On May Day, Trump Ramps Up War on Cuba

On International Workers' Day, as protests around the world linked economic hardship to U.S. military aggression, Donald Trump issued an executive order intensifying his administration’s war on the Cuban people.

The new order is extraordinarily broad, threatening sanctions against foreign individuals and entities determined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio to have “operated” in any “sector of the Cuban economy.” In effect, it gives carte blanche to Rubio, a Cuban-American politician from South Florida who has never stepped foot in Cuba, to go after third parties in other countries doing business on the island.

The order also imposes a travel ban on any foreign individual who is considered to be in violation. In addition, it targets foreign banks that process transactions for those “blocked” by the order, which could further lock the island out of the international financial system.

The order invokes a supposed “national emergency,” arguing that Cuba poses a “national security threat” based on claims that its government hosts foreign spy bases, sponsors terrorism, provides safe haven to Hezbollah, and drives migration to the United States. There is no credible evidence to substantiate any of these allegations.

The executive order is the latest escalation in a decades-long economic war designed to bring about regime change by suffocating the island’s economy.