A day after President Donald Trump predicted (again) that Cuba would “fall,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio fielded questions from journalists about U.S. policy toward the island.
As usual, Rubio’s dubious claims sailed through the press pool without serious follow-up.
This week, we take a closer look at what Trump and Rubio keep saying about Cuba—and raise the questions reporters with access to them aren’t asking.
Also:
Our Armed Incursion Story Goes Viral in Miami
Blackouts Can’t Stop Movie Night in Havana
“What Are You Doing Mr. Secretary?”
U.S. Lawmaker on Blockade: "It’s Evil”
Our Armed Incursion Story Goes Viral in Miami
On Wednesday, Belly of the Beast published the first public account by participants in the armed incursion from Florida that ended in failure off Cuba’s coast last February.
In collaboration with Drop Site and Miami New Times, Journalist Reed Lindsay interviewed four of the five survivors, Cuban government investigators and people connected to the men in the United States. If you haven’t read the article yet, check it out HERE.
Within hours of publication, the story ricocheted through Miami’s Spanish-language Cuba media ecosystem, from CiberCuba to influencer Alexander Otaola (who referred to us as “Belly and the Beast”).
But even as some Miami media questioned our access and attempted to smear us as an "ally of Castroism,” they struggled to poke holes in the reporting—largely leaving our findings unchallenged while repeating them to their own audiences.
Diario de Cubacalled our story an “unusual investigative article from the international press” and Cubanos por el Mundoacknowledged that our reporting forced it to correct its previous description of the boat used to stage the incursion as a “civilian vessel.”
“The new report includes testimony from survivors who describe weapons on board and an intention to enter Cuba to provoke an uprising. That information makes it untenable to characterize the boat as simply a recreational vessel,” wrote reporter Luis Perdomo.
Univision’s Javier Díaz closed his report with a tip of the cap, calling our article “a very extensive investigation.”
Screenshot of Univision's report about our article
Join Us on Substack!
Belly of the Beast is now on Substack!
Follow us on Substack to stay up-to-date on our reporting, including new videos, notes from our journalists and stories we’re following about Cuba.
In Havana’s Colón neighborhood, residents have found one way to take their minds off the nightly blackouts.
Every weekend, Cuban documentary filmmaker Gloria Rolando Casamayor gathers people in her community for a movie screening. Her neighbor, Raúl, sets up Gloria’s portable projector—a gift from Cuba’s minister of culture—in a street that, due to a quirk in how the electrical cables run underground, still has power even as the rest of the neighborhood goes dark.
“It keeps us entertained when the power goes out,” said community member María Cecilia Pérez León.
Rolando’s screenings honor a tradition dating back to the 1960s, when Cuba’s revolutionary government sent trucks mounted with 35-millimeter projectors across the island.
Today, she carries that tradition to her own neighborhood.
“Anything that brings culture into the community is good,” she said. “People are already dealing with blackouts and other problems. So this is a small contribution to make life a little easier.”
Watch our video about the community screenings HERE.
Donald Trump addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, setting his crosshairs on Cuba after threatening to “annihilate” Iran.
“It’s an absolutely failed state,” Trump said. “It’s failing like never before, and it will fall.”
Trump has made similar predictions for months. In January, he said the island was "ready to fall" and "going down for the count." In February, he floated a "friendly takeover." In March, he said Cuba would "fall pretty soon" and that "Cuba is next."
He repeated variations of claims that Cuba "is failing" or "will fall" in April, May and June.
If the overly confident predictions were just Trump being Trump, what came next was pure Marco Rubio.
Squinting as if reading prepared remarks from the teleprompter, Trump accused Cuba of providing a safe haven for foreign adversaries to “threaten America” and cultivating ties with “subversive and radical groups,” including Communist Party USA, Antifa and the Democratic Socialists of America.
The allegations come from the State Department’s 100-page July report, which accused Cuba of influencing virtually every major progressive movement, organization, protest and activist in the United States over the last 65 years. Even Belly of the Beast was mentioned in the report.
“I don’t know what’s going on with Cuba but they’re not looking too good,” said Trump.
He said Rubio had “figured it all out” and was “deep into negotiations with Cuba.”
There is little public evidence that the two governments are in negotiations at all, much less “deep” ones.
Earlier this month, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said there were “no negotiations or agendas” between the two governments, although communication channels remained open.
Cuba’s delegation walked out of the General Assembly hall during Trump’s remarks.
Most of the conference was focused on Iran and other issues, but Cuba came up several times.
“How come I always get the Cuba questions?” Rubio joked.
While Rubio may field a lot of questions about Cuba, he rarely, if ever, gets a tough one.
Once again, he and the press corps performed the same song and dance that has played out for the last year and a half: reporters lob softball questions, and then Rubio answers with sweeping claims, distortions and outright falsehoods that beg for follow-ups, which of course never come.
Apparently, pressing the secretary of state when he makes a dubious claim is a lot to ask of journalists whose job is, in theory, to do exactly that. So we decided to help by drafting some follow-up questions the Washington press corps can ask Rubio the next time he holds court on Cuba.
Rubio (Sept. 23): “Cuba can do trade and commerce with any country in the world they want to outside the United States.”
If Cuba is free to trade with any country but the United States, why has the administration threatened to punish foreign countries, companies and banks for trading with Cuba?
If Cuba is free to trade with any country, why did Trump authorize tariffs against countries that supply Cuba with oil? And why does Trump's May 1 executive order authorize “secondary sanctions” against any foreign company or person that “operates in the Cuban economy?”
How do you explain the fact that, as reported by the New York Times, thousands of containers filled with food, medicine and other goods bound for Cuba have been stranded throughout the Caribbean because two European shipping companies stopped deliveries to avoid U.S. sanctions?
Rubio (Sept. 23): “There are some [American] companies and individuals and others that would love to be involved in Cuba’s economic future. But right now, that’s not possible; (a) it’s not feasible, because of Helms-Burton, and also because of the lack of certainty about its future.”
“You acknowledge that Helms-Burton makes investment in Cuba ‘not feasible’ for American companies. What effect does Title III—which exposes foreign companies to lawsuits in U.S. courts—have on foreign investment?”
Rubio (Sept. 23): “Our preference always is to deal with these things in a – I don’t want to call it diplomatic, but in a negotiated way, in a political way, in a way in which progress is made through substantial changes to a country that don’t involve the use of military force.”
Why don't you want to call it diplomatic? How is dealing with these things in a "negotiated way" not diplomatic?
President Trump said you are “deep into negotiations with Cuba.” Cuban officials say there are “no negotiations.” Please confirm if you are negotiating or not with Cuba.
If you are negotiating, with whom are you negotiating, what issues are you negotiating and what progress has been made?
Rubio (Sept. 23): “There are some individuals in that regime with whom we can never work because their hands are stained in blood.”
Who are the individuals whose hands are stained in blood and what specifically are you accusing them of doing?
Do these individuals include President Miguel Díaz-Canel?
By what standard do you determine when a leader’s hands are stained with blood?
By your own standard, do you have blood on your own hands for this administration's dropping a bomb on a school in Iran that killed more than 100 children, providing weapons and military support for a genocide in Gaza, and imposing collective punishment on Cuba that has led to a doubling of the infant mortality rate.
Rubio (Sept. 23): “The people that speak on behalf of the [Cuban] government…at least publicly, are quite recalcitrant.”
Who is being recalcitrant and what specifically have they been recalcitrant about?
Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, and Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío have all publicly said Cuba wants dialogue and a better relationship with the United States. Do you consider them to be recalcitrant and, if so, how?
Rubio (Sept. 23): “Things are not going to get better in Cuba without them making very substantial changes.”
Cuba just approved 176 economic reforms, including private banks, larger private companies, direct imports and exports by private businesses, and greater access to foreign investment. Do you consider these “substantial changes”?
If not, what specifically are the “substantial changes” Cuba should make?
Is there any “substantial change” the Cuban government can make that would satisfy the administration outside of regime change?
Rubio (May 21): “Cuba has consistently posed a threat to the national security of the United States.”
Can you identify a specific action Cuba has taken against the United States that constitutes a threat to U.S. national security?
Has Cuba threatened to attack the United States? Does it possess the military capability to do so?
While the Washington press corps continues to give Trump administration officials a free ride on Cuba, some members of Congress have been less accommodating.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) excoriated Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last week over Cuba policy, accusing him of creating fuel, food and power shortages on the island.
“What are you doing Mr. Secretary?” Waters grilled Bessent during a House Financial Services Committee hearing. “You cut off all the oil to Cuba. You’re starving the families. You’re starving the children. They don’t have electricity. They can’t get food in.”
Since May, Bessent’s Treasury Department has been the agency responsible for imposing sanctions targeting Cuba’s state oil and gas company, fuel distributors and entities involved in supplying equipment to the island’s energy sector.
Waters urged Bessent to change course.
“Let the oil flow. Let them have electricity,” she said. “You could be kinder. You don’t have to be cruel.”
Waters is part of a growing number of congressional Democrats that are proactively challenging the Trump administration on its Cuba policy.
Some of them—unlike Marco Rubio, Scott Bessent and Trump himself—have gone to Cuba to see the impact of U.S. policy firsthand.
In July, Reps. Maxine Dexter (D-OR), Mark Pocan (D-WI), Teresa Leger Fernández (D-NM) and Delia Ramírez (D-IL) traveled to Havana, where they visited the Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital to hear directly from doctors about shortages of medicines, equipment and other supplies.
“We don’t have the resources to perform major surgeries,” Dr. Calixto Hernández told the delegation.
He said the hospital had performed 2,300 surgeries in the first four months of this year—900 fewer than during the same period the year before.
“Does this make any sense?” Leger Fernández asked. “A blockade that prevents basic materials for health?”
Leger Fernández pointed to the doubling of Cuba's infant mortality rate. “I can't imagine any American citizen wants to say, ‘I want babies to die,’” she said.
“We have to end this war on the Cuban people,” said Ramírez. “It’s not just immoral. It’s evil.”
Truly independent media relies on support from readers and viewers like you. Whether through a tax-deductible donation or by joining our Patreon, you can help us continue producing independent, on-the-ground reporting about Cuba that you won’t find anywhere else.
Every contribution—big or small—strengthens our journalism. Thank you for being part of our community.
Boletines en Español | English Newsletters Archives A pesar de que la administración Trump ha castigado duramente a Cuba con un bloqueo petrolero y una serie de sanciones sin precedentes, el gobierno cubano continúa recibiendo a cientos de deportados de Estados Unidos, respetando así los acuerdos bilaterales de migración vigentes desde hace mucho tiempo. Pero no todos los deportados cubanos están siendo enviados de vuelta a la isla. Esta semana hablamos con Yasmany Moreno, un cubano que vivió...
English Newsletters Archives | Boletines en Español Even as the Trump administration has hammered Cuba with an oil blockade and a raft of unprecedented sanctions, the Cuban government continues to receive hundreds of deportees from the United States, honoring longstanding bilateral migration accords. But not all deported Cubans are being sent back to the island. This week, we speak with Yasmany Moreno, a Cuban man who lived in Miami for nearly a decade before the U.S. deported him to the...
Boletines en Español | English Newsletters Archives El gobierno cubano afirma que el embargo estadounidense causó más de 8.000 millones de dólares en daños en un solo año. Su último informe a las Naciones Unidas describe a cirujanos operando bajo la luz de un teléfono móvil, a una madre preocupada por la posible interrupción del tratamiento oncológico de su hijo y a niños que esperan vacunas retenidas en almacenes. Esta semana analizamos cómo la guerra económica del gobierno estadounidense...
