The Patriot Post® · Cuba Is Collapsing
So what’s going on in Cuba? With so much attention being centered on the U.S. and Israel’s joint operation against Iran, and rightfully so, it can be easy to overlook the significant developing situation in America’s closest neighboring communist-run nation.
Last week, Cuba suffered a severe blackout across much of the poverty-stricken country. The situation only escalated this week with a massive island-wide blackout, leaving 11 million people in the dark.
The immediate cause of the massive power loss was attributed to President Donald Trump’s blocking of Venezuelan oil, effectively Cuba’s sole source of outside oil.
The president pointed to the big picture. “People are loving what’s happening,” Trump argued regarding the U.S.‘s successful action against Iran. “Cuba’s going to fall, too,” he predicted. “We cut off all oil, all money, or we cut off everything coming in from Venezuela, which was the sole source. And they want to make a deal.”
When asked by a reporter if he was actively working to facilitate the overthrow of Cuba’s communist government, Trump coyly responded, “Well, what do you think?” He then pointed to his success in removing Venezuela’s dictator, Nicolas Maduro, and said, “For 50 years, that’s icing on the cake. Venezuela is doing fantastically. [Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez] is doing a fantastic job. The relationship with them is great.”
So, the obvious answer is “yes,” Trump is seeking to rid Cuba of its failed Marxist government.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is of Cuban descent, has long desired regime change in Cuba. “They don’t get subsidies anymore, so they’re in a lot of trouble,” he noted. “And the people in charge — they don’t know how to fix it. So they have to get new people in charge.”
To Rubio’s point, Cuba is a failed state precisely because it was taken over by a communist dictatorship, under which the Cuban people have suffered for decades. The nationwide blackouts are primarily due to the fact that Cuba is both a governmental and economic disaster. Its aging power grid is eroding, and it lacks the economic means to sustain, let alone modernize, development.
Trump is occupied with Iran at the moment, but he clearly has his eye on Cuba, hinting that as soon as things are wrapped up on Iran, the Island is likely his next foreign policy focus. As he explained recently to a South Florida audience of Cuban descendants, many of whom are Republicans, “You and a lot of unbelievable people are going to be going back to Cuba, hopefully not to stay. I just want to wait a couple of weeks.” He added that Cuba “is going to fall very soon.”
Interestingly, the Justice Department is reportedly exploring potential criminal cases to bring against Cuba’s current leadership, holding members of the Castro regime to account for actions taken against Americans. This would be a repeat of Trump’s justification for the arrest and prosecution of Maduro.
The bigger picture is Trump reasserting and imposing the Monroe Doctrine within the Americas. Eliminating the old threat of communist Cuba, just 90 miles off the U.S. coast, would be a massive geopolitical win, not to mention a big relief for the Cuban people suffering under oppressive communist authoritarian rule for decades.
Speaking of the Cuban people, there are now reports of rare protests in the communist country. As Norges Rodriguez of YucaByte, a Miami-based Cuban affairs website, reports, “Every night for 10 days, they have gone out to protest in a different area of the country because of the blackouts. This is the first time they have protested so many consecutive days in a row.”
The question regarding Cuba’s communist government is not if it will fall, but when. Its end appears to be fast approaching. And the Trump administration will help it fall, and be there to pick up the pieces and help bring about a bright, new, and free future for Cuba.