Ten Minutes On... Cuba: Too Weak to Survive, Too Dangerous to Collapse

In this episode of Ten Minutes On…, Guy Burton examines the deepening crisis in Cuba and the growing contradiction at the heart of US policy towards Havana. As fuel shortages, blackouts and protests push Cuba towards its worst humanitarian crisis in decades, Washington has intensified sanctions and tightened the blockade — while simultaneously opening quiet talks with the regime. Why? This episode explores whether the United States still genuinely wants regime change in Cuba, or whether recent events in Venezuela and Iran have exposed the dangers of state collapse, mass migration and hardline succession. From Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution and the Cold War to the Mariel boatlift, the Balsero crisis and today’s migration surge, this episode looks at why Cuba has remained both a strategic irritant and a political dilemma for successive American administrations — and why Havana may still possess more leverage than Washington expected.