Openly talks about taking over Cuba. Here it is. You know, all my life I've been hearing about the United States and Cuba. When will the United States do it? [00:00:16] I do believe I'll be the honor of having the honor of taking Cuba. That'd be good. That's a big honor. Taking Cuba. Taking Cuba in some form. Yeah. Taking Cuba. I mean, whether I free it. Take it. [00:00:31] I think I could do anything I want with it. You want to know the truth? A very weakened nation. No, that's not the truth. It would be illegal to do so. As a matter of fact, threatening to do so should be impeachable under the governing [00:00:51] doctrine of the US Constitution and also prevailing statutory law. The person, if you remember running for president seemingly many moons ago now, right? Marco Rubio well, Marco Rubio made his presidential bid. [00:01:11] Cuba was on his top do not pass go list. Let's do a little background on Marco Marco Rubio. Here it is. In the mid 1950s, Rubio's family and mine emigrated from Cuba to the US after Fidel Castro's revolution and Cuba's transition to communism. [00:01:27] A few years later, many well-off white Cubans came to Miami. Now, Rubio's family and most of mine weren't part of that wave. Both his father and my grandfather were service jobs in Miami Beach during their early years in the US. But in the years following the revolution, both our families would come to see themselves as part of the Cuban exile community that reshaped Miami politics. [00:01:44] Around the same time, the US government gave lots of Cuban immigrants, including Rubio's grandfather, a pretty clear pathway to citizenship and state assistance. Meanwhile, Cubans in Miami organized around overthrowing Castro anti-communism plus white privilege laid the groundwork for Cuban American conservatism. If you have a party that is building sort of messages around anti-Blackness [00:02:03] that is also promoting sort of this idea of being pro-business or pro-capital. Humans could see where they fit in all that. That was still true during Rubio's childhood in 1970s Miami, and although his family moved to Las Vegas in 1979, Rubio was still heavily influenced by Cuban exile politics [00:02:19] through his grandfather, including his support for Ronald Reagan and the right wing guerrillas his administration illegally funded. It's around this time that Rubio, quote, boasted, I would someday lead an army of exiles to overthrow Fidel Castro and become president of a free Cuba. By the time Rubio moved back to Miami in the mid 80s, [00:02:34] Reagan's anti-communism had galvanized Cuban American voters there, and that same community was influencing U.S. Foreign policy. More and more voters then elected him to the state legislature and later the US Senate, where he sponsored 41 bills, mentioning Venezuela and 53 mentioning Cuba. It's also where he started pressuring Trump to oust Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. [00:02:51] That effort culminated in Maduro's capture and Trump's cooperation with essentially the same government in exchange for oil. The imperialism we're seeing from Rubio and Trump today is a product of all this history. That's right. U.S. Imperialism. [00:03:06] Now, keep in mind that part of the psychological warfare is to make you believe that a system of government is in itself corrupt and evil. For example, they will utilize the term communism. [00:03:25] They said the same thing about Doctor King. They will utilize the term communist in order to proxy the term radical. You see, a form of government is not inherently evil. [00:03:43] Capitalism has committed more atrocities than communism ever had. Wars. Corruption. Deceit. We're in it now. [00:04:01] It is not a communist nation who has decided to kidnap heads of state. It is not a communist nation who has decided to ignore the needs of the citizens in their country. [00:04:18] And they're paying more for basic food services, gas. It is a capitalist nation that has done that. A little history on US imperialism. The US has set its sights on the Caribbean island. [00:04:34] Cuba is really a nation that's very close to failing. You know, they got their money from Venezuela. They got their oil from Venezuela. They're not getting that anymore. The US has also been pressuring Mexico to stop sending oil to Cuba. But why is the US so determined to bring down Cuba anyway? Especially since unlike Venezuela, the country imports rather than exports oil. [00:04:50] First, to understand the relationship between the US and Cuba, we need to go back to Cuba's fight for independence from Spain. Cuban nationalists fought to break free from Spain's colonial empire for decades, causing the country to develop a strong base of support for independence. Near the end of Cuba's final war of independence, the United States intervened on the side of Cuba. [00:05:06] This is known in the US as the Spanish American War. But this intervention had self-serving interests. The US actually intended on kicking Spain out of the Western Hemisphere in the name of the Monroe Doctrine. The Monroe Doctrine called for keeping Europe out of the Americas, but not to support self-determination in the Western Hemisphere. The US actually wanted imperial control of the Americas for themselves. [00:05:23] So when the US entered the Spanish-American war, many in Washington called for the annexation of Cuba by the United States. So the US occupied Cuba after the war, promising to pull its forces out once the new government was in place. And so when Cuba was drafting its constitution in 1901, the US forced it to include an amendment that would allow Cuba's powerful neighbor to intervene [00:05:38] on the island when it saw fit. The Constitution also grants the US a perpetual lease for US military bases. That's how the US kept hold of Guantanamo Bay. While several US friendly regimes ruled Cuba for the next half century, resentment bubbled underneath for decades because many Cubans felt they didn't break free from Spain just to be dominated by the US. That would all change in 1959, [00:05:55] when the Cuban revolution overthrew US backed dictator Fulgencio Batista. The revolution ended indirect control by the US over the island's politics and economy. And that's an outcome the US has been determined to reverse ever since. Put up the picture for mass. [00:06:12] Yesterday, Trump mused over whether he would have the, as he called it, honor of taking over over Cuba, a sovereign nation and doing whatever he wants with it. [00:06:32] Kind of like he's doing in America. He previously threatened a, quote, friendly takeover and wants to pursue it after his illegal war in Iran, [00:06:50] which came after he kidnaped. A head of state. This comes in the midst of Cuba, plunging into darkness yesterday with a major blackout affecting 11 million people. [00:07:09] Trump imposed an oil quarantine against the island at the end of January. Understand this plan or these plans have been in motion for a while. Trump imposed this oil quarantine, [00:07:28] cutting off its main supply of oil from Venezuela after kidnaping Maduro. No oil shipments have arrived in Cuba in the last three months, which has affected communications, education, health care [00:07:47] and transportation of that nation. Our tax dollars, unfortunately, once again, are being utilized to fund the world's oppression. By force, We are complicit. There's more blasting. [00:08:06] The blackout is, quote, a direct consequence of Trump's economic warfare. Manolo de Los Santos of the People's Forum in New York City, said on social media Monday that the US has deliberately [00:08:22] cut off fuel, spare parts and equipment, crippling an already fragile grid. It's a genocidal saying designed to starve [00:08:38] and break the Cuban people into submission, end quote. Shortly after Trump spoke, the New York Times reported that US officials told Cuba to remove its president from power. [00:08:54] What? Yeah. Shortly after Trump spoke, Officials from our government told Cuba to remove its president, citing four unnamed sources familiar with the discussions. [00:09:11] Trump and his cronies won't open Cuba. Cuba for business. Once again, we're back to oh, capitalism. What makes a government corrupt? What makes a system of economy and social governance corrupt? [00:09:29] Well, the administrators do. The people who are in charge, the individuals who run it, regardless of the name, you may call it the corruption comes from the heart of the individuals [00:09:48] that administer Cuban nationals living abroad in places such as Miami will be allowed to invest in the private sector and own businesses in the homeland. The country's economic czar has told NBC news in an exclusive interview. [00:10:06] Cuba. Cuba is open to having a fluid commercial relationship with US companies and, quote. Also with Cubans residing in the United States and their descendants that came from Cuba's deputy prime minister. I talked about this in the sit down in Havana ahead of announcing the news [00:10:25] to this country Monday night. We're trying to sell you on the idea of economic enterprising. Is it not ironic that the man has openly stole oil? But you're paying more for gas. [00:10:42] They're not doing this for your benefit. They're not going to take over. World economies monopolize access and commerce in order to give you a discount. [00:10:58] That's not happening. Competition naturally drives a better consumer opportunity in the exchange of that competition. Trump is trying to eliminate the very competition for the American consumer and beyond. [00:11:14] So here we are. The sales pitch has been made. It's a lie. Like the other sales pitches. Yeah, the car is a lemon, and our president is acting like a used car salesman. [00:11:29] As a matter of fact, he actually did sell us a car. It happened to be a new Tesla on the white House lawn. This is the man you're dealing with. So now he's having the honor of doing [00:11:45] what he wants to do with another nation. And you don't think this is about you? You don't think this is about America? You don't think this is about the people inside of this country? It is. If you stand by and say nothing and do nothing and act as if it doesn't bother [00:12:02] you because it's not in your backyard. Understand this. Is building up to something. You don't have to let him because this is still a democracy. We still have rules of governance that he has to navigate. [00:12:23] We still have the opportunity. To not only save this nation, but other nations that America is adversely impacting. There's a very different reality here than what Maga said. [00:12:40] They voted for Democrats. Those of us on the left, we never supported Trump, but those on the right. I never heard you say you wanted this. I never heard Maga say they wanted the Venezuelan president. [00:12:57] I never heard Maga say they wanted to take over Cuba. As a matter of fact, I heard Magda say less government intrusion. I heard Magda say, stay out of the affairs of other nations. Alright, dear brother, thoughts here? I mean, first, that was an excellent, I think, take on this whole situation. [00:13:16] Especially the historical aspect of it. I grew up in Florida myself. I was immersed in Republican circles and heard nothing except for Cuba equals bad my entire life. And I think it takes a little bit of digging to realize that that might be a sentiment that's not exactly shared by those within Cuba. [00:13:34] At least not the majority of them. Like I live in Los Angeles now. People all over the country have at one time or another lived in Los Angeles, and they usually say negative things about it because they're no longer there. And I think that there's a little diasporic thing that's incredibly interesting. Secondly, Trump did like a Freudian slip there at the beginning [00:13:53] where he didn't even, he basically said, I will be the honor, for a moment and then corrected himself and said and said, I will have the honor. I think that speaks to his narcissism, and that this goal for him is ultimately [00:14:08] to enrich himself and his cronies. And then finally, Cuba. You know, it is an island, but I also think it is an island both geographically and symbolically. It is something that we have continually tried to isolate. It's something that we project our own as a nation faults onto. [00:14:26] They're the ones doing political violence. They're the ones doing political oppression. They're the ones where people can't survive and put food on the table. All of those problems are things we could be focusing on in this country, but instead we're projecting it outward and doing it so that a few more people can get a lot more rich. [00:14:43] Very well said. Amazing, he believes, and some people who support him believe it as well that he can fix other nations, right? He can fix them, but he can't even figure out how to get the cost of gasoline and eggs down in America. Okay. All right. We'll bring you updates as they come.