The Latin American Report # 689
The agenda-setting of major media is increasingly—and quite intentionally—focusing on Trump's policy towards Cuba and the political destiny of the Island. For the White House, 2026 will be "the year", that is: the final vindication of Lester Mallory, a sinister high-ranking official at the State Department during Eisenhower's time who pointed out that the fall of the revolutionary political regime—then recently established—would only occur in a context of massive social unrest fueled by Washington-induced misery. "[E]very possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba. If such a policy is adopted, it should be the result of a positive decision which would call forth a line of action which, while as adroit and inconspicuous as possible, makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government," suggested Mallory to Roy Richard Rubottom Jr., who in April 1960 was serving as Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, and who blessed his reasoning.
Knowing that, right now, the United States is employing every possible instrument in its punitive toolkit against Cuba, and of the strategic blow represented by Maduro's political death, Trump says the Cuban political system "[is] going down for the count". In this sense, Politico reports this Friday that the White House is considering a sort of "naval blockade" to interrupt all oil flow to Cuba, while Reuters claims that in Mexico City officials are assessing whether shipments—not very voluminous to be clear—from the state oil company bound for Havana will continue.
In this currently lawless world, or, in any case, where the law of the strongest prevails, anything can happen. Claudia Sheinbaum, for the moment, has remained very firm in the issue despite the extraordinary and crude pressure from hawks on Capitol Hill, the West Wing, and Foggy Bottom, not to mention the Mexican right, which will demand she not risk Mexico's position regarding the USMCA North American trade pact. Also hovering over the Zócalo Square is Trump's threat to conduct lethal attacks against organized crime on Mexican soil. "Energy is the chokehold to kill the [Cuban] regime," a person supposedly involved in decision-making on Cuba told Politico. We must remember that everything boils down to strangling the plain and simple people who live here.
Regional news brief
Next February 3rd, the head of the Nariño House will be received with full honors on Pennsylvania Avenue by Donald Trump. The high-stakes diplomatic move is an attempt to reduce tensions created between Bogotá and Washington, although the latest attack today against a vessel accused of trafficking drugs in the Eastern Pacific is a clear statement aimed at establishing (American) force as the dominant paradigm.
Haiti's Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé was fired by the Transitional Presidential Council this Friday, in an event that amplifies the endless and comprehensive crisis suffered by the Caribbean country. "We know that the decision we make is in the interest of the country and in this sense, our friends in the international community will have to take note of our decisions," said council member Edgard Leblanc in apparent reference to the United States, which had shown explicit opposition to such a move.
This is all for today’s report.
