By Ernesto Novaez Guerreo on February 16, 2026
The recent Executive Order signed by Donald Trump on January 29 is another step in an increasingly evident strategy to “gaskify” life on the island. This has been noted in numerous analyses on the subject. The worsening oil embargo is affecting all sectors of the country’s economic and social life, exacerbating material conditions that were already severely affected by the post-pandemic crisis and the sustained wave of US measures against the Cuban economy.
Given this scenario of collective punishment, the reaction of numerous sectors, both inside and outside the island, which defend Trump’s punitive measures as “the only option” to solve what they understand as “the Cuban problem,” is both curious and outrageous. For them, the country’s 9 million inhabitants must pay with their lives, if necessary, for the fact that 65 years ago the decision was made to give the Cuban Revolution a socialist character. In response to any criticism of US actions, they reiterate a credo that mixes ideological assertions, questioning of the country’s political order, and a list of real or perceived mistakes that may have been made over the decades. In their logic, there is a transitivity relationship according to which these facts justify any punitive measures against the Cuban people.
Even more surprising in this context is that, from within the island, voices are emerging that, the more Trump and Rubio punish their people, the more they love and applaud them, in what appears to be some kind of annexationist Stockholm Syndrome.
To make matters worse, we see how Cuban-American congressmen from South Florida have begun an aggressive campaign to eliminate OFAC licenses that allow Cuban companies to purchase various products in the United States. Although they focus their argument on the luxury goods that certain sectors of Cuban society import from that country, it does not take a genius to guess that the real objective of these actions is to cut off access to essential goods, such as US-produced chicken, which is now one of the main sources of protein on the island.
Meanwhile, the large cartelized media and the US-funded counterrevolutionary media have deployed an aggressive disinformation agenda, aimed at sowing confusion, fear, and discouragement. Since January 3, alarmist headlines have been coming one after another, with much emphasis in recent times on the island’s oil situation. While they delight in quoting “experts” and other sources who speculate about the country’s remaining energy reserves, none of them offer the slightest value judgment on the situation. Under the guise of “objectivity,” they normalize the humanitarian crisis and genocide in slow motion.
This is the same approach they have used for decades regarding the Palestinian genocide. They document Palestinian deaths and the catastrophic reality in Gaza and the West Bank as abstract figures, overreact to any Palestinian response, and their guest “experts” generally have a clear pro-Zionist bias. They are applying the same approach to Cuba today. The humanitarian crisis unfolding and widening due to fuel shortages is extensively documented, the measures taken by the government to alleviate it are always presented with a bias toward “the Havana regime,” and constant testimonies of people’s distress are sought, without ever pointing the finger at who is primarily responsible for this situation.
In his extraordinary documentary “Everyday Fascism,” Mikhail Rohmm uses authentic recordings from the Third Reich to show what life was like under German fascism. One of his fundamental intentions is to show how this ideology was incorporated and normalized by the common German people. How horror and absurdity became part of people’s everyday lives. The entire film is a great document against the normalization of horror.
Today, many voices, even within the left itself, are reluctant to accept the term “fascism” to characterize the set of political and social changes that are taking place in American society at the hands of the MAGA movement and its main leader. In a recent article published by the Jacobin website, author and documentary filmmaker Fred Glass argues about the relevance or irrelevance of using this term to describe the political phenomenon that the American nation is experiencing. In this regard, he points out:
“Fascism is an ideology, a type of mass movement, and a form of capitalist government power. It does not follow a predetermined path because it appears in different places at different times and adapts to those circumstances. But it has common characteristics, and understanding them helps us determine how to combat it.“[1]
Umberto Eco, who experienced fascism in Italy during his childhood, attempted in a 1995 text, ”Ur fascism or eternal fascism,” to condense some of the main characteristics of this political form. The first of these theses is that fascism is not just a historical regime limited to the specific experience of Italy or Germany, but a mental and cultural structure that can reappear in different eras under other names and forms. Eco warns against the simplification of believing that the reemergence of fascism will be with brown shirts, raised hands, and blood-red flags.
Eco points out that not all the characteristics he lists necessarily have to be present within a proto-fascist process. However, at a quick glance, it is not difficult to notice some similarities with the current political moment in the United States.
In a brief summary, we find, for example, the cult of tradition, the idealization of the past and national values, and the denial of any critical dialogue about the country’s grand imperialist national project. Intolerance of dissent, ranging from threats to political and media figures to the violent militarization of cities that refuse to accept the public policies promoted by the administration. Fear of difference, which fuels racism and xenophobia. Foreigners are portrayed as criminals, and even important political figures such as former President Barack Obama and his wife are caricatured as apes by the president and his followers. This is a society where immigration and racism have had a long and often violent history, fueling many of the worst prejudices and suspicions of numerous social groups.
We also find the appeal to the frustrated middle classes, who are now the fundamental base of the MAGA movement. Workers who have lost their jobs or seen their incomes become precarious, who fear for their financial stability and their families, and who find in these simplistic explanations and empty promises a creed to cling to with the promise of rapid and magical improvement. The obsession with conspiracy, the constant search for Russian, Chinese, Democratic, or any other third-party conspiracies that serve as an explanation for the country’s social conflicts, unemployment, drugs, or frustration in the face of political defeat.
This brief summary does not, of course, exhaust the similarities. Although the relevance of this or that example may be debatable, the truth is that there is a common spirit between the list made by the Italian historian and philosopher and a part of current political life in the United States. That is also the conclusion reached by Fred Glass in his aforementioned text. In fact, he concludes by pointing out that the sooner we accept the fascist, or proto-fascist, nature of the current moment, the sooner we can begin to articulate an active anti-fascist front.
And one of the keys to any anti-fascist militancy today is not to remain indifferent or allow the mainstream media, which serves capital, to normalize the horror. Just as we have not allowed them, despite all their efforts, to normalize the actions of the genocidal Zionist entity, we cannot allow them to normalize what is happening in Cuba as if it were an inevitable result of divine providence.
Those who reinforce the criminal siege of the island are the same ones who have financed and continue to finance Zionism, in clear evidence of criminal coordination. In the face of those who despise life and seek to make fascism an everyday occurrence, we must act and educate ourselves in anti-fascism. The world they seek to create has no future and will be built on the bones of the people. It is not only for Cuba that we must fight today, but for humanity and the only planet capable of sustaining life as we know it.
Source: Cuba en Resumen