In a rambling Executive Order signed on 29 January, US President Trump has declared that: “The policies, practices, and actions of the Government of Cuba constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”

Not happy with that, he then adds that: “The Government of Cuba has taken extraordinary actions that harm and threaten the United States.”

This is the world turned upside down. US imperialism has threatened the Cuban revolution for over 60 years in an attempt to crush its sovereignty and destroy its revolution. We are talking about a small Caribbean island, starved of resources by a criminal imperialist blockade, with an extremely weakened economy. How can anyone say that Cuba has taken “actions that harm and threaten the US,” which is the world’s most powerful imperialist power with massive military assets deployed in the Caribbean?

Outrageous as this is, these are not just words.

The deranged man in the White House wants blood. Emboldened by his apparent quick and painless success (for the US) of his military aggression on Venezuela, and also looking for a show of strength after facing mass opposition in Minneapolis, he now wants to overthrow the Cuban revolution, to add another scalp to his trophy display.

Trump is threatening to impose tariffs on the imports to the US of any country which sells oil to Cuba. He has already forced Venezuela to stop the supply of oil to the island and in recent days he has threatened Mexico to do the same. The Executive Order is explicit: that should a country be found to be directly or indirectly providing Cuba with oil, Trump will be informed and he will take the final decision on whether or not to impose further tariffs.

The Mexican President Sheinbaum, faced with news in the bourgeois media that Mexico had cancelled a shipment of oil from its oil company PEMEX to Cuba, equivocated, vacillated and refused to give a straight answer. “This is a sovereign matter for Mexico and PEMEX,” she said, refusing to answer whether the shipment of 700,000 barrels (providing a 20,000-barrels-of-oil-a-day lifeline to Cuba) had actually been canceled or not.

In a further “clarification” the day after, Sheinbaum muddled the matter even more. “There are two ways in which Mexico sends oil to Cuba,” she explained. One is through a contract with PEMEX, in which it is up to the oil company to decide when and how much to send. Still no answer about whether the shipment had been canceled or not and when would the next one be sent (they are usually dispatched every month).

The second way in which Mexico sends oil to Cuba is as humanitarian aid, she said, adding “as other countries do send humanitarian aid to Cuba, including the US” (!!). And the sending of humanitarian aid to Cuba is a “sovereign decision,” she stressed. Again, no clear answer.

Sheinbaum is in a difficult position. The threats of the US carry a lot of weight in a country which sends 70% of its exports to its powerful northern neighbor. Her policy so far has been one of attempting to negotiate with the US by making concessions. Most notably, Mexico has imposed 50% tariffs on Chinese goods (and others) coming into Mexico.

Mexico, Canada and the US have a Free Trade Agreement—which means that anything produced in Mexico can enter the US tariff free—which will be up for renewal and renegotiation soon. Chinese companies have been relocating to Mexico as a way to enter the US market, bypassing tariffs. Now in effect Mexico is acting as a proxy of the US trade war with China.

Mexico’s sale of oil to Cuba is a long-standing policy of the Mexican government, which has never been modified by any government. Now the US is bullying Mexico to cut it off.

The aim is clear. It is written in Trump’s Executive Order that if “the Government of Cuba or another foreign country affected by this order take significant steps to address the national emergency declared in this order and align sufficiently with the United States on national security and foreign policy matters, I may modify this order.”

Why should a foreign country align with the US on US national security and foreign policy? Surely countries should have the right to have their own national security interests and foreign policy! Not in the world of imperialism, where might is right. The message is clear: “either you submit to Washington and its dictates . . . or else.”

Trump’s aim is to beat Mexico into submission and to destroy the Cuban revolution. US imperialism believes that it is now, after 60 years, in a position to do so.

The Cuban revolution is in a dire situation. During his first presidency Trump brutally strengthened the blockade and reversed all the measures of the Obama thaw. Biden left all of Trump’s 243 additional measures against Cuba intact. Cuba’s tourism took a serious hit during the COVID pandemic. Venezuela’s economic crisis had already restricted oil supply to Cuba. All of these factors combine with a botched monetary reform introduced in 2020.

We have said many times that the fate of the Cuban revolution will be decided ultimately in the arena of the world class struggle. This has now been starkly posed. Cuba is in serious and immediate danger. According to the Financial Times it has oil supply to last only another 15 or 20 days.

Only the broadest mass mobilization across the world, but particularly in Mexico and in the US, can save the Cuban revolution. The working masses in Mexico have the most serious responsibility, as Mexico is perhaps the point at which aid can be supplied in the quickest manner. But that means standing up to US imperialism and being prepared to take the consequences of that.

It means making an appeal to the workers and peasants across Latin America, starting with Colombia and Brazil, to put their own governments under such pressure that they will be forced to act. It means making an appeal to the workers in the US and particularly the Latino workers and communities to rise up against Trump’s imperialist foreign policy as well as his bosses’ policy at home.

A defeat for the Cuban revolution would be a defeat for the working class and the oppressed across the world. We cannot allow Cuba to stand alone. An urgent mass mobilization is required. There is no time to waste.

Hands off Cuba! Yankee go home! US imperialism: hands off Latin America!