Buoyed by Venezuela interference, Trump now seeks 'regime change' in Cuba: Report

The administration of US President Donald Trump is reportedly preparing a new regime-change push against Cuba, less than a month after the forcible removal of Venezuela’s president, relying on economic warfare and internal destabilization to break Havana’s political system.

Washington is seeking "regime change" in Cuba by the end of the year, according to US officials cited by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, despite the long record of US failures against the island country and the risk of a humanitarian catastrophe there.

The officials said that their confidence rests on two developments, namely, a January 3 “surgical attack” that led to the abduction and ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and the belief that Cuba’s economy - long dependent on Venezuelan oil - is nearing collapse without him.

US intelligence analysts claim frequent blackouts and severe shortages of food and medicine, with nearly 90 percent of Cubans living below the poverty line. Despite this pressure, officials admitted there is no concrete plan to overthrow the Cuban government established after Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution.

Instead, the White House is focusing on identifying figures inside the Cuban state who might be willing to collaborate with US interests, a strategy modeled on Venezuela, where an insider allegedly turned on Maduro.

That operation culminated in a military assault on Caracas that killed 32 Cuban soldiers and roughly two dozen members of Maduro’s security forces.

At the same time, the US is escalating economic warfare against Cuba by cutting off oil supplies from Venezuela, with economists warning the island could run out of fuel within weeks. The US military’s seizure of oil tankers linked to Venezuela now apparently is aimed not only at punishing Caracas for nationalizing its oil industry, but also at strangling Cuba’s energy lifeline.

The WSJ further reported internal disagreements within the US government over how to proceed. Hardliners, including Florida-based Cuban exiles allied with Trump, are pressing for an aggressive end to nearly seven decades of communist rule. Others, however, point to the Bay of Pigs invasion and the decades-long embargo - imposed in 1962 - as proof that US coercion has consistently failed.

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Despite acknowledging the danger of triggering a humanitarian crisis, Trump views toppling the Cuban leadership as a way to secure his so-called foreign-policy legacy and outdo John F. Kennedy, who failed to remove Fidel Castro.

US officials have become increasingly explicit, with State Department acting undersecretary Jeremy Lewin saying that Cuba “has to make a choice to step down or to better provide for its people,” while Trump warned on January 11 that no more Venezuelan oil or money would arrive, writing, “I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”

Cuban leaders have rejected the threats outright, with President Miguel Díaz-Canel declaring, “There is no surrender or capitulation possible nor any kind of understanding based on coercion or intimidation.”

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