Cuba asks why US tightens sanctions despite sweeping economic reforms – India Today
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Cuba Watch
U.S. ramps up Cuba sanctions, detentions of Americans returning from island – National– globalnews.ca
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U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is increasing pressure on Cuba by imposing more economic penalties on industries in the heavily sanctioned socialist country and broadening enforcement of laws that bar Americans who visit the island from dealings with government-owned or -affiliated businesses.
The Treasury and State departments announced Thursday that they are leveling new penalties against nine state-owned mining, metal and construction companies along with the leadership of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, or ICAP. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the institute is responsible for sponsoring “a vast subversive network in the United States aimed at identifying, cultivating, and radicalizing” Americans.
“Just days ago, the regime attempted to use Communist kingpin and despot Fidel Castro’s 100th birthday to reinvigorate this subversive network, ferrying a new brigade of international sympathizers to Havana to network with regime officials,” Rubio said in a statement.
“The Trump Administration will not stand by while a hostile foreign power seeks to exploit our freedoms — none of which are afforded to its people — by misleading and corrupting American citizens with lies, spy tradecraft, and other malfeasance as part of the regime’s raison d’être of exporting Marxism, racial resentment, and Communist violence across the world,” Rubio said.
Trump Administration Expands Intelligence Operations in Cuba’s Communist Regime › American Greatness– amgreatness.com
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The Trump administration has expanded U.S. intelligence operations in Cuba in recent months, according to two people familiar with the effort, as Washington intensifies pressure on the island’s communist government to reform or collapse.
One person said the United States has recently sent additional spies and intelligence assets into Cuba but declined to detail the scope of the effort or which of the 18 U.S. intelligence agencies are involved, citing concerns about compromising operations. A second person described the shift as an increase in the CIA’s presence on the island but similarly declined to give specifics. Both spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the matter.
The buildup could lay groundwork for a range of options, from covert efforts to turn Cuban officials and citizens against the regime to a potential U.S. military operation. One of the people called the intelligence surge a key tactical step, though they cautioned the shape of any eventual operation remains undefined. Cuba sits just 90 miles from American shores.
Trump’s Brutal Blockade on Cuba Harkens Back to the Days of US Invasions – Truthout
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US State Department report accuses Cuba of helping Iran expand influence in Americas – thenationalnews.com
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Cuba Built a Network of American Activist Groups to Turn Against U.S. Policy › American Greatness– amgreatness.com
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A new State Department report contends Cuba has spent years quietly building a network of sympathetic American activist groups it can mobilize against U.S. policy, citing a recently circulated nationwide protest plan as evidence.
The plan, distributed in June as the “National Rapid Response Plan,” came from the National Network on Cuba (NNOC), a U.S. coalition of more than 60 organizations. The State Department ties the coalition to Havana through the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, or ICAP, a Cuban entity sanctioned in June over alleged support for Cuban intelligence operations.
The document instructs organizers to launch “coordinated nationwide actions” within 24 hours of any U.S. strike on Cuba, aiming to make it “politically and materially costly for the U.S. government to wage war on Cuba.” The report calls the plan proof of Cuba’s “subversive capabilities on American territory.”
Organizers are told to converge on federal buildings, courthouses, military bases and ICE facilities. The plan seeks to “connect Cuba solidarity to anti-ICE/immigrant defense work happening nationwide” and points activists to a database mapping 1,335 U.S. military and law-enforcement sites in the Western Hemisphere.
The Pentagon is considering a landing operation in Cuba – Inbox.lv
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Cuba suffered another blackout of the National Electric System, or SEN, on Tuesday, leaving the entire island country without power, officials said, in what was the third such incident in less than two weeks as a US oil embargo stresses the island’s grid.
Since January, when US President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on any nation that supplies or sells oil to the island, fuel has been scarce across Cuba, exacerbating the island’s continuing financial and economic crises.
Public transportation has largely been halted, and officials have cancelled tens of thousands of surgeries.
Cuba produces only 40% of the fuel it needs, and a solution for fuel imports is not yet in sight.
The state-owned Electric Union reported that a problem with a generating unit in the eastern province of Holguín caused “a sudden frequency change”, resulting in the SEN blackout around midday.
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Cuba has suffered its third nationwide power blackout since the start of the year, as the country’s fuel reserves diminish and its electric grid crumbles due to an energy crisis precipitated by the US fuel blockade.
The blackout in the country of nearly 10 million people was reported on Monday by the state-run Electric Union, which said that the cause is under investigation.
Cuba’s Energy and Mines Minister Vicente de la O Levy said protocols were quickly activated to restore electricity throughout Cuba after the outage.
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HAVANA — Talks between Cuba and the U.S. are at a standstill, despite the island recently approving a series of free-market reforms, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez announced Tuesday.
He noted that the newly unveiled reforms were neither mentioned nor discussed in earlier talks between the two nations.
“The recently announced (measures) are a matter of total and absolute sovereignty,” Rodriguez said. “We have neither listened to nor are we interested in the U.S. government’s opinion on them.”
But he said it was striking that they “were met with a new package of unilateral coercive measures … against Cuba.”
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The US government announced sanctions against Cuba’s state-owned oil and gas company on Thursday in a move expected to increase tensions between the two countries.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio asserted that key assets of the company, known as Cupet, were “unlawfully expropriated from American owners years ago.”
He also accused Cuba’s government of weaponising energy.
U.S. sanctions Cuba’s president, others in latest move to pressure leaders – National– globalnews.ca
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The United States has imposed sanctions on Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, along with his wife and three other individuals, according to a filing Thursday from the U.S. Treasury Department. It’s the latest Trump administration move to pressure the island’s leadership.
Included in the sanctions are Alejandro Castro Espín, the sole son of former President Raúl Castro and Vilma Espín. He served as an adviser to Cuba’s Defense and National Security Commission and was present when Raúl Castro greeted then-U.S. President Barack Obama in Havana during a historic March 2016 meeting. Castro Espín’s son, Raúl Alejandro Castro Calis, was also listed.
The sanctions come after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order expanding sanctions against the island and has been threatening military action ever since ousting Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January and then ordering an energy blockade that choked off fuel shipments to Cuba. That has led to severe blackouts, food shortages and an economic collapse across the island.
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The Trump administration is rolling out what experts describe as the most significant expansion of U.S. sanctions on Cuba in decades.
The administration is attempting what supporters say is the first broad application of Cuba-related secondary sanctions against foreign firms, aiming not only at Havana itself but also at foreign companies and banks that continue doing business with the island’s military-linked economic empire.
The new framework, established under an executive order signed by President Donald Trump May 1, applies pressure beyond U.S. companies for the first time, threatening foreign firms with sanctions exposure if they continue operating in key sectors of the Cuban economy linked to Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A., or GAESA.
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The US will continue to ramp up economic pressure on the island, sources have told the outlet
US President Donald Trump is set to escalate Washington’s economic pressure campaign on Cuba in an attempt to force regime change, Axios reported on Friday, citing sources. The island is already enduring near-total fuel starvation and daily blackouts stretching up to 20 hours.
The US has thus far opted for a phased campaign designed to choke Havana, but which avoids a direct military invasion, several unnamed officials told the outlet.
“The best way to describe it is ‘accelerationism,’” one senior official said, referring to the philosophy of hastening societal collapse. “But we don’t want to kill off the regime just yet. There’s a method to this. It’s in stages.”
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The Pentagon has reportedly spent months putting key military assets into position near Cuba, fueling speculation that the Trump administration is laying the groundwork for potential military action against the communist-led island nation.
U.S. military planners have quietly expanded naval deployments, surveillance operations and regional force positioning in the Caribbean as tensions between Washington and Havana continue to intensify according to a recent report from Politico.
The developments come after President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this year labeling Cuba an “extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security. The administration has accused the Cuban government of strengthening ties with hostile foreign actors, including Russia, China, Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah, while allegedly allowing foreign intelligence operations to target the United States from just 90 miles off the Florida coast.
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On Tuesday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) said that picking up Raul Castro in Cuba wouldn’t be difficult, but he thinks that, due to a desire by Castro to avoid dying in prison, “Raul Castro is going to leave the country, along with his family” “before we pick him up.”
Scott said, “Well, let’s remember, the Cubans were supporting — were defending Maduro, and that took, what, seven minutes to take out Maduro? So, it won’t take much to pick up Raul Castro. And the people of Cuba are already –.”
Co-host Kailey Leinz then cut in to ask, “You expect that to happen?”
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Cuba’s acquisition of more than 300 attack drones from Iran and Russia since 2023 underscores the regime’s deepening alignment with Washington’s adversaries. Cuban planners have reportedly discussed strikes against Guantanamo Bay, U.S. naval vessels, and even Key West, Florida. While these systems provide Havana with a limited harassment and asymmetric strike capability, they do nothing to narrow the overwhelming gap between Cuban and American military power.
Yet, Cuba poses a direct threat to American homeland security through migration waves, narcotics transshipment, espionage, and now drone threats. Over 600,000 Cubans have attempted or reached U.S. shores since 2021, surpassing the Mariel boatlift and the 1994 rafting crisis combined, straining resources and creating security vulnerabilities. Pentagon contingency planning intensified this month with the USS Nimitz carrier group deployed to the Caribbean, underscoring the urgency.
Cuba fields 50,000 active troops, 40,000 reserves, and approximately 1.1 million personnel in its Territorial Troops Militia. Its air force operates roughly 20 aircraft. The army possesses around 300 aging T-55 and T-62 tanks, Soviet-era artillery, and surface-to-air missile launchers upgraded by Belarus in 2025. Global Firepower ranks Cuba 65th globally, a position that conceals obsolescence and systemic decay
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EXCERPT:
Cuba’s acquisition of more than 300 attack drones from Iran and Russia since 2023 underscores the regime’s deepening alignment with Washington’s adversaries. Cuban planners have reportedly discussed strikes against Guantanamo Bay, U.S. naval vessels, and even Key West, Florida. While these systems provide Havana with a limited harassment and asymmetric strike capability, they do nothing to narrow the overwhelming gap between Cuban and American military power.
Yet, Cuba poses a direct threat to American homeland security through migration waves, narcotics transshipment, espionage, and now drone threats. Over 600,000 Cubans have attempted or reached U.S. shores since 2021, surpassing the Mariel boatlift and the 1994 rafting crisis combined, straining resources and creating security vulnerabilities. Pentagon contingency planning intensified this month with the USS Nimitz carrier group deployed to the Caribbean, underscoring the urgency.
Cuba fields 50,000 active troops, 40,000 reserves, and approximately 1.1 million personnel in its Territorial Troops Militia. Its air force operates roughly 20 aircraft. The army possesses around 300 aging T-55 and T-62 tanks, Soviet-era artillery, and surface-to-air missile launchers upgraded by Belarus in 2025. Global Firepower ranks Cuba 65th globally, a position that conceals obsolescence and systemic decay.
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CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Cuba on Thursday for meetings with senior Cuban officials, including the grandson of former communist leader Raúl Castro, as the Trump administration pursues renewed pressure and negotiations with the island’s government.
According to US and Cuban officials, Ratcliffe met with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, Cuban Interior Minister Lázaro Álvarez Casas, and Cuban intelligence leaders during the visit. Discussions reportedly focused on intelligence cooperation, economic conditions, and regional security issues.
A CIA official said Ratcliffe traveled to Havana “to personally deliver President Donald Trump’s message that the United States is prepared to seriously engage on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba makes fundamental changes.”
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The United States, with “America First” President Donald Trump at the helm, along with his anti-Castro Cuban-American Secretary of State Marco Rubio, has been putting the pressure on the communist regime founded in 1959 by that infamous revolutionary, Fidel Castro. In an executive order issued in May, the president deemed the island country, which is only 90 miles off the Florida Keys, an “unusual and extraordinary threat,” and the administration has been busy since slamming them with sanctions and cutting off their oil supplies.
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The United States is taking steps to pursue a federal indictment against Raúl Castro, the 94-year-old former president of Cuba and brother of the late Fidel Castro, according to U.S. officials with knowledge of the situation.
The potential charges center on his alleged role in ordering the 1996 shootdown of two civilian aircraft operated by the Miami-based humanitarian group Brothers to the Rescue, according to a report from CBS News.
The 1996 incident occurred on February 24, when Cuban MiG fighter jets shot down two unarmed Cessna aircraft flying in international airspace north of Cuba. The planes were part of Brothers to the Rescue, a nonprofit organization that conducted search-and-rescue missions for Cuban rafters attempting to reach the United States and dropped leaflets over Cuba.
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Cuba lost the source for around half its fuel needs when US forces snatched Venezuela’s president in a stunning January raid, with his successor complying with US pressure not to aid the island.
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Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) publicly confessed to working with foreign governments to undermine U.S. policy in Cuba.
She declared, “I was in conversations with the ambassadors from Mexico and some other places, other countries in Latin America trying to figure out how to get oil there. I’ve called these sanctions an economic bombing of the infrastructure of Cuba.”
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The Trump administration just slammed the door on an effort by Cuba’s communist government to secure an economic lifeline while appearing to embrace reform. A May 1 executive order expands and sharpens longstanding American sanctions on Cuba, and appears to deliberately target a recent gesture at partially opening the Cuban economy. “All property and interests in property that are in the United States,” the order says, are barred from operating “in the energy, defense and related materiel, metals and mining, financial services, or security sector of the Cuban economy, or any other sector of the Cuban economy,” under the penalty of economic sanctions.
On March 16, in a bid for survival, the communist government of Cuba had announced a series of intended though vaguely executed reforms that would allow foreign investment in the island from Cubans living overseas. The reforms were to include a supposed expansion of private property rights. Deputy Prime Minister Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga said that the country was “open to maintaining a fluid commercial relationship with U.S. companies.”
Asked by email if the May 1 order was a deliberate response to the March 16 Cuban announcement, a State Department spokesman referred The Federalist to comments made on April 27 by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants. In a long discussion with Fox News Chief Foreign Correspondent Trey Yingst, Rubio rejected the possibility of reform under the current Cuban government, describing Cuba as “a failed state.”
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President Donald Trump issued an ultimatum to the Cuban government, urging it to release political prisoners or face continued blackouts, fuel shortages and other problems.
Washington is currently maintaining a blockade in the region, preventing Cuba from receiving shipments of oil and other resources. The move is aimed at pressuring the Cuban government to remove the Castro family from power, release political prisoners, hold free elections, and restore civil liberties to the public. The president has also imposed tariffs on countries that provide oil to the Cuban regime.
CUBA COLLAPSING: The Cuban Communist Regime just started releasing prisoners HOURS after their amnesty announcement…completely folding under President Trump’s brutal pressure campaign and oil blockade.
Obama kissed their asses for years and got ZERO. pic.twitter.com/5ojSWbnh0n
— Liz Churchill (@liz_churchill10) April 4, 2026
Cuba’s president says ‘we will defend ourselves’ against U.S. invasion – National– globalnews.ca
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Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said the island “will defend ourselves” against a U.S. invasion in an interview on NBC News’ Meet the Press on Sunday.
Díaz-Canel, 65, said the U.S. has no valid reason to carry out a military attack against the island or to attempt to depose him.
He said an invasion of Cuba would be costly and affect regional security, but should it happen, Cubans would defend themselves — even if it meant losing their lives in the process.
