Posted August 07, 2026
Shortly after US forces removed former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power, many began looking closer to Cuba as the Trump administration’s next target for a change in leadership. President Trump even said as much back in March. And while the war with Iran has delayed such a move, recent reports indicate that Cuba’s time may be coming soon.
Earlier this week, news broke that the CIA has established a task force in Cuba in an attempt to pressure the government into accepting a number of political, economic, and social reforms. Should Raúl Castro and others decline, their secondary purpose is to lay the groundwork for a more forceful change in leadership. Coupled with the Justice Department bringing formal charges against Castro back in May, it’s an eerily similar playbook to the one used in the buildup to January’s assault in Venezuela.
A timeline for any such move remains unclear, with conflicting reports on whether the war in Iran would need to be wrapped up first. While fighting on two fronts would be far from ideal, President Trump is said to be “running out of patience with Cuba’s regime,” while the island remains a “huge priority” for Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose family came from Cuba.
There are also those close to the president who believe November’s midterms could provide something of a deadline for any move in the hope that a Maduro-sized win would weigh more heavily in the minds of voters than the drawn-out war in the Middle East.
For now, though, the task force is said to be recruiting local operatives, gathering intelligence, and setting up cyberoperations. Reliable reports have proven difficult to come by since the oil embargo has crippled much of Cuban society. And the ongoing impact of that embargo remains the administration’s best chance of seeing real changes on the island without sending in the military.
It’s been over four months since Cuba last received a shipment of oil. Prior to January, the island nation received a third of its oil from Venezuela. Losing that supply would hurt under any circumstances, but chances are the government could have gotten by if its other sources were still available.
However, the Trump administration has also sanctioned Cuba’s national oil company and threatened any country that tries to sell them oil with tariffs. To this point, it doesn’t appear any of Cuba’s allies have been willing to take that chance.
Despite some attempts at reform, such as loosening various agricultural and economic restrictions to allow for a more open market, they’ve yet to agree to the kinds of sweeping changes that the US is waiting to see. And many of the changes they have made seem designed to fail, such as removing price caps without additional options for greater economic opportunity.
As a result, the government’s supposed attempt at a more open economy has simply led to massive inflation that could leave people dubious about the free market once their increasingly dire circumstances eventually normalize.
To be fair, though, the Cuban government’s options are limited. And that too is by design, though not of their own.
As Michael Bustamante, the chair of Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami, described, “One of the things about the administration’s strategy is making Cuba feel like their only way out is through Washington.” To that end, the US recently sent $100 million in aid to the island and has allowed limited fuel exports to private businesses, but the goal seems to be making sure the Cuban people can survive long enough for the government to change rather than actually easing conditions on the island.
And, to their credit, the Cuban people have adapted remarkably well.
For a recent article in the New York Times, Jack Nicas and Alex Pena spent a week in Cuba to see for themselves what life looks like for the people who call the island home. What they found is equal parts depressing and inspiring.
As Humberto Palmero, a 55-year-old farmer who’s spent most of his life along the coast of Cuba, described, “Cubans thrive amid crisis . . . We look for solutions. The economic restrictions are slowly killing us, but we’re pulling through with all our might, managing to get by until we see what happens next.”
For Palmero, that looks like YouTube videos that taught him to turn plastic scraps into homemade gasoline and diesel. His backyard refinery provides him with enough gas to run his motorcycle and stove.
For others, it looks like roofs full of imported solar panels and jury-rigged generators that take advantage of the natural gas that remains readily available in many parts of the country. And for those who can’t afford such resources—which is most Cubans who don’t have family outside the country to help—neighbors, friends, and their local churches are their primary means of survival.
At the end of the day, the Cuban people know they can’t depend on the government, so they’ve learned to depend on themselves and on one another instead. And, to a degree, there’s a lesson in that approach that each of us would do well to consider today.
Dr. Jim Denison frequently states that self-sufficiency is spiritual suicide. And he’s right. Relying on ourselves and on our own capacities to the point that we forgo the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives is a foolish and unbiblical way to approach life.
That said, depending on the government or even on other people to the point that we become passive participants in our own lives is equally incompatible with God’s will (2 Thessalonians 3:10). Unfortunately, as Dr. Denison described earlier this week, there is a growing trend in parts of our culture to embrace that approach.
The path prescribed for us in Scripture is somewhere between those two ends, though exactly where God would have us reside along that spectrum may look different for every person and every day.
In Acts 2, Luke describes how meeting the needs of those in the early church—and note that he specifies needs rather than wants—meant that some gave more than others (Acts 2:42–47). And they were fine with that because the Holy Spirit was the one guiding their generosity. But you never get the sense from reading Acts that there was room for people to not work hard or simply coast.
As Christians, when God calls us to be an answer to someone else’s prayer, we need to be ready and willing to help. And when he calls us to be part of the answer to our own prayers, we need to be just as ready and willing to do our part.
So, is there some area of your life where you’re waiting for someone else to meet a need that the Lord has called you to address yourself? Is there someone he wants to use you to bless, or another’s prayer for which you are his answer?
Take some time right now to ask the Holy Spirit to help you discern his answer to both questions, then act on what he shows you. Chances are good that each of us will spend time in both camps at one time or another, and being willing to put in the work to help yourself or humbly accept the help of others will be a key part of the Lord’s answer in those moments.
Where do you need that answer today?
“It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular, it is why he does it. The motive is everything. Let a man sanctify the Lord God in his heart and he can thereafter do no common act.” —A. W. Tozer
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