‘We must do everything in our power to continue weakening the Cuban regime’: The America First Policy Institute warns about the threat Cuba poses to the US on Voz News

Melissa Ford Maldonado, director of the Western Hemisphere Initiative at the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), explained on Wednesday on Voz News the institute’s recent report, which detailed why the Cuban regime poses a serious threat to the United States. During the interview with host and executive director Karina Yapor, Maldonado explained that Washington must use all available tools to weaken the communist dictatorship and that, while several administrations have not treated the regime in Havana as a threat, President Donald Trump‘s administration has indeed recognized the danger it poses.

“The report contains a very simple and specific detail and conclusion: that the Cuban regime is an incredible and serious threat to the United States. Despite this, different administrations and different presidents have treated the Cuba issue as various different things—as a humanitarian problem, as an issue related to illegal immigration, as a poor and communist country, and so on. But this administration is treating it for what it is: a serious threat for many reasons. Because they are collaborating with geopolitical enemies and because they use every opportunity they have to harm the United States,” Maldonado said.

Since the start of Trump’s second term, his administration has been willing to exert pressure on the Castro dictatorship unlike anything seen this century, to the point where the president himself has suggested that Miguel Díaz-Canel’s regime could be coming to an end, just as happened earlier this year with the tyrant Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela.

When asked what her recommendations would be for transforming Washington’s strategy toward the Western Hemisphere and Cuba, Maldonado explained that the key lies in preventing the Caribbean island from continuing to serve as a territory that the United States’ geopolitical enemies can use: “We must deny China, Russia, or Iran a strategic foothold. We must deny them the territory of Cuba so they cannot use it against us. We must use everything at our disposal to continue weakening the Cuban regime, and that must include military intervention—so be it,” Maldonado said.

You can watch the full interview by clicking on the video below.