by Richard M. Balzano
The Trump regime is itching to invade Cuba. Rambling to the press, Trump claimed it would be an “honor” to “take Cuba,” adding, “Whether I free it, take it, I think I could do anything I want with it.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called to topple Cuba throughout his career, and recently Texas Senator Ted Cruz called this “the most promising time in our lifetime to see the communist regime fall,” suggesting that intervention and foreign investment will transform it into an “island paradise.”
With no sense of irony, these would-be liberators’ recent oil embargo has manufactured a humanitarian crisis. Prior to this escalation, Cuban society was managing comparatively well despite the 64-year U.S. economic war—which begs the question: how do you “liberate” a nation from a government that meets its citizens’ needs better than the alleged liberators?
In December 1956, 80–90 revolutionaries landed in Cuba aboard the barely seaworthy Granma. Two years later, the U.S.-backed Batista regime was gone. Fidel Castro’s government nationalized foreign holdings from giants like United Fruit, Standard Oil, and Goodyear. Contrary to popular myth, compensation was offered—at the rates those companies had previously undervalued for tax purposes. American capital declined the offer, and Washington launched the embargo that still strangles the island today.
That embargo outlived the Cold War. Despite brief thawing under Obama, it remains entrenched—propped up by Florida electoral politics and Cuban-American hostility. Since 1992, the UN General Assembly has voted annually to condemn it (save the COVID-interrupted 2020 session). The consistent defenders? The U.S. and Israel, with occasional backup from right-wing populists and aid-dependent allies.
Worth noting is that the Rubio and Cruz families did not flee the Castro government—they fled the Batista regime that preceded the Revolution.
Trump claims Cuban-Americans can return after he “takes” the island. In reality, Cuba has allowed expats to return since the 1980s. Americans, meanwhile, were largely barred by their own government from visiting for decades under threat of fines and prosecution. Trump reinstated travel restrictions that had been relaxed under Obama.
The Revolution endures—not as a moment, but a process. If Rubio and Cruz want to “liberate” Cuba, it’s fair to compare Cubans’ alleged suffering with the state of affairs in their home states.
Start with healthcare. Cuba’s universal system has improved outcomes despite the embargo. Life expectancy rose from 62 in 1959 to 79.5 in 2025. By comparison: Texas 76.5 (2020), Florida 77.5 (2022), U.S. 79 (2024). Infant mortality fell from 60–70 per 1,000 in 1959 to 4.2 in 2024; Texas sits at 5.83, Florida 6.10, U.S. 5.61. Cuba has 9.5 doctors per 1,000 people; Texas has 2.3, Florida 2.7. Medical debt burdens 10.7 percent of Texans and 8.7 percent of Floridians. In Cuba, healthcare is a human right. In the U.S., it’s a business opportunity—and the leading cause of bankruptcy.
Cuban society is safer. In 2021, its homicide rate was 4.8 per 100,000; Florida hit 5.0 and Texas 6.7. Homelessness? Florida has over 31,000 (134 per 100,000), Texas over 50,000 (166 per 100,000). Cuba, by contrast, has near-zero homelessness, the eighth-highest homeownership rate worldwide, and treats housing as a human right. Neither Texas nor Florida faces foreign economic siege, yet 16.6 percent of Florida’s children and 18.4 percent of Texas’s live in poverty—roughly 1 in 5.
Education tells a similar story. Cuban literacy rose from ~76 percent in 1959 to 99.8 percent at present. In the U.S., 21 percent of adults (about 43 million) are functionally illiterate, and 54 percent read at or below a sixth-grade level. Florida ranks 48th in literacy at 80.3 percent, Texas 47th at 81 percent.
“But Americans have democracy?” So do Cubans—it just looks different. Cubans cannot “vote away” the Communist Party any more than Americans can vote away two-party hyper-capitalism. Cuban candidates undergo state vetting; American candidates require approval from billionaire donors and AIPAC. Systemic change isn’t on the ballot in either system, though many Americans still fall for the illusion (delusion?) of choice. The difference is that one system prioritizes social welfare, while the other installs anti-homeless spikes on public benches. Americans might consider that our corrupted system is hardly the benchmark with which to measure, legitimize or delegitimize others.
Globally, the contrast sharpens. U.S. sanctions have contributed to about 38 million deaths since 1970, and physical interventions are responsible for 10-15 million more. Despite the embargo, Cuba aided anti-colonial struggles and helped defeat U.S.-backed apartheid South African forces in Angola—a contribution Nelson Mandela never forgot. Symbolically, Mandela remained on a U.S. terror watch list until 2008.
Where Washington sends bombs, Cuba sends doctors. It has deployed 600,000+ healthcare workers to 160+ countries, and currently fields 20,000+ in 50+ nations. Rubio has pressured countries like Honduras, Jamaica, and Guatemala to expel these missions—cutting off care for millions.
Cuba is criticized for political repression and limits on expression, but American critics throw stones from glass houses. American police killed over 1,250 citizens last year, 98 percent of whom were unarmed. The U.S. leads the world in incarceration—both aggregate and per capita. Texas boasts the largest for-profit prison system, and Florida’s is rapidly expanding with nearly 14 percent of inmates in private facilities. These systems operate with quotas that law enforcement obliges. Cuba’s incarceration rate is lower than both states, and its prisons emphasize rehabilitation. From 1976–2024, Florida executed 105 prisoners; Texas, 591—including a man with an IQ of 61. Cuba hasn’t executed anyone since 2003 and maintains a moratorium. Protest repression remains routine practice in the U.S., and nonviolent protesters in Texas were recently convicted on charges of “terrorism.” The worst human rights abuses on Cuban soil take place at Guantanamo Bay.
American liberals often cite Cuba’s past repression of LGBT people. Fair—but Texas and Florida criminalized sodomy until 2003. Today, Cuba has recognized same-sex marriage since 2022 with full rights, including adoption. In Texas and Florida, private adoption agencies can still refuse gay couples, and anti-discrimination protections remain patchy. It should be noted that while sodomy was illegal in Texas, beastiality was not—Texan men were free to fornicate with farm animals, but not each other. That’s an interesting take on freedom.
By most metrics, Cubans enjoy better public services, and social and economic rights than their northern neighbors. What Texas and Florida do have is extreme inequality. No Cuban is rich enough to buy an election—or to profit from the suffering of others. Perhaps that’s the “freedom” Washington has in mind.
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Richard M. Balzano is an historian and political analyst peddling truths at several institutions of higher learning, quietly devoted to the art of sedition and comfortably resigned to the peripheral left.