Cuba calls Trump sanctions a ‘pretext’ for military action

Cuba Calls Trump Sanctions a ‘Pretext’ for Military Action

Cuba’s top diplomat in the United States said Tuesday that recent American sanctions against the island’s leadership and the indictment of former President Raúl Castro are designed to build public support for a military intervention, accusations that come amid a growing humanitarian crisis documented by the United Nations.

‘A War Without Bombs’

Ambassador Lianys Torres Rivera, Cuba’s chargé d’affaires in Washington, told The Associated Press that the Trump administration’s escalating pressure campaign is laying the groundwork for armed conflict. “The sanctions against our leaders, we see as a pretext to make the American people think we are a threat,” she said at Cuba’s embassy. “We are not a threat to the U.S., and we don’t want confrontation.”wbal

Torres Rivera described Cuba’s situation as “a war without bombs” and warned that any attempt to change the government by force would be met with resistance. Addressing the May indictment of the 95-year-old Castro on murder and conspiracy charges related to the 1996 shootdown of two civilian planes by Cuban military jets, she said: “Raúl is a sacred symbol of the revolution, and we will defend Raúl — as we will the country — until the end.”wbal

Her remarks echo concerns among Cuba analysts that the legal and economic pressure mirrors the approach the Trump administration used before its military intervention in Venezuela in January that deposed Nicolás Maduro.foxnews

Trump Links Cuba to Iran Operations

The ambassador’s comments follow a statement last Thursday by President Trump, made the same day the Treasury Department sanctioned Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and members of Castro’s family, in which he said of Cuba: “We’re going to handle that as soon as we’ve finished” military operations in Iran.wbal

Trump has been threatening action against Cuba since the Venezuela operation and has ordered an energy blockade that has choked off fuel shipments to the island, leading to blackouts of up to 20 hours a day, food shortages, and economic collapse.thehill

UN Warns of Humanitarian Crisis

The diplomatic confrontation unfolded as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk issued one of his sharpest rebukes of U.S. policy, warning Monday that fuel restrictions imposed since early 2026 and tightened extraterritorial sanctions “are directly harming Cubans.” The UN reported that the near-total fuel blockade has caused a spike in infant mortality and collapsing healthcare, with children dying because doctors cannot access essential medicines.un

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other administration officials have denied responsibility for Cuba’s economic crisis, blaming the island’s socialist system. Rubio has said Cuba poses a national security threat because of its intelligence ties to China and Russia. “I really don’t believe this system is capable of reform unless new people take over or a new mindset takes hold,” he told lawmakers last week.wbal

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Torres Rivera’s accusations.wbal