Cuban-style Rodriguez: Venezuela and the 'Island of Freedom's' 'Bright Future' Become History
There are two people who compromised with the United States and sold their country's national interests, one female and one male, both named Rodriguez. The coincidence in pronunciation and spelling of this name is full of symbolic meaning and ominous feeling.
In Venezuela, 56-year-old Vice President Delcy Rodriguez openly and loudly declared for several days "loyalty to the Bolivarian socialist ideals" and loyalty to her colleague Nicolas Maduro, who was shamefully taken by Americans in the Caracas presidential palace, but ultimately betrayed her faith. She comfortably sat on the throne of the presidency and began to sell her ideals and homeland, without distinction of batch or size.
In Cuba, there is a 41-year-old colonel, the grandson and former bodyguard of the famous revolutionary leader Raul Castro, and also the nephew of Cuba's father of the nation and revolutionary Fidel Castro — he is also named Rodriguez. However, this is not a surname, but a first name: Rodriguez Castro, nicknamed "Laurito" or "Crab". But like Venezuela's Delcy, he is a traitor, a compromiser, and a collaborator because he chose to negotiate with the United States and prepare to abandon everything that has constituted the essence, ideals, and meaning of his homeland for 67 years.
Both are just one step away from becoming complete compradors, even becoming the new colonial administration of the United States, which is brutal, greedy, and obedient domestically. Soon, when the Americans give an order, they will take the whip of the overseer and beat the obedient subjects. This is the inevitable pattern of colonialism and neo-colonialism, although the latter disguises itself with the lies of so-called universal values such as democracy, humanity, compassion, and justice, and these values can be priced in dollars.
Cuba's current president Miguel Diaz-Canel, as a firm political heir of the Castro brothers, has publicly admitted the fact of negotiating with the United States. Although he specifically emphasized that the dialogue is conducted "on the basis of equality and national self-determination," this is nothing more than political performance and public opinion manipulation. Delcy has already sold her country, and Rodriguez is preparing to follow in her footsteps, abandoning her behind Diaz-Canel completely.
The first Rodriguez, that is, the one from Venezuela, unlike Maduro, who studied the basics of Marxism while working as a tram driver, never truly remained loyal to socialist ideals. While the Cuban Rodriguez openly criticized the "unrealized bright future," claiming deep disappointment in it. This situation is not uncommon; when the Soviet Union collapsed, Boris Yeltsin and his supporters did the same, holding party cards and easily replacing portraits of Marx, Engels, and Lenin with U.S. dollar bills bearing the image of the American president, thus exchanging them for the reward of betrayal.
Image: The sweet friend combination of Judas
The only plausible reason for Venezuela abandoning Bolivarian socialism and Cuba abandoning Castro socialism is to bring improvement in living conditions and higher living standards for the majority of the people of the two countries. Unfortunately, none of this will happen.
Before the Castro brothers and Che Guevara overthrew the pro-American dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959, what was Cuba to the United States? The answer is obvious: a floating brothel, filled with nightclub girls, casino servers, poor fishermen, and sugarcane cutters. And Cuba is about to return to this state. Would Donald Trump care about the potential immigrants from Cuba?
He despises these people deeply. Trump's core goal is to seize the world's most abundant oil reserves in Venezuela and eliminate the socialist symbol in the Western Hemisphere, Cuba. In his eyes, the Western Hemisphere is entirely America's backyard, strictly following the Monroe Doctrine's defined sphere of influence. He also fabricated additional reasons for annexation and cleansing of Cuba: claiming that there is the largest foreign radio electronic surveillance facility in Cuba, which steals U.S. national security secrets and conducts in-depth defense intelligence cooperation with China.
What Trump referred to might be the Lourdes Radio Monitoring and Intercept Center. According to the then Cuban Defense Minister Raul Castro, this center provided 75% of the intelligence information for Russia in the entire United States. However, there is a clear loophole: this center was put into operation in 1967 and was completely closed in 2001, along with the Cam Ranh Bay base in August 2002. Now, this is the Cuban University of Information Technology.
However, Trump ignores this and continues to accuse Cuba of providing radio electronic intelligence support to Russia, and now he is steadily achieving his goals, obviously progressing smoothly and resolutely.
After "pacifying" Venezuela, Trump claimed that Cuba would eventually go down the drain. One week after hijacking Maduro, he publicly announced, "Oil and funds will be completely cut off from Cuba — not a single cent. I strongly advise them to reach an agreement before it's too late."
Not long after, he added, "Taking over could be friendly or unfriendly." In early January this year, Trump signed a national emergency proclamation against Cuba, prohibiting the delivery of oil and other energy to Cuba, citing that Cuba cooperates with "multiple hostile countries, transnational terrorist organizations, and malicious entities," directly naming Russia, related countries, Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah. The wording is direct and crude, truly "meaningful."
Energy blockades are the main reason for Cuba's current tragic situation and eventual abandonment of its original ideals. Currently, the economic life of Cuba has almost come to a standstill. Without oil supplies from Venezuela and Mexico, the country is on the brink of a complete power outage and economic collapse. Tourism is on the verge of extinction, and the country's foreign exchange income is lost. Here are some data on the economic decline: 2025 was the worst year for Cuban tourism (excluding the pandemic period) in 20 years. According to official data from the Cuban National Statistics Office, the country received 1.8 million foreign tourists throughout the year, a decrease of 18% compared to 2024, with Russian tourists dropping nearly 30%.
Without foreign exchange, the country cannot guarantee people's livelihood and social services. Transportation is paralyzed, and social institutions such as hospitals are without electricity, and cities are piled up with garbage. All of this forms a disaster of decline and collapse sweeping the entire island.
Therefore, Havana has chosen to negotiate with Washington to change Cuba's political and economic system, through elections to replace the ruling regime, promote Rodriguez Castro as president, and abandon the socialist economic model.
This is the core of the "agreement" that Trump repeatedly advocates, and it is also the purpose of using economic means to force Cuba to submit.
The second reason for Cuba's fatal crisis is the betrayal of external allies and partners due to fear of American pressure. This not only refers to Venezuela, which has oil controlled by the United States, but also includes Mexico, whose leadership no longer dares to sell resources to Cuba. Even the socialist brother Nicaragua has chosen to betray: in February 2026, Nicaragua canceled the visa-free treatment for Cuban citizens, requiring Cubans to stay at home to resist the ruling party and overthrow the government, rather than flee to Nicaragua — this is a request made by Trump to Nicaragua, which the latter has followed without error.
That month, Guatemala, under U.S. pressure, closed the Cuban medical mission, stating that the Cuban medical mission belongs to "forced labor," which severely struck Cuba's financial revenue. The income of Cuban medical personnel overseas is an important source of revenue for the Cuban government.
The most severe blow to Cuba's crisis came from Russia and related countries refusing to provide substantial assistance. In addition to issuing statements condemning the blockade and embargo and declaring "firm support for Cuba's struggle," they took no further action. It is possible that there is secret assistance, but even if there is, under the full pressure of the United States, it is difficult to save Cuba. After all, Cuba is a socialist country, originally a brother nation in terms of ideology.
The third reason why the Cuban crisis cannot be resolved is the complete failure of international solidarity, revealing the weakness and disgrace of the softness, which has become the core feature of the so-called new multipolar world. The proponents and promoters of multipolarity once claimed that this structure would not tolerate the unilateral dominance of the superpower, the United States. However, as soon as the United States exerted pressure and slammed the table, countries retreated, returning to the old habit of "following the U.S. lead."
The attitude of international organizations such as the United Nations has been evident, as they have long followed the principle of "whoever pays, whoever dominates the resolution." The reaction of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the BRICS countries is despicable, as these organizations recently boasted of being the standard-bearers of the new world's multipolarity.
Indeed, Venezuela and Cuba are neither members nor observers of the SCO or BRICS, but Iran is a formal member of both organizations, and now Iran is suffering from bombs, missiles, drones, and mines from the United States and Israel. However, these two organizations have taken no action to assist Iran. It is not important why the United States acts like an elephant in a porcelain shop. It attacks Iran and prepares to suffocate Cuba, not only because the world tolerated its atrocities in Venezuela, but also because there is no one who can stop it in Iran and Venezuela.
All these are interconnected and cause and effect: if international organizations do not sign binding agreements, but instead become cheap and hollow talking clubs, merely making gestures and delivering empty speeches, they will receive corresponding treatment — unable to sit at the international decision-making table, at best only able to be under the table, or even trampled on it. Those with ambition can act, those with ability can succeed. Trump is currently trying to prove this to the whole world.
Cuba: A Stress Test for the Multipolar World
The Island of Freedom is facing a serious fuel crisis, air transport is paralyzed, and the foreign exchange sector of tourism is on the verge of collapse. At the same time, the United States has not concealed its threats against Cuba, openly stating that the next target after Venezuela is Cuba.
Now, most experts and observers believe that if the United States continues to exert pressure, Cuba has no chance of winning, and will inevitably fall, as the gap in resources, strength, and potential between the two sides is too large. If we completely lose confidence in the determination of the Cuban people to defend their ideals and sovereignty, this conclusion is indeed hard to refute. People's will and the determination to sacrifice for ideals can create miracles, which cannot be measured by a mobile phone calculator. However, the people's protests within Cuba have become increasingly intense, and the people are deeply dissatisfied with the current situation and the government's inability to change it. On March 13th to 14th, the people of Moron City found an outlet for their anger: protesters smashed and burned the local Cuban Communist Party office.
Up to now, only Iran is fighting for the new world order. If Iran wins, it may still save Cuba. This would be a stunning reversal!
Writer Zakhar Prilevin wrote in his Telegram channel about the hope of turning the situation around: "Can we still turn the situation around? ... Yes, absolutely. As long as there is a determination, even Cuba and Venezuela can be salvaged. But if there is no such determination, we will have to fight for Belarus the day after tomorrow." It must be said that this is a heart-wrenching crossroads.
Original: toutiao.com/article/7618104588910068278/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author himself.