Cuba

Following Pattern Set by Venezuela and Iran Assaults, US Surveillance Flights Off Cuba Surge

Spread the love

Article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio speak in Washington, DC on January 7, 2026. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

The Trump administration has conducted more than two dozen surveillance and reconnaissance flights off Cuba’s coast since early February, according to CNN.

US surveillance and reconnaissance flights off the coast of Cuba have surged in recent months as President Donald Trump has issued increasingly belligerent threats to seize the island nation by force.

CNN reported Sunday that the US Navy and Air Force have conducted more than two dozen surveillance flights—mostly of them near Havana and Santiago de Cuba, the country’s largest cities—since early February, after the Trump administration invaded Venezuela and kidnapped its president. The outlet noted that “similar patterns, in which ramped-up rhetoric by the Trump administration coincided with an uptick in publicly visible surveillance flights, occurred in the lead-up to US military operations in both Venezuela and Iran.”

RECOMMENDED…

People protest against Trump aggression against Cuba with signs reading "Stop the Blockade Against Cuba"

‘This Is Insane’: Alarm Bells Follow New Report of Looming US Plan to Attack Cuba

May Day celebrations mark annual workers parade in Havana

Citing Bogus ‘Threats’ to US, Trump Expands Already Devastating Sanctions on Cuba

“The flights are notable not only for their proximity to the coast, which puts them well within range of gathering intelligence, but for the suddenness of their appearance—prior to February, such publicly visible flights were exceedingly rare in this area—and for their timing,” CNN reported.

CNN published its story days after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced new sanctions targeting a conglomerate operated by Cuba’s military and a natural resources firm, intensifying the United States’ decades-long economic war against the island nation.

“Our people already know the cruelty behind the actions of the US government and the viciousness with which it is capable of attacking us,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said in response to the sanctions. “They understand, just as the rest of the world does, that this is a unilateral aggression against a nation and a population whose sole ambition is to live in peace, masters of their own destiny and free from the pernicious interference of US imperialism.”

In a New York Times op-ed on Monday, US Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.) wrote that the Trump administration’s “blockade of fuel to Cuba, on top of the longest embargo in modern US history, defies the norms of international law that provide for state sovereignty, nonintervention in domestic affairs and the right of nations to trade freely.”

“It amounts to an economic assault on the basic infrastructure of Cuba, designed to inflict collective punishment on the civilian population by manufacturing a humanitarian crisis in which healthcare, running water, agriculture and transportation are no longer available,” wrote Jayapal and Jackson, who visited Cuba in April and witnessed firsthand the devastating impact of US economic warfare.

“During our visit, we spoke with a wide range of Cuban citizens—political dissidents, religious leaders, entrepreneurs, and members of civil society organizations and humanitarian aid groups,” the Democratic lawmakers wrote. “We also met with the families of Cuba’s political prisoners. Everywhere, there was agreement: America’s blockade must end, and a US invasion must not take place.”

Trump has repeatedly threatened a military assault on Cuba in the months since his administration illegally attacked Venezuela and abducted its president.

“Cuba is next, by the way,” Trump declared at a Saudi-backed investment summit in Miami in late March. “Pretend I didn’t say that, please.”

Citing unnamed US officials, The Associated Press reported last week that the Trump administration “is not looking at imminent military action against Havana” as the two sides continued to negotiate a diplomatic agreement.

AP added that the administration officials cautioned “that Trump could change his mind at any time and that military options are still on the table.”

Article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says disinhibition and swearing are typical and common symptoms
Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says disinhibition and swearing are typical and common symptoms
Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it's fun to kill everyone ...
Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it’s fun to kill everyone …
Continue ReadingFollowing Pattern Set by Venezuela and Iran Assaults, US Surveillance Flights Off Cuba Surge

Trump Says He’s ‘Seriously Considering Making Venezuela the 51st US State’ as He Brags of Stealing Its Oil Wealth

Spread the love

Article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

US President Donald Trump points out a member of the press during an event on maternal healthcare in the Oval Office of the White House on May 11, 2026, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

“Trump’s true priority, ahead of absolutely everything else, is to go down in history in big letters,” said one journalist. “Remaking everything, no matter in which direction or with what consequences.”

President Donald Trump said on Monday that he is considering trying to annex Venezuela and make it a US state in an imperialist effort to seize more of its oil wealth.

It’s one of nearly half a dozen nations or territories Trump has threatened to use US military might to illegally conquer and add to the US during his term, including Greenland, Canada, Cuba, and Panama.

RECOMMENDED…

People protest against Trump aggression against Cuba with signs reading "Stop the Blockade Against Cuba"

‘This Is Insane’: Alarm Bells Follow New Report of Looming US Plan to Attack Cuba

A protester in Madrid holds a sign showing the US with talons on Venezuela and the words "stop the war!"

From Boat Murders to Kidnapping Maduro, Trump Spending Billions on ‘Donroe Doctrine’ Militarism

According to Fox News correspondent John Roberts, Trump said in a phone call that he was “seriously considering making Venezuela the 51st US state,” citing the Latin American nation’s possession of tens of trillions of dollars worth of oil.

“They were miserable. Now they’re happy. It’s being well run,” Trump recently told Full Measure’s Sharyl Attkisson. “The oil that’s coming out is enormous, the biggest in many years. And the Big Oil companies are going in with the biggest, most beautiful rigs you’ve ever seen.”

One poll from the Venezuelan firm Meganálisis in March found that while the public was initially happy to be rid of their autocratic president, Nicolás Maduro—who was abducted by US forces in January—the majority now feel that Trump’s action had little to do with democracy or the well-being of the Venezuelan people and more to do with handing control of the country’s nationalized oil reserves to American companies, which Trump stated as his primary objective after ousting Maduro.

Trump left Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, in place as Venezuela’s interim leader with the promise that she’d act as a pliant collaborator with the US, whom she allowed to declare control over Venezuela’s oil resources “indefinitely” amid market transitions.

The environmental activist group Global Witness has estimated that over the next 10 years, as much as $150 billion in oil revenue that was expected to go to the Venezuelan treasury, which could have funded projects to develop the impoverished country, instead may flow into the coffers of foreign companies.

Trump has spoken about the idea of Venezuela becoming the 51st state before, including after the country defeated Italy in the World Baseball Classic in March, when he posted on Truth Social: “STATEHOOD, #51, ANYONE?”

Last month, during a discussion about his desire to “take” Iran’s oil, Trump described his takeover of Venezuela as something akin to the resource-hungry imperial conquests of centuries past.

“I’m a businessman first,” he told reporters during a press briefing. “We’ve taken hundreds of millions of barrels [of oil], hundreds of millions… and paid for that war many, many times over. You know the old days, ‘to the winner belong the spoils.’ And I said, ‘Why don’t we use that?’ We haven’t had that in this country probably in 100 years.” He then went on to lament the US-led efforts to “rebuild” Germany after World War II.

While the US has lifted personal sanctions on Rodríguez and some sanctions on the Venezuelan oil and banking sectors, most of the sanctions that have contributed to the country’s economic collapse remain in place. “Full unrestricted access to global capital markets has not been restored,” explained Roger D. Harris from the Task Force on the Americas and the US Peace Council in Common Dreams last week.

Actually adding Venezuela as a US state would require approval from both Congress and Venezuela itself—and Trump does not appear to have the latter.

Issuing a rare rebuke of the US on Monday, Rodríguez responded that becoming the 51st state “would never have been considered” by Venezuela.

“If there is one thing we Venezuelan men and women have, it is that we love our independence process, we love our heroes and heroines of independence,” the interim leader said.

Though wars of conquest are expressly forbidden under international law, it’s not clear what leverage Rodríguez would have to resist if Trump attempted to make good on his goal of expanding US territory.

Argemino Barro, a Spanish political journalist and author, said the possibility that he’s serious can’t be dismissed.

“Yes, of course, we can dismiss it as provocation or delusion, say that it’s impracticable for XYZ reasons, etc. But this kind of comment is a window into the mindset of a man who fabricates his own reality, and not only that, but imposes it on others,” Barro said. “Trump wants to build the world’s largest triumphal arch right in the middle of Washington, overshadowing the Lincoln Memorial; he wants his face on coins and passports; his name appears on institutions, one airport. Annexing Venezuela, in his mind, fits 100%.”

“I think Trump’s true priority, ahead of absolutely everything else, is to go down in history in big letters. To enter the league of Alexander the Great, Jesus Christ, and Genghis Khan,” he added. “Remaking everything, no matter in which direction or with what consequences.”

Article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says disinhibition and swearing are typical and common symptoms
Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says disinhibition and swearing are typical and common symptoms
Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it's fun to kill everyone ...
Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it’s fun to kill everyone …

Continue ReadingTrump Says He’s ‘Seriously Considering Making Venezuela the 51st US State’ as He Brags of Stealing Its Oil Wealth

Morning Star Editorial: Defy Trump, resist imperialism and stand with socialist Cuba

Spread the love

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/defy-trump-resist-imperialism-and-stand-socialist-cuba

 Soldiers attend an event marking International Workers’ Day at Jose Marti Anti-Imperialist Square in Havana, Cuba, May 1, 2026

THE international peace conference in solidarity with socialist Cuba over the May Day weekend spoke important truths.

It linked the “multidimensional economic, financial, political, security and environmental crises” engulfing the planet — and noted that the “aggressive escalation of American imperialism” is intensifying them all.

It identified the United States as “the primary threat to global peace and security,” not so much a world policeman, as it has often thought of itself, but a global gangster that bullies, steals and destroys.

It connected US aggression against Cuba and Venezuela in the western hemisphere with its violence in the Middle East, and the genocide perpetrated by its ally Israel against the Palestinians.

And it brought together grassroots organisations, trade unions, peace campaigns and youth groups on an international basis to plan co-ordinated resistance.

No festival is so international as May Day, the workers’ day, with marches in Havana and Chicago, London and Rome, Baghdad and Beijing.

Rallies took up the message of defiance everywhere. Over 100 US unions took up the call “no work, no school, no shopping” for May Day, with specific marches like New York’s highlighting the connection between corporate power and state brutality under the slogan “Amazon delivers Ice.”

The Israeli police raided youth club premises to snatch Palestinian flags ahead of the demos, fearing any show of solidarity with the victims of their state’s relentless terror. In Cuba, electricity and energy workers took centre stage, as a whole nation saluted those trying to keep the lights on and the power flowing in the face of a brutal US siege.

So it was fitting that the International Meeting of Solidarity with Anti-Imperialism, dubbed 100 Years With Fidel, called on the world to stand with Cuba just as Cuba — exporter of medical care and education, valiant ally of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, beacon of socialism on the doorstep of the world’s most aggressive capitalist power — has so often stood with the world.

It made important commitments. One, to keep promoting convoys to breach the blockade and deliver essential supplies to Cuba. This is practical solidarity, like that organised in Britain by the Cuba Solidarity Campaign through its Cuba Vive appeal.

Two, to build links between left media organisations to counter the labyrinth of lies built up by the news and opinion monopolies that dominate global communications.

Three, international mobilisation and protest. The ceasefire in Gaza — hugely inadequate and regularly violated as it is — was brought about by the global scale of protest for Palestine. Trump told Benjamin Netanyahu, “you can’t fight the world.” The US should be made to feel, through protests at embassies and pressure on governments, that to attack Cuba is to fight the world.

The US threat to Cuba is urgent — Donald Trump reiterated military threats on May Day itself. It is not something we can’t do anything about.

The US needs to know it will pay a heavy price for attacking Cuba, and that means pressure on our own government to grow a backbone. Britain votes against the illegal US blockade of Cuba every year — why can’t it stick up for its own sovereignty and protect British companies that trade with Cuba from extraterritorial US punishment, as China has just done for its companies sanctioned for trading with Iran?

As we saw in Havana, building ties across borders provides the surest defence against the world war Trump threatens, which our own rulers seem willing to join.

The international peace conference in London on June 20, following one in Paris and preceding one in Madrid, is key to confronting the militarists, averting war and charting a more rational future.

As they say in Cuba, another world is possible.

With the most reactionary racist, climate-denialist, violence-worshipping zealots taking US imperialism on a global rampage, winning that world is not just an existential question for Cubans, but for us all.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/defy-trump-resist-imperialism-and-stand-socialist-cuba

Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes' concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country's economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.
Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes’ concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country’s economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.
Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it's fun to kill everyone ...
Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it’s fun to kill everyone …
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Continue ReadingMorning Star Editorial: Defy Trump, resist imperialism and stand with socialist Cuba

‘No Aggressor, No Matter How Powerful, Will Find Surrender in Cuba,’ President Warns Trump

Spread the love

Article by Jon Queally republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel (C) takes part in the “Anti-Imperialist” protest in front of the US Embassy against the US incursion in Venezuela, where 32 Cuban soldiers lost their lives, in Havana on January 16, 2026. (Photo by Yamil Lage/ POOL / AFP via Getty Images)

After the US president again threatened invasion, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez said he would only “find a people determined to defend sovereignty and independence in every inch of the national territory.”

President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez of Cuba on Saturday responded with stark and defiant words to the latest attacks coming from US President Donald Trump, who on Friday signed a new executive order authorizing even more aggressive sanctions against the island nation and later threatened to invade the country.

“The President of the United States escalates his threats of military aggression against Cuba to a dangerous and unprecedented scale,” said Díaz-Canel in a statement. “The international community must take note and, together with the people of the United States, determine whether such a drastic criminal act will be allowed to satisfy the interests of a small but wealthy and influential group, driven by desires for revenge and domination.”

RECOMMENDED…

People protest against Trump aggression against Cuba with signs reading "Stop the Blockade Against Cuba"

‘This Is Insane’: Alarm Bells Follow New Report of Looming US Plan to Attack Cuba

May Day celebrations mark annual workers parade in Havana

Citing Bogus ‘Threats’ to US, Trump Expands Already Devastating Sanctions on Cuba

“No aggressor, no matter how powerful, will find surrender in Cuba,” he added. If Trump were to attack the country, the Cuban president said, “he will find a people determined to defend sovereignty and independence in every inch of the national territory.”

“What does ‘No Kings’ mean when one man can snap his fingers and kill innocent Cubans on a whim?”

In addition “to blocking the US assets of foreign individuals and entities operating in Cuba’s energy, defense, financial services, metals, mining, and security sectors, as well as anyone acting on behalf of the Cuban government,” as Drop Site News notes, Friday’s executive order also “authorizes sanctions on foreign financial institutions that conduct significant transactions with designated Cuban entities, potentially cutting them off from US correspondent banking.”

As such, the outlet continued, the new sanctions “could further isolate Cuba from the international financial system, limit foreign investment, and exacerbate the island’s already severely restricted access to medicine, food imports, and basic goods.”

In addition to the signed executive order, Trump said during a Friday campaign-style event in Florida that the US “will be taking [Cuba] over almost immediately.”

Upon their return from Iran, where Trump has waged a deeply unpopular war, the US president told the crowd, “We’ll have maybe the USS Lincoln [aircraft carrier] come in offshore, and they’ll give up.”

In a floor speech earlier this week, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) rebuked the Trump administration for the humanitarian disaster it has unleashed in Cuba, which follows what he described as a “failed” policy towards the island country over decades.

“If we want to avoid war with Cuba,” said Van Hollen, “we must rein in this lawless president and learn from the failed, bipartisan policies that led us to this point.”

David Adler, the co-general coordinator of Progressive International, condemned the relative silence of US opponents to the Trump administration, who have not done, in his mind, nearly enough to challenge the blockade or condemn the administration’s repeated and ongoing threats to invade the island nation or overthrow its government.

“ Donald Trump has given [Secretary of State] Marco Rubio the green light to annihilate a peaceful nation and its people—and the ‘resistance’ is silent,” said Adler. “What does ‘No Kings’ mean when one man can snap his fingers and kill innocent Cubans on a whim?”

Article by Jon Queally republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.
Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.
Donald Trump explains why he established his Bored of Peace
Donald Trump explains why he established his Bored of Peace
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Continue Reading‘No Aggressor, No Matter How Powerful, Will Find Surrender in Cuba,’ President Warns Trump

Citing Bogus ‘Threats’ to US, Trump Expands Already Devastating Sanctions on Cuba

Spread the love

Article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Cubans hold a banner reading, “Knock Down the Blockade” during an International Workers’ Day rally near the US Embassy in Havana on May 1, 2026. (Photo by Magdalena Chodownik/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The president’s latest aggression toward Cuba comes amid his repeated threats to “take” the island.

Citing Cuba’s ties with its ally Iran, President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order expanding the already crippling US sanctions regime against Cuban officials, as the US administration has the island in its crosshairs after ousting Venezuela’s socialist leader.

Trump’s executive order cites highly dubious “national security threats posed by the communist Cuban regime,” including Havana’s alignment “with countries and malign actors hostile to the United States.”

RECOMMENDED…

People protest against Trump aggression against Cuba with signs reading "Stop the Blockade Against Cuba"

‘This Is Insane’: Alarm Bells Follow New Report of Looming US Plan to Attack Cuba

US Sen. John Fetterman in his hoodie in the Senate

Fetterman Helps GOP Senators Sink Democrat Effort to Block Trump War on Cuba

The directive “imposes new sanctions on entities, persons, or affiliates that support the Cuban regime’s security apparatus, are complicit in government corruption or serious human rights violations, or are agents, officials, or material supporters of the Cuban government,” without identifying any of the affected groups or individuals.

For 65 years, the US has imposed an economic embargo on Cuba that has adversely affected all sectors of the socialist island’s economy and severely limited Cubans’ access to basic necessities including food, fuel, healthcare, and medicines—with disastrous results. The Cuban government claims the blockade cost the country’s economy nearly $5 billion in just one 11-month period in 2022-23 alone. United Nations member states have perennially—and overwhelmingly—condemned the embargo.

The Trump administration also imposed a fuel blockade and reinstated Cuba on the US State Sponsors of Terrorism list, from which former President Joe Biden removed the country before leaving office in 2021. Cuba was initially added to the list during the Reagan administration amid a decadeslong campaign of US-backed Cuban exile terrorism, failed assassination attempts, economic warfare, and covert operations large and small in a futile effort to overthrow the revolutionary government of longtime leader Fidel Castro.

Cuba says US-backed terrorism has killed or wounded more than 5,000 Cubans and cost its economy billions of dollars.

The Cuban government—which was celebrating International Workers’ Day on Friday—did not immediately respond to the expanded sanctions.

Experts warned that the new sanctions are worryingly broad, with Georgetown Law visiting scholar Peter Harrell writing on X that “basically any non-US person or company doing any business in/with Cuba could be sanctioned.”

Harrell noted that the edict “gives the Trump administration a fair amount of easy-to-deploy firepower to drive remaining international businesses out of Cuba.”

“The questions will be in implementation,” he added. “For example, will Trump sanction a Chinese firm installing renewable energy in Cuba?”

Trump’s edict comes months after the president ordered the invasion of Venezuela and abduction of socialist President Nicolás Maduro and amid the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran, the 10th country bombed during the course of Trump’s two terms in office.

Trump last month declared that “we may stop by Cuba after we’re finished with this,” referring to war on Iran that’s left thousands of people dead or wounded, including hundreds of children. The president has also said that he believes he’ll “be having the honor of taking Cuba,” language echoing the 19th century US imperialists who conquered the island along with Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines from Spain in another war waged on dubious pretense.

“Whether I free it, take it—I think I can do anything I want,” Trump said of the island and its 11 million inhabitants.

Article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.
Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.
Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn't bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.
Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.
Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it's fun to kill everyone ...
Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it’s fun to kill everyone …

Continue ReadingCiting Bogus ‘Threats’ to US, Trump Expands Already Devastating Sanctions on Cuba