Deal or ordeal: Trump’s bad options in Cuba
The Intelligence from The Economist
The Economist
4.5 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 28 May 2026
⏱️ 23 minutes
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Summary
The American administration’s next round of sabre-rattling has been directed at Cuba. But more military adventures there would probably prove disastrous. We profile the three starkly different contenders in Colombia’s hyper-polarised presidential election. And our series looking at World Cup squads goes to Mexico.
Guests and host:
- Sarah Birke, bureau chief for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean
- Kinley Salmon, Latin America correspondent
- Jon Fasman, senior culture correspondent
- Jason Palmer, co-host of “The Intelligence”
Topics covered:
- Cuba, American foreign policy
- Colombia’s elections
- World Cup, Mexico
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Economist. |
| 0:09.6 | Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist. |
| 0:12.8 | I'm Jason Palmer. |
| 0:18.9 | Today on the show, meeting the contenders in Colombia's highly polarized election, |
| 0:23.7 | and our World Cup team profiles continue with Mexico. |
| 0:31.7 | First up, though, If you supported or voted for Donald Trump because of his promise not to get America involved in new foreign entanglements, boy are you disappointed. |
| 0:53.0 | In January, American Special Forces snatched President Nicolas Maduro from his hideout in Venezuela. |
| 0:59.5 | That brought Cuba's biggest oil supplier under American control. |
| 1:04.2 | Mr. Trump thought that would, at last, bring Cuba to heal. |
| 1:08.0 | Looks like it's going down. |
| 1:09.6 | It's going down for the count. |
| 1:10.7 | You ever watch the fight? I am It's going down for the count. You ever watch the fight? |
| 1:12.6 | They go down for the count. |
| 1:14.6 | And Cuba looks like it's going down. |
| 1:16.6 | Months later, the only thing that's changed is the increased misery for everyday Cubans. |
| 1:21.6 | No capitulation of the regime, no popular uprising, no deal to end that misery. So now come the threats of military action. |
| 1:31.9 | On Tuesday, Cuba's foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez-Parilla did not hold back at the UN's Security Council. |
| 1:38.9 | He said America's actions amounted to war crimes. He said military aggression would result in a bloodbath. |
| 1:45.6 | He said that at a moment that we hope will never happen, the people of Cuba will fight to the |
| 1:50.8 | last consequence. But things simply cannot continue as they are now. |
| 1:57.0 | Donald Trump is right to want to change Cuba. |
| 2:00.8 | Sarah Burke is our bureau chief for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. |
... |
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