{"id":211396,"date":"2026-05-22T15:32:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T15:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-raises-threat-of-military-action-against-cuba-al-jazeera\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T15:32:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T15:32:06","slug":"us-raises-threat-of-military-action-against-cuba-al-jazeera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-raises-threat-of-military-action-against-cuba-al-jazeera\/","title":{"rendered":"US raises threat of military action against Cuba &#8211; Al Jazeera"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Secretary of State Marco Rubio says Cuba poses a national security threat to the US.<\/em><br \/>Save<br \/>Share<br \/>United States President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have issued new threats of military action against Cuba.<br \/>Rubio\u00a0told reporters late on Thursday that Cuba has been a national security threat for years because of its ties to US adversaries Russia and China, while Trump said he is likely to be the president to finally take action.<br \/>The Trump administration, with Cuban-American Rubio at the forefront, has been raising the pressure on the communist-led island in an apparent bid to institute \u201cregime change,\u201d including a fuel blockade that has put the Cuban economy on the edge of collapse.<br \/>The push has accelerated in recent days, with the US indicting Cuba\u2019s former President Raul Castro and gathering military forces in the Caribbean.<br \/>Rejecting suggestions of \u201cnation building,\u201d Rubio told reporters the issue is one of \u201cnational security\u201d. He added that while a negotiated agreement is the US \u201cpreference\u201d, the path of diplomacy with Cuba is \u201cnot high\u201d.<br \/>\u201cTheir economic system doesn\u2019t work. It\u2019s broken, and you can\u2019t fix it with the current political system that\u2019s in place,\u201d Rubio said.<br \/>Over the years, Cuba has gotten used to \u201cbuying time and waiting us out,\u201d Rubio said. \u201cThey\u2019re not going to be able to wait us out or buy time. We\u2019re very serious, we\u2019re very focused.\u201d<br \/>Separately, President Donald Trump told reporters that US presidents have considered intervening in Cuba for decades, but that it looks like he will be \u201cthe one that does it\u201d, adding that he would be \u201chappy\u201d to do so.<br \/>In response, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez lambasted Rubio for falsely labelling Cuba a threat.<br \/>\u201cThe US secretary of state lies once again to instigate a military aggression that would provoke the shedding of Cuban and American blood,\u201d Rodriguez said.<br \/>Since returning to office, Trump has slapped Cuba with numerous sanctions, <a href=\"\/news\/2026\/5\/14\/absolutely-no-fuel-cuba-hit-by-blackouts-protests-amid-power-outages\">implemented a fuel blockade<\/a> and overseen a military build-up in the region.<br \/>The renewed threats on Thursday came amid rising tensions between the countries.<br \/>The US indicted <a href=\"\/news\/2026\/5\/20\/trump-administration-indicts-cubas-raul-castro-over-1996-plane-shootdown\">Cuba\u2019s former President Raul Castro<\/a> on Wednesday, in connection with the 1996 downing of a plane.<br \/>On Thursday, Adys Lastres Morera \u2013 sister of a high-ranking executive of the Grupo de Administracion Empresarial SA (GAESA) conglomerate, which is controlled by Cuba\u2019s military and controls large swaths of the economy \u2013 was arrested.<br \/>More sanctions were imposed on the Cuban government in the past week. The US military announced that several navy ships, including an aircraft carrier, had arrived in the Caribbean on Wednesday to take part in maritime exercises with partners in Latin America.<\/p>\n<p>Rubio has noted that Cuba had earlier tentatively accepted an offer of $100m in aid in return for reforms. But he said it was unclear if the US would accept Cuba\u2019s terms, as Washington insists on circumventing the military-backed conglomerate GAESA.<br \/>Analysts caution that Trump and Rubio are eyeing a similar course of action in Cuba to the regime change manufactured in Venezuela. Left-wing <a href=\"\/news\/2026\/1\/5\/what-is-the-us-charging-nicolas-maduro-with\">President Nicolas Maduro<\/a> and his wife were kidnapped in a military operation in January. They were taken to the US, where Maduro was charged with \u201cnarcoterrorism\u201d.<br \/>Rubio insists that Cuba poses a serious national security threat to the US because of its security and intelligence ties with China and Russia.<br \/>Both countries have criticised the US pressure on the island.<br \/>China said on Friday it \u201cfirmly supports\u201d Cuba and urged the US to de-escalate tensions and \u201cstop threatening force\u201d.<br \/>Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: \u201cWe believe that under no circumstances should such methods \u2013 which border on violence \u2013 be used against either former or current heads of state.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Follow Al Jazeera English:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/rss\/articles\/CBMikwFBVV95cUxOWks2MWJ4SjFZSWtUNlR3bzc4SHFIWW5OdTFqbVFjYUZiWWQ2QnFGa0F4NURpWW83OTVIb0FVczVKTEdoN3ZCQjBUVDlLQm9scEZkdHZpWElpXzY4QkFyU1Rpd2REVUJ5ZHFrUXN1eWFBOEFQZnRtelN1dkZDT0cwQnVOaDkyOGxfalJGVWpVR0pmTlHSAZgBQVVfeXFMTnVoWFpMZmk4dGdhRmYyZ1pUZ0d6enNNZ3pDWG4tcG1uREJyWlcxS1RvTmVQMk1JSmU1aDNCNDBKdVlkSDFfRnhuVG9xdnJkZEh6WlhCNGE2MkQzVUxMbmlpbllrUUxuRW9lazR5TkZUdFVDZmdGMTBXbC1BVkU2NVYtYVY1MG9ZRldkNEZOVFBqYkRZT0tONmc?oc=5\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Secretary of State Marco Rubio says Cuba poses a national security threat to the US.SaveShareUnited States President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have issued new threats of military action against Cuba.Rubio\u00a0told reporters late on Thursday that Cuba has been a national security threat for years because of its ties to US adversaries [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":211397,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}