The US blockade on Cuba is stressing an already tumultuous relationship between the 2 countries, as Donald Trump accused Cuba of getting drones able to striking mainland America.<\/p>\n
A months-long energy blockade on behalf of the Trump Administration has plunged the island right into a blackout, with food and medical supplies running low.<\/p>\n
By the top of 2026, the US\u00a0government\u00a0is hoping to \u2018change leadership\u2019 of Cuba, and is on the lookout for government insiders to \u2018cut a deal\u2019 to make it possible,\u00a0reports in January said.<\/p>\n
US claims that Havana has drones that might attack mainland Florida have been dismissed by the Cuban government as \u2018fraudulent\u2019.<\/p>\n
There are also fears that Trump could use it as a reason for a military intervention, which he\u2019s been hinting at for months now.<\/p>\n
Dr Stephen Wilkinson, of the International Institute for the Study of Cuba at The University of Buckingham, told Metro<\/strong> that a continued blockade or attempted military coup in Cuba could be the most important tragedy in American foreign policy in years.<\/p>\n Start your day informed with Metro’s News Updates<\/strong> newsletter or get Breaking News <\/strong>alerts the moment it happens. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018Taking up Cuba is just one other fantasy, identical to the concept the US can defeat Iran is a fantasy,\u2019 he explained.<\/p>\n \u2018They\u2019ve underestimated the Iranians, they usually\u2019re underestimating the Cubans. The Cubans are manufactured from very tough stuff. They\u2019re not going to provide up.\u2019<\/p>\n Dr Wilkinson added: \u2018The Cuban persons are very nationalistic and have really been fighting for 200 years for his or her independence. First against the Spanish, after which, america, after it imposed a government on them which they didn\u2019t really need. <\/p>\n \u2018The revolution of 1959 was really an assertion of Cuban independence and sovereignty from america. By attempting to reassert its dominance over Cuba, america will only deepen the resistance of Cubans towards it.\u2019<\/p>\n The US government has been meeting with Cuban exiles in Miami and Washington, in hopes of reaching a government official in Havana who could help make a change occur \u2013 but Dr Wilkinson said those talks show that this potential conflict is one other \u2018class conflict\u2019.<\/p>\n In 1803, america began to desire to take Cuba and make it a state of the Union. On the time, Cuba was a Spanish colony. Hopes of taking on the country then didn\u2019t work out, but a long time down the road, politicians made one other attempt.<\/p>\n Cuba sits on the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico, and the US wanted sovereignty over the land to guard sea lanes towards the Mississippi Delta, after which the ocean lanes to the Panama Canal. <\/p>\n Later, there have been American investments in Cuban sugar and economic ties that made Cuba much more vital to the US. <\/p>\n \u2018The connection has little or no to do with Twentieth-century ideological struggles. It has mainly to do with Nineteenth-century anti-colonial struggles,\u2019 Dr Wilkinson told Metro<\/strong>. \u2018The Cubans have wanted their sovereignty and independence and have fought for it for a very long time.\u2019<\/p>\n In 1902, the US intervened after Cuba won independence from Spain and imposed a structure and settlement on the brand new country, which was met with backlash. <\/p>\n Throughout the Twentieth century, the Cuban people fought for independence again, before finally gaining it in 1959, when Fidel Castro took over.<\/p>\n America then tried to kill Castro and tried to invade through the failed Bay of Pigs.<\/p>\n For a long time after Castro took power, many Cubans fled towards america. In 2015, Barack Obama and Ra\u00fal Castro began normalising relations again in a serious win for diplomacy.<\/p>\n When Trump took office for the primary time, nonetheless, these were reversed, and Cuba was designated as a state sponsor of terrorism. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The revolution in Cuba did result in severe economic hardship, food shortages and medical shortages \u2013 together with political crackdowns. This led to hundreds of thousands fleeing the country.<\/p>\n \u2018The extraordinary people of Cuba asserted their independence in 1959, and the bourgeoisie, the Cuban upper class, left and went to live in america,\u2019 Dr Wilkinson argues.<\/p>\n \u2018For the last, getting on for 60 years, there was an internationalised class struggle, and that\u2019s what\u2019s coming to a head now.<\/p>\n \u2018The individuals who want to attempt to recuperate Cuba for themselves reside, for my part, a Gatsby-esque fantasy: the concept you might recreate the past and return to 1959, and check out to erase what\u2019s happened in between.\u2019<\/p>\n Cuba has close ties to\u00a0Venezuela, having received oil and funding from the Caracas government before Nicolas Maduro was ousted. <\/p>\n Since then, the country has been facing increasing blackouts, queues at\u00a0supermarkets\u00a0and petrol shortages because it undergoes its worst economic crisis in a long time.<\/p>\n For a long time, the US has wanted government change in Cuba. Writer and historian Louis A Perez wrote that Americans have \u2018convinced themselves that they’ve a beneficent purpose [\u2026] from which Americans derived the moral authority to presume power over Cuba\u2019.<\/p>\n Boiled down simply, the US sees Cuban independence as a threat because its government and folks don\u2019t want US involvement in any respect, and are socialist.<\/p>\n The Cuban Missile Crisis also put a sour taste in Americans\u2019 mouths, after the Soviet Union placed nuclear missiles across Cuba, resulting in a 13-day standoff between the 2 countries. <\/p>\n Cuba\u2019s alliances with other countries, corresponding to China, Venezuela and Iran, have concerned US government officials.<\/p>\n Dr Wilkinson points out: \u2018 The US desires to disband the military, disband the police force, completely dismantle the present government and construct a brand new one in Cuba. They\u2019ve got a blueprint for a type of colonial regime for a period while they\u2019re \u2018rebuilding the country\u2019. <\/p>\n \u2018The issue is that they won\u2019t find very many Cubans who could be willing to collaborate with them.\u2019<\/p>\n If recent and distant history is anything to go by, the standoff could go in two alternative ways.<\/p>\n Dr Wilkinson argues: \u2018The situation in Cuba now’s literally certainly one of america ravenous the Cuban people. This could be very just like what the Israeli government did to the people in Gaza, and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s an exaggeration to make use of the term \u2018Gazification\u2019 of Cuba, because this is admittedly what\u2019s happening. <\/p>\n \u2018That is the worst regime of sanctions that Cuba has been placed under because the very starting.\u2019<\/p>\n A 1960 US government memo nicknamed the \u2018Mallory Memorandum\u2019 also points to what the federal government wanted in Cuba then \u2013 and what appears to be happening now.<\/p>\n \u2018\u2026Denying money and supplies to Cuba, to diminish monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of presidency,\u2019 the memo read, referencing a plan to overthrow the Cuban government.<\/p>\n Dr Wilkinson adds: \u2018The unique objective of that embargo was to cause starvation so that individuals would stand up and overthrow the federal government. It was an intention to create a situation of social unrest in Cuba, which might then provide the excuse for an occupation of the island. <\/p>\n \u2018And that\u2019s really what\u2019s happening again straight away.\u2019<\/p>\n Get in contact with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n For more stories like this, <\/strong>check our news page<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\tEnroll for all of the newest stories\t\t\t<\/h2>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SEI_292258461-8c8c.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646\")
\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\tA transient history of the US-Cuba relationship\t\t\t<\/h2>\n
The connection isn\u2019t nearly communism, Dr Wilkinson tells Metro<\/strong>.<\/em><\/h3>\n
What does the US actually want?<\/h2>\n
![\"Cuba's](\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/SEI_297858207-6d4b.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646\")
\t<\/div>What happens now?<\/h2>\n
![\"HAVANA,](\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/SEI_297863170-d55f.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646\")
\t<\/div>