Rising This Week: The Maduro treatment for Cuba?
The Trump DOJ's reported probe of Cuban leaders follows a familiar pattern. Also: Pete Hegseth's boat strikes head for a hearing.
The United States has established a familiar pattern this year of removing a foreign head of state in an overnight operation: first, by arresting Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro and then, by assassinating Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
Now, reports confirmed by multiple U.S. news outlets have raised suspicion that Donald Trump’s Justice Department may be setting the stage for regime change in Cuba.
Trump hasn’t been shy about his intentions.
In a phone interview, Trump told CNN’s Dana Bash without prompting on Friday: “Cuba is going to fall pretty soon."
The same day, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump-tapped U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones in Miami has been tasked with building cases against Cuban government leaders. A former federal prosecutor quoted in the article noted that such cases could be used to provide the justification of an operation similar to the one that led to Maduro’s arrest.
The groundwork for Maduro’s arrest had been laid more than half a decade earlier in a 28-page indictment brought by then-U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman in March 2020.
Berman would be fired months later that June for unrelated reasons: He resisted pressure from the White House and Main Justice to dismiss a multibillion-dollar money laundering case brought against Halkbank, a Turkish state-run bank. Trump’s former National Security Advisor John Bolton wrote in his memoir that Trump wanted to get rid of that case as a favor to Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom Bolton called one of the “dictators [Trump] liked.” The case against Halkbank continued, and remains pending, because Berman insisted that his personal deputy Audrey Strauss take his place following his tenure.
That is to say, there was evidence half a decade ago that New York’s top prosecutor exercised independent judgment in Maduro’s case and had a record of resisting White House interference in the realm of foreign relations.
Over in Miami today, Reding Quiñones has a far different reputation: Late last year, Reding Quiñones authorized more than two dozen subpoenas pursuing a so-called “grand conspiracy” theory that every major criminal investigation against Trump is a different facet of the same plot against him.
According to the MAGA conspiracy theory, the plot started with the investigation into Russia’s interference in 2016, continued through Trump’s first impeachment over his extortion of Ukraine, and culminated in former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation.
On a practical level, the delusion serves as a basis to vault the statute of limitations issues over prosecutions related to Robert Mueller’s investigation. Reding Quiñones reportedly subpoenaed ex-CIA director John Brennan, former National Intelligence Director James Clapper Jr., ex-FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok and ex-FBI lawyer Lisa Page.
Nevermind that Mueller and a GOP-led Senate Intelligence Committee confirmed Russia’s election influence operations and detailed how the Trump campaign understood it could benefit from it. Forget also that ex-Special Counsel John Durham tried and failed spectacularly to discredit Mueller’s probe through an investigation that yielded more acquittals than convictions. Reding Quiñones hasn’t been discouraged and appears to have been pursuing it since last autumn.
That the same prosecutor is in charge of an investigation — confirmed by several news outlets — that can be used to gin up a new regime change scheme should be reason for vigilance.
There is no indication whether, or when, such a case would proceed.
“It’s almost certain the U.S. can find indictable charges against the [Cuban] leadership,” ex-FBI agent Frank Figliuzzi, a former assistant special agent in charge of the Miami field office, told All Rise News. “The bigger question is whether a policy of regime change is the new normal, and whether personal benefit is what motivates Trump.”
This week, All Rise News is trying something different.
The listings provided on “Rising This Week” are typically a benefit for paid subscribers for multiple reasons. It’s labor intensive to locate, highlight and preview some of the most significant court hearings, protests and trends in civic engagement. That work is intended to help readers understand the news cycle, demystify our institutions, and engage in democratic accountability.
This week’s listings, however, deserve a wider audience.
On the legal front, there’s an upcoming hearing before an international commission that could weigh in on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s deadly boat strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific.
On Monday, advocacy groups will deliver a 60,000-signature strong petition to Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) to stop the execution of Sonny Burton, a man who everyone agrees never killed anybody. These stories do not belong under a paywall.
If you are not already a paid subscriber, please consider supporting journalism that provides a national and international perspective on the important stories and emphasizes that power individuals have to effect change in the Trump era.
In the Courts
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s boat strikes are heading for a legal reckoning.
On Friday, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) will hold a hearing to consider the legality of strikes that have killed more than 150 people in the name of fighting drug trafficking. The American Civil Liberties Union brought the case late last year, requesting the U.N. special rapporteur on extra-judicial summary and arbitrary executions to weigh in on the matter.
“Under well-established principles of international law, the U.S. strikes are unlawful, extrajudicial executions that violate the fundamental rights to life and due process,” the ACLU wrote in December. “The U.S. may not summarily kill civilians who are merely suspected of smuggling drugs. It must first pursue non-lethal measures like arrest and demonstrate that lethal force is an absolute last resort to protect against a concrete, specific, and imminent threat of death or serious physical injury. The U.S. policy of targeting civil boats and vessels has been widely condemned as illegal both domestically and internationally.”
Families of the victims say Trump and Hegseth have killed innocent fishermen in their dragnet, and legal experts have described the entire operation — regardless of the target — as “simply murder.”
University of Massachusetts at Amherst Professor Jamie Rowen told All Rise News that proceedings like this are important for visibility and pressure.
“We don’t hear about [the strikes] because there’s just so much other violence happening in our country and around the world, but there still is an illegal campaign of extrajudicial killing of people on boats in the Caribbean,” Rowen said. “And so this is one more effort to find a way to hold the United States accountable and put pressure on it to stop killing people in the Caribbean.”
Despite refusing to ratify the American Convention on Human Rights, the United States is subject to the commission, and heavily funds it, as a member of the Organization of American States.
Rowen, a legal studies scholar, said the commission has made an impact in the past.
“When enough pressure comes to bear on the United States for its unlawful activities, the policies change,” Rowen said. “We saw a change in our policies at detaining people in Guantanamo Bay. The Inter-American Commission was loud about that.”
The Commission’s proceedings are open to the public remotely by registering here. The hearing will take place on Fri., March 13 at 11 a.m. Eastern Time.
On the Streets
Faith leaders and activists on Monday will deliver a more than 60,000-signature strong petition to Alabama Gov. Ivey on Monday to stop the execution of Charles “Sonny” Burton, who has been on death row for three decades even though he has never killed anybody.
Convicted under Alabama’s felony murder law, Burton participated in a 1991 armed robbery of an AutoZone store in Talladega, but he wasn’t present when a co-conspirator shot and killed a man.
That co-conspirator, Derrick DeBruce, successfully appealed his capital sentence and died in prison of natural causes. Absent intervention by the governor, Burton will be executed on Thursday, March 12. Even Burton’s prosecutors acknowledged the discrepancy is “arguably unjust.”
“I would submit that no state, no government should ever exercise its most powerful, its most awesome, and its most final punishment unless it can stand up and declare absolutely and with 100 percent confidence that its act of executing this man is a just act,” Burton’s longtime attorney Matt Schulz told All Rise News in a video interview.
Burton’s family will join faith leaders and community members in a demonstration in front of the governor’s mansion located at 600 Dexter Ave. in Montgomery, Ala. at 7:30 a.m. Central Time.
They will march from that location to the state Capitol to deliver the petitions at 9 a.m. CT.
Look out for my full interview with Schulz later today on the All Rise News playlist on Legal AF.
Find other protests and events this week on mobilize.us.
On the Phones
Congress members are hearing a groundswell of opposition to the Iran War.
The two most popular topics on the progressive-leaning civic engagement app 5 Calls both demand its end. Before the War Powers Resolution failed, the most popular topic was titled “Stop Unauthorized Military Strikes on Iran.”
Now, the most popular live topic is simply: “No War on Iran.”
Note: Since congressional call records aren’t usually publicly available, the app’s internal data offers a rare glimpse into this form of civic engagement. See our previous coverage here for context about how the information 5 Calls collects fits into the bigger picture.
Last week’s Top 5 topics on the app were:
“Stop Unauthorized Military Strikes on Iran” (45,777 calls)
“No War on Iran” (10,729 calls)
“Protect Trans Rights and Gender-Affirming Care” (5,532 calls)
“Stop ICE from Building Camps in Your State” (5,104 calls)
“Demand Full Epstein Case File Release and Public Hearings” (4,154 calls)
The group’s weekly dashboard can be found here.
Thanks for featuring the Sonny Burton case, Adam.
Thanks Adam: That Sonny Burton case really got to me. Executing a man when he wasn't in the vicinity of the murder is barbaric. Ms. Kay Ivey please cancel this state murder and release this gent. Thirty years is sufficient .