Cuba is in the United States’ crosshairs again. The Trump administration is ratcheting up sanctions, this time on the military and, at the same time, sending in spies.
Trash piled up on streets in Miramar, the upscale Havana neighborhood where the embassies from around the world are located, not immune to the effects of spiraling shortages and blackouts.
Though with full electricity, an assembly of leftist organizations from 25 countries in Havana came together with Cuba’s president front and center. They’re all there in solidarity, an anti-imperialist calling to arms and calling the U.S. a threat.
“The aggression will not end in 2028, and acceptable terms will not be reached with a weakened state; its very weakness makes it more violent,” Stephanie Weatherbee Brito, of the International Assembly of the Peoples, said.
The Cuban military is the latest target of Trump administration sanctions.
Five more organizations and eight more individuals are all involved in importing, producing and repairing weapons and military equipment.
The newest sanctions were announced as the CIA revealed a new spy task force, made up of analysts and covert influence specialists, to identify and exploit divisions within the country’s ruling elite.
“This is all part of a plan that Washington has to maybe crack the Cuban government at a time that they show no willingness to open up or change the regime,” Cuba analyst Andy Gomez said.
Last month, a State Department report built a case chronicling the history of Cuba’s spies partnering with Russia and China, sowing division in the U.S.
Some were revealed after damage was done: Manuel Rocha spying in plain sight. Before that, Juan Pablo Rique and the Wasp Network, whose intel played a role in the shootdown of Miami’s Brothers to the Rescue planes in the 1990s.
“What this report does is to the American people allows them to see for themselves this decades-long influence and espionage campaign that the Cuban regime has been supporting,” Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesperson, said on “This Week in South Florida” on Sunday.
Spycraft between Cuba and the U.S. has been underway for decades, but was scaled back in the last decade because of the medical incidents they named “Havana Syndrome.”
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