IN HIS first presidency, Trump targeted what his national security adviser, John Bolton, called the “troika of tyranny” — namely, Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. Economic sanctions to wreck a country’s economy are a key — but not the only — weapon used. Trump brought in 243 new sanctions against Cuba, for example, while his “maximum pressure” policy against Venezuela devastated their oil sector, which also reduced Cuba’s petroleum subsidies from its ally.
 
In reality, those “sanctions” should be called illegal coercive measures. They are contrary to the UN Charter and customary international law, particularly as they illegally apply domestic legislation extra-territorially against other countries.
 
Today, Trump has a new secretary of state, Marco Rubio, to front his attack. A long-time crusader against all three countries, Cuba in particular, as a senator Rubio was the mover of a series of bills increasing sanctions on those states.
 
On Cuba, Trump’s attack lines are clear. He has already redesignated Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism — Biden had lifted this in the dying days of his presidency — which has a massive effect on Cuba’s tourism industry, a major money-earner. Further, he has lifted the suspension of Title III of the 1996 Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, which grants US nationals with claims to property nationalised in Cuba after the revolution the right to sue in US courts individuals or entities dealing with that property.
 
Other measures include blocking business transactions by US companies and third countries with a range of Cuban companies and entities, and blocking remittances from flowing to Cuba.
 
Visa restrictions on Cubans, participating in cultural, academic and scientific exchanges in the US for example, have also been imposed.
 
Finally, Rubio is again trying to use sanctions to stop countries from hiring Cuban doctors — hitting not just those needing medical care but also a major income earner for Cuba.
 
Turning to Nicaragua, when the US-funded and supported coup against the Ortega government failed in 2018, Trump imposed sanctions and declared a national emergency, labelling Nicaragua’s actions to defeat the coup “a threat to the national security and foreign policy of the US.”
 
Biden added more sanctions in 2021 and 2022, to block for example both Nicaragua’s gold trade with the US and investment loans to the country, and in November 2024 declared that Nicaragua still posed a threat to the US.
 
From Trump, we can expect that he will continue these punitive measures of the Biden government but apply them with greater speed and ferocity.
 
One pending measure is a Bill rebooting earlier sanctions legislation that would extend the US government’s authority to impose sanctions on Nicaragua through to December 31 2028.
 
The old sanctions stopped most loans from the IMF, World Bank and the International Development Bank. The new sanctions seek to restrict loans for economic development from the Central America Bank for Economic Integration which funds roads, water and energy projects, and housing in the country.
 
The other target of sanctions is Nicaragua’s private sector and companies exporting goods to the US, but also imports from the US.
 
Rubio has also been talking about expelling Nicaragua from DR-CAFTA (the free trade agreement between the US, Central America and the Dominican Republic) which would have a catastrophic effect on Nicaragua’s US exports, although whether DR-CAFTA treaty permits this is an open question.
 
Lastly, we have Venezuela. Direct sanctions were first applied against Venezuela by President Obama in 2015, justified by deeming Venezuela an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the US.”

But Trump ramped up these illegal coercive sanctions into a series of increasingly severe measures. Starting in 2017, Trump barred the Venezuelan government from borrowing from financial markets, blocked assets, and prohibited US businesses from dealing with Venezuela’s oil company, PDVSA, the state’s largest source of revenue.

The disruption to Venezuela’s reliance on oil exports, by cutting PDVSA off from international markets and blocking it from servicing debt, cost Venezuela billions of dollars in revenue as Trump turned the sanctions programme into a blockade akin to that imposed against Cuba since the 1960s.
 
Biden maintained these sanctions until the oil crisis occasioned by the war in Ukraine led him to ease the sanctions very slightly — only to reapply them when Venezuela was falsely accused of breaching an agreement over ground rules for its 2024 presidential election.
 
Now, with Trump back, the future is unclear. An early visit to Caracas by Trump’s special envoy Richard Grenell resulted in Chevron’s licence to operate in Venezuela being renewed, six US prisoners in jail being released and Venezuela accepting some deported migrants.
 
But less than a month later, Trump gave Chevron and a number of other oil companies operating in Venezuela 30 days’ notice to wind down operations, as a concession to foreign policy hardliners ahead of a crucial budget vote.
 
The sanctions regime against Venezuela, and the freezing or disposal of its confiscated assets, is therefore still rolling on. Although Trump has other concerns, such as the flow into the US of illicit drugs and his “migration crisis,” it is unlikely that the long-term goal of “regime change” has been abandoned. We wait to see what Trump and Rubio will do next. Solidarity with Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua in defence of their sovereignty remains a critical necessity, in this country and worldwide.
 
Tim Young is a member of the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign executive. He will be speaking at the Socialism or Barbarism in-person day school in London on Saturday March 29 at the “Latin America — cutting edge of the struggle” session. The event features MPs including Richard Burgon and Ian Byrne, campaigner Jess Barnard, Calvin Tucker of the Morning Star, Sinn Fein’s Pat Cullen, socialist economist Michael Roberts and campaigns such as PSC, CND, War On Want, We Own It, the Mexico Solidarity Forum, and Stand up to Racism. The day features 15+ sessions of socialist political education. Register and info at bit.ly/socialismorbarbarism.