"I believe I will have the honour of taking Cuba, he mused to reporters. I mean, whether I free it, take it I think I could do anything I want. The high-handed tone of the remarks shocked Cubans on the island and abroad."
"Over the early decades of the 1900s, US ambassadors believed the US had the right to steer Cuban political life, said Ada Ferrer, a historian whose Cuban memoir Keeper of My Kin is soon to be published. Such involvement was once known as coercive influence, Ferrer added. But no politician has spoken as crudely about it as Trump just did; and no one has used that kind of explicit language in almost a century, she said."
"It's the same tone as he is using with Iran, with Venezuela. It's surprising Americans don't see what it is. It's like that scene in the Great Dictator where Charlie Chaplin's dancing around saying I can do"
Cuba experienced a complete nationwide electricity blackout affecting approximately 10 million people. Shortly after, Donald Trump suggested he could take or free Cuba, stating he could do anything he wanted. Historians note this represents an unusually crude and explicit articulation of coercive influence, a concept US ambassadors historically employed but never expressed so directly. Cubans faced immediate hardships including spoiled food, heat, and mosquito-borne illness risks. The remarks shocked both islanders and diaspora communities, with some comparing Trump's tone to authoritarian rhetoric used toward other nations like Iran and Venezuela.
#us-cuba-relations #political-intervention #trump-rhetoric #national-blackout #authoritarian-language
Read at www.theguardian.com
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