Markwayne Mullin was sworn in Tuesday as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, replacing Kristi Noem, who was ousted earlier this month. Mullin has served as senator for Oklahoma since 2023 following a decade in the House of Representatives. He joins the Trump administration amid a partial government shutdown, with Democrats demanding reforms to immigration enforcement before fully…
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The U.S.’s oil blockade on Cuba, a small island country already suppressed from decades of a comprehensive U.S. embargo, amounts to “economic warfare,” the purpose of which is to “suffocate” the country, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) said on Saturday as Cuba was plunged into its second nationwide blackout in a week. “We must lift the US oil blockade on Cuba. This is economic warfare designed…
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Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed “peace president,” has already attacked two nations since the start of 2026 — engaging in regime change in Venezuela on January 3 and launching an air war on Iran on March 1 — and is now strongly suggesting that Cuba would be next. All three nations have been harmed by U.S.-led economic wars for years in the form of sanctions, which have hurt the countries’…
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As the Trump administration sows chaos with a crushing fuel blockade of Cuba, a general told Congress that the military will “set up a camp” at Guantánamo Bay to detain those who try to flee the humanitarian crisis inflicted by the United States. The phrase “humanitarian crisis” was used by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) to describe the situation in Cuba during a Senate Armed Services Committee…
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This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Mar. 20, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
As the Trump administration sows chaos with a crushing fuel blockade of Cuba, a general told Congress that the military will “set up a camp” at Guantánamo Bay to detain those who try to flee the humanitarian crisis inflicted by the United States.
The phrase “humanitarian crisis” was used by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) to describe the situation in Cuba during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday, as he questioned US Marine Corps Gen. Francis Donovan, the commander of the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM).
Donovan, a 37-year Marine veteran, took command of SOUTHCOM in February after being tapped by President Donald Trump. His predecessor, Adm. Alvin Holsey, abruptly resigned in December reportedly after he’d raised concerns about the Trump administration’s bombings of alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean, which have been widely described as illegal under international law.
On Thursday, Cotton asked Donovan, “Are we prepared for any kind of humanitarian crisis in Cuba—the possible flow of refugees, other civil disorder that may threaten our interests, especially if the decrepit, corrupt Castro regime finally falls or flees?”
“Senator, yes we are,” Donovan responded. “SOUTHCOM… We have an [executive] order to be prepared to support [the Department of Homeland Security] (DHS) in a mass migration event. They would take the lead, we would follow.”
Donovan said this would include using the US military base at Guantánamo Bay, “where we would set up a camp to deal with those migrants or any overflow from any situation in Cuba itself.”
As US starves Cuba of energy & food, neocon Cotton wants DOD to be ready for a “humanitarian crisis,” “flow of
Cuba’s electrical grid has collapsed. The island-wide blackout comes amid a harsh U.S. oil blockade and recent comments from President Donald Trump that he wants to “take” Cuba. No oil shipments have reached the country, located just south of Florida, in three months, compounding a humanitarian crisis caused by decades of severe U.S. sanctions. “Sanctions are literally killing people right now,”…
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