US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is again taking aim at Cuba. This time, however, the Trump administration is framing Havana as a decades-long sponsor of terrorism and espionage that has helped cultivate the “radical left” in the United States.
As part of this, the administration is making pains to link Cuba with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which is growing politically in the US, thanks to Zohran Mamdani’s win as New York City mayor and other victories.
And it comes against the backdrop of fear-mongering by US President Donald Trump about the prospect of communism threatening the US again. He has specifically linked Democrats to communism, as well.
So, why is the Trump administration making this spurious argument, and why now?
What the administration is alleging
Last week, the US State Department published a nearly 100-page report titled “Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism”.
The report’s core claim is that Cuba has spent over half a century influencing and aiding the domestic left in the US. Among its more extraordinary allegations:
the far-left Weather Underground had direct contact with Cuban officials and Cuban spies in the 1970s, who helped facilitate the group’s bombings in the US
delegations of other “American radicals” travelled to Cuba during that decade to learn urban terrorism and guerrilla tactics
Cuban intelligence today treats infiltrating US universities as a top priority
leftist activists in the US and elsewhere routinely make “revolutionary tourism” excursions to the island, and
the DSA specifically maintains a “fierce, almost religious commitment to the cause of the Cuban regime”.
That framing collapses under scrutiny. The report anchors its argument in a handful of genuine espionage and terrorism cases. But it then tries to connect these with more innocuous activities: attending a Cuban-organised trip, expressing solidarity with Havana, or opposing the US embargo on the island.
This echoes a long US tradition of using national security as a premise to target leftist movements. This includes everything from the targeting of civil rights and labour organisers during the McCarthy era to the Cold War surveillance of anti-war activists.
Equally telling is what the report leaves out: six decades of documented US covert action against Cuba, including assassination plots and support for armed exile groups.
The report also came just days after Rubio convened delegations from dozens of countries in Washington for a conference on “resurgent far-left political terrorism”. At the event, he said the threat of far-left violence “can no longer be denied” and that it was “time to crush this evil forever”.
And in May, the White House released a new counterterrorism strategy that called “violent left-wing extremists” one of three terror threats facing the US (alongside narcoterrorists and Islamist terror groups). There was no mention of neo-Nazi or other far-right groups.
Why now?
Viewed against this wider context, the State Department report dramatically amplifies the Trump administration’s pressure campaign on Cuba.
In the past few months, Washington has imposed an oil blockade on Cuba, expanded economic sanctions against the island, directly sanctioned President Miguel Díaz-Canel and members of former leader Raúl Castro’s family, and secured a criminal indictment against Castro himself.
This economic warfare has pushed the island towards humanitarian collapse. UN experts have condemned it as a serious violation of international law.
Trump has repeatedly floated a “friendly takeover” of Cuba, and his officials have not ruled out direct military action if Havana does not yield. Rubio’s report and recent statements now provide the ideological framework to justify such an action.
What is driving the timing of this coordinated campaign is harder to explain. However, two factors appear to be converging.
First, the administration is seeking a foreign policy “victory” after the costly and inconclusive war with Iran.
The other is the midterm elections in November. A hardline stance on Cuba could help the Republican Party shore up support with its base. It also allows the party to frame the US left as being aligned with foreign forces and supporters of “communism”.
The more consequential question is what could come next. The administration has created a premise for action on several fronts:
further measures against Havana, including a possible military operation
expanded moves against US left-wing organisations, such as targeting their tax-exempt status or funding
designating left-wing groups as terror organisations, and
increased pressure on European governments to act against their own leftist organisations.
The brunt of the Trump administration’s actions, however, will be felt by the Cuban people themselves, who have long been scapegoats and collateral damage of their powerful neighbour to the north.
Juan Zahir Naranjo Cáceres, PhD Candidate, Political Science, International Relations and Constitutional Law, University of the Sunshine Coast
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.