Rubio on May 5, 2026 -- public domain image By Daniela López Ferreiro, translated from the Spanish Secretary of State Marco Rubio doesn't speak to the Cuban people: he speaks about the Cuban people. His message on May 20, presented as an offer of help and an explanation of the Cuban crisis, is in reality a carefully constructed piece of political manipulation. The Florida hawk takes real issues, strips them of context, exaggerates certain facts, hides others, and boils Cuba’s

Banner and flag in Cuba -- Taymaz Valley from Ottawa, Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Vijay Prashad In January 2026, US President Donald Trump declared Cuba to be an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US security—a designation that allows the United States government to use sweeping economic restrictions traditionally reserved for national security adversaries. The US blockade against Cuba began in the 1960s, right after the Cuban Revolution of 1959 but has tig