The situation in Cuba may be at or near a breaking point. Many experts — real ones whom I trust and learn from regularly, not just whoever the MSM could dig up — are calling today the “beginning of the end” of the regime that has been in power for 67 years.
No Oil, No Reserves
On Thursday, the country’s energy minister, Vicente de la O Levy, said on state media, “We have absolutely no fuel and absolutely no diesel. We have no reserves.”
Of course, he went on to blame the U.S. “blockade,” which prevents other countries from sending oil to Cuba via secondary tariffs, but we all know that’s not the real problem.
Even when the regime was receiving super cheap oil from Venezuela or Mexico, it was selling most of it to foreign countries and using what was left to keep its own interests up and running. The Cuban people were still dealing with blackouts. And the lack of oil wasn’t the only issue. The infrastructure there is crumbling, and the regime refuses to fix or maintain it.
Major Protests Break Out as Regime Cuts Communication Lines
Blackouts in many neighborhoods are now reaching 22 hours a day, which has set off a new wave of protests this week. People are losing their fear of the regime — they can no longer live like this — and they’re begging the United States to end it. There have been some photos and videos posted on social media, and advocates for a free Cuba, like Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.), are asking people who can to spread the word about the protests. Why? The regime has now reportedly cut off all lines of communication in the country, including phone and internet service. They do not want the outside world to see what’s really going on.
🚨#SOSCuba The Cuban people have taken to the streets protesting the brutal dictatorship & its incompetence.
As usual, the regime has cut cellphone & internet access to the people.
Please, share and retweet as many videos as possible. The Cuban people are being repressed.
— Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (@RepCarlos) May 14, 2026
With that in mind, I’ll share a few videos from Wednesday night. Most of the captions are in Spanish, but they all basically say the same thing, explaining that people are in the streets protesting.
Ola de protestas y cacerolazos sacude La Habana ante apagones de hasta 22 horas diarias https://t.co/nsLydrq2za pic.twitter.com/o5V4f5UfPK
— Monitoreamos (@monitoreamos) May 14, 2026
CUBA: Ayer continuaron las protestas en varias partes de la Habana. La gente explotó y salió a las calles a prenderle fuego a la basura y la represión no se hizo esperar. Vean en el vídeo cómo las fuerzas del régimen golpea a la gente y los arresta. Sucedió en Playa. pic.twitter.com/rozKjVY6vy
— Ariel Maceo Tellez (@arielmaceo86) May 14, 2026
🇨🇺‼️ | Diversos reportes desde La Habana muestran protestas en contra de la dictadura comunista. Tras días, semanas y hasta meses sin electricidad, más el desgaste de la ciudadanía por la represión y la escasez de recursos básicos, el pueblo se ha levantado en contra del sistema… pic.twitter.com/zT3sj7GrHH
— UHN Plus (@UHN_Plus) May 14, 2026
Record High Political Prisoner Numbers
While people are losing their fear and taking to the streets, they’re still not safe from the regime. The human rights organization Prison Defenders released its monthly report on the number of political prisoners in Cuba, and in April 2026, it hit a record high of 1,260 detained.
To make matters worse, 14 are minors, 142 are women, 449 have serious medical conditions, and 51 have untreated severe mental health issues.
CUBA REACHES A NEW RECORD: 1,260 POLITICAL PRISONERS
A Prisoners Defenders report documents a new escalation of repression in Cuba:
⛓️ 1,260 political prisoners and prisoners of conscience
📌 23 new political prisoners in April
🧒 14 minors— Arturo McFields Yescas (@ArturoMcfields) May 14, 2026
Rubio’s Most Recent Statements
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is currently on travel with President Donald Trump to China, but he sat down with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on the way there, and one topic they discussed is what’s going on in Cuba. He didn’t say anything particularly new. He’s been saying all along that Cuba has no economy and the current people in charge aren’t competent enough to fix that.
“There is no economy in Cuba,” he said. “To the extent there’s any wealth in Cuba… forget about it doesn’t go to the people. It doesn’t even go to the government. The wealth is controlled by a private company owned by military generals. They take all the money. They’re sitting on billions of dollars, okay? This is a country where people are literally now eating garbage from the streets, but they have a company that controls all of the moneymaking there that’s sitting on $15-16 billion.”
Of course, he’s talking about GAESA, which he sanctioned heavily last week.
Related: Cuba Falling: Rubio Issues a Major Blow to the Regime’s Military Empire with Much More to Come
Then he spoke about Cuba’s potential:
The one thing Cuba would enjoy is an enormous expatriate community, Cuban Americans that would go back and invest. But I think there would be interest globally. Look, they have significant mineral deposits in Cuba — some of the rare earth minerals, some of the best in the world. They have, obviously, an incredible opportunity with tourism, with agriculture – very rich farmland. So Cuba should not be a poor country. Its people should not be starving. Its people should be prosperous. And what’s most interesting is you see Cubans everywhere in the world – in the United States, but you see them in Europe, you see them in Panama. Cubans leave Cuba, they go to other countries, and they become successful. The only place in the world where Cubans can’t seem to prosper and succeed is in Cuba.
What’s All This About $100 Million in Aid?
While in Italy last week, Rubio spoke about how the United States has tried to give the Cuban people $100 million in aid, but the regime wouldn’t allow it. Of course, it wouldn’t go directly to the regime — the Cuban people would never see it if it did — but it would be handled through Catholic charities as we’ve done previously with smaller amounts.
Rubio also talked about that on Hannity:
SECRETARY RUBIO: We’ve offered to distribute $100 million of humanitarian aid to the Cuban people through the church, but the Cuban regime has denied it. pic.twitter.com/GzF8IWCru4
— Department of State (@StateDept) May 14, 2026
On Wednesday, the State Department released the following statement about it:
The United States continues to seek meaningful reforms to Cuba’s communist system, which has only served to enrich the elites and condemn the Cuban people to poverty. As U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said, the United States has also made numerous private offers to the Cuban regime to provide generous assistance to the Cuban people, including support for free and fast satellite internet and $100 million in direct humanitarian assistance. The regime refuses to allow the United States to provide this assistance to the Cuban people, who are in desperate need of assistance due to the failures of Cuba’s corrupt regime.
Today, the Department of State is publicly restating the United States’ generous offer to provide an additional $100 million in direct humanitarian assistance to the Cuban people that would be distributed in coordination with the Catholic Church and other reliable independent humanitarian organizations. The decision rests with the Cuban regime to accept our offer of assistance or deny critical living-saving aid and ultimately be accountable to the Cuban people for standing in the way of critical assistance.
Initially, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, Cuba’s foreign minister and long-time Rubio foe, denied this, saying the U.S. never offered any such thing and calling it a “fable” and a “lie,” but when the State Department put it in writing, he changed his tune a bit.
He posted the following on X on Thursday morning. Of course, he couldn’t help getting a couple of digs in about the “blockade.” This is translated from Spanish:
It remains unclear whether it will be cash or material aid, and whether it will be allocated to the most urgent needs of the moment for the people, such as fuels, food, and medicines.
In any case, even taking into account the incongruity of the apparent generosity from the party that subjects the Cuban people to collective punishment through economic warfare, the Cuban government does not have a practice of rejecting foreign aid that is offered in good faith and with genuine aims of cooperation, whether bilateral or multilateral.
Nor does it have any objections to working with the Catholic Church, with which it has a long and positive experience of joint work through its cooperative efforts.
We are willing to hear the details of the offer and the manner in which it would be implemented.
We hope it is free of political maneuvers and attempts to exploit the shortages and suffering of a people under siege.
The best aid that the U.S. government could provide to the noble Cuban people at this or any time is to de-escalate the measures of the energy, economic, commercial, and financial blockade, intensified as never before in recent months, which severely affects all sectors of the Cuban economy and society.
John Ratcliffe Goes to Havana
Here’s something I didn’t have on my bingo card for today: CIA Director John Ratcliffe hopped on a plane to Havana on Thursday to meet with senior officials, including Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, the elder Castro’s grandson, and Interior Minister Lázaro Álvarez Casas. This is huge.
According to CIA officials, Ratcliffe was on a personal mission from Trump to deliver a message: The U.S. is prepared to seriously engage on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba makes fundamental changes. The idea that Cuba can no longer be a haven for our adversaries (Iran, China, Russia, etc.) was a major point on the agenda.
Oh, and get this: Ratcliffe also reportedly reminded them of what happened in Venezuela on January 3 and that it can happen again if something doesn’t change swiftly.
The regime also confirmed the visit, claiming the U.S. requested it and “the Leadership of the Revolution approved the carrying out of this visit.”
Havana, Cuba pic.twitter.com/7S7TtJPyf5
— CIA (@CIA) May 14, 2026
Indicting Raúl Castro?
As I’m writing all of this on Thursday evening, CBS is reporting that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has taken steps to indict Raúl Castro for the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue shooting. At that time, Castro reportedly ordered the military to shoot down two civilian planes in international waters, killing four people, three of whom were U.S. citizens and one a permanent resident.
The U.S. is taking steps to indict Raúl Castro, the 94-year-old former president of Cuba and brother of Fidel, in connection with the downing of planes 30 years ago, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter. https://t.co/OqeBa8WFAt pic.twitter.com/bLMQYNlzvp
— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 14, 2026
Earlier this year, several members of Congress wrote a letter to the Trump administration requesting exactly this. I won’t rehash it all, as I wrote a lot about it in February, which you can read here: Could Trump Go After Castro?
Apparently, all it needs is a grand jury approval. With that, the 94-year-old Castro would be a U.S. fugitive from justice, and the Castro family would see an end to its decades of perceived impunity, even if it just turns out to be a symbolic move.
Keep in mind, this is an “anonymous sources” story with no confirmation from the DOJ, but because of the nature of the issue, I wouldn’t expect the DOJ to comment on it anyway until it’s a done deal.
————————
I know that’s a lot, but it proves that the regime is in its most desperate position yet, and the Trump administration is ramping up a lot of pressure all at once — pressure that was already near its maximum. The coming days and weeks will be interesting to watch, and I will keep you posted every step of the way.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.
Help us continue to report on the administration’s peace through strength foreign policy and its successes. Join PJ Media VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
