U.S. strategy for Cuba shifts from military option to focus on sanctions

The Trump administration’s Cuba strategy is increasingly focused on ramping up sanctions and economic pressure rather than deploying military force to break the island’s Communist leadership, people familiar with the matter said.

U.S. attention is now centred on cutting off all revenue sources for the regime rather than any military or special forces operation similar to the January raid that seized Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, according to the people, who asked not to be identified to detail the administration’s thinking.

The strategy is aimed at creating fractures in the ranks and room for negotiation in a government that’s rejected U.S. calls for change after almost seven decades of one-party rule, the people said.

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While the U.S. has maintained a trade embargo on Cuba since the early 1960s, officials led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio concluded more could be done to cut off funds flowing to the powerful Castro family and military leaders, the people said.

While it’s been weeks in the making, the approach echoes a recent shift in strategy toward Iran that’s focused less on military force and more on squeezing Tehran economically. On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the U.S. would soon impose what he said were “measures like have never been seen in the history of economic isolation on a country” against Iran.

However, it’s unclear whether the new Cuba strategy can yield a breakthrough after more than half a century of controversial economic sanctions and no credible political opposition. There’s also no agreeable political leader to install, as the U.S. did in Venezuela and as President Donald Trump has said he wanted to do in Iran — where the regime has also held out against U.S. pressure.

Asked to comment, a U.S. official said the Trump administration is open to a new chapter in its relationship with Cuba and that the only thing standing in the way is the nation’s current leadership. The official said a failed state in Cuba is a threat to U.S. national security and that almost every left-wing militant group in the Western Hemisphere has relied on Cuban support at some point.