a map of cuba with some silhouettes imposed over it of military helicopters

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Right-wing Spanish-language media caution that attacking Cuba won’t be as straightforward as the Maduro raid

One guest said any potential U.S. military action in Cuba “would have to be much larger than Venezuela”

Written by Janos Balazs

Published

As tensions have risen between the U.S. and Cuba, some Spanish-language right-wing media voices have cautioned that regime change in Cuba won’t be as easy as President Donald Trump’s raid to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in early January. While hosts have generally expressed support for such actions, they’ve claimed that the Cuban government is “more closed off” than Venezuela; that former Cuban leader Raúl Castro has “the whole army as personal security”; and that “there is no Delcy Rodríguez” in Cuba, referring to the former vice president of Venezuela who replaced Maduro. (Prior to the Maduro raid, U.S. officials reportedly deemed Rodríguez to be an “acceptable candidate” to lead Venezuela because of her willingness to “protect and champion future American energy investments in the country.”)

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  • Tension between the U.S. and Cuba escalates as right-wing media push for more action

    • The Trump administration enacted a fuel embargo in January and threatened tariffs on any country which supplies Cuba with fuel, contributing to blackouts in the country. Blackouts lasting up to 22 hours and scarcity of certain key goods — such as medicine and food — have also led to the eruption of protests on the island. In addition to choking the country of oil, the Trump administration has flown surveillance missions and positioned troops and naval ships in the region, seemingly prepared for further escalation. [Reuters, 5/13/26; Politico, 5/27/26; The New York Times, 5/13/26]
    • Both Spanish- and English-language right-wing media have cheered the Trump administration's escalation and advocated for U.S. military intervention and regime change in Cuba. This follows a familiar pattern; in 2025, right-wing media praised Trump’s boat strikes in the Caribbean while advocating further escalation in Venezuela. Inside the administration, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has a long-standing goal of toppling the Cuban regime, and Trump reportedly seeks to apply a revised version of the Monroe Doctrine in the Western Hemisphere. [Media Matters, 5/21/26, 3/24/26, 2/6/26, 1/7/26, 10/29/26; Axios, 5/11/26, 1/7/26; The Guardian, 5/22/26; CNN, 6/7/26]
    • After the U.S. indicted Raúl Castro in May, some speculated the administration would carry out actions modeled on the “Venezuela playbook” in Cuba. Some English-language right-wing media have run with the idea, telling viewers it would be “another Venezuela situation” or “even easier” than Venezuela. [The Wall Street Journal, 5/20/26; PBD Podcast, 6/4/26; Alex Jones Network, New American Journal, 6/13/26]
    • Under pressure from the Trump administration, the Cuban government announced a significant restructuring of its economy in late June; it remains unclear if this will deter further escalation by the U.S. Cuba has reportedly denied the move was “designed to placate the Trump administration.” In a statement responding to the measures, the U.S. State Department said Trump would “continue to apply pressure to drive much more substantial economic and political overhauls.” These measures were also classified by a State Department spokesperson as “modest, long overdue, and ultimately superficial smoke signals.” [PBS, 6/23/26; The New York Times, 6/24/26]

  • Spanish-language right-wing media point out key differences between Cuba and Venezuela, suggesting Cuba’s government is more durable

    • Referring to U.S. actions in Venezuela, Cada Tarde guest and director of the Cuban Research Institute Sebastián Arcos warned, “That kind of operation in Cuba doesn’t work. … There would have to be a couple layers of leadership in the Cuban regime eliminated to create the opportunity for the emergence of a new, more pragmatic leadership willing to negotiate with the U.S." He explained this was because unlike Venezuela, “Cuba is a totalitarian regime based on an ideology, so it is much harder to look inside the regime because it is very opaque” and “more closed off” than Venezuela. [Actualidad Radio, Cada Tarde, 5/15/26]
    • Fox Noticias guest Sandra Hoyos suggested the U.S. military would have to enter Cuba because “we don’t have anyone else like a Delcy Rodríguez we had in Venezuela ready to work with the U.S.” Instead, she said, the U.S. would have “to enter Cuba to get Raúl Castro out” and “unlike Venezuela,” the Cuban military is “very cohesive.” [Fox Deportes, Fox Noticias, 5/21/26]
    • On Fox Noticias, ex-professor of Cuban studies Andy Gomez said that “the Venezuelan model cannot be applied to Cuba because it is very different.” Gomez said, “There is no Delcy Rodríguez or Venezuelan government willing to hand over Raúl Castro, that simply doesn’t exist” in Cuba. [Fox Deportes, Fox Noticias, 3/24/26]
    • Cada Tarde host Agustín Acosta said that while a strong opposition movement exists in Venezuela, Cuba “does not have that at the moment,” and this is one of “a series of things there that conspire against what we all want.” [Actualidad Radio, Cada Tarde, 3/9/26]
    • President of America Hispana Gabriela Perozo said on Cada Tarde that a Venezuela strategy is where “you remove one or two and the rest obey. I am not sure it would be so simple in the case of the Cubans.” [Actualidad Radio, Cada Tarde, 4/9/26]
    • On Fox Noticias, guest Emilio González explained why the Venezuela strategy would be hard to execute in Cuba. González said “it would be very difficult” to capture Raúl Castro because he has ”the whole army as personal security” and “they could put up resistance in protecting their godfather.” Earlier in the month, he also said that while ”the whole world knows what happened with Nicolás Maduro,” Cuba “would be more complicated.” [Fox Deportes, Fox Noticias, 5/26/26, 5/4/26]
    • Cada Tarde guest Maria Werlau said a transition of power in Cuba “cannot be called a transition if a representative of the dictatorship runs it” and claimed that Cuba “has a much more established dictatorship, more serious, and totalitarian, which was not the case in Venezuela.” Host Carlos Acosta agreed, saying that “there are those who think” there should be a power transition in Cuba ”in the style of what is happening in Venezuela,” but “for many this is intolerable.” [Actualidad Radio, Cada Tarde, 3/25/26]
    • Also on Cada Tarde, guest César Reynel Aguilera said any military action in Cuba “would have to be much larger than Venezuela” and possibly target prisons holding political prisoners, as he believed they would be in danger in the case of U.S. invasion. [Actualidad Radio, Cada Tarde, 5/21/26]
    • Editor-in-chief of elTOQUE José Jasán questioned if “Raúl Castro survives an extraction” similar to Maduro’s, “how that sets the machinery of the regime in motion” and produces “a Delcy Rodríguez who appears and says, OK, I am ready to carry out the policies the U.S. says to do in a process that will eventually lead to a transition in Cuba.” He added, “The president does not have a Delcy Rodríguez in Cuba.” [Actualidad Radio, Cada Tarde, 6/9/26]

  • Despite their trepidations, Spanish-language right-wing media hosts continue to call for escalation in Cuba

    • Agustín Acosta: “I believe the political process will need to be under the threat of a gun to the head” of the Cuban government in order for acceptable reforms to be made. He also said the U.S. could tell Cuba, “We have two ways of doing this, by force or peacefully. If we do it by force we will enter and people will die. … We will kill soldiers, oppressors, a ton of political police and generals, many will die. If you want that, we will do that. If not, we will have a transition where you will have, I don’t know, 3 months, 5 months to nominate a non-military person not contaminated by repression … and that person will run the country, and we will be guiding them and watching them, and we will dismantle the army.” [Actualidad Radio, Cada Tarde, 5/27/26]
    • César Reynel Aguilera said on Cada Tarde, “an American military intervention that is humanitarian and fast” would be “so important” to prevent a “bloodbath” in Cuba. He claimed that “a violent social situation” would “spread throughout the country,” and “many more troops” from the U.S. would be needed to contain such an event. [Actualidad Radio, Cada Tarde, 5/21/26]
    • On Cada Tarde, security and intelligence specialist Luis Quiñones said, “The idea, like I said before, is a mini-Marshall Plan where a military governor is implemented” in Cuba. He added “the idea now” in Cuba is to “take absolute control and not leave a puppet government like what happened in Venezuela, which is defying us and making life difficult.” He compared the situation to Germany and Japan after World War II, when “a military government” was appointed before holding elections. [Actualidad Radio, Cada Tarde, 6/1/26]
    • Influencer Alejandro Gonzalez said, “I see no way of achieving that freedom [for Cuba] without an intervention from the United States.” [Fox Deportes, Fox Noticias, 6/2/26]