The Imperial Crosshairs Move to Cuba

LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN, 12 Jan 2026

Caitlin Johnstone - TRANSCEND Media Service

It’s incredible how rapidly the empire has been shoving through longstanding regional domination agendas in the Middle East and Latin America since late 2023.

12 Jan 2026 – Trump is posting threats to Cuba on his social media platforms, saying that Havana had better start negotiating with Washington now that the US is in control of Venezuela, because their oil supply is going to be cut off.

The president said on Truth Social that “Venezuela now has the United States of America, the most powerful military in the World (by far!), to protect them, and protect them we will. THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA — ZERO! I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”

It’s incredible how rapidly the empire has been shoving through longstanding regional domination agendas in the middle east and Latin America since late 2023. Incinerating Gaza. Decapitating Hezbollah. Regime change in Syria. Bombings and regime change ops in Iran. Kidnapping Maduro. Now moving on Cuba. It’s just been grab, grab, grab for the last two plus years.

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Trumpers were sold the story that their guy would fight the deep state globalists to benefit ordinary Americans. Now he’s advancing every CIA/neocon agenda known to man in the middle east and Latin America with the goal of global domination as life in the US gets worse and worse.

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Don’t worry Americans, in 2028 you can elect a Democrat who will spend their entire administration creating the desperate conditions and strife which cause people to vote for tyrannical Republicans.

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Antiwar has an article out titled “Israeli Forces Kill 15 Palestinians, Including Five Children, in Attacks Across Gaza” about a spate of IDF attacks on Thursday. That death toll is noteworthy because that’s the same number of people who were killed in the Bondi Beach shooting last month, but, because they are Palestinian, you haven’t seen any news stories about it.

Fifteen people get killed in Sydney during a Hanukkah celebration and it monopolizes the news cycle for days. Fifteen people get killed in Gaza during a so-called “ceasefire” and it barely makes the news.

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Fuck Israel, free Palestine. Say it loud and say it often, because you won’t have the right to say it much longer.

The more aggressively the Zionists try to stomp out criticism of Israel the more necessary it is to aggressively criticize Israel. Now we’re not just opposing genocidal atrocities, we’re also opposing a direct assault on our own civil rights.

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I see some lefty types going “I oppose the US empire AND the Iranian regime!”

No, you support the US empire. If you desire the downfall of the Iranian government in today’s present geopolitical reality, then you desire the expansion of US imperial power. It doesn’t matter how much lip service you pay to opposing the US murder machine if in practice you are promoting the agendas of the worst warmongers in the DC swamp.

There is at this time no way Tehran can be toppled without the US-centralized empire inserting its rapey fingers into whatever power structure would emerge from the wreckage. When you overthrow a government you leave a power vacuum, and somebody’s going to step into it. There is no clear movement, faction, or successor in Iran that is strong enough to secure power against whichever group the empire throws its support behind, besides the government that presently exists. This means the US empire would necessarily have a very prominent seat at the table in whatever system of government might replace the current one.

If you are a western imperialist then this is no problem for you; if you believe the US and its allies should rule the world then there is no contradiction in your desiring regime change in Iran. If you identify as a leftist, an anarchist, or an anti-imperialist however, there is no way to reconcile your worldview with a desire to fulfill the wildest regime change fantasies of every sociopathic intelligence agency and warmongering think tank in the western world.

The only way for such a character to avoid the cognitive dissonance of these contradictions would be to pretend they live in an imaginary fantasy land where the Iranian government could be overthrown without benefitting the US empire. The Iranian people just oust their government all on their own, and then set up a free liberal democracy that is entirely sovereign and independent from any external power structure. That’s a fantasy. We do not live in that kind of world. We live in the world that actually exists.

It’s not okay to avoid addressing reality like that. You can’t just close your eyes and put your fingers in your ears and pretend the reality of our situation is different from what it actually is while helping to advance immensely consequential agendas driven by the most powerful people in the world. Being an authentic person means being real about reality and having a truth-based relationship with the world as it actually is.

I am not suggesting that Iranians do not have legitimate and organic grievances against their government, nor am I suggesting that they should not desire a different system of government for themselves, nor am I suggesting that they should refrain from doing whatever they think is best in their own country. What I am saying is that the westerners who are cheerleading for regime change in Iran are cheerleading for the advancement of the power structure under which they live, which also happens to be the most powerful empire that has ever existed, which also happens to be the most murderous and destructive power structure on earth.

Enough with the phony neutrality. As Desmond Tutu said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”

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Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, poet, and utopia prepper. Contact: admin@caitlinjohnstone.com

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