Latin America Policy

In a March 16 Oval Office exchange with Fox News, President Donald Trump said he believes he will have 'the honor' of 'taking Cuba' 'in some form,' calling the island a 'failed nation' and a 'very weakened nation' as it suffered a nationwide electrical blackout. Pressed on whether any future U.S. military action in Cuba would resemble his campaigns in Iran or Venezuela, Trump declined to give specifics but declared, 'I think I could do anything I want with it, you want to know the truth?' He tied his posture to decades of violent rule by Cuba’s leaders and to Havana’s deepening energy crisis after the U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and cut off oil exports to Cuba earlier this year. The article notes that Cuba’s president has acknowledged talks with Trump administration officials, casting them as an effort to avert regime change, while Trump earlier this month vowed to 'take care' of Cuba’s regime after focusing on Iran. The comments are fueling intense debate online and among regional analysts over whether the administration is normalizing open talk of regime change or even annexation in the Western Hemisphere at a moment when U.S. forces are already heavily engaged in Iran and pressure campaigns across Latin America.