The lawyer, political scientist, and former Bolivian minister Carlos Sánchez Berzain warned this Tuesday that any action by the United States regarding Cuba will respond to national security imperatives, and stated that at this moment "an ultimatum" is in progress, supported by legal, political, international, and military measures.
Sánchez Berzain, director of the Interamerican Institute for Democracy, expressed it clearly in an interview with Tania Costa: "The United States is not going to do this out of charity for the Cubans, it has to do this out of its own interest. Because after 67 years of being attacked directly and indirectly by the dictatorship of Cuba, the time has come for this to end. And as a consequence of that, it will restore freedom to the Cuban people."
To support his argument, the former minister outlined a historical timeline of the Cuban regime's aggressions against Washington.
Sánchez Berzain pointed out that it was the Cuban dictatorship that triggered the missile crisis of 1962 by transforming the island into a platform for Soviet communism with the installation of missiles that almost led to World War III.
This was compounded by Fidel Castro openly proclaiming that drug trafficking was a tool of anti-imperialist struggle, and that in the 1960s Cuba promoted the creation of all the Latin American guerrillas: the FARC, the national liberation armies, the Tupamaros, the Montoneros, Sendero Luminoso, and the MRTA.
In the 21st century, Sánchez Berzain identified forced migration as the main mechanism of hybrid warfare deployed by the Cuban regime and its allies.
"There are countries much more harmed than the United States by forced migration as an element of hybrid warfare. Look at Colombia. There are more than one and a half million Venezuelans. Look at Peru. Look at the dispute between Peru and Chile fighting over expelling Venezuelans, and neither of them wants them," he noted.
In that context, the former minister rejected the idea that Washington should justify a potential operation concerning Cuba. "Do not ask the United States for justification to conduct an operation on Cuba. Look at the objective reality."
His analysis coincides with the measures adopted by the Trump Administration. On January 29, 2026, Trump signed the Executive Order 14380 declaring a national emergency, labeling Cuba as an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to national security and imposing tariffs on countries that supply it with oil.
Months later, on May 1, 2026, Trump signed Executive Order 14404, which expanded sanctions by freezing the assets of Cuban officials, prohibiting their entry into the United States, and extending these measures to their adult family members.
The Trump Administration justifies the pressure by pointing out that Cuba hosts hostile intelligence operations, cooperates militarily with Russia, China, and Iran, and provides refuge to groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas.
Sánchez Berzain described the options that, in his opinion, are included in the ongoing ultimatum: from the peaceful handover of power with guarantees of impunity for the Castro family and Díaz-Canel, to "a forced recovery of the sovereignty of the Cuban people."
The former minister summarized the crux of the issue in a single sentence: "The topic is called national security of the United States. That’s it."
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