Anticipating US Attack, Cuba Prepares

Latin America Correspondent Jon Bonfiglio speaks to Stig Abell for Times Radio. 

Transcript

Stig Abell 0:00

Good morning. It's 27 minutes past six. This is Times Breakfast with Kate McCann and Stig Abell. We've been focusing for three weeks now on America's attack on Iran and its effects on the Gulf region. Doesn't mean to say Donald Trump has given up plans to control his own backyard. He may have gone cold on invading Greenland, but what is he up to in Cuba? Just last week the president said he can do anything he wants with the country, and an American oil blockade has plunged the country into darkness twice recently. We're joined now by the Latin American correspondent Jon Bonfiglio. Morning, Jon. Uh so where are we with Cuba? Because uh people understandably may have been distracted over the last uh few weeks with Iran, but things seem to be happening to do with Cuba. What's the current status?

Jon Bonfiglio 0:39

Yeah, it's all, I guess, sort of very much in the background, but talks could continue between the USA and the Cuban government. For the USA, the key points are to do with the leadership. They want to remove the Cuban leadership and make space for their own more uh compliant um uh placements to sort of take over. They also want the economy to uh to open up for investment and also for um uh for for money to be paid back on anybody in the US who who lost either land or businesses in the Cuban Revolution in 1959. The Cuban government has already made a number of uh concessions in terms of releasing prisoners and opening up the economy for uh for individuals of of Cuban heritage. Meanwhile, which I'm sure you've heard, there's been much talk of a Russian oil tanker on its way to Cuba. The Anatoly Kolodkin uh was headed that way, but uh uh my understanding now is that it's veered off and is heading to Central America. So Russia perhaps is is not quite willing to uh to push through and see a confrontation on the on the high seas. The humanitarian flotilla has now reached uh Cuba, and Cuba is is all this this while seeing what's happening in Iran preparing and saying that it is ready, getting itself ready for any potential attack from the United States.

Stig Abell 1:50

So is that really plausible that that that Trump could send troops into Cuba?

Jon Bonfiglio 1:57

Um I think Venezuela gives us a clue uh for uh what may take place in in Cuba. Um, I mean, troops, uh we're not gonna see boots on the ground, again in the same way as Venezuela. Are we potentially gonna see some kind of strike? Well, I think the clue is in the fact that um for the last few weeks now you've had a US um uh attorney in South Florida developing a number of different indictments based around drugs, terrorism, uh, espionage, and human rights abuses charges um uh uh across the sort of the uh the Cuban leadership with the perspective that they can then use that as leverage, an argument for a potential military strike. I would also add, which I think is also important, that I'm also hearing that uh a number of uh Republican uh donors of Cuban heritage have now been sounded out as potential transition leadership figures in Cuba.

Stig Abell 2:53

And at the minute there's there's an energy crisis there. Why? Because America's stopping um uh the means of creating energy getting in.

Jon Bonfiglio 3:01

I mean, basically, yes, there is no fuel, but uh equally these um the the the the the blackouts also do predate this blockade. They've not been as severe as they have been now, but but on your show a year ago we reported on a mass nationwide uh blackout, and it's to do with a lack of investment and a sort of a uh uh problematic infrastructure that Cuba has not been able to uh to sort of build up or fund for a long period of time now.

Stig Abell 3:26

Uh just before you go, um you know this part of the world very well. Is it I suppose we have to contemplate the notion that Trump is going to achieve what the Mafia couldn't do, what the CIA couldn't do, what the Kennedy regime avoided doing, and actually achieve regime change in Cuba.

Jon Bonfiglio 3:44

The focus that the USA is giving Cuba at the moment is something like we've never seen. And I I I don't think we need to complicate um contemplate it. I think it's going to happen. You struggle to find a non-partisan commentator at the moment who is ready to argue that Cuba is capable of surviving in its present form into the medium and long term.

Stig Abell 4:03

Amazing. Jon, it's a fascinating story. I'm no doubt we'll be speaking to you again when I I mean, presumably the pause with Iran or any stop with Iran will lead to Trump having more attention to pay on this. So it's probably coming in the next couple of weeks. We'll speak to you again, no doubt. Thanks for joining us. That's Jon Bonfiglio.