Trump’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has set up a new Cuba task force. Its aim, it seems probable, is the overthrow of the ‘communist’ state just 90 miles of the Florida coast. The New York Times claims to have spoken to unnamed insiders with knowledge of the unit.
First, a caveat: intelligence sources brief the press for their own reasons. The US clearly wants regime change in Cuba, this is clear. We don’t know whether the briefing itself is meant to influence the relevant parties — part of an information war — or is a genuine leak.
The NYT reported on 5 August:
The C.I.A. has secretly established a Cuba task force, setting in motion plans for a more concerted campaign to pressure the Cuban government to make the economic, political and leadership changes demanded by President Trump, according to people briefed on the action.
The creation of the task force will allow the agency to quickly direct more financial, human and technical resources at Cuba, they said.
The force includes all the people you would expect it to:
Case officers who recruit and manage spies, intelligence analysts, officers who conduct cyberoperations and officers who specialize in covert influence operations.
Control of the hemisphere is a core part of US president Donald Trump’s foreign policy. The Canary has written about this plan extensively. There’s a good starting point here. Our readers can catch up on US designs on Cuba here.
Needless to say, the intelligence agency and the island nation have a lot of history. Cuban officials said this kind of thing was typical of the CIA.
Cuban deputy foreign minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío told the NYT:
The intentions here are no surprise, since Cuba has long been the target of the C.I.A.’s efforts at espionage, subversion and destabilization, including terrorism.
And yet the State Department has the audacity to call Cuba a threat for exercising its right to legitimate self-defense.
Let’s take a look at the continental context.
Trump wants a fascist Latin America
Trump is backing leaders who align with his worldview. A new piece published by Canadian socialist author Naomi Klein, but written by regional experts Verónica Gago and William Callison, does a good job of describing this process.
They asked:
What might an increasingly far-right hemisphere look like?
Their answer?
Modeled on Argentine President Javier Milei and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, and unfolding in the shadow of Donald Trump and Marco Rubio, it appears violent, chaotic, and yet also coordinated.
As illustrated by Rubio’s recent initiatives around the so-called Resurgence of Political Terrorism and the Shield of the Americas, the far right increasingly operates as a sort of “internationalist” project.
Rubio, a Cuban-American obsessed with the threat of leftism, is seen as a driving force here. The Canary recently reported on his ridiculous ‘left-wing terror’ conference.
As Klein and co point out, the US right is having some success in reversing an earlier trend which saw the continent move politically leftwards:
Around the turn of the century, the “pink tide” ushered in leftist governments and a “green tide” of feminist movements advanced abortion rights.
Recently, however, the tides have shifted: twelve of the last fifteen presidential elections have been won by right-wing candidates. Clearly, the regional canvas is being repainted.
They describe the region as no longer American empire’s ‘back yard’, but the ‘front yard’ for a new program of domination. A program meant to remake the region and driven by:
techno-financial (especially crypto and AI), extractivist (critical minerals and fossil fuels to power them) and militaristic expansionism.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. The full analysis can be read here. The failed war on Iran is still taking up a lot of US attention and military capability for now. But the Americas are still a primary concern. If and when Trump manages to disengage from Iran, we are likely to see a return to intense operations across the continent.
Featured image via the Canary
By Joe Glenton
