WSJ What’s News Is Cuba Next? Inside Washington’s Push for Regime Change
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Feb 1, 2026 
José de Córdoba, Mexico City reporter with on-the-ground coverage of Latin America, and Vera Bergengruen, Washington-based foreign-policy journalist, discuss Cuba’s severe fuel and medicine shortages. They cover U.S. strategies to pressure the Cuban government, comparisons to Venezuela, limits of squeezing hard-currency sources, and the risks of political upheaval and humanitarian fallout.
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Cuba's Immediate Energy And Humanitarian Crisis
- Cuba faces its worst economic crisis since 1902 with long blackouts, medicine shortages, and reliance on dollar remittances.
- Loss of roughly half its imported oil after Venezuela's cutoff could bring Cuba to a fuel and power wall within 4–8 weeks.
Washington Sees A Narrow Window For Pressure
- U.S. intelligence views Cuba's government as unusually fragile because of deepening economic collapse and shrinking hard-currency streams.
- The administration is exploring squeezing revenue sources like overseas medical missions to force political change by year's end.
Modeling A Venezuela-Style Outcome
- Trump officials view the Venezuela operation as a model: limited force, work with regime remnants, secure strategic assets.
- They hope to find insiders in Cuba willing to negotiate a transition, though concrete offers remain unclear.