Hegseth postures over Cuba as US pressures Colombian president over Mamdani meeting

US defence secretary Pete Hegseth openly threatened Cuba during a visit to the colonial military base at Guantanamo Bay. Hegseth told a captive audience of American soldiers that Cuba had better not try and get long-range weapons. The US has been ramping up threats against the island state.

Meanwhile, US officials have forced Colombia’s left-wing president Gustavo Petro not to meet New York mayor Zohran Mamdani.

The Guardian reported on 10 June that Hegseth said:

It would be unwise for the government of Cuba to try to procure or get access to the types of weapons that could reach this base or the American homeland.

They would be inviting the kind of confrontation not only do they not want, but they could not stand.

Adding:

What happens with the future of Cuba is in the hands of … the president of the United States and the leadership of Cuba.

The US is currently busy getting an arse-kicking from Iran. But Trump has made clear he wants to dominate the Americas.

Hegseth, a Trump sycophant best known for his far-right tattoos and blustering style, has overseen military activities across the continent. Guantanamo Bay was a fitting location for laying out colonial ambitions. The base there was the first US imperial outpost, stolen in 1898.

It later became famous as America’s lawless gulag for War on Terror prisoners.

Mamdani meeting cancelled under US pressure

Colombia’s left-wing president Gustavo Petro has run into the authoritarian impulses of the US state. And not for the first time…

The socialist leader had his visa revoked in autumn 2025 after attending a Palestine demonstration where he called for US troops to disobey their leaders. Petro is back in the US but the New York Times reported on 11 June 2026:

A meeting scheduled for this week between President Gustavo Petro of Colombia and Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York was called off after U.S. diplomats told Colombia’s government that the move could violate the terms under which Mr. Petro was being permitted to enter the United States.

Adding:

The U.S. State Department canceled Mr. Petro’s visa last fall, and he only had a limited travel allowance to attend a U.N. Security Council Meeting on Wednesday — any other activities outside that meeting were not allowed.

His own officials reportedly agreed to cancel a planned meeting with NY mayor Zohran Mamdani. The State Department said:

As the secretary has said, a visa is a privilege not a right. Any individual’s U.S. visa is at risk of revocation if they visit America and outrageously implore U.S. soldiers to disobey orders of the duly elected president of the United States.

Adding:

Despite President Trump’s efforts to find common ground, the same individual continues with this kind of behavior.

We don’t know about you, but Petro sounds like quite a lad. The NYT said US secretary of state Marco Rubio might be behind the threats. Rubio is a Cuban-American Trumpian with a bee in his bonnet about Cuba roughly the size of the island itself.

Cuba — Trump’s bleak continental plans

Donald Trump has made it very clear he plans to bring the Americas to heel. The Canary has reported on his activities and aims since he returned to power in January 2026.

The US wants to ensure:

the Western Hemisphere remains reasonably stable and well-governed enough to prevent and discourage mass migration to the United States.

And that those pliable governments:

cooperate with us against narco-terrorists, cartels, and other transnational criminal organizations.

Trump and his cronies desire:

a Hemisphere that remains free of hostile foreign incursion or ownership of key assets, and that supports critical supply chains.

Decoded, the US seeks to control the markets in the Americas, and:

we want to ensure our continued access to key strategic locations. In other words, we will assert and enforce a “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine.

This process is underway today, even as the Trump administration tries to escape the mire of its illegal war in Iran.

The CIA reportedly killed a mid-level cartel boss with a car bomb in Mexico City in March. That followed a US-backed cartel shootout in Mexico, also in March. Two CIA officers were killed after a drug lab raid in April. Official denials followed those reports.

US-backed troops in Ecuador allegedly tortured dairy workers and blew up a farm in March. Cuba, naturally, is on the regime change list too. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) paramilitaries are carrying out a racist war on poor, maligned and undocumented workers on the home front.

Trump wants a pliable ‘homeland empire’ in the western hemisphere. When the war on Iran ends it seems probable his gaze will turn back to the Americas fully. Those of us who oppose empire need to be fully engaged with what is happening there.

Featured image via Ezra Acayan/Getty Images