Donald Trump declared the Cuban government an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to the United States in January 2026. His executive order featured the usual accusations: Cuba was aligned with Russia, China, Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah; Cuba hosted hostile intelligence capabilities; Cuba spread communist ideas across the hemisphere. To meet the supposed threat, the order created a secondary tariff system against any country that directly or indirectly sold or provided oil to Cuba.
20th May 2025, Cuban Independence Day, saw U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio deliver a message in Spanish, “directly” to the Cuban people, in their independent country promising “freedom”.
The US energy blockade results in power blackouts and acute shortages. Last week, Cuba’s energy minister Vicente de la O Levy said the country had “absolutely no” diesel and “absolutely no” fuel oil. “We have no reserves,” he said.
Then came the bribe.
$100 million dollars in food and medicine.
Rubio said the aid could be delivered through the Catholic Church and other US charities, directly to the Cuban people.
Rubio blames Cubans’ lack of electricity, fuel or food on the alleged greed of their own rulers and GAESA, the state-owned consortium that runs large parts of Cuba’s economy. The following day in Miami, ICE arrested Adys Lastres Morera, sister of GAESA’s executive president, calling her a “a deportable lawful permanent resident.”
Since January, one lone Russian tanker has delivered desparately needed fuel to generate electricity for homes, businesses, public infrastructure and transportation.
20th May 2026 was a busy day for the Trump administration.
First, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed an indictment and issued a warrant against Raúl Castro, 94, and five co-defendants, over the 1996 shooting down of two Cessna aircraft operated by the apparently CIA-backed “Brothers To The Rescue”, an organisation opposed to Fidel Castro’s government.
Secondly, the U.S. Southern Command deployed the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group to the Caribbean for “readiness and presence, unmatched reach and lethality, and strategic advantage”.
And on 21st May, the Supreme Court revived claims brought under the Helms-Burton Act by Havana Docks, a US company seeking compensation for property confiscated after the Cuban Revolution of 1959, setting aside a lower court decision that threw out $440 million in rulings against cruise companies that docked in Havana during the Obama era.
Donald Trump insists that his administration will succeed in bringing the Cuban government round to Washington’s side: “I think we’re going to turn things around”. Will this be as successful as Trump’s colonisation of Venezuela?
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