Cuba Isn’t a National Security Threat. Here’s Why. |
The steel memorial to Che Guevara at Revolution Square in Havana, Cuba, on July 13, 2015. Despite its revolutionary past, Cuba poses little concrete threat to US security. (Shutterstock/Schager)
Cuba Isn’t a National Security Threat. Here’s Why.
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The risks of a Cuban regime-change operation far exceed the potential benefits.
Is Cuba the next country the Trump administration will target for regime change? In the wake of America’s recent arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and support for Israel’s assassination of Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, many experts are questioning whether the White House has similar ambitions in Cuba. President Donald Trump’s statements that“Cuba’s next” and that he hopes to have the“honor” of “taking Cuba” certainly support this perspective, as have his moves to blockade oil and gas shipments to Cuba, impose sanctions against companies doing business with Cuba, and issue an indictment against former leader Raúl Castro. Additionally, America has increased the number of intelligence-gathering flights taking place near Cuba—an action which similarly occurred in the lead-up to America’s military interventions in Venezuela and Iran.
Cuba has long been a source of fascination and frustration for the United States. Cuba emerged as a key regional ally for the Soviet Union during the Cold War, providing valuable intelligence and serving as a bridge between the USSR and Latin American revolutionaries. Since then, Cuba’s anti-American posture, long history of repression and human rights abuses, and the high number of Cuban expatriates who sought refuge in the United States have created the image of Cuba as a Caribbean bogeyman—a monster lying in wait just 90 miles off the coast of Florida.
America continues to view Cuba as a significant danger. In January, the White House stated that Cuba poses an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to America, and that its government “aligns itself with—and provides support for—numerous hostile countries, transnational terrorist groups, and malign actors adverse to the United States.” The Trump administration has raised concerns about the presence of Chinese and Russian electronic eavesdropping facilities on the island and Cuba’s acquisition of over 300 military drones, which could be used against........