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<\/p>\nSome within the Trump administration, such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have long called for regime change in Cuba, and they\u2019ve warned Havana of possible military actions following the U.S. raid on Caracas that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
Mexico has sent navy ships carrying food staples and personal hygiene items to Cuba, and the New Democrats say Canada should follow suit.<\/p>\n
Last week in the House of Commons, NDP interim leader Don Davies urged the government to \u201csupport Cuba in the face of aggressive U.S. imperialism,\u201d arguing this would give heft to Carney\u2019s speech at the World Economic Forum that urged middle powers to stand up to intimidation by superpowers.<\/p>\n
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand did not say whether Canada will speak out against Washington or offer fuel or humanitarian aid. She instead noted efforts to support Canadians in need, including to leave the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are deeply concerned by the deteriorating conditions in Cuba,\u201d she said. \u201cOur top priority will always be the safety and security of Canadians, and our foreign policy is based on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The government has not said whether it is looking at extending humanitarian aid to Cuba. Davies has argued Trump is \u201cemboldened by the lack of pushback\u201d to his raid in Venezuela, and said Carney \u201chas remained silent\u201d as Trump threatens Cuba and the broader Western Hemisphere.<\/p>\n
Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois Leader Yves-Fran\u00e7ois Blanchet said he raised the need for Canada to send Cuba humanitarian aid in a meeting last week with Carney, writing that Cubans \u201cdo not deserve their current suffering\u201d in a French-language statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI asked the prime minister to follow Mexico\u2019s example and come to the aid of the Cuban people, whose living conditions are rapidly deteriorating due to the American embargo,\u201d Blanchet wrote.<\/p>\n
Advocates for Cuba note that Canada is the only major country in the Americas other than Mexico that maintained ties with Havana after the 1959 communist revolution, despite American pressure.<\/p>\n
Cuba\u2019s ambassador to Ottawa, Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz, said at an event last week that Washington is violating international law, but he did not make any specific request of how Canada should be responding.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe United States government\u2019s policy of economic warfare against Cuba has reached its most ruthless expression in recent days,\u201d he said, according to remarks posted on the embassy\u2019s website. \u201cThis is how they intend to make Cuba surrender: suffocating our economy and our population.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 17, 2026.<\/p>\n
\u2014With files from The Associated Press<\/p>\n
Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some within the Trump administration, such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have long called for regime change…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-480465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}