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Trump team puts a target on Cuba, with threats and oil blockade
The Washington Post ^ | 01/06/2026 5:00 a.m. EST | Karen DeYoung and David Ovalle

Posted on 01/06/2026 9:29:37 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum

President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have made clear that the collapse of Cuba’s communist government is not only a likely side benefit of Maduro’s ouster but a goal.

No place was hit harder than Cuba by the shock waves that Saturday morning’s U.S. military seizure of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro sent throughout Latin America and the world.

Within hours of the operation — long before the government in Havana acknowledged it — phone calls and texts across the island spread the news that dozens of elite Cuban security forces had been killed guarding Maduro.

But by the time it finally released a statement late Sunday saying that 32 of its military and security personnel were dead in Caracas, the Cuban government had bigger problems on its hands.

Both President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio made clear over the weekend that the collapse of Cuba’s communist government was not only a likely side benefit of Maduro’s ouster but a goal.

“I don’t think we need [to take] any action,” Trump said as he flew back to Washington from his extended Florida holiday break. Without Maduro and the oil supplies Venezuela provided, he said, “Cuba looks like it’s ready to fall.”

Rubio went further, indicating that the United States might be willing to give it a push. “I’m not going to talk to you about what our future steps are going to be,” he told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. But, he added, “If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned.”

Their words resonated with many in the Miami-centered exile community, where the struggle to free Cuba from communist rule has dominated politics for decades. On Saturday, South Florida Cuban exiles — some wearing red Trump hats and Cuban...

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: 5thcolumnonfr; americalast; canadiansnownazi; commieshasthesads; cuba; democratshasthesads; dukeywordtroll; epsteindistraction; epsteinobsessedtard; maca; maduro; nevertrumpkywrdtroll; northerncubalover; peaceprezwantswar; tdskeywordtroll
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1 posted on 01/06/2026 9:29:37 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Sounds like a promise. The people of Cuba would be ecstatic. The dictators? Not so much.


2 posted on 01/06/2026 9:32:37 AM PST by Texas Eagle ("Throw me to the wolves and I'll return leading the pack"- Donald J. Trump)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
the collapse of Cuba’s communist government

A feature, not a bug.

3 posted on 01/06/2026 9:32:56 AM PST by Jeff Chandler (The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution.)
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To: Texas Eagle
The people of Cuba would be ecstatic

Democrats have the sads.

4 posted on 01/06/2026 9:33:31 AM PST by Jeff Chandler (The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution.)
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To: Jeff Chandler

Yep. DemonicRATS are fine with “normalizing” relations with Vuba as long as its hostages cannot freely leave the country.


5 posted on 01/06/2026 9:36:25 AM PST by Texas Eagle ("Throw me to the wolves and I'll return leading the pack"- Donald J. Trump)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Make Cuba A Resort Destination Again.


6 posted on 01/06/2026 9:39:47 AM PST by Texas Eagle ("Throw me to the wolves and I'll return leading the pack"- Donald J. Trump)
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To: Texas Eagle

Karen and David were probably crying in their safe room when they wrote this. It is time to liberate Cuba, enough is enough.


7 posted on 01/06/2026 9:44:08 AM PST by iamgalt
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To: Texas Eagle

Make Cuban cigars legal again.


8 posted on 01/06/2026 9:44:08 AM PST by Dalberg-Acton
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To: Dalberg-Acton

That, too.


9 posted on 01/06/2026 9:45:37 AM PST by Texas Eagle ("Throw me to the wolves and I'll return leading the pack"- Donald J. Trump)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Socialist Canada is next, in about 90 days, compulsory review of USMC trade agreement

See:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6da8T8kC85Y

Keep an eye on it. It will be really important.


10 posted on 01/06/2026 9:47:01 AM PST by Candor7 (Ask not for whom the Trump Trolls,He trolls for thee!<img src="" width=500</img><a href="">tag</a>) )
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

See:
Re Cuba
Whats happening outside USA....Canada

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc8b4Jh8-is


11 posted on 01/06/2026 9:49:20 AM PST by Candor7 (Ask not for whom the Trump Trolls,He trolls for thee!<img src="" width=500</img><a href="">tag</a>) )
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

“dozens of elite Cuban security forces”

Somehow, I doubt feel that were that elite, more like boy scouts.


12 posted on 01/06/2026 10:05:54 AM PST by Resolute Conservative
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To: Candor7

If you want to add 41 million people to the US population most of whom are to the left of AOC, c’monnnnnn in!


13 posted on 01/06/2026 10:09:58 AM PST by Antioch (A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished -Friedrich Schi)
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To: Texas Eagle

Make Cuba Club Med again! 😉


14 posted on 01/06/2026 10:12:35 AM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: Georgia Girl 2

Amen!


15 posted on 01/06/2026 10:13:59 AM PST by Texas Eagle ("Throw me to the wolves and I'll return leading the pack"- Donald J. Trump)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I attended a college teachers’ conference in Miami back around 1990. We were meeting at a hotel’s conference center, and across the hall there was a convention of evangelical young Cuban-Americans who were preparing to spread throughout Cuba with the gospel, as soon as Castro was removed from power. That was 35 years ago. It’s been too d*mn long, and it’s way past time to liberate the island. ¡Avanzamos!


16 posted on 01/06/2026 10:14:10 AM PST by chajin ("There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12)
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To: Antioch

Half 0f Canadians are conservative. Much the same as the USA.Its just that we do not hear much abiout them in the USA because the Canadian media is so skewed to the socialists.

See the above links I posted and listen in to The Canadian Shield.

Over half of Canada dislikes Carney and the liberals who are actually commies now.


17 posted on 01/06/2026 10:20:54 AM PST by Candor7 (Ask not for whom the Trump Trolls,He trolls for thee!<img src="" width=500</img><a href="">tag</a>) )
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Just stop already...


18 posted on 01/06/2026 10:25:11 AM PST by cherry
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To: Resolute Conservative

It’s easy to be elite when your enemy is half-starved peasants. Not so much when you face US special forces.


19 posted on 01/06/2026 10:26:45 AM PST by Seruzawa ("The political left is the Garden of Eden of incompetence." -Marx the Smarter (Groucho.))
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To: Candor7

That’s true, but as a Canadian, I can say that Canadian “conservatism” is very lite. We are not even citizens- we’re subjects of King Charles. Also King Charles literally owns the entire country’s real estate as crown land, including every house and building. The “deed” people hold on their home is more like a provisional occupancy permit. Let that sink in!


20 posted on 01/06/2026 10:36:15 AM PST by Antioch (A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished -Friedrich Schi)
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