There’s been a lot going on with Cuba over the last week, and I promise you that every single day last week, I sat down to write about it, but my mind wandered onto the next shiny object — to Venezuela or El Salvador or Costa Rica or Nicaragua or the Georgia governor’s race. I’ve admitted in the past that I’m a little bored with all of it, and I feel like the way Iran has played out has distracted the Donald Trump administration from working toward liberating the Caribbean nation from the Castro regime and 67 years of communism.
The truth is it’s a complicated process. This isn’t Venezuela. We likely won’t have a clean and tidy(-ish) ending to the regime. You can’t just take out one guy, neutralize his cronies, cut off their revenue stream, and start over with Marco Rubio in charge. The Cuban regime is older, more decentralized, and designed to withstand such moves. The power lies within the Communist Party, the military’s economic empire (GAESA), and a deep security apparatus.
There’s also the media problem. The number of MSM fake news stories from anonymous sources about Cuba is exhausting, and it drives me insane how many prominent people report on them or share them as if they are fact. For example, for a while, there was this idea that the Trump administration’s goal for liberating Cuba was the end of this year. It was fun to buy into, and I didn’t find it all that outlandish pre-Iran, but Rubio put a stop to that kind of talk last week when speaking to the press.
“No, look, guys, global affairs are not like – we’re not a miniseries, like, you get in three episodes and it’s over,” he said. “I mean, global affairs are difficult. You’re talking about a system that’s been in place since 1959. You talk about a country that’s suffered tremendously because of poor leadership and a bad economic model. You’re talking about a regime that’s survived all these years because they had a foreign sponsor, be it the Soviet Union or Hugo Chávez. They don’t have that anymore. So it’s – these are complex things that take time, and obviously we’re prepared to do what we can do to effectuate a positive change in Cuba because it directly impacts our national security.”
He added: “It’s a failed state. But I’ve never laid out any timeline as to what change would look like or when it would happen. I wish it was tomorrow because they deserve it; the people of Cuba deserve a better future.”
One thing Rubio did confirm — and Trump has hinted at this in the past — is that this is his project. “I work on this issue more than anybody else,” he said, and I think that’s fairly obvious.
That said, let’s get to the news. The actual, factual, verifiable news.
The Big State Department Report
The biggest Cuba-related news from last week was the 100-page report from the State Department called “Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism.” I haven’t reported on it yet for two reasons. One, I wanted to read it myself. Two, I’d already reported on some of it over the last year, so I felt like it wasn’t quite the bombshell the State Department wanted it to be. However, I’ve come around to realizing that it’s a good report because it centralizes the information in one location, it helps build a case against the regime for whatever comes next from Trump and Rubio, and it supports the administration’s current anti-far-left terrorism stance and actions it plans to take against it.
So I’m going to hit some highlights here. You can skim them or check out the entire report yourself.
- The report paints Cuba as what it is. Rather than calling it a failed dictatorship, it’s an ideological threat to the United States, as well as a threat to our national security.
- Rather than relying on military action against the U.S., it has used irregular warfare to infiltrate, including espionage, infiltration of U.S. institutions, recruitment of American activists, providing a safe haven for terrorists, and creating or supporting ideological networks designed to turn segments of American society against the U.S. government and system.
- And not just in the United States, but in other Latin American countries as well — it’s trained groups that helped lead to the Sandinista victory in Nicaragua in 1979; supported Puerto Rican terror groups like FALN and Macheteros; and created alliances with Hugo Chávez. I’ve written about this in the past, but before he got into politics, Nicolás Maduro barely had a high school education. His only formal schooling was a year in Havana at Fidel Castro’s commie training camp.
- Cuba essentially had spies within the U.S. government, like Ana Belén Montes, a senior Pentagon analyst, or Victor Manuel Rocha, a U.S. diplomat who was arrested in 2023 after working as an agent for Cuba for over 40 years.
- The regime especially liked to push black extremists, supported groups like the Black Panthers, and granted asylum to many black criminals, like Assata Shakur.
- It highlights the Venceremos Brigade, which has brought at least 10,000 U.S. citizens to Cuba since 1969 to identify potential activists, build relationships, and strengthen radical organizations.
- It also highlights the Cuban Institute of Friendship with Peoples (ICAP), which has a presence in 150 countries and direct ties to Cuban intelligence, as well as the National Network on Cuba, which is connected to groups like the Democratic Socialists of America, Communist Party USA, Code Pink, and the National Lawyers Guild.
- It also says that Cuba is a meeting point for countries and groups hostile to the U.S., like Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela, Palestinian Marxist organizations, Hamas and Hezbollah-linked networks, and members of Iran’s Axis of Resistance.
There’s more, but hopefully, that gives you an idea, and I think most of us sort of already had an inkling that all of this was true, but maybe we didn’t know how deep. Now we have it in writing. This will be an essential tool for the Trump administration going forward.
The Regime Response
Of course, the Cuban regime came out swinging in response to all of this. The face of the regime, “President” Miguel Díaz-Canel, posted a long thread on X, basically calling Rubio a thief (the regime hates our dear Secretary of State with a passion), claiming the U.S. is just using all this information to start a war, and he accused our country of being the genocidal aggressors or something like that. Here are his posts translated from Spanish:
Thieves think everyone else is like them.’ Nothing more fitting to characterize the State Department report against #Cuba, promoted by one of the most corrupt officials in the current administration, with proven ties to drug traffickers and terrorists from Florida.
If a country has spied on and aggressed against another to obscene levels, it has been the U.S. against #Cuba. The multimillion-dollar allocations that are annually earmarked for regime change programs in Cuba are public knowledge, resorting equally to subversion as to terrorism.
History records criminal episodes, including plagues and diseases introduced in #Cuba, the hemorrhagic dengue that claimed the lives of 101 children; the downing of a plane with 73 people on board; the hotel bombings; the assassination attempts or psychological warfare.
Add to this the #blockade and the genocidal dimension it acquires with the current reinforcement and energy siege. There is no greater act of subversion against a State, conceived and officially described by the US to exhaust the people and fracture their support for the Revolution.
What the Cuban Revolution has done throughout its history is to defend itself from these successive and endless aggressions, by legitimate right. #Cuba has never acted to harm the American people, nor has it sought to affect the national security of the United States.
The transnational neo-McCarthyism being reinstated in the U.S., from a clearly fascist current, resorts to lies to generate pretexts on which to sustain aggressions against #Cuba and curtail civil liberties in the U.S.
#CubaNoEsAmenaza
“CubaNoEsAmenaza” means “Cuba is not a threat.” I don’t have much more to add to this. If I learned anything from Maduro, the more these people talk, the more it indicates how threatened they feel.
Where Is Raúl Castro?
Over the weekend, the Cuban regime held a public rally to celebrate the anniversary of the 1953 assault on the Moncada Barracks — a failed attack led by Fidel and Raúl Castro but a moment they believe eventually led to the Revolution. They call it National Rebellion Day.
Raúl has never actually missed the celebration, but he was notably absent this year, and there was no real explanation for his absence. However, given that he’s 95 years old and looks increasingly frail when they do parade him out in public every few months, you might understand why it got attention. Was he too sick to come? Is he on his deathbed? I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough. He was last spotted in public in June.
Sanctioning the Medical Brigades
Just when I think there’s nothing left to sanction in Cuba, Rubio surprises me. Last week, he came out and designated “nine entities and two individuals whose activities perpetuate the regime’s control over Cuba’s energy, financial, and exploitative overseas medical labor sectors.”
“Those sanctioned today have also tried to evade our prior sanctions on the Cuban regime and its enablers,” he added. “These designations include four entities associated with sanctions evasion efforts linked to U.S.-designated Grupo De Administración Empresarial S.A. (GAESA), three entities operating in Cuba’s energy sector, and two entities and two individuals responsible for the exploitation and forced labor of Cuban medical workers through the regime’s overseas medical brigades.”
What I find most interesting about this is the sanctioning of the medical brigades. Just to recap, they’re essentially a forced labor program that sends doctors and other medical professionals overseas to work in countries that don’t have access to that kind of labor. On the surface, it sounds like a smart humanitarian gesture, but the reality is that the regime gets rich on the backs of these people and treats them incredibly inhumanely. It’s been compared to slavery or human trafficking in the past. Earlier this year, several countries, like Jamaica, Guatemala, Honduras, and Guyana, removed themselves from the program under U.S. pressure.
After losing access to cheap Venezuelan oil that it would mostly resell, the medical brigades are one of the last reliable foreign currency streams for the regime. I sort of suspect we might see more sanctions related to the program in the future.
Protests Continue
Cuba’s crumbling energy grid has suffered multiple nationwide collapses this month, and people are fed up. When the power is on, rolling blackouts can last from 20 to 70 hours. The regime blames the U.S. “blockade,” which isn’t really the problem. And the people know better. They’re taking to the streets chanting “turn on the lights,” “freedom,” and “down with the dictatorship.” They’re banging pots and pans, they’re blocking streets, and they’re setting the trash that piles up on the roadsides on fire. In some areas, there has been an increase in regime “security,” which seems to have plenty of fuel for its vehicles, but overall, people are continuing to lose their fear. Heck, they’re even protesting during the daytime now. Previously, it was all at night.
🔥 Protesta en Luyanó, La Habana
💡 Varias mujeres protestaron durante la tarde de este viernes en Luyanó tras casi 72 horas sin electricidad.
👉 La protesta incluyó un cacerolazo y la quema de un colchón y varios trozos de madera en medio de la calle, lo que interrumpió el… pic.twitter.com/9FYZvKR36a
— Cubanet 🇨🇺 (@CubanetNoticias) July 25, 2026
Los habaneros en la calle. 24-07-2026.
La Habana pidiendo “Libertad”.
Cuba alza tu voz y clama LIBERTAD… pic.twitter.com/9KlTbKp1oZ— Joankelin Sánchez. (@joankelincuba) July 24, 2026
U.S. Humanitarian Aid
It’s hard not to feel bad for the Cuban people who are caught up in all of this through no fault of their own. It’s also important that while the United States is applying this maximum pressure, we stay on top of the humanitarian situation caused by the regime. Total collapse could become a huge problem for our country.
Rubio has promised $100 million in aid to the people of Cuba, in the form of food, hygiene kits, and medical supplies, but he would only do it if it didn’t go through the regime first. Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum made a big deal of sending similar supplies earlier this year, and they ended up in military-controlled stores sold at ridiculous prices and only for people who could pay with U.S. dollars.
The regime claimed Rubio was lying about the aid, and it stood in the way of allowing it into the country, but last week, it finally began to flow through Catholic Relief Services and will benefit approximately 700 families. It will be distributed through local parishes so that the regime can’t get its hands on it.
Here’s more from the State Department:
Senior Official for Foreign Assistance, Humanitarian Affairs, and Religious Freedom Jeremy Lewin and Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs Senior Advisor Viviana Bovo joined Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in Miami, Florida, on July 21 to send off the first flight of humanitarian relief under Secretary Rubio’s historic commitment of $100 million in humanitarian assistance to the Cuban people, who are suffering from the consequences of the Communist regime’s kleptocracy, brutality, and economic incompetence.
This partnership builds upon the success of the Department’s program last year with CRS and Caritas Cuba to deliver $9 million in direct support to the island following Hurricane Melissa. Today’s flight contains pre-packaged food and hygiene kits for up to 700 Cuban families. The kits will be delivered by CRS, in partnership with the Catholic Church and Caritas Cuba on the ground. Building on the success of the previous program, the direct delivery of humanitarian commodities by local parish representatives in the island will ensure critical U.S. assistance reaches everyday Cubans in need, without any opportunity for regime diversion or theft.
So those are the latest facts. No one really knows anything more than that unless Rubio tells us himself, no matter how many times they print it or post it on social media.
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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