By Francisco Arias Fernández on May 31, 2025
US Embassy in Havana. Photo: Bill Hackwell
While in Washington and Miami the darkest and most unscrupulous actions are being plotted to try to squeeze the Cubans with a combination of coercive measures of maximum economic pressure, anti-family and anti-immigrant walls, zero remittance and travel policies, political and racist persecution, the US embassy in Havana, a historic instrument of subversion, is trying to become, with its provocations, the trigger for a bilateral crisis that will lead to the breakdown of “diplomatic relations” between the two countries.
If Trump’s first term saw the emergence of false “sonic attacks” to undermine any civilized progress in bilateral ties during Barack Obama’s administration, the experiment, or what we could call “Operation Hammer”, that we have witnessed in recent weeks points to a new episode of premeditated tension through the crudest and clearest interference. This turn, does not hide the authorship and support of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has confessed to his leading role in the “advances” in strangulation measures achieved in the first four years of his former rival’s administration.
Those branded as traitors by the Cuban community in the United States, placing them on billboards on Miami’s main thoroughfares because of their support for anti-immigrant policies, have been questioned by Cubans and Latinos for being complicit in mass deportations, arbitrary detentions, imprisonment, and repatriation of people with resident status, among other abuses and human rights violations.
But they are also being repudiated for speaking out in favor of violent actions and punishment against the Cuban people in an attempt to create an unsustainable socioeconomic situation that would provoke internal confrontation and even military intervention by the United States.
While traitorous congressmen Carlos Giménez, Mario Díaz-Balart, and María Elvira Salazar do Rubio’s bidding, seeking new ways to suffocate Cuba, in Havana, his business manager poses for the subversive digital media left behind by USAID and NED, like an uncontrolled diplomat, a parcel delivery man, deliverer of promises and money in exchange for servility and confrontation with the government.
His boss said it and the US embassy in Cuba repeats it: “Visas to the United States are a privilege, not a right…” That is why, while he trips up normal immigration procedures, he sells privileges in exchange for information of interest, recruitment, annexationist positions, and mercenary activities in sectors rigorously selected from among the favorite targets of the more than 400 subversive programs of the Trump administration against the Cuban people.
“Maintaining a close relationship with the Cuban people” is what Mike Hammer says is the purpose of his secretive comings and goings, like someone who hides his true intentions and plays the victim.
This is how he presented himself at a recent accountability event in Miami, before anti-Cuban journalists, where he once again revealed his fascist positions by defending the mercenaries at the diplomatic headquarters and complaining about the “undemocratic” treatment they receive.
However, he immediately followed this with a categorical statement of his anti-communist beliefs, leaving no room for coexistence, tolerance, or freedom to choose one’s ideological position, despite proclaiming himself a defender or chosen representative of Cuba.
“We are strengthening US laws that prevent visas from being granted to members of the Communist Party who have held high office and who have been members until recent years,” Hammer declared in a tone that pleased Florida haters eager for applause.
And Cuba knows this all too well, as its athletes suffer when they are prevented from participating in international events on US territory by being denied visas or having them intentionally delayed, or when the Cuban Olympic Committee officials are deprived of the right to participate in conclaves held in that country.
At the recent show in Miami, he could not hide his true mission: “The Trump administration will have a tough policy toward Cuba,” was possibly his only truth.
And later, he blurted out the big lie: “it will clearly and continuously support the Cuban people.” How is that possible, with more blockades, restrictions, no remittances or travel, no ties of any kind between families, obstructing safe, legal, and orderly migration, stimulating hatred, and throwing the people into the streets?
Cuba has defeated previous experiments, including the infamous one that the Miami ambassador is now trying to imitate.
The dignity of the Cuban people is not for sale. It is not a commodity or a privilege. It is an intrinsic value of the Mambisa lineage, heir to the independence and anti-imperialism of Martí and Fidel. Therefore, in the face of the provocation of the US embassy, Che’s historic warning not to lower our guard ever, that imperialism cannot be trusted even a little bit, returns.