On October 20, 2026, Cuban analyst Juan Fernández published a scathing critique of United States policy toward Havana, outlining a coordinated, multi-front campaign that Cuba argues is designed to restore American dominion over the island through coercive, destabilizing tactics.
Fernández anchors his critique in a sequence of coordinated actions that unfolded on February 25, 2026, to illustrate Washington’s contradictory and hostile approach. That same day, senior U.S. officials privately acknowledged holding informal talks with Cuban representatives at a hotel hosting the CARICOM-U.S. Summit in Saint Kitts and Nevis, even as the U.S. State Department openly pressured Caribbean regional leaders to cut off long-standing medical cooperation with Cuba and align with U.S. efforts to overthrow the current Cuban government.
Hours after that diplomatic pressure campaign, Cuban security forces intercepted a heavily armed 10-person terrorist infiltration team that had departed from Florida, intent on carrying out violent sabotage attacks across the island. Fernández emphasizes that the organizers and financial backers of this plot remain completely shielded from legal consequences, operating freely on U.S. territory without any intervention from American law enforcement.
Far from being isolated, unrelated incidents, these events are part of a cohesive, deceptive script that defines the current coercive diplomacy championed by Washington, Fernández argues. The campaign is orchestrated by a faction aligned with the anti-Castro Miami mafia, which openly seeks the full recolonization of Cuba and a return to U.S. dominance over Havana. To achieve this goal, the U.S. has deployed a full spectrum of aggression: sweeping economic sanctions, repeated military escalations, public threats, formal ultimatums, and ongoing preparations for conflict.
In recent months, Fernández notes, Washington has revived a barrage of long-debunked false claims, most notably the resurrected narrative of so-called “acoustic incidents” targeting U.S. personnel in Cuba. These lies are intentionally deployed to eliminate any remaining framework for positive bilateral relations or cooperative, civilized engagement between the two nations. More than 20 potential collaborative agreements—initiatives that would boost both U.S. and Cuban national security, as well as regional stability—have been frozen by the State Department, with Cuba’s diplomatic proposals left completely unanswered.
Instead of pursuing respectful negotiation and structured dialogue, the U.S. relies on constant verbal attacks targeting Cuba’s political system, government leaders, public institutions and state officials. It continues to peddle the tired narrative that Cuba is a failed state on the brink of collapse, deliberately ignoring the devastating impact of decades of U.S. economic coercion. Fernández characterizes this ongoing campaign as an unethical act of collective punishment, comparable to fascist practices, that amounts to silent genocide: the policy seeks to break the Cuban people through hunger and widespread despair, either forcing them into submission or mobilizing them as a tool to destabilize the existing government.
Alongside spreading misinformation to demonize Cuba and inflate non-existent security threats, the State Department is currently leading an aggressive international lobbying campaign to pressure countries into opposing a Cuban-sponsored United Nations resolution calling for an end to the U.S. economic blockade of the island, set for a vote on October 28. This lobbying effort includes behind-the-scenes meetings, targeted political pressure, blackmail and open threats against member states. Simultaneously, the State Department has worked to foster a conspiratorial, negative narrative to discredit Cuba’s global medical cooperation program—an initiative that has saved millions of lives in vulnerable, remote communities across the world, often providing care completely free of charge.
Fernández details the full range of tactics the U.S. uses to advance this goal: from diplomatic tours and intimidating direct calls to heads of state, to unrestrained public attacks by senior U.S. officials and spokespeople, to leveraging UN General Assembly proceedings to orchestrate coordinated anti-Cuba actions. Washington has even begun conditioning foreign aid, access to business opportunities, and positive bilateral relations on compliance: countries that refuse to expel Cuban medical missions, cut diplomatic ties with Havana, or close Cuban embassies face tangible retaliation.
The ultimate goal of this campaign, Fernández argues, is to destroy Cuba’s economy and social fabric, reduce the island to widespread misery, and frame it to the global public as a failed, isolated political project that has been brought to heel by an all-powerful U.S. imperial power. Hungry for access to Cuba’s natural and economic wealth, the U.S. also seeks to send a clear message to the world: through this decades-long, genocidal campaign, it has reasserted its hegemony over the Western Hemisphere, proving that 70 years of relentless aggression against Cuba was not a wasted effort.
In closing, Fernández poses a critical question: is this stark contradiction between token gestures of dialogue and open aggression merely a case of blatant double standards, or is it just a cynical pretense to hide Washington’s total refusal to engage in good-faith negotiations with Havana?