Cuban leader Raul Castro speaks during a gala commemorating the 100th anniversary of his brother Fidel Castro’s birth at the Karl Marx theater in Havana, Cuba, August 13, 2026. Photo: Ramon Espinosa/Ap.
The expulsion of Cuban officials from the Dominican Republic is an act of “submission” to the United States, Cuba said on Thursday.
The Cubans hit back after the DR ordered the expulsion of 10 Cuban diplomats and their families on Thursday without offering any reasons for the decision.
The expulsions follow the creation of the so-called “Shield of the Americas,” a far-right geopolitical and regional security initiative launched in March by US President Donald Trump.
The measure was strongly criticised by Cuba, which described it as an act of “submission” to US policies against Havana amid an energy and financial blockade.
Cuba’s Foreign Ministry expressed regret over the decision by Dominican President Luis Abinader.
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In a statement the Cubans said: “There is no reason whatsoever to justify this decision by the Dominican authorities.”
The Dominican Republic’s former minister for regional integration policies, Miguel Mejia, said he thought the measure was extreme, comparable only to the rupture imposed during the 31-year dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo that ended in 1961.
He also demanded that “the Dominican government explain to the Dominican people the real reasons why it made this decision.”
In recent months, several conservative Latin American countries, including Colombia and Ecuador, have cut relations or closed their embassies in Cuba while proclaiming their political alignment with Mr Trump.
