CUBA UNDER PRESSURE AS US NEXT STEPS HOVER

The United States continues to pile pressure on Cuba as speculation mounts over what might be the next step of the Trump administration toward the communist-run island.

Already reeling under severe economic sanctions, Cuba’s tourism industry is now in decline with sanctions also impacting foreign companies operating in the sector.

According to reporting by the UK’s BBC, ‘The Trump administration has targeted the tourism sector, a key source of income for Cuba’s beleaguered government, as part of its pressure campaign against the island’s leadership. As a result, several foreign airlines and hotel operators have ceased operations in Cuba, further reducing visitor numbers.”

A new pressure point is direct sanctions on Cuba’s state-owned oil and gas company.

In making the announcement about that move, the US Cuban-American Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said ‘key assets’ of the company, known as CUPET, were “unlawfully expropriated from American owners years ago.”

Mr Rubio also said, “While the Cuban people have suffered fuel shortages and blackouts because of decades of under-investment in critical infrastructure, Cuba’s Communist leaders have diverted energy resources to line their own pockets.”

The ratcheting up of pressure on Cuba is also being ‘fuelled’ by rhetoric coming from nearby Puerto Rico, from that American Commonwealth’s Trump-ally Governor Jenniffer González-Colón.

She has warned the Cuban authorities that they face an ultimatum from the Trump administration and should accept what’s offered, suggesting that July might be a pivot point. “I believe that whoever studies international public policy has to view these words from Secretary Rubio as an ultimatum;” González-Colón was quoted as saying. She added: “The Cuban government should already take this offer made by the United States Government and make that change, and July could be an excellent month to see it.”

The Puerto Rico Governor also pointed out that the US is conducting a new cold war against China, Russia, and Iran, and indicated that Cuba could be next.

Meanwhile, the Secretary of the Puerto Rico Department of Public Safety, Brigadier General Arthur J. Garffer Jr. has said that Puerto Rico is critical to the US Trump administration’s strategy for the Caribbean and Latin America.

“We saw the events that unfolded with the capture of Maduro,” he said. “Puerto Rico played a key role in that.”

With the Trump administration now hoping to finally close a ‘deal’ with Iran to end their conflict in the Strait of Hormuz, it’s understood that the date of July 26th might be critical in some contexts for  the Cuba-US standoff. The 26th of July Movement (M-26-7) was a Cuban revolutionary group led by Fidel Castro that overthrew the American-backed Fulgencio Batista government in 1959.