The Trump administration says Cuba — an island of fewer than 10 million people with one of the oldest populations in Latin America and an economy in ruin — is an “extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security.
The incursion into Cuban waters on Wednesday by heavily armed men on a Florida-registered boat underscores how exactly the opposite is true.
Also this week:
Liz Oliva Fernández on Influencer Hasan Piker’s Livestream
Honduras Ends Cuban Medical Mission, U.S. Pressures Italy Over Doctors
According to The New York Times, Embargo Is Now a “Blockade”
SCOTUS Tariff Decision Could Puncture Trump’s Oil Blockade
U.S. Companies Greenlit to Sell Oil to Cuban Private Sector as Washington Moves to Make Island Economically “Dependent”
Canada Pledges Food, Mexico Dispatches More Humanitarian Aid
Russian Oil Tanker Headed to Cuba Reportedly Reverses Course
Cuban Doctors and Security Personnel Reportedly Leaving Venezuela
After Shootout at Sea, Spotlight on Armed Florida Extremists
A Florida-registered boat carrying ten men engaged in a firefight with the Cuban coast guard one mile off Cuba’s northern coast on Wednesday morning. According to Cuba’s Interior Ministry, the heavily armed men opened fire first, injuring a Cuban commander. After an exchange of fire, three of the men on the speedboat were killed, while the other seven were injured before being taken to receive medical attention on the island.
The Interior Ministry said all those on board the vessel, which was reportedly stolen, were born in Cuba and residing in the United States.
Cuban authorities say they seized equipment including rifles with a range of up to 800 meters, more than 12,000 rounds of ammunition and night-vision gear.
Weapons seized after the attempted infiltration into Cuba. Photo: Abel Padrón Padilla/Cubadebate.
“This is not an isolated attack,” Cuba’s Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos de Cossío said in a press conference on Thursday. “Cuba has been the victim of acts of aggression and terrorism for more than 60 years, most of them organized, financed and carried out from the United States.”
De Cossío said the Cuban government regularly provides U.S. authorities with information about individuals financing and organizing terrorist attacks on Cuba that he claimed enjoy “impunity” in the United States.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the U.S. launched an investigation “to find out exactly what happened.” Rubio seemed keen to play down the issue. This morning’s unprovoked U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran suggests that this week, the State Department has other priorities.
Michel Ortega Casanova, one of those killed, was a naturalized U.S. citizen who had been a leader of the Republican Party of Cuba (not the same as the U.S. Republican Party) in Tampa, Florida, according to the party’s president. His brother Misael Ortega Casanova told the Associated Press that Michel had fallen into an "obsessive and diabolical" quest for the island’s freedom.
Conrado Galindo Sariol, one of the survivors, last year told U.S. government-funded propaganda outlet Radio Martí: “We are in the final stage of ending the dictatorship.”
Amijail Sánchez González and Leordan Enrique Cruz Gómez, two other survivors, appear on the Interior Ministry’s 2025 list of foreign nationals and entities sought for links to terrorism. Sánchez González has been wanted for sabotage since 2022.
Cuba — a National Security Threat: “Are you kidding?”
When Donald Trump threatened last month tariffs on any country that sends oil to Cuba, he justified the move by claiming the island is an “extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security, even declaring a “national emergency.”
The administration relies on three core claims to cast Cuba as a threat: The Cuban government egregiously violates human rights, hosts Russian spy bases and shelters “transnational terrorist groups.”
“Are you kidding?” says Belly of the Beast’s Liz Oliva Fernández, who debunks these fabrications in our latest explainer video.
Liz Oliva Fernández on Influencer Hasan Piker’s Livestream
On Hasan Piker’s Twitch broadcast last week, Liz spoke about how Washington’s oil blockade is driving down living standards. Piker’s channel is the sixth most-watched on Twitch.
“Public transportation is almost shut down, [and] private taxis are getting expensive because the price of fuel is skyrocketing,” said Liz. “Hospitals have to cancel all the services that are not essential. University and college students are taking classes from home.”
She also spoke about what people in the U.S. can do to help.
One way is to donate to the Let Cuba Live! campaign, which is raising funds to send solar generators and panels to Cuban hospitals.
You can also support our work!
Fact-based, grassroots journalism from Cuba is crucial to counter the tsunami of disinformation from Washington.
Honduras Ends Cuban Medical Mission, U.S. Pressures Italy Over Doctors
Honduras announced earlier this week that it will no longer hire Cuban medical workers. Nearly 130 Cuban doctors and nurses will be leaving the country after their two-year contract expires on Wednesday, Agence France-Presse reported.
Cuban medical workers have been supporting Honduras’ health system since 1998. They are typically posted in working-class urban neighborhoods and remote rural areas.
Over the past year, Paraguay, the Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, Guatemala, and Guyana have all announced they will end their medical cooperation agreements with Cuba following intense U.S. pressure.
“Because it’s the main source of hard currency traditionally for Cuba, the U.S. has decided to destroy Cuban medical internationalism,” John Kirk, author of Healthcare Without Borders: Understanding Cuban Medical Internationalism, told Belly of the Beast. “They appear to have threatened to cut off aid and development assistance to Caribbean countries and tariffs unless they comply.”
Washington’s campaign has combined diplomatic arm-twisting, including revoking visas for officials in countries which host Cuban medics, with propaganda depicting Cuban doctors as victims of “human trafficking.”
U.S. Chargé d'Affaires to Cuba Mike Hammer was this week in Italy, where he met with Roberto Occhiuto, the governor of the southern region of Calabria. He pushed Occhiuto to end Calabria’s employment of around 500 Cuban doctors. Occhiuto refused.
After the meeting, Ochiutto issued a statement saying: “Cuban doctors who are allowing us to keep hospitals and emergency rooms open are still a necessity for our region.”
In an apparent concession, Occhiuto added that he had intended to increase the number of Cuban doctors employed to as many as 1,000 in 2026, but is now considering advertising for applicants from elsewhere.
Cuban doctors and nurses are paid many times more abroad than what they earn in Cuba. Cuban doctors in Italy say they are paid 3,000€ a month. They must send 1,800€ of that to the Cuban state (much of which supports the public healthcare system), and keep 1,200€.
Belly of the Beast has interviewed dozens of Cuban doctors who work or who have worked abroad. Every single one of them has told us they signed up voluntarily.
According to The New York Times, Embargo Is Now a “Blockade”
Major media outlets typically describe the U.S. economic war on Cuba as a trade “embargo.” The Cuban government and people — who must live with the effects of this policy — have always described it as “el bloqueo” (the blockade).
Now, the language is shifting — among both U.S. officials and media outlets.
“A New U.S. Blockade Is Strangling Cuba,” an article The Times publishedlast week, details how the U.S. military and Coast Guard are physically preventing oil tankers from reaching the island. The article cites an anonymous U.S. official as saying the Coast Guard’s operations are “part of a blockade that the Trump administration has not yet announced.”
In mid-December, Trump announced a “total and complete blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers traveling to and from Venezuela. CNN reported in January that U.S. Chargé d'Affaires to Cuba Mike Hammer told diplomats “there is going to be a real blockade … nothing is getting in.”
The Trump administration’s implementation of sanctions against Cuba has become increasingly militaristic since December, when multiple Venezuelan oil tankers headed to the island were seized at gunpoint by the U.S. military.
SCOTUS Tariff Decision Could Puncture Trump’s Oil Blockade
On February 20, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not give Donald Trump the authority to “unilaterally impose tariffs.” Trump used the IEEPA — along with the National Emergencies Act and Section 301 of Title 3 of the United States Code — to justify his January 29 executive order threatening to impose tariffs on countries that send oil to Cuba.
On Tuesday, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said the ruling has removed the tariff threat over oil shipments to Cuba. She said her government is reviewing whether to recommence the shipments.
U.S. Companies Greenlit to Sell Oil to Cuban Private Sector as Washington Moves to Make Island Economically “Dependent”
The U.S. Treasury Department announced on Wednesday that U.S. companies can now apply for licenses to sell oil to the Cuban private sector. The oil being resold by U.S. firms will come from Venezuela, whose government the Trump administration decapitated on January 3.
“We want to open the spigot of U.S. fuel exports to Cuba, so long as the ultimate beneficiary is the private sector,” a source with knowledge of the administration’s plan told the Miami Herald. “There is nothing more in line with the Donroe Doctrine than making Cuba dependent on the United States.”
The Trump administration threatened tariffs to impose what amounts to an oil blockade on the island January 29. But Wednesday’s announcement is effectively a carve out to the blockade. It sheds light on the economic facet of Washington’s evolving regime-change strategy.
While there will be no quantity limits for the oil exports, according to reports, U.S. firms will remain barred from selling oil to the Cuban state.
Washington seeks to increase leverage over Havana by simultaneously engineering state collapse while empowering the private sector. The result is rising inequality, increasing hardship and death: Private-sector vans continue to have fuel to deliver luxury goods to those who can afford it, while public hospitals run short on fuel.
The Cuban government authorized private fuel imports earlier this month.
“We could very well end up having a friendly takeover of Cuba,” Trump told reporters on Friday.
Canada Pledges Food, Mexico Dispatches More Humanitarian Aid
Canada announced Wednesday it will provide 8 million Canadian dollars (around US$6.7 million) in food assistance to Cuba. The aid will be routed through UN agencies.
Mexico sent over 1,000 tons of food and powdered milk to Cuba on Wednesday via two naval vessels. The shipments, which go directly to the Cuban state, are expected to arrive today. Mexico already sent more than 800 tons of food, powdered milk and personal hygiene products earlier this month.
Russian Oil Tanker Headed to Cuba Reportedly Reverses Course
New York Times reporter Christiaan Triebert posted on X Thursday that an oil tanker loaded with Russian fuel en route to Cuba has reversed course. He cited tracking data from maritime intelligence platform Kpler.
The vessel, a Chinese-owned tanker called the Sea Horse, is believed to be transporting close to 200,000 barrels of refined Russian gasoil, a diesel-based fuel used in vehicles and for electricity generation.
Cuban Doctors and Security Personnel Reportedly Leaving Venezuela
Since U.S. special forces abducted Nicolás Maduro on January 3, the Trump administration has been pressuring Venezuela to sever ties with Cuba. Some Cuban doctors and security advisers working in Venezuela recently left the country, according to 11 anonymous sources who spoke with Reuters.
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