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Welcome to The Logoff: The Trump administration isn’t letting up the strain on Cuba.
What’s taking place? After months of threats from the Trump administration, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel mentioned on Friday that his authorities was holding talks with the US to seek out “options” to more and more dire circumstances on the island.
It’s unclear what would possibly come out of these talks, however it’s the newest signal the Trump administration is severe about following by on its latest rhetoric.
Why Cuba? That is an ideological mission for Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Earlier this week, the Atlantic’s Vivian Salama advised Vox that Rubio had made it a “lifelong mission” to topple Cuba’s Communist regime.
It’s additionally an unsurprising extension of the so-called “Donroe Doctrine” — an assertion of US regional hegemony, backed by navy power — that President Donald Trump proclaimed after US forces efficiently captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January.
What’s the context? Cuba has been in a troublesome spot for years; in 2024, it skilled a nationwide blackout after its electrical grid collapsed — an issue that has recurred since then. However since January, a de facto US blockade has made circumstances far worse, choking off all gasoline to the island already affected by financial disaster.
On the time, Trump posted on Fact Social that “THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO! I strongly counsel they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”
What’s the large image? US-Cuba talks don’t imply the potential for extra drastic motion is off the desk. For instance, the US and Iran had been nonetheless engaged in nuclear negotiations when the conflict started final month. Salama, of the Atlantic, additionally advised Vox that some Trump officers backing navy motion imagine it’s “like ripping off a Band-Assist. You get them achieved shortly as a one-two-three punch.”
Regardless of the US does, circumstances inside Cuba could imply occasions come to a head sooner slightly than later.
And with that, it’s time to log out…
Winter could also be on its approach out, however it nonetheless snowed in Washington, DC, on Thursday, so which means I can share this episode from Vox’s Unexplainable podcast all about how snow kinds and its varied cool properties (plus some snow mysteries we nonetheless don’t know the solutions to).
Thanks for studying, have an awesome weekend, and we’ll see you again right here on Monday!
