to do so with Georgia and Ukraine, two countries with which Russia has a number of outstanding issue — a story, by the way, that did not begin on February 24, around 6 AM, when Russia crossed the borders of Ukraine.

Russia said a thousand times that it was deceived by the West because NATO (especially the US) had not honored the commitment to not expand to the East. A thousand times the EU and Brussels have denied there ever was a commitment. However, On February 18, the German newspaper Der Spiegel published “a note from the British National Archives, which has just come to light, supporting the Russian claim that the West has violated the commitments made in 1990 with the expansion towards the West. East NATO. American political scientist Joshua Shifrinson has found the previously classified document. It refers to a meeting of the political directors of the Foreign Ministries of the US, Great Britain, France and Germany, held in Bonn on March 6, 1991”.

Russia has reiterated again and again and again: it was unacceptable that NATO in Ukraine would place missiles within just five minutes of Moscow. The US has been deaf to this claim. Russia has proposed a thousand times an agreement on the basis of indivisible security: security for all, simultaneously. The US has turned a deaf ear to this proposal. Russia was led into war by the West. That was what it was about. Russia was escaping that fate, without immolating itself that had existed since February 7, 2019, when Ukraine approved an amendment to its constitution which made NATO membership possible.

The plan, in fact, pushes Russia further: placing it in a position to be subject to unprecedented sanctions, stopping the possibility of economic growth dead in its tracks. Not because it is a great economic power (3 percent of world GDP), but because it is a military power. The expected third party has already appeared on stage: China (18.8 percent of global GDP). It is not an unexpected departure, given the current political policy of the US to stop Russian and Chinese growth by any means necessary. Russia and China seem to have expected this.

The formation of the China-Russia axis breaks the balance. It changes the face of the world in an abyssal way, splitting it into two disconnected and antagonistic poles: the US and China/Russia. While Europe, docile and submissive, will move to a lesser plane. Perhaps we are witnessing that. A dangerous world for humanity, a new cold war always on the brink of becoming a very high temperature one: an all-encompassing insecurity, the risk of walking towards terminal hell. Disengagement from China, however, seems very difficult, given the vast fabric of its economic relations with the world. Although it is not necessary to cut all that ties; it is enough to do it with certain strategic goods, such as microchips. The war waged by the US against China and Russia may also enter uncertain zones given the political and economic cracks in the US, exposed to whoever wants to see them. In Ukraine, NATO is not for de-escalation. We will see.

Take it for what it’s worth, but in the “fog of war”, with media and “pundits” having settled on a simple “good guy-bad guy” narrative, and our information in neutral Mexico (whose only role in all this is happening to chair the UN Security Council right now), and having more access to US filtered news than that filtered thru Russia, what came before tends to be erased. My translations from “Rusia-Ucrania: Cronología de un nuevo capítulo de tensiones (+ Infografía)” Prensa Latina, 26 Feb 2022:

Havana, Feb 24 (Prensa Latina) The history of Russia and Ukraine dates back to the Middle Ages, both countries part of the ancient Slavic state from the end of the 9th century to the middle of the 13th century.

Although the two nations took different historical paths with two languages ​​and cultures emerging, Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire and later the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics until December 1991.

The latest chapter in their diplomatic relations since that time opened with movements by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) into Eastern Europe.

NATO increased its forces in the region and currently has 13,000 soldiers, 200 tanks, 400 armored vehicles and three dozen planes and helicopters stationed in the region. IN Ukraine, it has 10 thousand “instructors”.

In early December 2021, the largest shipment of US military equipment in its history, including helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, infantry fighting tanks (IFVs) and artillery for NATO’s annual Atlantic exercis, were unloaded in the Greek port of Alexandroupolis.

A chronology of the main events of recent months follows

December 21, 2021 Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported that 120 US mercenaries delivered chemical weapons in the Ukrainian-controlled cities of Avdeevka and Krasny Liman for use in a possible attack that could be blamed on Russia.

January 10, 2022 Negotiations were held in Geneva, Switzerland between Russia and the United States, in which Washington put on the table possibly coercive demands Moscow .

January 12, 2022 Meetings between Russia and NATO member countries began in Brussels, Belgium to discuss mutual concerns about security in Europe.

January 12, 2022 Russia made clear it was essential to obtain legally binding guarantees of non-expansion from NATO and that there not be any deployment near its borders of strike forces that could hit targets on its territory. It added that routine military exercises would continue as normal.

January 13, 2022 The last of the meetings on the proposals for security guarantees with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) concluded in Vienna, Austria.

January 14, 2022 White House press secretary Jen Psaki and Pentagon spokesman John Kirby accused Russia, without presenting any evidence, of preparing an operation as a pretext for an eventual invasion of Ukraine.

January 16, 2022 Moscow reiterated that there wereno Russian military personnel in the Donbass region, or in Ukraine in general, and clarified that its forces were on their own territory.

January 19, 2022 Russia reiterated that NATO expansion in the region was unacceptable. The statement came from deputy foreign minister, Sergey Riabkov, who added that his country needed legal guarantees in the form of a bilateral treaty with the United States and a multilateral agreement with NATO.

January 20, 2022 Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, María Zajárova, denounced that the United Kingdom for sending military transport planes with 460 tones of weapons to Ukraine. Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine moved security forces, supplies and construction equipment rto the Belarus border.

January 22, 2022. The United States handed over 90 tons of weapons to Ukraine and a further 80 tons the following day, part of an aid package equivalent to 200 million dollars, amid repeated complaints from Russia about the danger the military build-up posed to its own territory.

January 23, 2022 After threatening trade sanctions, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged on CNN that imposing new coercive measures on Russia could affect current deterrence efforts.

January 24, 2022 Moscow reported constant process of exercises, maneuvers and military construction was on-going. United States President, Joe Biden, and other government officials of his government intensified their propaganda campaign to label Russia an aggressor, despite denials from Moscow.

January 24, 2022 The US State Department ordered relatives of employees at its embassy in Kiev to leave Ukraine.

January 25, 2022. Croatia President, Zoran Milanovic, says that in the event of a conflict between Russia and Ukraine his country with withdrawal its troops from NATO, since he does not want to be involved in the military build-up in Europe.

February 1, 2022 Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov hold telephone conversations to follow up on Moscow’s security proposals, regarding the acceptance of new NATO members among neighboring countries.

February 1, 2022 Ukrainian Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov confirms delivery of the sixth batch of US weapons to Kiev since January 22: a total of 500 tons of US defense equipment.

February 2, 2022 Joe Biden, approves the deployment some three thousand soldiers to Poland and Romania , in addition to the thousand already in Germany.

February 4, 2022 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses the United States and its allies of worsening the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and expresses his willingness to mediate a diplomatic solution to the tensions.

5 February 2022 UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron call for peaceful solutions.

February 7, 2022 Macron travels to Russia and holds talks lasting over five hours with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, about the security guarantees required by the Kremlin from NATO.

February 8, 2022 Within the framework of the Weimar Triangle (Germany, France, and Poland), the presidents of France and Poland (Andrzej Duda) and the German Federal Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, met in Berlin to agree on common positions on cooperation issues.

February 8, 2022 US soldiers arrive in Romania as part of the continued military deployment of the North American nation in the region.

February 8, 2022 US Senator Jeanne Shaheen announces that the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee was close to reaching an agreement between Democrats and Republicans on a bill for coercive actions against Moscow.

February 11, 2022 During a visit to Hungary, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg ratified the deployment of new combat groups starting next month in Eastern Europe.

February 11, 2022 The United States approved the deployment of five thousand soldiers in Poland.

February 12, 2022 Putin and Biden hold phone conversations, as to Defense Ministers, Shoigú and Lloyd Austin.

February 14, 2022 The Group of Seven (G7) threatens Russia with heavy economic and financial sanctions if its troops invade Ukraine.

February 14, 2022 UK announces that it will send a “small number” of troops to Lithuania.

February 14, 2022 About 350 German troops and 100 military vehicles move to Lithuania while Scholz traveled to Ukraine.

February 15, 2022 Putin and Scholz discussed the Ukraine situation, security guarantees and the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

February 16, 2022 Former United States Ambassador Jack F. Matlock described the campaign unleashed by Washington against Russia as false.

February 16, 2022 Moscow ends of military exercises on the Crimean peninsula.

February 17, 2022 The United Nations (UN) Security Council holds a session on the seventh anniversary of the Minsk Agreements, in which the conflict in Donbass is discussed, at the proposal of Russia.

February 18, 2022 The drastic increase in shelling with prohibited weapons inside the Donbass region, violating the Minsk agreements, is reported.

February 21, 2022 The Southern Military District of the Russian Armed Forces eliminates five infiltrators from a group of saboteurs who crossed into the country from Ukrainian territory.

February 21, 2022 President Putin signs the decree establishing Russian recognition of the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and announced that friendship, cooperation and assistance agreements will also be approved between Moscow and those territories.

February 24, 2022 Putin announces the decision to launch a special military operation in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine. The president pointed out that his country in acting in its own defense, in the face of aggression from the West and the threat of NATO expansion.

Nobody expects to find (very many) defenders of the Spanish Inquisition. I did– thanks to my friends at Librería México Antigüo, for only 150 pesos (and delivered to my door!), Alfonso Junco’s Inquisicion sobre la Inquision (a 1967 reprint of a book originally published in 1933… that will be important later).

This is not the modern interpretation… which seeks to get beyond the “Vincent Price movie” scenarios we have, but — based on the actual court records (and the Inquisition was one of the first European courts to keep full transcripts) which present a very different picture.

Not Vincent Price, but not (quite) Monty Python… and, in an era when European states were merrily executing all kinds of dissenters and “free-thinkers”, surprisingly lenient compared to most. As I’m fond of pointing out, between Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, the Tudors, just in little old England, managed to execute somewhere about 10 times their citizenry than the Inquisition did during its entire 250 year history (at a time when the sun never set on the Spanish Empire)… maybe 3000 people, and mostly for what were generic capital crimes (murder, rape, etc.) in the course of their “heresy”. What particularly has struck me, from works like Henry Kaman’s The Spanish Inquisition (Yale University, 1997), is that so many of our preconceptions were wrong: witches were never much of a concern to the Inquisitors (they needed verifiable evidence, not the “spectral evidence” we read about with the Salem trials) which was mostly laid down to mental illness or (here in Mexico) magic mushrooms. And, while people were, indeed, burned at the stake (usually after kindly executions slit the throats or strangled the unfortunate victims) the events were extremely rare, and most of the “people” being burned were effigies of those who’d been condemned but allowed to escape, or died in prison. And, as it was, the inquisitors — as clergymen — were forbidden to shed blood, so any torture (a feature, not a bug, of all European “justice systems” of the time) was limited, and in the rare cases it was used, the accused had to be turned over to the regular courts. As it was, canny lawyers often encouraged their clients to commit blasphemy in court, in order to be transferred to the more lenient inquisition, which also kept cleaner, more sanitary, and safer jails than that housing “ordinary, decent criminals”.

Even if, as Kamen mentions, the 90% of Spaniards would have been unaware that the Inquisition even existed (and my estimate for the colonies is closer to 99%) and never would have been affected by it one way or another, it was designed to root out “thought crimes” and ruthlessly stamp out dissent. With the “Enlightenment” thinkers of the 18th century mostly seeing “heresy” as a relatively harmless difference of opinion rather than a serious criminal matter, and Spain, and its colonial subjects, if not “good” Catholics, at least not openly challenging the supremacy of the Church, the Inquisition mostly turned its attention to crimes by the clergy (especially “seduction”… mostly what today we’d call sexual harrassment, generally taking place during confessions… and incidentally, one reason the Church introduced confession booths to keep the confessor and confesse physically separate) and thorny theological issues related to marriage and family life (one of the more interesting Inqisition investigations in Mexico was in 1758 case of “Mariano Aguilera — an intersex who, intially Mariana,,at adolescence becoming Mariano and considered male by his community and his family. And the family of the girl he wanted to marry, although his parents, and their parish priest, had their doubts as to Mariano’s ability to perform his conjugal duties, as the Church required for a canonical marriage. The inquisitors went to the trouble of meauring Mariano’s vestigal penis, and calling in what passed for sex therapists in their day as consultants in considering whether such a marriage would be lawful. Deciding it wasn’t, the inquisitors refused a marriage license, but … with a wink and a nod… suggested the couple just move somwhere they were unknown, and get on with their lives [Sex and the Colonial Archives: The Case of “Mariano” Aguilera, Hispanic American Historical Review, 2016, 96:3, pp 421-443]). As it was, the Mexican Inquisition had too small a staff (headquartered in Mexico City), and expected to cover a territory stretching at times from Alaska to the Straits of Darien, as well as the Philippines, Guam, and the Pacific Islands to be much of a threat or even a presence to … anyone, including the clergy.

What makes the Inqisition of historical interest — as interesting as Mariano’s case is, and the abiding interest in unquestionably unjust persecutions like that of the Carvajal family (of Jewish descent, the original “sin” was that the head of the family was dealing in indigenous slaves, in violation of Pope Paul III’s bull of 1537, Sublimis Dei, the case went on for years as documents had to be notarized and sent from Spain to Mexico, and ended with a few family members being burned at the stake [García-Molina Riquelme, Antonio M. La familia Carvajal y la Inquisición de México, UNAM, nd]) is less what it did, than how it has been the touchstone for any and all ideolgical persecutions.

The short answer, of course, is it fed into the ideological demands of Spain’s political rivals, especially the English (whose historical point of view most of us inherited), and — from the mid 18th century onwards, of those within Spain and the Spanish speaking world, who sought to reform their governments and/or at the very least separate Church and State, or were inately hostile to the Catholic Church.

Which puts those of us interested in the “Black Legend” in a quandry. The field was originated, and largely dominated by reactionaries, the first scholars having been Spanish monarchists who — while they couldn’t exactly hope to “Make Spain Great Again” — could at least justify the darker corners of their history, and claim Spain had had a “civilizing mission” unlike the perfidious English and devious French and uncouth Dutch, with their heretical and tacky commercial interests in the world.

Which finally brings us to Inquisicion sobre la Inquisicion. Written before the Inquisition archives were open to scholars in the late 1990s, it’s a product as much of its time, as of its author. In 1933, when Inquistion first appeared, Mexico was done with Catholic counter-revolutions, the Cristiada having been crushed by 1929, the remnants either scattered, having taken refuge in the United States, or absorbed into the nascent fascist Synarchist movement. Alfonso Junco was a rare bird, never “officially” a Synarchist, but a fascist none-the-less. Despite his decidenly out of step (especially during the Cardenás era) ideas… openly supporting the Spanish Nationalists while the state was busy rescuing the resettling Spanish leftists and shipping what Ernest Hemingway called “good Mexican rifles” to the Republicans. Along with his intellectual peers like Octavio Paz, willing to fight the good fight against Franco and his minions.

What’s unusual is not that Junco makes some of the same points more modern writers note… the Inquisition wasn’t THAT bad , and there weren’t THAT MANY people burne (yuck!) — he comes up with only 43 in Mexico between 1527 and 1715, based on research published in 1905 — but that he argues that the Inqusition was not only necessary, but moreover correct to insure conformity among the people, and to foster the authoritarian state.

Having written on the Cristero movement (Gorostieta and the Cristiada: Mexico’s Catholic Insurgency 1926-1929, Kindle Edition, 2011… AHEM!!!!) I’ve read plenty of Fascist “historians” and am familiar with Junco’s publisher, Editorial Jus and the pro-Francoist Mexican press of the era. It wasn’t all that unusual at the time to find people defending the “traditional” Church, or even authoritarian government within Mexico (which was, after all, more than slightly authoritarian anyway), or an admiration for Spain (apparently still with us in the 21st century) but the authors of these documents are either forgotten, or like the too-long lived Salvador Borrego ( who, among other books wrote a “. . . glowing biography of Hitler [Pintor, Soldado, Fuehrer], and an  apologia for the Waffen SS . . .” before he was sent to Hell at the age of 103), best forgotten.

Oscar Wilde said “There are no bad books, only badly written ones” and Inquisicion is not all that badly written. There is some useful data, the quotes appear to be correct, and there is value in Junco’s careful exposition of the ideological arguments going back to Aquinas that permitted atrocities, even if — as he (and even I admit) — were less atrocious than many of us have been led to believe. And Junco for all his most grievious faults, was not a bad writer.

Imitatation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but there is only one Café Habana… and it’s not in New York, Tokyo, Malibu, or Miami. Definitely not the last.

While yes, it is of interest that THE Café Habana (corner of Morelos and Bucarelli) has included Fidel Castro and Ché Guevara among their patrons, it is better known as serving up the “drug of choice” (cafe cubano) that fueled Latin American literature, it’s clientele having included at least three Nobel laureates (Octavio Paz, Gabriel García Marquez, Mario Vargas Llosa), as well as any number of novelists, poets, artists, actors, journalists, wannabes, never would bes, and ordinary business men and women.

Certainly, Mexico grew coffee (not great, but decent, coffee), but mostly for export. Cubans, jonesing for a fix of their national beverage, of course hung out there… along with a lot of other people, like intellectuals, a well-known for their “cosmopolitan” and “decadent” tastes for exotica… like decent coffee. And… a decent lunch, near what was then “newspaper row” (and most writers at the time having at least a day job in the dailies) and the theater district.

In the style of mid-20th century branding, a name associated with coffee was a no brainer … Habana. And by way of “Cubanizing” a bunch of sepia prints of various landmarks in that city. And that was all, other than much better (imported) coffee to make it “Cuban”.

In the 21st century, with a cafe on every corner of every city in the Americas (and, thankfully, better domestic coffee in Mexico), a new style of “branding” is called for. That an WiFi though I’ve never seen anyone in THE Café Habana plugging in a laptop.

Well, sure, the chance to pee in the same men’s room used by el Comandante and Ché (though, yes, the plumbing has been upgraded) might be a draw for the adventurous gringo, more is needed when “inspiring” a US knockoff.

When Sean Meenan, a fifth-generation New Yorker and “entrepreneur”, appropriated the name of the Mexico City institution, it hardly fir the style of 21st century branding.

Those “other” Cafés Habana… in New York, Tokyo, etc. being neither Mexican nor Cuban in their origin had to … perhaps what might charitably be labeled ” creatively re-imaginated” … the one and only. Their menus include fake Mexican dishes like burritos — something, if found in Mexico at all, either on a restaurant servicing tourists, usually a US owned chain restaurant, or up on the northern border — and some kind of weird salsa called “chipotle mayonaisse”(when everyone knows the only “real” mayonaisse in Mexico is that with lime in it).

Furthermore, the US style of branding being “celebrity endorsements”, AND… about the only thing people outside Latin America knowing about Cuba is a couple beared commies and a guy on a tee-shirt… dead celebrities of a revolutionary bent are perfect to give it that slightly “edgy” image to compliment it’s off-beat “fusion” menu.

Even with it’s somewhat bizare ideas of what all that means (a portrait of rapper Biggie Smalls as “El Comandante”) the knock-offs seem to have done well in their (hipster) market… until…

… the chain (and nothing ruins a solid institution’s reputation faster than becoming a chain, though thankfully THE Café Habana has been able to defend its turf against the barbarian counterfeits) has made the terrible mistake of assuming fake Cuban (or fake Mexican) would do well in Miami. AKA, Habana Norte in a weird 1950s time warp (three or four generations later).

Where a Cuban establishment in Mexico would perforce mention famous Cubans like Martí or Castro (and there’s a chain of Argentinian restaurants here that have pictures of Eva Peron, Diego Maradona, and Pope Francis in their logo with no one paying much attention) in Miami, where Castro and company aren’t hazily recalled historical figures, it goes over about as well as a reference to Hitler might go over in a German restaurant. Unless, of course, “edgy” as a marketing tactic means a slap in the face.

Frías, Carlos “‘Inspired by Che Guevara and Fidel Castro,’ a New York restaurant missteps in Miami” (Miami Herald, 8 February 2022)

Café Habana

Colonel Garduño Nuñez was the last surviving pilot of Mexico’s Escuadron 201, and… the last WWII Mexican combat veteran.
Incidentally, the photos are from the Russian Embassy, the then Soviet Union and Mexico having fought fascists on different fronts well before the other Allies were all in.