On January 3rd, 2026, the Trump Administration launched an aggressive raid on Venezuelan soil—Operation Absolute Resolve—in an attempt to find and capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. After two hours and 28 minutes, the Trump Administration concluded the operation by capturing both Maduro and his wife, Cillia Flores. The operation caused at least 23 Venezuelan security casualties alongside the casualties of 32 Cuban military and intelligence members.
Venezuela and Cuba have had a long trade history as a result of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The dissolution of the Soviet Union upended a majority of Cuban energy imports that supported the aging energy infrastructure, creating uncertainty of how to maintain energy consistency without the aid of the Soviets. However, Venezuela opened new trade deals with Cuba for oil under the presidency of Hugo Chávez in 1999 to help maintain the Cuban power grid. Since that point, Venezuela remained Cuba’s largest source of oil until Operation Absolute Resolve in January 2026. The military operation’s capture of Maduro and devastation of Venezuela halted shipments of oil to Cuba, threatening the aging power infrastructure of Cuba once more.
Despite Cuba being weakened, President Trump passed Executive Order 14380: “Addressing Threats to the United States by the Government of Cuba” on January 29th, 2026. The executive order described Cuba as a threat to national security by aligning itself with perceived terrorists and hostile nations, with Russia, China, Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah mentioned. The Executive Order insists that Cuba hosts these forces to provide intelligence on the Western World through Cuba’s proximity to the United States. It then claims that “the Cuban communist regime supports terrorism and destabilizes the region through migration and violence. The communist regime persecutes and tortures its political opponents; denies the Cuban people free speech and press; corruptly profits from their misery; and commits other human-rights violations.”
For these reasons, the Trump Administration deemed Cuba to be an “unusual and extraordinary threat” and has taken the action of imposing “an additional ad valorem rate of duty…on goods imported into the United States that are products of any other country that directly or indirectly sells or otherwise provides any oil to Cuba” to starve Cuba of any energy, directly generating an energy crisis for the Cuban Government as a result of their perceived alignment with US enemies.
While this may be defended as a military operation initially, the major problem is that the Cuban military is not nearly as affected as Cuban civilians. Multiple daily blackouts have been reported in Cuba and a majority of the electricity has been diverted to Havana, away from rural locations in the country, harming those who don’t live within major cities. With the modification authority, specifically Section 3(c), the purpose of this Executive Order becomes clear: “Should the Government of Cuba or another foreign country affected by this order take significant steps to address the national emergency declared in this order and align sufficiently with the United States on national security and foreign policy matters, I may modify this order.”
The Trump Administration is weaponizing the energy crisis in Cuba to target civilians for the purpose of forcing alignment within the Cuban Government. The harming of civilians through the denial of humanitarian aid to force compliance within the Cuban Government is a shockingly cruel low for the Trump Administration, with these tactics of targeted civilian harm resembling those of the terrorist organizations that the US opposes and accuses Cuba of working with as their justification for this arguable war crime.
Since January, no action lifting the effects of this order has been delivered, and the Cuban people continue to suffer. The Trump Administration should be able to establish pro-America standards with the Cuban government without directly harming its civilians and the cruel tactics must end. If the US is truly as powerful as it claims to be, then there is no need for this cruelty and weaponization in Cuba.
