End US Aggression Against Cuba!
The Trump administration is committed to overthrowing the Cuban government and its political economic structure. What can be done to stop it?
by Peter Bohmer
On May 1, 2026, President Trump signed an executive order authorizing additional sanctions on Cuba. Trump said, “We will be taking it [Cuba] over almost immediately.” These continued threats follow the Trump administration’s April 14 directive to the Pentagon to “ramp up preparations for possible military action against Cuba.” In response to Trump’s threats to take over the country, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said, “No aggressor, no matter how powerful, will find surrender in Cuba, … he will find a people determined to defend sovereignty and independence in every inch of our country.”
Trump told reporters that “we may stop by Cuba after we’ve finished with this” (referring to war against Iran). This followed a January 29 Executive Order calling Cuba “an unusual and extraordinary threat to US national security.” Trump announced a blockade of oil to Cuba and stiff tariffs for any country delivering oil. The two main suppliers had been Mexico and Venezuela. They and other nations have stopped shipping oil to Cuba except one big shipment by Russia in late March.
Even more recently, the U.S. has been flying military jets over Cuba, with continued CIA involvement. This harkens back to when the CIA orchestrated the Bay of Pigs invasion, a failed coup in 1961 to overthrow the Cuban Government led by Fidel Castro. The CIA attempted, unsuccessfully, to assassinate Castro over a hundred times. Additionally, they have long sponsored Cuban exiles to commit acts of terror against a sovereign state.
To further escalate matters, on May 21, the U.S. (In)Justice Department issued an arrest warrant for the arrest of 95-year-old Raul Castro. President of Cuba from 2008-2018, Raul was a commander in the Cuban revolution with his brother Fidel, and head of the Cuban military for 50 years. As a leader of the Communist Party, Raul has been charged with fabricated and unjust claims. This warrant is a potential pretext for a special forces operation in Cuba that would likely include an abduction or killing of Castro.
The U.S., while threatening Cuba with an invasion, targeted assassinations, and/or bombing, is already conducting an act of war by this blockade. This represents both a continuation of the 66-year-old U.S. embargo of Cuba, and a further tightening and escalation. There is an increased U.S. military presence in the Caribbean, including the aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Nimitz, and the U.S. continues to occupy a naval base at Guantanamo on Cuban soil.
The lack of Cuban access to oil is causing increased blackouts, often as long as 20 hours a day. Growing food and water shortages accompany worsening conditions in the healthcare system. The Trump administration’s objective is to cause enough hardship and suffering for the Cuban people that they revolt against their government and cause its collapse. It is an inhumane, illegal, and immoral strategy. It is also unlikely to succeed as the Cuban state retains legitimacy, especially against the U.S. as a rallying cry. Likewise, there is limited opposition within the Cuban military and the Communist Party against the leadership. Yet a military attack by the U.S. continues to be a serious possibility. Let us not let it happen!
Why?
The Cuban Revolution led by Fidel overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista on January 1, 1959. In the spring of 1960, President Eisenhower signed an order calling for the overthrow of the Cuban government which has been the U.S. policy for most of the last 66 years.
From the 1960’s through the 1980’s, Cuba’s economic system was “the threat of a good example”, to the U.S. ruling class. The threat of a good example implied that Cuba, by meeting the needs of its people, would inspire anti-capitalist revolutions across the Global South. Cuba made major land reforms that nationalized U.S. owned property such as the sugar mills, mines, and hotels. Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution were popular throughout the Americas for standing up to the U.S., for their universal health and educational system, their internationalism, and for their support of revolutionary movements.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990-1991, Cuba has had serious economic problems. A major cause has been their inability to export sufficiently to cover their import needs. Beginning in the 1990s, tourism became a major earner of foreign exchange, but tourism declined substantially during the COVID pandemic and has not recovered. Cuba has overinvested in hotels. Venezuela, after Hugo Chavez’s presidential victory in 1998, exchanged oil for Cuban doctors, medicine and advisers in agriculture and security. This partially replaced Soviet support.
Under President Obama, there was a loosening of the embargo, including restoring diplomatic relations and permitting some tourism, trade, and remittances. Trump, in his first term, reversed this. He attempted to weaken Cuba’s economy by declaring it a country supporting terrorism which further restricted Cuba’s access to credit and global finance. Economic hardship has led many Cubans to emigrate. Cuba’s population currently stands at 10.9 million people. This represents a decline of 1.5 million people in the last six years. Infant mortality more than doubled between 2018 and 2025.
The U.S. embargo/sanctions have been the major cause of Cuba’s major economic problems although not the only one. Cuba has not developed an economy where the standard of living increases steadily, nor is there sufficient food production. Its development of organic agriculture beginning in the special period in the early 1990’s is impressive but has not ended Cuba’s reliance on food imports. In most sectors, productivity growth has been slow. Top-down central planning is a problem. Increasing reliance on private markets has not helped. More worker control of enterprises would help as would participatory economic planning.
Although Cuba no longer poses the threat of a good example, its “crime” continues to be its independence from the U.S. empire; its refusal to accept U.S. determination of its economy and politics. U.S. domination of Latin America has shaped much of U.S. policy beginning with the 1824 Monroe doctrine. Trump’s National Security Strategy document of December 2025 makes this explicit. One of the Trump administration’s motives in invading Venezuela on January 3, 2026, was as a step towards the attack on Cuba and to cut off Cuba’s Venezuelan oil supply.
Cuba Today: Crisis and Support
A major problem for Cuba is earning enough foreign exchange to purchase oil as it only produces one third of their energy needs. Gasoline is selling at $40 a gallon. Cuba is responding by major increases in renewable energy, receiving higher numbers of solar panels and batteries from China. Solar energy now produces one fourth of Cuba’s energy needs and is growing but is not a short-term solution.
In Cuba’s struggle against the U.S., Cuba has support from most governments around the world and their people. The last UN vote saw 165 countries cast their votes opposing the U.S. embargo of Cuba. Only seven countries voted in favor of the embargo. Mexico has recently sent over 800 tons of aid, mainly food and medical equipment. This support is important but it is neither sufficient to significantly reduce the economic hardships facing the Cuban people nor stop the U.S. commitment to overthrow the Cuban government.
Even though approval ratings for the Cuban Communist Party and its leadership have declined, especially among younger people, there is little support for a U.S. led coup d’état and/or for a government led by right wing Cuban exiles. Unlike Venezuela, there are not leaders in the Communist Party or in the Cuban military who are likely to support an overthrow of the current leadership and structure. The U.S. may kidnap or assassinate Cuban leaders (a war crime) but that is unlikely to lead to a U.S. puppet regime. A U.S. invasion and bombing would create further economic misery and deaths, but would be met by mass resistance from the military and population. The Trump administration’s inability to secure a military victory in Iran could make them reluctant to directly attack Cuba, although threats continue daily.
During the Spanish Civil War in the 1930’s, brigades from over 50 countries went to support the Spanish Republic and the Spanish left against fascism. In the U.S., almost 3000 joined the Abraham Lincoln brigade. They didn’t stop Franco’s victory in Spain but raised global awareness of fascism’s threat to the world. Such solidarity is needed again for Cuba.
Solidarity with Cuba means with their government and people and organizations. We should not only oppose U.S. aggression against Cuba and the Cuban people, but critically support the Cuban government led by the Cuban Communist Party. Their history both domestically and internationally merits solidarity. There continues to be a commitment to provide a social safety net to the entire population despite the scarcity of goods and energy.
What Can We Do?
As mentioned, Cuba was dealing with an economic crisis even before the tightening of the embargo in January. Threatening high tariffs on countries selling oil to Cuba is new. The ongoing embargo of Cuba for 66 years has been a bipartisan strategy. An important demand that is necessary for the recuperation of the Cuban Economy is to end all aspects of the U.S. sanctions/embargo/blockade —no restrictions on trade, on credit and financial flows, on tourism, and for diplomatic relations with Cuba (i.e. respect for Cuban sovereignty). Also, no sanctions on other nations for normal relations with Cuba!
Like the majority opposition here to the U.S.-Israeli War against Iran, our task is to turn passive opposition against war with Cuba into active opposition. A poll by YouGov, released May 6, found 64 percent of Americans oppose the US going to war against Cuba, while 15 percent support it and 21 percent are unsure.
Locally and nationally, we need a larger more powerful anti-war movement that opposes U.S. attacks on boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean, on Iran, on Cuba, on Venezuela and other nations. One path forward could be to build on the existing infrastructure of the ongoing Palestine solidarity movement in the U.S. While continuing to oppose all aid to Israel and solidarity with Palestine, it could become a broader anti-war movement. This is necessary although not yet emerging on and off college campuses. Another possibility would be to build a mass organization that is anti-war and fights for equity and justice at home and abroad.
It is urgent that we raise the demand of no attack on Cuba and an end to the embargo in our communities, families, workplaces, unions, churches, schools and organizations, political parties and activism. This can include conversations, resolutions, lobbying Congress and making Cuban solidarity as part of forums, rallies, demonstrations, direct action, etc. It means connecting opposition to the war on Cuba to issues such as immigrant and economic justice in the U.S.
Stopping U.S. attacks on Cuba is difficult but possible. Opposition by other countries and global solidarity is necessary. Let us also build a strong enough opposition in the U.S. that those in power — whether Democrat or Republican — will understand it is in their interest to accept Cuban sovereignty and end all aspects of the attacks on Cuba.
Peter Bohmer has studied the Cuban revolution and been in solidarity with Cuba since the late 1960s. He has visited the island on five occasions including in 2001 when he was a visiting faculty at the University of Havana. He has taught about Cuba at The Evergreen State College and took students from The Evergreen State College to Cuba for eight weeks in 2004.