From A to Z: A Countdown of hostility against Cuba
A brief dictionary of U.S. policy toward the largest of the Antilles
B
Blockade or Biden, who denied Cuba oxygen during the COVID-19 pandemic. Also Bush (for now, only the son), U.S. president between 2001 and 2009, whose "Cuba Plan" limited family visits to the island to one trip every three years and reduced the authorized per diem for such travel. He founded the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, to which he initially allocated up to $59 million over two years, with the express purpose of overthrowing the Cuban government.
C
Sugar mill, the means by which the US gradually took control of the Cuban economy, or crops damaged by bacteriological warfare. Clinton, president from 1993 to 2001, who approved the Helms-Burton Act. The "c" also stands for CIA.
D
The Monroe Doctrine was issued in 1823 to warn European powers and the nascent republics of the hemisphere of a succinct and central policy: America for the Americans. It also refers to Donald Trump, who 200 years later has forcefully revived that dogma. In his first administration, he dismantled the process of normalizing relations between Washington and Havana and applied 250 coercive measures to the island, intensifying the embargo. Since 2025, he has resumed his hostility where he left off and today maintains a total oil blockade and the threat of invasion against Cuba.
E
The Platt Amendment, an appendix to Cuba's first Constitution after its independence, guaranteed a republic legally and politically subordinate to the United States. Also, Eisenhower, the US president at the time of the revolutionary triumph of 1959, approved in March 1960 the "Covert Action Program against the Castro Regime," which included the creation of a Cuban exile organization operating in conjunction with the CIA, as well as a clandestine apparatus within Cuba.
F
The Ripe Fruit Policy was formulated in 1823 during the administration of James Monroe and stipulated that, for the time being, it was advantageous for the U.S. for Cuba to remain under Spanish control and that, when the historical moment arrived, the island would break away and fall, by the law of gravity, into the hands of "the Union."
G
The Bay of Pigs was invaded in 1961 by a military force trained and financed by the U.S. government. The action failed in less than 72 hours, although it cost the Cuban Revolution more than 150 lives.
H
The Helms-Burton Act of 1996 "allows" the U.S. to punish non-U.S. companies that trade with Cuba, mandates a series of subversive actions aimed at overthrowing the Revolution from within, and places coercive spotlights on activities related to former U.S. properties on the island.
I
Military Intervention as a Method and Interventionism as a Policy. In 1898, the U.S. intervened in the Necessary War, which would later become the Spanish-Cuban-American War. After Spain's defeat, the U.S. military occupied the island until 1902. Intervention occurred again in 1906, at the request of Tomás Estrada Palma. During the Massacre of the Black Independents, the U.S. threatened to intervene again and also considered the possibility during the War of the Chambelona. Between 1934 and 1935, the U.S. ambassador in Havana, Jefferson Caffery, effectively governed the country.
J
Jefferson (Thomas), U.S. president from 1801 to 1809, declared that the incorporation of Cuba into "our confederation is precisely what we need to advance our power as a nation to the point of its maximum interest." More than a century later, in his 1928 introduction to the book Our Colony of Cuba, historian Harry Elmer Barnes acknowledged that from the island, "we extended our economic penetration and political pressure into other parts of Central and South America, especially Mexico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Panama."
K
Kennedy formalized the blockade of Cuba in 1962. He also approved the Bay of Pigs invasion and was the leading U.S. figure during the Cuban Missile Crisis. For his part, Henry Kissinger, arguably the most famous diplomat in American history, nearly bombed the island in 1976 in retaliation for its participation in the defense of Angola against South African aggression.
L
Lester D. Mallory, Under Secretary of State. In a secret memorandum, he defined the philosophy of the economic, commercial, and financial blockade unilaterally imposed against Cuba: "The majority of Cubans support Castro… the only foreseeable way to reduce his internal support is through the disenchantment and dissatisfaction arising from economic hardship and material difficulties…"
M
Marco Rubio, the current Secretary of State of the neighboring country, has strong ties—and debts—to the Cuban-American mafia. He is the main promoter of the suffocation of the Cuban people, which has intensified at this time from the U.S.
N
Nixon (Richard) was one of the sponsors of the Bay of Pigs invasion and did everything he could to expedite it so that a supposed victory would pave the way for his presidency. When he finally took over the White House in the late 1960s, his policy toward the island was characterized by persecuting Cuban nickel trade operations, kidnapping fishermen at sea, and detaining ships flying the Cuban flag in international ports.
Ñ
The Ñico López refinery in Havana was nearly sabotaged with explosives in 1965. The plot was to be carried out by a CIA agent, Julio Marcelino Acosta Fuentes, Case 116-65. The plan was intercepted in time by Cuban authorities. Had it been successful, the blast wave would have killed thousands of people.
O
Executive Orders of January 29 and May 1, 2026, issued by President Donald Trump, which expanded unilateral coercive measures against the Cuban economy and maximized the extraterritorial nature of the so-called "secondary sanctions." Operation Mongoose, according to the Office of the Historian at the State Department, "was designed to accomplish what the Bay of Pigs invasion failed to achieve." According to this official U.S. website, the program included political, psychological, military, sabotage, and intelligence operations, as well as assassination attempts against political leaders. He fostered and financed insurgent groups throughout most of the country as a prelude to a new invasion. The bulk of his actions took place in 1962.
P
Peter Pan. The operation convinced thousands of families inside Cuba that the Revolution would strip them of their parental rights. Through his network, more than 14,000 children arrived in the U.S. without their parents between 1960 and 1962. Many were never reunited.
Q
Quincy Adams (John) was the main proponent of the Ripe Fruit policy. He would become President of the United States shortly afterward, from 1825 to 1829. In 1823, he wrote to the U.S. ambassador in Spain about the annexation of Cuba as "indispensable for the continuity and integrity of the Union itself."
R
Reagan (Ronald) was in the White House from 1981 to 1989, and during his administration, diseases such as dengue hemorrhagic fever were introduced to Cuba, which claimed the lives of 101 children during those years.
S
Sabotage and terrorist acts in general have been a constant in U.S. policy toward the Cuban Revolution. At least 3,478 Cuban nationals have been killed. One of the most significant incidents was the bombing of the Barbados airliner in 1976.
T
The Torricelli Act was passed in 1992 under the administration of George Bush (Sr.) and prohibited subsidiaries of U.S. companies from trading with Cuba, even if they were located in third countries. Furthermore, ships that docked in Cuban ports were barred from entering the U.S. for the following 180 days.
U
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was created in 1961 by Kennedy. It has fostered relationships of blackmail and dependency through its "aid," primarily in countries of the Global South, and has promoted regime change policies against alternative processes to U.S. hegemony, such as those in Cuba and Venezuela.
V
The steamship La Coubre exploded in Havana harbor in 1960, killing approximately one hundred people. From the pain and outrage of that day, the slogan "Homeland or Death!" was born.
W
Wood (Leonard) was one of the military leaders of the U.S. intervention in the Spanish-American War in Cuba, and in 1899, during the occupation, he was appointed Military Governor of the island. It is said that he took with him as a souvenir the first Cuban flag raised after the American flag was lowered in 1902.
X
Xenophobia. Our people are subjected to a series of forms of discrimination outside the national territory, including obstacles to accessing banking services, visas, academic literature, and courses. Furthermore, phenomena such as the lack of recognition of our educational institutions occur.
Y
Yankee. For the national liberation movements of the entire second half of the 20th century, including the Cuban Revolution, it has been synonymous with imperialist siege.
Z
Zunzuneo was an intelligence operation funded by USAID to create a kind of "Cuban Twitter" between 2009 and 2012. Starting with trivial matters, it sought to reach a large audience within Cuba in order to then send large-scale political messages that would catalyze a parallel to the Arab Spring on the island.
