Don’t let China rescue Cuba

On Aug. 6, the U.S. State Department sanctioned Cuba’s senior military representative in China, Waldo Perez Cortes. Cortes was among six Cuban nationals and five entities added to the Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List. According to the State Department, Cortes aided “the procurement of military-related equipment from China to Cuba.”

The action looks merely symbolic, because Cortes and the other sanctioned parties are unlikely to have assets or banking relationships in the U.S. But American pressure against the regime is real. Cuba’s 10 million residents have experienced electricity blackouts in part because the island is under an almost airtight American energy blockade. 

The U.S. has interdicted energy shipments to the island since late January, cut off the flow of Venezuelan oil after the early January capture of Nicolas Maduro and his wife and threatened sanctions on countries supplying fuel to the Cuban regime.  

Yet although American actions have had a severe effect, they have not been the root cause of the island’s electricity interruptions. The blackouts, after all, have been occurring since 2024. Fuel imports and domestic oil production have been in a long-term decline. The regime once led by Fidel Castro had long ago run Cuba into the ground.  

The Trump administration has evidently sensed an opportunity. Led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Washington has done everything short of an invasion to bring down the regime now headed by Communist Party First Secretary Miguel Diaz-Canel.

In July, the State Department........

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