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Donald Trump justified his January 29 executive order imposing an oil blockade on Cuba by claiming its government poses “an unusual and extraordinary threat.” Since then, as the Trump administration has rolled out a new wave of punishing sanctions, it has also ramped up its rhetoric portraying Cuba as a national security threat to the United States.

The opposite is true.

This week, we look at how the Trump administration is building a case for economic warfare and military action against Cuba on a foundation of falsehoods.

Also:

May 20: Glorifying Colonial History
The Return of Gunboat Diplomacy
Supreme Court Sides With Heirs of Nazi-Linked Tycoon
Fuel For Everyone, Except Cuba
Shipping Giants Retreat
Don’t Miss Our Latest Documentary in NYC
Former Trump Advisor Eyes Cuba’s Mineral Wealth
Cubans on Rubio: “It’s Not Worth Listening to Him”
Belly of the Beast Recommends

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Manufacturing a Pretext for War on Cuba

For months, the Trump administration has been intensifying the U.S. government’s long-running economic war on Cuba, justifying it on the grounds that the country poses a national security threat.

The claim is both ludicrous and deeply ironic as it is being used to threaten Cuba's own national security.

“The president always has the option to do whatever it takes to support and protect the national interest, the national security of the United States,” Marco Rubio told reporters Thursday. “He has the option to do that if there’s a threat to the national security of the United States and he has shown his willingness to do that when he identifies such a threat.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has characterized Cuba as both a national security threat and a state sponsor of terrorism, while Donald Trump has declared he would “have the honor of taking Cuba” and could “do anything I want” with it.

This rhetoric has been amplified by Cuban-American hardliners calling for military intervention.

The war mongering in Miami and Washington is based on a slew of flimsy accusations casting Cuba as a national security threat. The Trump administration has accused Cuba of hosting Russian and Chinese spy bases, welcoming Hezbollah and Hamas, sponsoring terrorism, and “spreading communist ideas” around the Western Hemisphere.

Watch Belly of the Beast journalist Liz Oliva Fernández debunk the falsehoods driving the latest push for confrontation with Cuba.

Cuba's latest alleged threat surfaced thanks to a report by Axios, which cited “classified intelligence” alleging that Cuba has amassed more than 300 drones for potential attacks on the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay, U.S. military vessels and “possibly Key West.” Buried in the same report, U.S. officials acknowledge that Cuba poses no imminent threat and is not actively planning attacks. But the story served its purpose.

Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL) claimed the report shows that “the Cuban regime” must be treated as a serious danger to U.S. security, while Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) tweeted that Cuba “must be dealt with accordingly.” Meanwhile, the Trump administration is now reviewing options for a “preemptive military action.”

As with almost anything Trump administration officials or Cuban-American hardliners say about Cuba, the reality is the exact opposite of what they assert.

Since its 1959 revolution, Cuba has not launched a military attack on the United States. Yet Cuba has been the victim of countless attacks carried out with the support or complicity of the U.S. government.

“Cuba doesn’t pose a threat to U.S. national security, not in the past, not in the present, not in the future,” Cuba’s ambassador to the UN Ernesto Soberón Guzmán said on MS NOW.

Former CIA Director Robert Gates agreed on Face the Nation last week, acknowledging that Cuba does not pose a national security threat.

Watch Liz break down the recent Axios report.

Another Step Toward Confrontation

The latest pretext for a military attack on Cuba came Wednesday, when U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche announced criminal charges against Raúl Castro, accusing Cuba’s former president and defense minister of responsibility for the 1996 shoot-down of two Cessna aircraft operated by the Cuban-American exile group Brothers to the Rescue.

Flanked by Trump appointees and political allies, including Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL) and FBI Deputy Director Christopher Raia, Blanche declared: “If you kill Americans, we will pursue you, no matter who you are, no matter what title you hold, and in this case, no matter how much time has passed.”

Blanche was unable to explain the indictment’s timing.

“I cannot explain or justify why now as opposed to two decades ago or 30 years ago when it happened,” he said.

Watch Blanche’s comments HERE.

The pending indictment rests on a familiar double standard: violence against Cuba is tolerated, while Cuba’s response to it is criminalized.

Brothers to the Rescue was founded by José Basulto, a veteran of the botched Bay of Pigs invasion and CIA collaborator with a history of violent actions against Cuba. In 1962, Basulto helped position a boat armed with a 20mm cannon off the coast of Havana and fired on the Hornedo de Rosita hotel, where he believed Fidel Castro would be dining, according to The Atlantic.

“I was trained as a terrorist by the United States,” Basulto said.

Later in life, Basulto claimed to have renounced violence. In 1991, Brothers to the Rescue began flying search-and-rescue missions for rafters in the Florida Straits, but later shifted to provocative incursions into Cuban airspace aimed at provoking a "confrontation" with the Cuban government. The group violated Cuban airspace multiple times, dropping religious medallions and anti-government leaflets over Havana.

Despite repeated diplomatic protests from the Cuban government, back-channel communications, and multiple warnings to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Brothers to the Rescue continued its provocative flights.

Declassified FAA documents obtained and published by the National Security Archive illustrate mounting U.S. concern “that repeated penetrations of Cuban airspace would eventually lead to a crisis."

For a detailed account of the diplomatic exchanges and events leading up to the Brothers to the Rescue shoot-down, check out the book “Back Channel to Cuba” by William M. LeoGrande and Peter Kornbluh.

The “Terrorist” Double Standard

Raúl Castro's indictment is not the first time the downing of the Brothers to the Rescue planes has been used to advance a politically motivated prosecution. In 2001, Gerardo Hernández was convicted on conspiracy charges related to the shoot-down, despite no evidence that he participated in, ordered, or had foreknowledge of the decision to down the aircraft.

Hernández was one of the Cuban Five, a group of Cuban operatives who were sent undercover to South Florida to monitor terrorist organizations linked to attacks against civilians in Cuba. Thanks to the information they obtained, in 1998, Cuban officials handed the FBI extensive documentation detailing dozens of U.S.-financed terrorist plots. The FBI responded by arresting the operatives who had infiltrated the Florida-based terrorist networks.

“How many times would the United States allow someone from Al Qaeda who said, ‘Now, I’m a pacifist…and I want to take a plane and fly over the White House without permission and drop things?’” asked Hernández, who was released in 2014 in a prisoner exchange, in a video posted by the state-run media outlet Granma. “Would the United States tolerate that even once? Cuba tolerated it 16 times.”

While the U.S. government has accused Cuba — without credible evidence — of sponsoring terrorism, it has a long history of sponsoring terrorism against Cuba. The most infamous example is Cubana Flight 455. Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles are widely believed to have masterminded the 1976 bombing of the civilian airliner, which exploded off the coast of Barbados, killing all 73 people on board. At the time, it was the deadliest act of airline terrorism in the Western Hemisphere. The victims included children and every member of Cuba’s national fencing team.

Far from prosecuting Bosch and Posada Carriles, the U.S. government ultimately shielded both men, who lived freely in Miami until their deaths.

Meanwhile, since September 2025, the United States has launched nearly 60 military strikes against vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific under Operation Southern Spear, claiming to target “narco-traffickers” and “terrorist organizations.” The operations have killed at least 193 people.

Check out our latest article by Nicholas Greven for more on Raúl Castro's indictment and Washington’s double standard on violence in the Caribbean.

May 20: Glorifying Colonial History

The timing of the indictment was deliberate.

May 20 is celebrated in Miami as Cuba’s Independence Day.

But in Cuba, most Cubans either don’t know its significance or consider it a reminder of U.S. neocolonial domination, which persisted until the 1959 Revolution.

On May 20, 1902, a four-year U.S. military occupation ended and Cuba officially became a republic. But Cuba was still controlled by the United States. Cuba’s new constitution allowed the U.S. to invade militarily whenever it wanted and the island was forced to hand over Guantanamo Bay to the U.S.

“Trump wants to turn the clock back to May 20, 1902, when our flag went up, but we lost our sovereignty,” said Liz in her recent explainer about what May 20 means for Cubans in Cuba.

The Return of Gunboat Diplomacy

Hours after the Justice Department indicted Raúl Castro, the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) announced that the USS Nimitz, one of the world’s largest nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, had entered the Caribbean Sea.

The Nimitz Strike Group includes fighter jets, destroyers, and missile systems capable of devastating military strikes. SOUTHCOM calls it the “epitome” of “unmatched reach and lethality.”

Trump officials say the move is simply a “show of force."

Supreme Court Sides With Heirs of Nazi-Linked Tycoon

The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a setback Thursday to four major cruise companies, ruling 8–1 that they can be held liable under the 1996 Helms-Burton Act for using docks in the port of Havana nationalized after the Cuban Revolution. The ruling overturned an appellate court decision that had previously shielded the companies from up to $440 million in damages.

The lawsuit was brought by Havana Docks Corporation, which claims it is owed compensation by Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line and MSC Cruises. All four companies used the docks in Havana during the Obama administration’s opening with Cuba.

Havana Docks, which used to be run by Sosthenes Behn, a telecommunications tycoon who was the first “representative of American finance” to meet with Adolf Hitler and "helped build up the Nazi war machine," never owned the docks. Instead, the company owned a non-exclusive lease to operate a cargo business on the docks, which it was obligated to return to the Cuban government in 2004, more than a decade before the cruise ships began bringing U.S. visitors to Havana.

The majority opinion, delivered by Justice Clarence Thomas, adopted a broad view of “trafficking," arguing that “property” can include an expired lease. The lone dissenter, Justice Elena Kagan, argued Congress did not intend for time-limited claims to be used to assert trafficking “to infinity and beyond.”

The Havana Docks case was made possible by Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, which allows U.S. nationals to sue companies accused of “trafficking” in Cuban property that was nationalized after the Cuban revolution. Title III was suspended for 23 years by successive administrations to avoid legal conflicts with U.S. allies doing business in Cuba. In May 2019, Trump activated Title III for the first time since Helms-Burton was enacted, making it a central component of his administration's "maximum pressure" campaign against Cuba.

The activation of Title III was not a sudden policy shift but the culmination of a lobbying campaign funded by heirs of wealthy families who once owned property in pre-revolutionary Cuba.

Read our in-depth article about the Title III lobbying campaign that sought to crush foreign investment on the island.

Fuel For Everyone, Except Cuba

The Treasury Department extended a waiver Monday allowing countries around the world to receive sanctioned Russian oil already at sea. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed the waiver was intended to “ensure oil reaches the most energy-vulnerable countries.” Cuba was explicitly excluded from the list of countries.

Cuban officials recently said the island had exhausted its remaining fuel oil and diesel reserves following four months of a U.S. oil blockade. As blackouts stretch to 22 hours a day in the capital and the United Nations warns of heightened food insecurity across the country, the Trump administration continues to block desperately needed fuel shipments.

“We have absolutely no fuel, we have absolutely no diesel,” said Cuba’s Minister of Energy and Mines Vincent de la O Levy last week.

The admission follows a period of unprecedented economic strangulation imposed by the U.S. government.

The only major fuel shipment Cuba has received in recent months came on March 31, when the Russian tanker Anatoly Kolodkin delivered 730,000 barrels of crude oil to the Port of Matanzas, a delivery for which Trump made an exception.

“It’s not going to have an impact,” Trump said. “Cuba’s finished…whether or not they get a boat of oil, it’s not going to matter.”

The Russian-flagged tanker Universal, carrying 270,000 barrels of desperately needed diesel fuel, is one of the Russian tankers “currently stranded at sea,” roughly 1,000 miles from Cuba.

Shipping Giants Retreat

Two of the world’s largest shipping companies, Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd and France’s CMA CGM, are the latest casualties of Trump’s May 1 Executive Order, joining a growing list of companies intimidated by the Trump administration into cutting ties with Cuba.

Hapag-Lloyd announced Sunday it was suspending all bookings to Cuba "due to compliance risks associated with the U.S. president's executive order of May 1." CMA CGM also confirmed on Sunday: “Following the U.S. Executive ⁠Order issued on May 1, CMA CGM has decided to suspend its bookings to or from Cuba until further notice.”

Trump’s May 1 executive order gives Secretary of State Marco Rubio broad authority to impose secondary sanctions, travel bans and asset freezes on any foreign individual, entity or bank found to have “operated” in any sector of the Cuban economy, effectively isolating the island from the rest of the world.

Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM constituted 60% of Cuba’s shipping traffic.

Don’t Miss Our Latest Documentary in NYC

The U.S. deems Cuba’s medical missions “forced labor.” The Cuban government calls the doctors heroes.

We traveled to Calabria, Italy, to see for ourselves how one of these missions actually works.

Don’t miss our documentary From Cuba to Calabria, which will have its U.S. premiere on June 4 at the People’s Forum in New York City, followed by a panel discussion on the U.S. campaign to discredit Cuba’s health internationalism.

When: Saturday, June 4, 2026 | 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM EST

Where: The People’s Forum (Paul Robeson Theater) | 320 W. 37th Street, New York, NY

Admission: Free and open to the public (Co-sponsored by Progressive International)

RSVP HERE!

For those in Los Angeles…

Join our friends at Travel With Purpose as they present Liberación Collective: Cuba & Palestine, an unforgettable night of solidarity, comedy and dance to raise funds for an Afro-Cuban farming collective and Palestinian refugees in Jordan.

When: Sunday, May 24, 2026 | 4:00 PM – 11:00 PM PST

Where: The Miracle Theater Inglewood | 226 S. Market Street, Inglewood, CA

Featuring: Legendary comedians Bassem Youssef, Dave Merheje and Aida Rodriguez.

Get your tickets HERE!

Former Trump Advisor Eyes Cuba’s Mineral Wealth

Sherritt International, a Canadian mining company that has operated for decades in Cuba, announced Tuesday it is no longer dissolving operations on the island, but instead negotiating a majority sale of shares to U.S.-based Gillon Capital, a family private investment firm headed by former Trump advisor Ray Washburne.

Earlier this May, Sherritt announced that it would halt its mining operations in Cuba following Trump’s May 1 secondary sanctions, saying the “executive order itself creates conditions that materially alter the Corporation’s ability to operate.”

Washburne is a close ally of Trump. He was appointed by Trump during his first administration as CEO of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, a U.S. government agency that “helps American businesses expand into developing markets by providing them with tools to manage risks associated with foreign direct investment."

In 2019, Washburne was appointed to the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board as well as the Advisory Board of SOUTHCOM.

According to a statement issued by Sherritt, the State Department and Treasury Department have stated they “do not object to Gillon Capital’s engagement in negotiations” with Sherritt, nor do they “consider such negotiations to be contrary to U.S. law.”

The offer “came out of nowhere,” said Sherritt’s interim CEO, Peter Hancock, adding that he “didn’t foresee that.”

“This deal happened because an actor in the United States was able to make a case to the U.S. State Department,” Hancock noted, suggesting that “the posture of the U.S. government with respect to this deal opens up a much wider world of financing.”

Ben Rowswell, a former Canadian ambassador to Venezuela, told the Financial Post that this recent development offers “further insight into the changing character of the U.S. relationship with the region as it’s turning into an extractive predator.”

Cubans on Rubio: “It’s Not Worth Listening to Him”

“The reason you are forced to survive 22 hours a day without electricity is not due to a U.S. oil blockade,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a video posted Wednesday.

We spoke with Cubans on the street about Rubio’s comments.

“It’s just that I despise Marco Rubio so much that it’s not even worth listening to anything he says,” said Lucía Miret, 76, a retired teacher.

“It’s no secret to anyone that the blockade exists,” said Daimara Pérez, a doctor. “If the blockade didn’t exist then they should let the ships in.”

Watch our video HERE.

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Havana-based journalist Ed Augustin spoke with Democracy Now! Wednesday about the impact of the U.S. government's economic war on Cuba. "It's harrowing to see the immiseration of the entire population," he said. Augustin was joined by the National Security Archive’s Peter Kornbluh, who spoke about his recent article in The Nation, which reveals the overlooked context of the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue shoot-down and what the Justice Department's recent indictment of Raúl Castro could mean for the future of U.S.–Cuba relations.

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