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The Conversation
The Conversation
Michael J. Bustamante, Associate Professor of History, University of Miami

AI-generated fantasies of US intervention reveal how desperation has narrowed Cuba’s political horizons

Cuba's American liberators, depicted on the left in a political cartoon from 1898 and on the right in an AI image. Cartoon: Blanche S. Crawford, Cartoon History of the Spanish American War (Scrapbook, 1898), 48. AI image: screenshot from Instagram. Images for this article sourced by Jorge Damian de la Paz.

Ever since U.S. commandos successfully removed Nicolás Maduro from power in Venezuela on Jan. 3, 2026, speculation has been growing that “Cuba could be next” on the list of the Trump administration’s targets.

“We’ll take over Cuba almost immediately,” President Donald Trump mused during a speech in Florida on May 1. “On the way back from Iran, we’ll have … the USS Abraham Lincoln come right by Cuba, stop about 100 yards offshore, and they’ll say, ‘Thank you very much, we give up.’”

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