Fresh off the successful capture of Venezuelan autocrat Nicolás Maduro and the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Donald Trump and his allies have set their sights on another U.S. adversary: Cuba.
“Cuba’s at the end of the line,” Trump told more than a dozen Latin American leaders during a conference at the White House last week. “Cuba’s in its last moments of life as it was.” Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s closest foreign policy advisers, was just as bullish a day later: “The liberation of Cuba is upon us.”
The U.S., it appears, is doubling down on regime change in Havana. But Trump should take time to consider his options. His administration can reach a historic diplomatic agreement with Cuba without resorting to this resource-intensive and risky strategy. Pragmatic negotiations with the Cuban government—not long-term economic strangulation of the island, a military takeover or a decapitation of the leadership—is a more effective way to bolster U.S. security in its own neighbourhood.
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