Rubio calls on Cubans seeking “positive change” to work with CIA: “Now is the time”– www.cbsnews.com News Source
EXCERPT:
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on Cubans seeking “positive change” to work with the CIA, the latest ploy in the growing efforts from the Trump administration to remove Cuba’s communist regime from power.
“To those who seek to create positive change in Cuba – now is the time,” Rubio wrote Friday on X. “The disappointment of failed promises, corruption, and the privileged lives of only a few; seize this opportunity to create the change you desire through a discrete partnership with the CIA.”
Shortly afterward, the CIA reposted Rubio’s message and a similar call in Spanish for Cubans to work with the agency. A video was posted alongside the message showing the steps needed to contact the intelligence agency.
A strict U.S. embargo and sanctions seeking to put pressure on Cuba’s communist government have led to prices of basic goods skyrocketing and decreased access to medical care for its citizens. Cubans reported waiting in bread lines for hours and others reported lining up to see a doctor.
‘Not an accident’: Marco Rubio sends shockwaves with ominous ‘coup’ comment– www.rawstory.com News Source
EXCERPT:
Secretary of State Marco Rubio publicly invited Cubans to work with the CIA on Friday, and the reaction across the political spectrum was immediate.
“To those who seek to create positive change in Cuba – now is the time,” Rubio wrote on X. “The disappointment of failed promises, corruption, and the privileged lives of only a few; seize this opportunity to create the change you desire through a discrete partnership with the CIA.”
A few hours later, the CIA’s official account posted the same message in Spanish. It included a video ending with the words “Contacte a la CIA” (“Contact the CIA”).
Many people were stunned that the message was public at all.
U.S. Seizes $2.8 Million in American Fuel Illicitly Headed to Cuba– www.breitbart.com News Source
EXCERPT:
Multiple federal agencies announced on Wednesday that they had seized 90 shipments of fuel illicitly intended to be sent from the United States to a sanctioned corporate entity in Cuba.
The shipments, which reportedly mostly contained diesel fuel, were reportedly valued at $2.8 million and expected to be received by the Cuban energy corporation ENETEC S.A., which the U.S. government sanctioned due to its role in funding the illegitimate communist regime in control of that country. The federal agencies stated that the shipments seized were preparing to depart from Florida and Texas.
The seizure reveals that American authorities believe that the Cuban regime, desperate for petroleum products, is apparently seeking them in the United States despite the long-established alleged “embargo” limiting commercial activity with the Castro family dynasty. Cuba has been experiencing severe fuel shortages this year following the arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro in January, who for years provided free or heavily discounted fuel to Cuba in exchange for political and military support.
Cuba especially needs access to diesel and other petroleum products because its dilapidated power grid cannot sustain the nation’s electricity demands. As a result of over half a century of socialist mismanagement, Cuba barely maintains a power grid and what is left of it routinely fails; the wealthy, tourists, and communist elites became accustomed to accessing electricity through private generators. Without fuel for those generators, the blackouts affect luxury hotels and other properties frequented by foreigners. This year, the power grid regularly collapsed, doing so five times in the month of August alone.
According to a press release published on Wednesday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Wednesday, multiple agencies including Customs and Border Protection (CBP) “developed information indicating that the Cuban government used ENETEC S.A. to receive fuel illegally exported from the United States” that led them to act to seize the shipments.
“A total of 71 shipments containing approximately 496,000 gallons of biodiesel fuel at Port Everglades were seized and 19 additional shipments containing approximately 119,000 gallons at the Port of Houston are currently being detained,” ICE shared.
Special Agent in Charge Jose R. Figueroa with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Miami, one of the participating agencies, said in a statement that the seizures “underscores HSI Miami’s commitment to stopping fuel and other goods from the United States from being illegally exported to Cuba through sanctioned entities or deceptive commercial networks” and authorities would continue to monitor and intercept such activity.
The agencies also published video of the seized shipments in Florida, a large number of gas tankers lined up for inspection on land after being taken into custody.
The independent outlet Cubanet reported that authorities have filed a case implicating ENETEC S.A., a Cuban company sanctioned on July 13 for its role in supplying the Castro regime. It is considered a Cuban state enterprise, which Cubanet described as being “dedicated to the import, export, and commercialization of combustibles.”
While shipments directly to Cuban state companies run afoul of sanctions, Cubanet observed that the “Cuban private sector,” which does not practically exist as the country is a repressive communist autocracy, has in fact sought the import of American petroleum products following the collapse of its once-reliable Venezuelan supply. Those shipments reportedly avoid “embargo” scrutiny through a loophole in the policy in which the United States does not prevent business to “support the Cuban people.”
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez appeared to respond to the seizure in a post on social media on Thursday, declaring that the American government “lacks practical and moral authority to decide what is legal under international law and free commerce laws.”
“Its measures are not just directed illegally towards Cuba, but towards the rest of the international community,” Rodríguez declared. This statement is false, any other country can – and many countries, including European allies of the United States – do engage in commerce with Cuba. To the extent they limit this, it is a response to the Cuba’s deplorable economic status and its lack of respect for human rights. A notable example of this is the massive Spanish hotel corporation Melía, which maintained dozens of properties in Cuba for decades, but shut down its operations there this year in response to the unsustainable economic climate on the island.
Rodríguez’s rant went on to declare that America “also does not have the right to impose a naval blockade nor an energy blockade.”
The government of President Donald Trump has regularly dismissed the Cuban regime’s accusations that its energy woes have anything to do with America or the “embargo.” On May 20, after announcing a series of new sanctions on the Cuban regime in response to its egregious human rights abuses, Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered an address in which he explained that electricity struggles in Cuba were unrelated to any American policy.
“The reason you are forced to survive 22 hours a day without electricity is not due to an oil ‘blockade’ by the U.S.,” he clarified. “As you know, better than anyone, you have been suffering from blackouts for years. The real reason you don’t have electricity, fuel or food is because those who control your country have plundered billions of dollars, but nothing has been used to help the people.”
Trump Ripped Iran & Cuba in Fiery UN Speech As They Storm Out of the Room – PJ Media– pjmedia.com News Source
EXCERPT:
On this full episode of LARRY with Larry O’Connor, we discuss the BREAKING NEWS that the Iranian and Cuban delegations WALKED OUT of President Trump’s FIERY America First Iran Speech, Trump humiliated Kaitlan Collins to her FACE while she’s covering Trump at the UNGA after the network promised not to, Zohran Mamdani and President Trump STUN in joint public meeting, and MUCH, much more!
Cuban Officials Walk Out of UN General Assembly as Trump Blasts Communist Regime as a “Failed State” (VIDEO)– www.thegatewaypundit.com News Source
EXCERPT:
President Trump on Tuesday morning arrived to the UN to address the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Trump’s speech centered on American strength.
“Two and a half centuries after the cause of liberty found its home on this continent, I can report to you with pride that America is back, and our country is stronger today than ever before,” Trump said.
“As President of the most extraordinary nation in history, I have no interest in leaving dangers to grow for another day. I do not believe in letting problems fester; they only become harder to solve. So, while others have talked, I have acted. While others have spoken of peace, I have made peace. While others have ignored threats, I have confronted them,” Trump said.
“While others have talked of courage, America has shown it. While others have promised strength, I have used it to make America the most powerful country in the world,” Trump said.
“We will not just speak of peace, prosperity, and justice here at the UN, we will stand for them…” Trump said.
“Together, we will build a future for our people that is brighter, more hopeful, and more magnificent than ever before,” Trump said.
The plan, distributed in June as the “National Rapid Response Plan,” came from the National Network on Cuba (NNOC), a U.S. coalition of more than 60 organizations. The State Department ties the coalition to Havana through the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, or ICAP, a Cuban entity sanctioned in June over alleged support for Cuban intelligence operations.
The document instructs organizers to launch “coordinated nationwide actions” within 24 hours of any U.S. strike on Cuba, aiming to make it “politically and materially costly for the U.S. government to wage war on Cuba.” The report calls the plan proof of Cuba’s “subversive capabilities on American territory.”
Organizers are told to converge on federal buildings, courthouses, military bases and ICE facilities. The plan seeks to “connect Cuba solidarity to anti-ICE/immigrant defense work happening nationwide” and points activists to a database mapping 1,335 U.S. military and law-enforcement sites in the Western Hemisphere.
Cuba has suffered its third nationwide power blackout since the start of the year, as the country’s fuel reserves diminish and its electric grid crumbles due to an energy crisis precipitated by the US fuel blockade.
The blackout in the country of nearly 10 million people was reported on Monday by the state-run Electric Union, which said that the cause is under investigation.
Cuba’s Energy and Mines Minister Vicente de la O Levy said protocols were quickly activated to restore electricity throughout Cuba after the outage.
HAVANA — Talks between Cuba and the U.S. are at a standstill, despite the island recently approving a series of free-market reforms, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez announced Tuesday.
He noted that the newly unveiled reforms were neither mentioned nor discussed in earlier talks between the two nations.
“The recently announced (measures) are a matter of total and absolute sovereignty,” Rodriguez said. “We have neither listened to nor are we interested in the U.S. government’s opinion on them.”
But he said it was striking that they “were met with a new package of unilateral coercive measures … against Cuba.”
The US government announced sanctions against Cuba’s state-owned oil and gas company on Thursday in a move expected to increase tensions between the two countries.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio asserted that key assets of the company, known as Cupet, were “unlawfully expropriated from American owners years ago.”
He also accused Cuba’s government of weaponising energy.
The United States has imposed sanctions on Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, along with his wife and three other individuals, according to a filing Thursday from the U.S. Treasury Department. It’s the latest Trump administration move to pressure the island’s leadership.
Included in the sanctions are Alejandro Castro Espín, the sole son of former President Raúl Castro and Vilma Espín. He served as an adviser to Cuba’s Defense and National Security Commission and was present when Raúl Castro greeted then-U.S. President Barack Obama in Havana during a historic March 2016 meeting. Castro Espín’s son, Raúl Alejandro Castro Calis, was also listed.
The sanctions come after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order expanding sanctions against the island and has been threatening military action ever since ousting Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January and then ordering an energy blockade that choked off fuel shipments to Cuba. That has led to severe blackouts, food shortages and an economic collapse across the island.
The Trump administration is rolling out what experts describe as the most significant expansion of U.S. sanctions on Cuba in decades.
The administration is attempting what supporters say is the first broad application of Cuba-related secondary sanctions against foreign firms, aiming not only at Havana itself but also at foreign companies and banks that continue doing business with the island’s military-linked economic empire.
The new framework, established under an executive order signed by President Donald Trump May 1, applies pressure beyond U.S. companies for the first time, threatening foreign firms with sanctions exposure if they continue operating in key sectors of the Cuban economy linked to Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A., or GAESA.
The US will continue to ramp up economic pressure on the island, sources have told the outlet
US President Donald Trump is set to escalate Washington’s economic pressure campaign on Cuba in an attempt to force regime change, Axios reported on Friday, citing sources. The island is already enduring near-total fuel starvation and daily blackouts stretching up to 20 hours.
The US has thus far opted for a phased campaign designed to choke Havana, but which avoids a direct military invasion, several unnamed officials told the outlet.
“The best way to describe it is ‘accelerationism,’” one senior official said, referring to the philosophy of hastening societal collapse. “But we don’t want to kill off the regime just yet. There’s a method to this. It’s in stages.”
The Pentagon has reportedly spent months putting key military assets into position near Cuba, fueling speculation that the Trump administration is laying the groundwork for potential military action against the communist-led island nation.
U.S. military planners have quietly expanded naval deployments, surveillance operations and regional force positioning in the Caribbean as tensions between Washington and Havana continue to intensify according to a recent report from Politico.
The developments come after President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this year labeling Cuba an “extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security. The administration has accused the Cuban government of strengthening ties with hostile foreign actors, including Russia, China, Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah, while allegedly allowing foreign intelligence operations to target the United States from just 90 miles off the Florida coast.
On Tuesday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) said that picking up Raul Castro in Cuba wouldn’t be difficult, but he thinks that, due to a desire by Castro to avoid dying in prison, “Raul Castro is going to leave the country, along with his family” “before we pick him up.”
Scott said, “Well, let’s remember, the Cubans were supporting — were defending Maduro, and that took, what, seven minutes to take out Maduro? So, it won’t take much to pick up Raul Castro. And the people of Cuba are already –.”
Co-host Kailey Leinz then cut in to ask, “You expect that to happen?”
Cuba’s acquisition of more than 300 attack drones from Iran and Russia since 2023 underscores the regime’s deepening alignment with Washington’s adversaries. Cuban planners have reportedly discussed strikes against Guantanamo Bay, U.S. naval vessels, and even Key West, Florida. While these systems provide Havana with a limited harassment and asymmetric strike capability, they do nothing to narrow the overwhelming gap between Cuban and American military power.
Yet, Cuba poses a direct threat to American homeland security through migration waves, narcotics transshipment, espionage, and now drone threats. Over 600,000 Cubans have attempted or reached U.S. shores since 2021, surpassing the Mariel boatlift and the 1994 rafting crisis combined, straining resources and creating security vulnerabilities. Pentagon contingency planning intensified this month with the USS Nimitz carrier group deployed to the Caribbean, underscoring the urgency.
Cuba fields 50,000 active troops, 40,000 reserves, and approximately 1.1 million personnel in its Territorial Troops Militia. Its air force operates roughly 20 aircraft. The army possesses around 300 aging T-55 and T-62 tanks, Soviet-era artillery, and surface-to-air missile launchers upgraded by Belarus in 2025. Global Firepower ranks Cuba 65th globally, a position that conceals obsolescence and systemic decay
Cuba’s acquisition of more than 300 attack drones from Iran and Russia since 2023 underscores the regime’s deepening alignment with Washington’s adversaries. Cuban planners have reportedly discussed strikes against Guantanamo Bay, U.S. naval vessels, and even Key West, Florida. While these systems provide Havana with a limited harassment and asymmetric strike capability, they do nothing to narrow the overwhelming gap between Cuban and American military power.
Yet, Cuba poses a direct threat to American homeland security through migration waves, narcotics transshipment, espionage, and now drone threats. Over 600,000 Cubans have attempted or reached U.S. shores since 2021, surpassing the Mariel boatlift and the 1994 rafting crisis combined, straining resources and creating security vulnerabilities. Pentagon contingency planning intensified this month with the USS Nimitz carrier group deployed to the Caribbean, underscoring the urgency.
Cuba fields 50,000 active troops, 40,000 reserves, and approximately 1.1 million personnel in its Territorial Troops Militia. Its air force operates roughly 20 aircraft. The army possesses around 300 aging T-55 and T-62 tanks, Soviet-era artillery, and surface-to-air missile launchers upgraded by Belarus in 2025. Global Firepower ranks Cuba 65th globally, a position that conceals obsolescence and systemic decay.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Cuba on Thursday for meetings with senior Cuban officials, including the grandson of former communist leader Raúl Castro, as the Trump administration pursues renewed pressure and negotiations with the island’s government.
According to US and Cuban officials, Ratcliffe met with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, Cuban Interior Minister Lázaro Álvarez Casas, and Cuban intelligence leaders during the visit. Discussions reportedly focused on intelligence cooperation, economic conditions, and regional security issues.
A CIA official said Ratcliffe traveled to Havana “to personally deliver President Donald Trump’s message that the United States is prepared to seriously engage on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba makes fundamental changes.”
The United States, with “America First” President Donald Trump at the helm, along with his anti-Castro Cuban-American Secretary of State Marco Rubio, has been putting the pressure on the communist regime founded in 1959 by that infamous revolutionary, Fidel Castro. In an executive order issued in May, the president deemed the island country, which is only 90 miles off the Florida Keys, an “unusual and extraordinary threat,” and the administration has been busy since slamming them with sanctions and cutting off their oil supplies.
The United States is taking steps to pursue a federal indictment against Raúl Castro, the 94-year-old former president of Cuba and brother of the late Fidel Castro, according to U.S. officials with knowledge of the situation.
The potential charges center on his alleged role in ordering the 1996 shootdown of two civilian aircraft operated by the Miami-based humanitarian group Brothers to the Rescue, according to a report from CBS News.
The 1996 incident occurred on February 24, when Cuban MiG fighter jets shot down two unarmed Cessna aircraft flying in international airspace north of Cuba. The planes were part of Brothers to the Rescue, a nonprofit organization that conducted search-and-rescue missions for Cuban rafters attempting to reach the United States and dropped leaflets over Cuba.
News Source
EXCERPT: Cuba lost the source for around half its fuel needs when US forces snatched Venezuela’s president in a stunning January raid, with his successor complying with US pressure not to aid the island.
Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) publicly confessed to working with foreign governments to undermine U.S. policy in Cuba.
She declared, “I was in conversations with the ambassadors from Mexico and some other places, other countries in Latin America trying to figure out how to get oil there. I’ve called these sanctions an economic bombing of the infrastructure of Cuba.”
The Trump administration just slammed the door on an effort by Cuba’s communist government to secure an economic lifeline while appearing to embrace reform. A May 1 executive order expands and sharpens longstanding American sanctions on Cuba, and appears to deliberately target a recent gesture at partially opening the Cuban economy. “All property and interests in property that are in the United States,” the order says, are barred from operating “in the energy, defense and related materiel, metals and mining, financial services, or security sector of the Cuban economy, or any other sector of the Cuban economy,” under the penalty of economic sanctions.
On March 16, in a bid for survival, the communist government of Cuba had announced a series of intended though vaguely executed reforms that would allow foreign investment in the island from Cubans living overseas. The reforms were to include a supposed expansion of private property rights. Deputy Prime Minister Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga said that the country was “open to maintaining a fluid commercial relationship with U.S. companies.”
Asked by email if the May 1 order was a deliberate response to the March 16 Cuban announcement, a State Department spokesman referred The Federalist to comments made on April 27 by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants. In a long discussion with Fox News Chief Foreign Correspondent Trey Yingst, Rubio rejected the possibility of reform under the current Cuban government, describing Cuba as “a failed state.”
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