The LAC: Is Cuba slated to be the Gaza of the region?

There is full-on bullying, direct threats to life, breaking down sovereignty and impeding, in some case completely stopping, LAC countries from development in order to move backwards in time to what we call the ‘Donroe doctrine’ and raid and enrich themselves forever.  Alliances, treaties and agreements are all torn up and lying in the dust.

This is not hidden in the latest National Defense Strategy:

“American interests are also under threat throughout the Western Hemisphere. As early as the 19th century, our predecessors recognized that the United States must take a more powerful, leading role in hemispheric affairs in order to safeguard our nation’s own economic and national security. It was this insight that gave rise to the Monroe Doctrine and subsequent Roosevelt Corollary. But the wisdom of this approach was lost, as we took our dominant position for granted even as it started to slip away. As a result, we have seen adversaries’ influence grow from Greenland in the Arctic to the Gulf of America, the Panama Canal, and locations farther south. This not only threatens U.S. access to key terrain throughout the hemisphere; it also leaves the Americas less stable and secure, undermining both U.S. interests and those of our regional partners.”

Since Trump Time, Mexico insisted on negotiations and sovereign decision making and for a time, it could postpone the hatred and anger of the US against anyone that is not willing to give up their own sovereignty for the capricious US style raids.   That time is over now.  One cannot negotiate with barbarians.

Currently there is an oil embargo and naval blockade against Cuba combining with the 60-years total blockade of Cuba.   Trump announces in every speech that Cuba will be failing soon.

“US President Donald Trump said he expects Cuba to be failing pretty soon, claiming the country had relied on money and oil from Venezuela and is “not getting that anymore.”

It is of course not Cuba falling, but the US breaking Cuba, this tourist paradise just 90 miles or so off Mar-O-Lago, with beaches as beautiful as Gaza beaches.

Venezuela supplied oil to Cuba.  This has been stopped by the US (Naval Blockade).  Mexico continued supplying oil to Cuba, but the last shipment has just been stopped.  Sheinbaum in her morning conference did not give a satisfactory answer and said that this was a decision of Pemex, the Mexican oil company.  If we look at what happened in Venezuela when the US struck,  it filters through what happened in Mexico.

“Diosdado, Jorge, and Delcy had 15 minutes to decide whether to cooperate with the US or not, under the threat of being neutralized.”

Neutralized is such as a neutral word in this case.  They were threatened that they will be killed on the spot: shot to pieces as the Cuban Guards were shot to the extent that bodies could not be collected but as in Gaza, bags full of human flesh and bones were collected and identified via tests.  It is no stretch of the imagination that Sheinbaum could be facing the same threat, alternatively, Pemex management is facing such a threat.

Republican lawmakers from U.S. President Donald Trump’s party are pressuring Mexico for having become the largest exporter of oil to Cuba.

📊 According to information from the Financial Times, in 2025 Mexico sent an average of 12,284 barrels of oil per day to Cuba, accounting for 44% of the island’s crude oil imports, while Venezuela exported about 9,528 barrels per day (34% of Cuban imports).

📈 According to the British newspaper, Mexican oil exports to Cuba grew by 56% last year compared to 2024, while Venezuelan exports — once the main source of the commodity for Cubans — have fallen by 63% since 2023.

🇺🇸 In an interview with Fox News, Republican Congressman Carlos Gimenez said that the Cuban dictatorship “was already, even before this action against Maduro, probably at its weakest point in the last 65 years,” and that the fall of its partner dictator “only weakens them even more.”

“My only concern is that it appears Mexico is now trying to prop them up. So the oil they were receiving from Venezuela is being replaced by Mexican oil,” Gimenez said.

⚠️ The shipment of oil to Cuba could become a pressure point on Sheinbaum in negotiations to review the United States–Mexico–Canada trade agreement, scheduled to take place in July.

Western investors in Venezuelan oil face the diplomatic issue that the U.S. and several other countries do not recognize the Rodriguez government as the legitimate government.  Rather on paper they recognize several opposition figures as forming the legitimate government, which will cause issues during legal disputes over investments.  Until the U.S. officially recognizes the current Venezuelan government, U.S. companies will not make long term investments in the country out of fear for the security of those investments.

Venezuela never refused to supply oil to the United States despite grabbing Venezuela’s gold (British action) and taking Citgo and now selling it at pennies on the dollar to some US oligarch.

Víctor Ternovsky:   “Now that Donald Trump intends to present himself as the savior of Venezuela’s oil industry, it should be emphasized that Chavismo was never an obstacle to the export of oil from the Caribbean nation.

On the contrary, the obstacles were always created by the American power, and this is the only concern of the oil companies invited by the tenant of the White House to come to Venezuela.”

China has stopped as far as we know, buying Venezuelan thick oil.  This is not that China is not supporting, but it is that China will not deal with the US and pay them for Venezuelan oil.  My numbers may be off here, but China paid 37 dollars to Venezuela and the US has increased the price to 45 dollar per barrel.

Delcy Rodríguez has had it, since it was announced that the US will keep a CIA contingent, a permanent CIA presence, in Venezuela:

“Enough of Washington’s orders regarding politicians in Venezuela”

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Secretary of State Narco Rubio stated that the Trump administration is ready to use force to ensure cooperation from Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez.  He believes her self-interest will drive her to open the energy sector to US companies.  Rubio’s remarks came during a congressional hearing, marking his first public appearance since the US raid that captured Nicolás Maduro. Maduro faces narco-terrorism charges and has pleaded not guilty.

Rubio emphasized,

“We are prepared to use force to ensure maximum cooperation if other methods fail.” As tensions rise, Rodríguez asserted that Venezuela has “had enough” of US interference.

Trump of course revealed a ‘secret weapon’ used during Maduro’s capture: “The Discombobulator”.  This is a sonic weapon, and going through the testimonies of injured Venezuelans, they became discombobulated with blood pouring out of ears and noses.

China and Russia are still demanding the release of Nicolás Maduro.

Petro from Colombia demanded on Tuesday that the United States release and return Nicolás Maduro to Venezuela, where he hopes he will be tried in a Venezuelan court.  Petro, who has repeatedly criticized the military operation of January 3, spoke about Venezuela at an event in Bogotá. For the first time, he demanded that the Trump administration repatriate Maduro.

“They have to return him and let him be tried in a Venezuelan court, not a U.S. one. Latin American civilization is different from Anglo-Saxon and European civilization,”
Petro explained, accompanied by several members of his cabinet. “Bombing Caracas, the homeland of Bolívar, that’s not an act against Maduro,” Petro said in his speech.

Petro sometimes needs to put his foot in his mouth.  Why should Maduro be tried?  For what?  He also sent a message to the hundreds of thousands of Colombian migrants living in the Americas.  He especially urged those living in the United States, Chile, and Argentina to return to Colombia as soon as possible.

“I ask all Colombians to return now from Chile, Argentina, and the United States because they will be treated like slaves and like dogs chased through the streets.”

The pressure on Cuba is thus from Venezuela and from Mexico, threatening decapitation of the leaders if they do not comply, and we read the signals correctly.

The threats of an oil embargo against Cuba, although advertised as still under discussion, is active.  The loss of Venezuelan oil shipments — and the resale of some of those cargoes that Havana used to obtain foreign currency — has already throttled Cuba’s economy. A total blockade of oil imports into Cuba could then spark a humanitarian crisis, a possibility that has led some in the US administration to push back against it.

What the US wants from Cuba, is a return to the old life. They want:
Cuba’s mines, public utilities, railways, sugar production and bank deposits, in other words, back to the age of colonial conquest and power.

Tens of thousands of Cubans fill the streets of Havana to protest in defiance of Trump’s threats to invade & blockade all fuel shipments.

LULA from Brazil stepped in with this report:

“I spoke today by phone with the President of the United States, Donald Trump. We discussed topics related to bilateral relations and the global agenda. We exchanged information on the economic indicators of both countries, which point to good prospects for the two economies. President Trump stated that the economic growth of the United States and Brazil is positive for the region as a whole. We welcomed the good relationship built in recent months, which resulted in the lifting of a significant portion of the tariffs applied to Brazilian products. I reiterated the proposal, forwarded to the State Department in December, to strengthen cooperation in combating organized crime. I expressed interest in tightening the partnership in repressing money laundering and arms trafficking, as well as in freezing assets of criminal groups and exchanging data on financial transactions, a proposal that was well received by the U.S. president.

Regarding the Peace Council, I proposed that the body presented by the United States be limited to the Gaza issue and provide a seat for Palestine. In that context, I reiterated the importance of a comprehensive reform of the United Nations, which includes expanding the permanent members of the Security Council.

We exchanged impressions on the situation in Venezuela. I emphasized the importance of preserving peace and stability in the region and working for the well-being of the Venezuelan people. We agreed on a visit to Washington after my trip to India and South Korea in February, on a date to be set soon. “

LULA, Sheinbaum and Petro are still trying to talk to an out of control US administration.  The idea to wait out the Trump administration and hopefully the situation will change, is also present in Europe. It is only Delcy Rodriques that called it as it is.  Basta!

There is general chaos in the region, every leader is being threatened with their lives and the barbarians are inside the gate.

‘The enemy that threatens Cuba is the same enemy that threatens everybody else.’  -Fidel Castro, who passed away on this day in 2016.

His words were a warning. Now Venezuela🇻🇪, Colombia🇨🇴, Russia🇷🇺, China🇨🇳, Iran🇮🇷…and the entire global south face the guns of the US’ empire.  What is happening in the LAC region is part of a growing global blockade against not just Russian but also Iranian and Chinese maritime shipping and is all ultimately aimed at isolating and crippling China;

The US Empire may be running riot today, but they are buying for themselves a hatred that will never ever dissipate, same as in Gaza.  Each corner of the world, from Japan, through Europe, West Asia through Africa and into the LAC is now set alight.  The Child Emperor will rule over destroyed lands and people equally willing to destroy.   This sentence from the US National Defense Strategy is a vision to their own future:  “This not only threatens U.S. access to key terrain throughout the hemisphere; it also leaves the Americas less stable and secure, undermining both U.S. interests and those of our regional partners.”

UPDATE: Kudus to Mexico’s Sheinbaum. She corrected her statement from yesterday as Mexico started raging.

“President Sheinbaum clarifies her extremely murky, evasive answer yesterday and it appears that PEMEX, which is entirely controlled by the Mexican government will not ship oil to Cuba, canceling a shipment this month, but the Mexican government will send oil as humanitarian aid.”