Tag: cuba

Cuban Dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel Threatens America — Vows Cubans Will “Give Our Blood” and Make the U.S. “Pay a Very Heavy Price”

Cuban communist thug Miguel Díaz-Canel has issued a direct threat to the United States, vowing that his impoverished island regime will spill “our own blood” and force America to “pay a very high price” in defense of their fallen socialist comrade in Venezuela.

This comes just hours after President Donald Trump’s bold, decisive military action that finally rid the world of Venezuelan tyrant Nicolás Maduro, a move that has liberals in meltdown mode.

President Trump, true to his America First agenda, ordered a large-scale military strike in Venezuela early Saturday, resulting in the capture and removal of socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

Elite U.S. forces executed a flawless nighttime raid in Caracas, seizing Maduro and flying him out of the country to face long-overdue criminal charges for his crimes against humanity and his role in flooding our borders with drugs and chaos.

Cuba, a decaying communist police state propped up for years by stolen Venezuelan oil, is predictably howling about “imperial aggression.”

Havana’s ruling elite knows full well that Maduro’s fall spells doom for their own tyrannical grip on power.

After all, Cuban intelligence has been deeply embedded inside Venezuela’s security apparatus. Without Maduro’s handouts, Cuba’s house of cards is crumbling faster than Biden’s cognitive abilities.

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“I Think They’re in a Lot of Trouble” – Rubio Signals Cuba is Trump’s Next Target, Reveals that Cubans Controlled Venezuelan Intelligence and Guarded Maduro

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday suggested that Cuba may be targeted by the Trump Administration next, after Venezuelan tyrant Nicolas Maduro’s ouster on Saturday. 

Trump has suggested that Colombia and Mexico may face military action next. Trump said on Saturday morning, “Something’s gonna have to be done with Mexico,” when he was asked whether his bold action in Venezuela was a warning to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.

During an appearance with NBC’s Kristen Welker, Rubio described the Cuban government as a “huge problem” and said, “they’re in a lot of trouble.”

“I’m not going to talk to you about what our future steps are going to be and our policies are going to be right now in this regard,” Rubio told Welker. “But I don’t think it’s any mystery that we are not big fans of the Cuban regime, who, by the way, are the ones that were propping up Maduro. His entire like internal security force, his internal security apparatus, is entirely controlled by Cubans.”

He further explained that Maduro was guarded by the Cubans and his internal intelligence was all Cubans, which he said was “one of the untold stories.”

WATCH:

Welker: Is the Cuban government the Trump administration’s next target, Mr. Secretary, very quickly?

Rubio: Well, the Cuban government is a huge problem. Yeah, the Cuban government is a huge problem, first of all for the people of Cuba, but I don’t think people fully appreciate–

Welker: So is that a yes?

Rubio: I think they’re in a lot of trouble, yes. I’m not going to talk to you about what our future steps are going to be and our policies are going to be right now in this regard. But I don’t think it’s any mystery that we are not big fans of the Cuban regime, who, by the way, are the ones that were propping up Maduro. His entire like internal security force, his internal security apparatus, is entirely controlled by Cubans.

One of the untold stories here is how, in essence, you talk about colonization— because I think you said Delcy Rodriguez mentioned that— the ones who have sort of colonized, at least inside the regime, are Cubans. It was Cubans that guarded Maduro. He was not guarded by Venezuelan bodyguards. He had Cuban bodyguards in terms of their internal intelligence, who spies on who inside to make sure there are no traitors, those are all Cubans.

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Trump issues thinly veiled warning to Mexico, slams Cuba, Colombia after US strikes Venezuela, arrests Maduro

President Trump issued a thinly-veiled warning to Mexico’s president Saturday while announcing the capture of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro Saturday.

Trump, who also had strong words for the leaders of Colombia and Cuba,  said the attack on Venezuela wasn’t meant to be a warning for Mexico, but said “something’s going to have to be done” about the cartel-run country.

Trump has clashed with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo over trade tariffs, and blamed the US neighbor for allowing illegal immigration and narcotics to flow across the southern border.

“We’re very friendly with her, she’s a good woman,” Trump told Fox & Friends Saturday. “But the cartels are running Mexico — she’s not running Mexico.”

Sheinbaum said Mexico “strongly condemns and rejects” US military action in Venezuela and urged the US to end “all acts of aggression against the Venezuelan government and people,” in a statement released Saturday.

Trump also doubled down on his warning to Colombian President Gustavo Petro.

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Trump hints at his next target for a military operation after stunning capture of Maduro

Communist-run Cuba may be the next country to have an American-made regime change, President Donald Trump floated at a press conference addressing the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.

‘I think Cuba is going to be something we’ll end up talking about, because Cuba is a failing nation right now, very badly failing nation, and we want to help the people,’ Trump said when asked if the operation in Venezuela contained a message to the island nation. 

‘That system has not been a very good one for Cuba,’ the president continued. ‘The people there have suffered for many, many years.’

After Joe Biden removed Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism last year, Trump quickly reinstated the designation within his first days in office and reapplied economic sanctions. 

The U.S.-Cuba relationship remains strained as the island nation is under a strict embargo, preventing goods from reaching the socialist state.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is the son of Cuban refugees who fled during the nation’s communist revolution, doubled down, warning that the nation’s leadership should be worried. 

‘Suffice it to say, you know, Cuba is a disaster,’ Rubio said at the press conference. ‘It’s run by incompetent, senile men.’ 

‘If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned, at least a little bit,’ the secretary of state added. 

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Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist Government Allocates 2.3 Million Euros to Finance the «Digital Transformation» of the Cuban Regime

The Government of Spain, led by the socialist Pedro Sánchez, has approved an allocation of 2.3 million euros to finance the so-called «digital transformation» of public administration in Cuba.

This initiative is part of the «Cuba Digital» project, a program funded by the European Union with a total of 3 million euros, managed through the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIAPP), an entity dependent on the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The stated objective is to digitize governmental procedures, improve administrative efficiency, and promote economic modernization on the Caribbean island.

However, it is clear that the Cuban communist regime argue that this investment does not benefit the people, but rather strengthens the repressive capabilities of Miguel Díaz-Canel’s government.

According to reports, the funds are allocated to update computer systems that include census tools, population control, and digital surveillance, key elements for maintaining authoritarian control over the citizenry.

In a context where Cuba faces serious problems of connectivity and internet access for its inhabitants—with frequent outages and state censorship—this European «aid» seems to prioritize state infrastructure over the real needs of the population, which suffers economic shortages and limitations on freedom of expression.

The decision is framed within a historical relationship between the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) and the Cuban regime, which has included debt condonations and bilateral cooperations.

Recently, Spain activated a debt conversion program for up to 375 million euros, intended for «sustainable development» projects in Cuba, although critics see it as a financial lifeline for Castroism amid its economic crisis.

We had previously reported it in Gateway Hispanic, highlighting how Sánchez ignores national priorities while supporting the Cuban regime.

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Death In the Street: Aside From the Obvious, There’s a Big Problem In Cuba

Last week, a video of a Cuban man’s final moments went viral on X. The man, whom many guessed to be in thirties, was skin and bones and wearing a medical mask, and he’d told those nearby that he felt unwell before sitting down on a bench outside on a public sidewalk. 

While he was sitting there, he simply slumped over and died. According to witnesses, his corpse remained there for many long hours under the Havana sun. Some tried to close his eyes, providing a little dignity. Others asked for a sheet to cover him. On one version of the video, you can hear someone say, “He died there sitting… he died of hunger, from the virus and the diseases.”  (Warning: You may find the video below disturbing.)  

Last I checked, no one knows what his cause of death was, but you probably just guess from any of the number of issues currently plaguing the country and get lucky. Cuba is currently a perfect storm for a random death. 

Malnutrition. Hunger from food shortages. Many only eat by digging through the trash of others. Poverty, inflation, and repression are at their worst levels in decades, and people are stressed. An estimated 89% of them live in extreme poverty. The country that once had a stellar medical system is now filled with overwhelmed hospitals, medical supply shortages, and dilapidated facilities, while the regime exports its medical providers to other countries under its slave-like forced labor program. Garbage remains piled in the streets for weeks and months at a time, creating sanitation hazards, and blackouts are now the norm, not the exception, sometimes lasting most of the day, even in Havana. Many lack clean water.  

As if that wasn’t enough, disease is running rampant. That’s why the man was wearing a mask. What the regime — or much of the media — won’t tell you is that Cuba is currently facing at least three simultaneous epidemics right now — dengue, chikungunya, and oropouche — and while it’s impossible to access real numbers, a third or more of the entire island’s population has gotten sick. 

Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne illness that can cause muscle and joint pain, rash, headache, vomiting, swollen glands, and, in severe cases, blood vessel damage that leads to shock, internal bleeding, and organ failure. Severe cases are typically fatal. Chikungunya is also virus spread through mosquito bites. The symptoms are similar to dengue, and while it’s rarely fatal, it can cause debilitating pain that lasts for a few days up to a few months. Oropouche is typically spread through midges, though mosquitos can spread it too, and it causes fever, severe headache, chills, muscle aches, and joint pain that lasts for up to a week. 

Cases of all three diseases have popped up all year and worsened in July, but they surged in September. By October, they reached “combined epidemiological crisis” levels. Flooding from Hurricane Melissa combined with the poor sanitation conditions in the country contributed to the surge. There’s not enough fuel to run the mosquito fumigation trucks. Infrastructure is in such bad shape that leaking pipes lead to stagnant water that allow for increased mosquito breeding, and there is a lack of available screens for windows and doors, but the increasing number of blackouts make it difficult to keep them closed.    

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Mexico finances the Cuban regime while Pemex sinks into debt

Between May and August of 2025, Mexico sent more than 3 billion dollars in subsidized fuels to Cuba through the state subsidiary Gasolinas Bienestar, a figure that triples the shipments recorded during the last two years of the previous administration.

This has raised serious questions about transparency, public spending priorities, and possible diplomatic risks, as some of the shipments may have been carried out using a vessel sanctioned by the United States.

Quantity, frequency, and routesIn those four months, 58 shipments of hydrocarbons – including gasoline, diesel, and crude oil – were documented leaving Mexican ports for the Caribbean island.Most of those ships departed from Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, with only three leaving from Tampico, Tamaulipas.

The shipments are carried out by Gasolinas Bienestar, a Pemex subsidiary created in 2022 with the declared mission of supplying Cuba with subsidized fuel.

Use of a sanctioned vessel

One of the vessels identified on these routes was the Sandino, included in 2019 by the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on its blacklist for participating in operations linked to the shipment of Venezuelan oil to Cuba.

In August, the Sandino sailed from the Pemex terminal in Laguna de Pajaritos, Veracruz, and arrived seven days later at the “Camilo Cienfuegos” refinery in Cuba.

Financial impact and budget comparison

The more than 3 billion dollars equate to about 60 billion Mexican pesos, approximately the same as the projected budget for the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC) in 2026.

Gasolinas Bienestar has already reported losses and debt in its first year of operation, attributed to the “gifted” fuel to Cuba.

This increase in shipments occurs while Pemex faces financial and debt challenges, raising concerns about the sustainability of these subsidies.

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Report: ICE Deports Repressive Cuban Judge Formerly on Biden’s ‘Humanitarian Parole’

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Thursday deported Melody González Pedraza, a Cuban communist judge who entered the U.S. through the Biden administration’s “humanitarian parole” program, Martí Noticias reported.

González Pedraza reportedly traveled from Havana to Tampa, Florida, in late May 2024 after the administration of former President Joe Biden provided her with a U.S. flight authorization as part of the now-extinct “Humanitarian Parole” program. The initiative, launched by former President Joe Biden in January 2023, allowed up to 30,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans to legally stay and work in the United States for a period of “up to two years.”

Airport authorities in Tampa reportedly refused to grant her entry due to her extensive past as a communist regime official. In response, González Pedraza requested U.S. political asylum. Martí Noticias detailed that González Pedraza lost her U.S. asylum case on May 21, 2025, and chose not to appeal the ruling issued by an immigration judge in Pompano Beach, Florida. Unnamed sources told the outlet that complaints presented by Cuban exiles against González Pedraza were key to the prosecution and subsequent deportation of the communist judge.

The Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FHRC), a non-government organization, included González Pedraza on its list of known Castro regime representatives. The communist judge is known for having issued excessive prison sentences to peaceful Cuban protesters and dissidents.

Days before traveling to Florida, she reportedly sentenced a group of four young Cuban men — all below the age of 30 — to four years in prison on dubious “assault” charges against local state security officials in the municipality of Encrucijada, Villa Clara. Families of the four men denounced at the time that their relatives were unjustly convicted in a sham trial in which the Castro regime did not present neither evidence nor witnesses that could corroborate the accusations.

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Cuba’s Shadow Army in Ukraine: Havana’s Silent Alliance with Moscow

In Miami, we recently spoke with a Ukrainian citizen who was blunt: “A significant number of Cubans are fighting on behalf of Russia.” His certainty echoes what is now surfacing through intelligence leaks, investigative journalism, and testimonies.

This is not hearsay alone. It fits a wider pattern: a regime under economic collapse, an ally in need of soldiers, and a recruitment network that stretches from Havana to Tula.

For the first time since Angola in the 1970s, large numbers of Cubans are again fighting in a foreign war—not under their flag, but under Russia’s.

Evidence of Cuban Fighters in Ukraine

  • Initial reports (2023): In May 2023, Russian outlets in Ryazan reported Cubans signing contracts with the Russian Army in exchange for citizenship. By summer, videos surfaced of young Cubans claiming they had been deceived into combat.
  • Recruitment networks: In September 2023, Cuba’s government announced it had uncovered a trafficking ring and arrested 17 individuals.Yet evidence of continued flows emerged soon after, raising doubts about Havana’s sincerity.
  • OSINT confirmation: RFE/RL’s investigative unit Schemes documented Cuban recruits training at Russia’s 106th Guards Airborne Division in Tula, using social media geolocation and satellite imagery.
  • Ukrainian estimates: A Ukrainian diplomat told The Wall Street Journal in February 2024 that around 400 Cubans were on the front. Another MP cited 1,500–3,000. By June 2025, El País, citing Ukraine’s GUR intelligence, reported a cumulative 20,000 recruits since 2022, with 6,000–7,000 active at any given time. These figures remain unverified by Western intelligence but indicate the scale of concern.

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Cuba’s Power Grid Collapses for the Fifth Time in a Year

Cuba’s barely functional power grid completely collapsed for the fifth time in less than a year on Wednesday, leaving the entire country without power throughout the day.

According to Granma, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuba, the power grid has not been fully restored as of Thursday morning, as five provinces remain without power. In contrast, the Spanish news Agency EFE reported on Thursday that much more of Cuba is still without power.

The blackout started on Wednesday at 09:14 a.m. (local time) after the Antonio Guiteras thermal power plant in the province of Matanzas suddenly went offline. The independent outlet Cibercuba pointed out that the plant is the same one that caused prior mass blackouts in the country. Iván Hernández, general secretary of the Independent Trade Union Association of Cuba, further explained to Infobae that the thermal power plant is Cuba’s biggest.

“You can imagine the heat, food going bad, young children, the elderly, and bedridden people going through this… The discomfort is immense. People have nothing to eat and now even less to cook with, because most Cuban families prepare food using electrical appliances,” Hernández told Infobae.

Wednesday’s still unresolved nationwide blackout marks the fifth time in less than a year that Cuba’s derelict power grid has completely collapsed, and comes days after another massive power grid failure left Eastern Cuba without power over the weekend. Cuban figurehead “president” Miguel Díaz-Canel — who returned to the country this week following a tour of Vietnam, China, and Laos — said on a Thursday morning social media post that the power grid is generating “more than 1,000 MW” of power and that “most provinces are already connected.”

According to Granma, the Castro regime deployed a series of “microsystems” to provide power to crucial infrastructure such as hospitals and aqueducts as a temporary workaround to the non-functional power grid. Cibercuba reported on Thursday noon that one such system deployed in the Province of Granma collapsed twice. The ongoing nationwide blackout also forced hospitals to suspend surgeries and other medical procedures.

The independent outlet 14 y Medio reported that Cubans had to come up with “emergency solutions” to provide some form of comfort to children amid the blackout. One unidentified Cuban citizen explained that he had to “use my electric tricycle to charge the child’s fans.” Other citizens, the outlet detailed, have resorted to homemade wind turbines while one unidentified citizen said that wind turbines have become a “competitive” alternative to solar panels.

Cuba has a barely functional power grid after the communist Castro regime pushed it to the brink of complete ruin with decades of mismanagement and lack of due maintenance. As a result, the derelict power plants still working in the country are unable to generate enough electricity to power all of Cuba at once, forcing Cubans to endure daily blackouts.

The already years-long dramatic situation drastically worsened in October 2024, when the power grid experienced the first of so far five complete collapses that left Cuba without power for almost a week. Although the Castro regime managed to bring the power grid back online, it continued to function at an even more diminished capacity, leading to further collapses in the following months that continued throughout 2025.

The ruling communists, short of resolving the power crisis, have instead urged citizens to enact desperate “power saving” measures such as temporarily suspending all education and work activities in mid-February and requesting people bring their own power generators to banks and other state offices to provide them the requested services.

The subject of Cuba’s electricity collapse is one of the main issues on which the regime has sought increased assistance from China — which, throughout 2025, has become Cuba’s main benefactor, replacing Russia.

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