{"id":344449,"date":"2026-03-17T21:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T21:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/344449\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T21:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T21:32:12","slug":"trumps-threats-to-take-cuba-signal-rising-us-pressure-as-island-grapples-with-power-crisis-cuba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/344449\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s threats to \u2018take\u2019 Cuba signal rising US pressure as island grapples with power crisis | Cuba"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just a few hours after a nationwide electricity blackout struck Cuba, Donald Trump<\/a> hinted at an even darker future for the island\u2019s rulers.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s entire electricity system had collapsed on Monday afternoon, leaving about 10 million people without power. Emergency teams were still struggling to restore it when the US leader made his latest threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe I will have the honour of taking Cuba,\u201d he mused to reporters. \u201cI mean, whether I free it, take it \u2013 I think I could do anything I want<\/a>.\u201d The high-handed tone of the remarks shocked Cubans on the island and abroad.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the early decades of the 1900s, US ambassadors believed the US had the right to steer Cuban political life,\u201d said Ada Ferrer, a historian whose Cuban memoir Keeper of My Kin is soon to be published. Such involvement was once known as \u201ccoercive influence\u201d, Ferrer added.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut no politician has spoken as crudely about it as Trump just did; and no one has used that kind of explicit language in almost a century,\u201d she said. \u201cTrump says aloud the things for which historians used to have to uncover evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

People in Havana are having to rely on solar power for simple day-to-day tasks requiring electricity. Photograph: Ram\u00f3n Espinosa\/AP<\/p>\n

Many on the island were struggling with more immediate concerns: spoiled food, stifling heat, sleepless children. But others were appalled nonetheless.<\/p>\n

Gretel, a musician and mother in the Havana suburb of La Lisa, had struggled through the night trying to ward off mosquitoes from biting her children. Late last year, nearly a third of the population was infected during an outbreak of the mosquito-borne illness chikungunya, which causes brutal joint pains that can last for months.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday morning, Gretel was still without power and fuming at the US president\u2019s comments. \u201cIt\u2019s the same tone as he is using with Iran, with Venezuela. It\u2019s surprising Americans don\u2019t see what it is. It\u2019s like that scene in the Great Dictator where Charlie Chaplin\u2019s dancing around saying \u2018I can do this, I can do that, I can do anything\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the success of the mission to abduct the Venezuelan president, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a>, one of Cuba\u2019s greatest allies in the region, Trump has steadily ratcheted up the pressure on the territory, signing an executive order to impose tariffs on any country that sends oil to the Caribbean island.<\/p>\n

The result has been disastrous for ordinary Cubans. There are few cars on the roads, most of the airlines serving the island have suspended flights, the Canadian company Sherritt International has shuttered nickel mining operations, state offices have closed and schools have partly suspended classes.<\/p>\n

The blackouts in Havana are partly the consequence of an antiquated power network. Photograph: Ram\u00f3n Espinosa\/AP<\/p>\n

The lack of fuel has also exacerbated the rolling blackouts. Cuba\u2019s archaic power network has been partially collapsing regularly since October 2024 and the country has already seen three national collapses in the past four months, with a knock-on effect of the water supply. This weekend, the power cuts sparked a rare violent protest<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By lunchtime on Tuesday, the country\u2019s grid operator said power had been restored to the west and centre of the 777-mile-long island, with about 30% of Havana\u2019s homes reconnected.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt must be done gradually to avoid setbacks,\u201d said L\u00e1zaro Guerra, the electricity director of the ministry of energy and mines. \u201cBecause systems, when very weak, are more susceptible to failure.\u201d<\/p>\n

That may be what the US administration is counting on.<\/p>\n

Cuba recently admitted it had been in discussions with Washington, and it now seems to be showing a willingness to make some economic changes in an attempt to appease the US.<\/p>\n

Shortly before Trump\u2019s announcement, \u00d3scar P\u00e9rez-Oliva Fraga, the deputy prime minister and a member of the Castro family, said Cuba was open to expatriate Cubans and foreign companies doing business on the island.<\/p>\n

\u201cCuba is open to having a fluid commercial relationship with US companies and also with Cubans residing in the United States and their descendants,\u201d he told NBC. \u201cWe\u2019re not just talking about small enterprise, but also the possibility of being able to participate in key sectors of our development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cuba\u2019s president, Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel, has reportedly been told to resign by US negotiators. Photograph: Cuba presidency\/Reuters<\/p>\n

This led to a waspish reply from John S Kavulich, the president of the often sympathetic US-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, suggesting Cuba\u2019s authorities had been long dragging their heels when itcame to overhauls. \u201cThe government of the Republic of Cuba is only now authorising what could have been implemented four years ago. They refused.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Trump\u2019s secretary of state, Marco Rubio<\/a>, said the proposed economic changes did not go far enough \u2013 and hinted at further US pressure to shatter Havana\u2019s 67-year-old political system.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they announced yesterday is not dramatic enough. It\u2019s not going to fix it. So we\u2019ve got some big decisions to make,\u201d Rubio said. The New York Times reported on Monday that US negotiators were demanding the resignation of the Cuban president, Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel.<\/p>\n

The comments from Washington suggest Trump\u2019s patience is running out and Cubans were wondering if this time the state would manage to get the system up and running again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just a few hours after a nationwide electricity blackout struck Cuba, Donald Trump hinted at an even darker…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-344449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}