The U.S. blockade is destroying Havana’s chances of becoming stable and democratic.
Since January, when the United States captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and cut Cuba off from the flow of Venezuelan oil that had long helped it function, Washington has pursued a “maximum pressure” campaign against Havana. The Trump administration hopes that sanctions and an effective fuel blockade can force Cuba’s leadership toward a negotiated economic and political opening that would turn the island into a dependent U.S. partner.
In one respect, the pressure has already paid off. On June 18, Cuba’s National Assembly approved some 175 measures that together amount to the boldest departure from the economic order of the 1959 Cuban Revolution. Private banks will now be allowed to operate in Cuba, real estate and state-owned enterprises will be opened to private and foreign capital, Cubans abroad can invest in the country, and most price controls will disappear. President Miguel Díaz-Canel cast the overhaul as a defense of socialism rather than an abandonment of it.
U.S. President Donald Trump might conclude that maximum pressure is working—and that he should tighten the screws on Havana to achieve further changes. Just days after the reforms passed, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced sanctions on five Cuban entities, including the bank that handles most foreign business on the island.
