Cuba - National Blackout and Energy Crisis - March 2026

[otto]

I'm posting the proposal that the US concocted for the people of Gaza, as I believe the war goal for both Gaza and Cuba is the same: remove the local population, build US owned hotel resorts, profit through tourism.

Everyone knows that selling land for a year of food, and $5000 over four years, is insulting. The US government is banking on local populations being unaware that the proposal is nothing more than being cheated and tricked.

"The Trump administration is weighing a proposal for the postwar reconstruction of Gaza that would put the Strip under US control for a decade and pay roughly a quarter of its population to relocate, many of them permanently, according to a Sunday report.
..

Palestinians would be encouraged to relocate outside the Strip. Those who choose to leave Gaza — either temporarily or permanently — would receive “a $5,000 cash payment and subsidies to cover four years of rent elsewhere, as well as a year of food,” according to the report."​

Trump said weighing plan to pay Gazans to leave, put Strip under US-run trusteeship

Proposal seeks to turn enclave into tech hub and offer Gazans $5,000 each to exit temporarily or permanently; US president reportedly pressing Netanyahu to hasten Hamas's defeat

www.timesofisrael.com

 

[musicaljoke]

"The United States has told Cuba that for meaningful progress to be made in negotiations, President Miguel Díaz-Canel must step down, said people familiar with the talks.
...

The ouster of the top official in Cuba’s leadership would give President Trump a symbolic win that would allow him to tell the American public that he had brought down the leader of a leftist government long opposed to the United States, as he did in Venezuela, one of the people said.

The move, though intended to show the Cuban exile community and other Americans that the Trump administration seeks political as well as economic change, would likely disappoint many conservative Cuban exiles in the United States, who want to see wholesale political transformation in Cuba.
...

From the perspective of U.S. officials, the talks are focused on having Cuba gradually open its economy to American businesspeople and companies."

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/16/world/americas/trump-cuba-president-diaz-canel.html

Wouldn't it just be a whole lot easier if the US simply lifted the long-standing US embargo on Cuba?

United States embargo against Cuba - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[otto]

Wouldn't it just be a whole lot easier if the US simply lifted the long-standing US embargo on Cuba?

United States embargo against Cuba - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Lifting the embargo would not entitle the US to build hotel resorts.

 

[musicaljoke]

Lifting the embargo would not entitle the US to build hotel resorts.

It wouldn't entitle Americans, but it would allow them to invest in Cuba by buying property and erecting buildings ... the normal way that people invest in foreign real estate.

 

[PatLaurel]

Lifting the embargo would not entitle the US to build hotel resorts.

Nor to exploit, oppress and marginalize the Cuban people. MOO JMO

 

[Lyanna]

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4884307-if-cuba-rebuilds-its-power-grid-which-companies-could-be-involved

Perhaps 47 wants Cuba for its potential for data centres?
(Just wondering what Cuba has to offer that the states don’t- seems to be the way of 47, see something you want because it benefits you and take it)

Moo, jmo

 

[Cedars]

That is horrible!!! Why doesn't their government do something? Why don't nations aligned with Cuba provide aid? Canada???? Where are you?

Canada? No, Russia is the main country providing aid - they have announced they will defy the blockade and send two oil tankers.

Russia Sends Oil and Gas Tankers to Crisis-Hit Cuba, Defying U.S. Blockade – FT - The Moscow Times

Russia has dispatched two tankers carrying oil and gas to Cuba as the island grapples with a deepening energy crisis exacerbated by a U.S. oil blockade, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.

www.themoscowtimes.com

I could write lots about the situation for Mexico (who used to send oil) and Canada (who never has) but I think everyone 'in the know' knows, this is going to be a long-awaited show-down between the US and Russia and the outcome may have global consequences far into the future...

I've heard commentators complain why Trump should care about tiny Cuba, while at war with Iran, but I think it's because this is directly about Putin...Will he let Cuba go?

JMO

 

[otto]

It wouldn't entitle Americans, but it would allow them to invest in Cuba by buying property and erecting buildings ... the normal way that people invest in foreign real estate.

That's was the problem in the 1950s. People from the US bought up acres of land for pennies, displaced local populations, built sprawling estates, and used the Island as their private resorts. The local population served foreigners.

Cuba belongs to Cubans, not to foreign investors.

 

[PatLaurel]

That's was the problem in the 1950s. People from the US bought up acres of land for pennies, displaced local populations, built sprawling estates, and used the Island as their private resorts. The local population served foreigners.

Cuba belongs to Cubans, not to foreign investors.

BBM El patio trasero de EEUU! Where Cubans were left to serve rather than benefit.

MOO JMO

 

[imstilla.grandma]

“Donald Trump thinks he can bully himself around the world and take over this country or that country or whatever country he wants,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) previously told host Joe Mathieu on Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power.”

“That’s going to come back to bite us in the rear end, quite frankly,” McGovern continued. “And it’s a really dangerous precedent. I can only imagine what China and Russia are thinking right now.”

https://thehill.com/policy/international/5795736-cuba-military-prepares-aggression/

Speaking to reporters this week, Mr Trump said he believed he would have “the honour of taking Cuba”.

Asked what he meant by “taking” the country, he said: “Whether I free it, take it - I think I can do anything I want with it.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/03/22/cuba-prepares-for-us-military-action/

 

[Cedars]

Rep. Jim McGovern..."Donald Trump thinks he can bully himself around the world and take over this country or that country or whatever country he wants...I can only imagine what China and Russia are thinking right now.”

IMO China and Russia have heard Trump loud and clear, for eg in his January 2026 State of the Union address and his speech at Davos around the same time, when he spoke directly and at length about his intention to dominate all countries in the Western Hemisphere: Greenland, Venezuala, the Panama Canal, Canada and Mexico, and now Cuba. That is his doctrine of the US possessing a 'Hemisphere of Influence', formerly known as the Munroe Doctrine (1823).

Meanwhile, his indifference to the Ukraine war, and to the UN, and reluctance about NATO, IMO, signal his clear willingness to let China and Russia have their own spheres of influence.

Iran, of course, is about protecting Israel, IMO the US's only true remaining ally.

What Is the Monroe Doctrine, and How Is Trump Reasserting It?

President Trump has coined a new term to describe his approach to foreign policy that recalls the 200-year-old doctrine.

time.com