By Lilliam Oviedo on October 31, 2026
Last September, Donald Trump said at the United Nations that the United States could “send Iran to hell,” in addition to announcing that he would overthrow the Cuban government and take over Greenland and other parts of the world. It’s no surprise that on October 23, in Florida, he threatened to recolonize Cuba. This is how Trump operates, and the powers that be exploit his ambition and megalomania.
He wants to expand his base of conservative voters, because it seems unlikely that the Republican Party will retain control of Congress after the November elections. And he is offering to place Cuba in the hands of the far right.
“What we’re going to do with Cuba is bring those beautiful ships back from Iran; we’ll sail past Cuba, and we’ll have one of them stop about 50 yards (45 meters) from the coast. They’ll raise their hands, and then we’ll send Marco Rubio to seal the deal,”, he said at a campaign event in Fort Myers, on Florida’s west coast.
And he speaks with impunity!
An international order that does not punish genocide and, on the contrary, condones abuse and attempts to trample on the sovereignty of nations does not deserve that name.
Insolence is a defining characteristic of Donald Trump and Marco Rubio—the man who, less than ten years ago, accused him of being a con artist, but today serves as his secretary of state and national security adviser. And both present themselves with impunity as sponsors of genocidal actions.
Threats against Cuba escalate or subside depending on factors such as the internal political situation in the United States and the emphasis placed on certain aspects of policies toward Latin America.
At this moment, the intensification of the blockade and the increased restrictions on companies and governments seeking to supply that country with fuel, medicines, and other goods have led to severe shortages and difficulties in daily life. Marco Rubio and Donald Trump present themselves as potential saviors when in fact they are executioners.
In this context, solidarity ceases to be an attitude driven by revolutionary conviction and becomes an act of dignity. Dignity compels us to reject subjugation and to fight for the preservation of the social gains of a people who won them through fair struggle.
The Mallory Memorandum, drafted by Deputy Secretary of State Lester DeWitt Mallory in 1960, was declassified in 1991. The recommendation to act against the Cuban economy in order to undermine popular support for the Revolution is conspiratorial.
It is shameful that, thirty-five years later, Marco Rubio—a Cuban by birth and a far-right ideologue by conviction—calls on the Cuban people to collaborate with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and signs a statement circulated on social media and in the news. By what right does an official who has been deceitful even in the writing of his own biography call on Fidel’s people to strip themselves of the dignity that defines them? It is the height of insolence!
With Marco Rubio’s signature comes the call against Cuba, and from Trump’s mouth comes the declaration regarding the plan to turn Cuba into a U.S. colony.
Donald Trump and Marco Rubio have also made no secret of their interference in installing right-wing and far-right governments in Latin America.
Abelardo de la Espriella, Keiko Fujimori, Laura Fernández, and Rodrigo Paz, for example, received logistical support and open backing from them. They have provided support and encouragement to Nayib Bukele, who today serves as Trump’s second-in-command and right-hand man in Central America.
Others, such as the Dominican Luis Abinader, have been induced to adopt ultra-conservative positions, to hand over strategic natural resources to U.S. Southern Command, and to follow the line of obedience dictated by Washington on key aspects of foreign policy.
One of the effects of this policy of subjugation (which was a major objective) is to undermine solidarity with Cuba and to ensure that governments across the continent are willing to isolate Cuba and support Marco Rubio’s authoritarian agenda.
Aggressors, puppets, and the complicity of a broad sector of the press committed to political backwardness have created the conditions for figures like Marco Rubio and Donald Trump to intensify aggression and brazenly display imperialist arrogance.
In the Joe Biden administration, Laura Richardson, as head of the Southern Command, unabashedly declared the United States’ interest in lithium and other minerals. Last September, speaking before the UN, Trump referred to the oil of Venezuela—a country under attack and trampled upon—saying that “the spoils belong to the victor.”
The Salvadoran poet Roque Dalton described this arrogance and abuse in a very brief poem:
I Swear I Heard Him Say
“Except in a completely just society,
the best thing in life is to be the boss.”
In this brief statement, the poet sends a very clear message: bosses live in fear of a rise in social consciousness, because with it will come justice, which will lay bare their illegitimacy.
Today, the whole world has heard it said: “The spoils belong to the victor.” It is painful to paraphrase the ill-fated Salvadoran poet on this day. It is shameful, and that shame can only be remedied by a consistent and firm condemnation of plunder and aggression.
Marco Rubio calls on the Cuban people to join the CIA, and Donald Trump parades ships and agents, but these are not displays of courage but of fear—fear that political progress will expose their status as servants of a criminal power that exploits their ambition and delusions of grandeur in an attempt to perpetuate political backwardness and submission, a project doomed to defeat.
Source: Rebelión, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English