The situation in Cuba is quite dynamic at the moment, and while I’m a little short for time on this Friday night as I write this, I wanted to make sure I’ve covered the latest, including Donald Trump and Marco Rubio’s continued high-pressure moves against the regime, the fallout from the Raúl Castro indictment that the Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed this week, and a bit of an update on the humanitarian crisis.
Here’s what’s happened since my last “Cuba Falling” update, which you can read here: Cuba Falling: Today Is ‘the Beginning of the End’ — and Rubio’s Powerful Message.
A Major Arrest
On Thursday, Marco Rubio announced the arrest of Adys Lastres Morera, “a Cuban national with ties to the communist regime in Havana.” Morera had been a lawful permanent resident of Florida, working in the real estate sector, since 2023. This week, Rubio personally terminated her green card, and she is now in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, awaiting deportation. She’s the sister of Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, the Executive President of GAESA — the regime’s military-controlled financial conglomerate — whom the U.S. sanctioned earlier this month.
Adys Lastres Morera is the sister of the Executive President of GAESA, the Cuban military-controlled financial conglomerate that steals millions in aid for the Cuban people at the behest of the regime.
Morera was managing real estate assets and living in Florida, while also…
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) May 21, 2026
Here’s more on that from the State Department:
While the Cuban people suffer from the collapse of Cuba’s non-functioning communist economy, GAESA functions to allow a small circle of regime elites to plunder all the remaining resources of the island, squirreling away as much as $20 billion in illicit funds away in hidden overseas bank accounts.
Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera is a Cuban military official who is the senior-most GAESA executive responsible for managing those illicit international assets – assets utilized not to improve the lives of the Cuban people, but to fuel the lavish lifestyles of Castro family members and other regime elites, and to finance overseas influence operations as part of Cuba’s long-standing ambition of a global communist revolution. While ordinary Cubans endure daily blackouts and dire food, fuel and medicine shortages, GAESA’s ill-gotten riches are not spent on repairing the collapsing power grid, stocking empty pharmacies, feeding hungry families, or providing for the most basic and essential needs of the Cuban people. Instead, they are used to enrich Havana’s elites and underwrite their ongoing campaign of espionage, subversion, and revolutionary militancy against the free peoples of this hemisphere.
Read more about GAESA and those sanctions here: Cuba Falling: Rubio Issues a Major Blow to the Regime’s Military Empire with Much More to Come
A Supreme Court Ruling
In an 8-1 ruling — Justice Elena Kagan was the odd man out — the United States Supreme Court this week sided with the Havana Docks Corporation, a U.S. company that owned and operated docks in Cuba before “the Revolution” in 1959. Essentially, the regime seized the company’s docks without paying for them, and when Obama stupidly opened up U.S.-Cuban relations, major cruise lines, like Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, and MSC, began docking there and making a profit on them.
Havana Docks accused the cruise lines of trafficking stolen property and sued them under Title III of the Helms-Burton Act. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the majority opinion, stating that Havana Docks has the right to sue the cruise lines, which could open the floodgates to hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, but more importantly, it puts even more pressure on the regime by scaring off any company tempted to do business there in the meantime.
Hospital Horrors
At this point, we all know the humanitarian situation in Cuba. No power, no water, no food, no money, no gasoline, and no medicine for the people living in the country. The horror stories are getting even worse and harder for the regime to hide.
Independent journalist José Luis Tan Estrada reported this week that at least 15 newborns have died so far in 2026 at the Hospital Materno Provincial de Camagüey, but the reason why is horrific. Fecal water and sewage from a bathroom on the upper floor have been leaking directly into the neonatal ward, causing a bacterial build-up that’s leading to infections. The hospital doesn’t have the medicine or supplies to treat the infections, so the babies simply die. Complaints have been made to hospital administrators, but nothing has been done to fix it.
Power Company Confessions
Here’s something we all knew, but now, shockingly, it’s been confirmed: power cuts are strategic. The director of the Holguín Territorial Office Business Unit, Davielquis Cortina Cobas, admitted on state TV that the power is often cut to entire municipalities in an effort to keep it on at select hospitals, banks, and communications and water facilities. It’s also cut strategically to ensure the Communist Party Headquarters is kept out of the dark. Meanwhile, some neighborhoods are now going 40-plus hours without power at a time.
A Defiant Daughter
As we all know by now, the DOJ unsealed an indictment against Raúl Castro on Wednesday, and the regime responded with all sorts of rhetoric, but now the Castro family itself is speaking out. Mariela Castro, Raúl’s daughter, came out and said on Friday, “No one is going to kidnap him. I can assure you of that. Not him, not anyone.”
She also said that the family is “prepared for combat” and that her father’s response to the indictment was that “Nobody takes me alive. They’ll catch me fighting.”
Sure, Jan. Have you seen the old man lately? He’s 94, almost 95, and word on the street is that his health isn’t great. The only reason the U.S. might not take him alive is that he’s barely alive as it is.
These people are absolutely delusional.
I’ll be honest, I don’t know exactly how this will end. I just know that it will. Trump said on Thursday that many presidents have tried, but he’ll be the one to do it. He floats military action but also says he doesn’t think it’ll be necessary. He’s keeping us — and more importantly, the regime — on its toes. I was able to predict almost exactly what would happen to Nicolás Maduro, but this is a much more unique situation.
And Rubio, on his way to Sweden on Thursday, talked to the press and had this to say: “The President’s preference is always a negotiated agreement that he – that’s always our preference. That remains our preference with Cuba. I’m just being honest with you. The likelihood of that happening, given what we’re dealing with right now, is not high. But if they have a change of heart, we’re here, and in the meantime we’ll keep doing what we need to do.”
It’s likely that they’re not even sure how it will end, but they’re prepared for all possibilities.
About that CIA Visit
If you’ll remember, CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Havana recently, delivering a message from Donald Trump. He allegedly told the regime that change must be made ASAP or there would be consequences. At the time, there were rumors that he threatened them with a reminder of what the U.S. did to Maduro. Now we’re learning that he brought along a U.S. special operations/paramilitary operator who was involved in the Maduro capture and allegedly told them that this guy has already killed many of your men, referring to Maduro’s Cuban bodyguards. That’s a pretty clear and bold move.
What They’re Saying
I believe the liberation of the wonderful people of Cuba from the clutches of communism is close at hand.
Cuba Libre.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) May 22, 2026
“What sense does it make to accuse a person at this moment for something they did 30 years ago?” Claudia Sheinbaum asked on Friday, regarding the U.S. indictment against Raúl Castro for an attack that occurred in 1996.
🔴 “¿Qué sentido tiene que acusen en este momento a una persona por algo que hizo hace 30 años?”, cuestionó Claudia Sheinbaum sobre la imputación de EU contra Raúl Castro por un ataque ocurrido en 1996.
“No se nos puede olvidar que hay otra intención también en lo que hacen”. pic.twitter.com/D40rCCiQ0i
— El Universal (@El_Universal_Mx) May 22, 2026
🚨#SOSCuba 🇨🇺
“And now, the end is near. And so I face the final curtain
My friend, I’ll say it clear: I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain.
I did it my way” https://t.co/Y4VKmksNFd
— Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (@RepCarlos) May 22, 2026
Dictatorships know how to manufacture crowds. They know how to pressure workers, force attendance, and turn propaganda into spectacle.
But no amount of propaganda can hide reality.
At a time when Cuba is facing blackouts, food shortages, fuel scarcity, and growing desperation,… https://t.co/0mb2ek6Wgk
— Rep. María Elvira Salazar (@RepMariaSalazar) May 22, 2026
SECRETARY RUBIO: Our preference in Cuba and anywhere in the world is always a negotiated diplomatic settlement. But if there’s a threat to our national security, the President has a right and an obligation to address that threat. pic.twitter.com/X24pnp9q5v
— Department of State (@StateDept) May 21, 2026
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.
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