"No escape:" Inside Rubio's Cuba pressure campaign (axios.com)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is waging an unprecedented economic war on Cuba — and wants to make sure the island's communist leaders know it's going to get worse. "What we're trying to teach them is, there are no escape valves," Rubio told Axios. Why it matters: Cuba's economy is in a state of slow-motion collapse because of crushing U.S. sanctions and communist mismanagement of the island, which prides itself as the hemisphere's chief foe of the superpower 90 miles to its north. President Trump hasn't ruled out military action. Zoom in: Since last year, the Trump administration has taken two dozen separate actions to pressure Cuba. The quantity and extent of the penalties are unique: Sanctioning 40 entities, from foreign companies operating on the island to Cuba's state-run fuel, banking and mining conglomerates. Targeting at least 38 people with economic sanctions, U.S. visa limitations and residency revocations. Pressuring other countries to stop supporting Cuba's doctor-export program, which the State Department calls " human trafficking ." Issuing reports attacking Cuba over its human rights record , its failure to fight terrorism and its role in amplifying and assisting anti-capitalist and anti-U.S. political activity . The big picture: Because of the pressure campaign, Cuba is now a de facto renegade colony of the U.S., upon which it now relies for most of its food, fuel, medicine and currency — all of which are scarce on the island. Cuba's prime minister made a historic announcement Tuesday, saying the government was allowing more private-sector activity than since the Revolution of 1959, the Miami Herald reported. Rubio told Axios that Cuba is playing for time by faking reforms while seeking ways to evade sanctions. "Every time they create a new mechanism in which they try to get out of the noose, we just close it off," Rubio said. "They certainly can't wait us out. Certainly this isn't going to go away for the next 2½ years." Behind the scenes: Foreign companies are fleeing Cuba amid the threat of sanctions. U.S. companies — especially fuel distributors — are moving in as enterprises such as Cuba's state-run oil company crumble under the pressure. It's creating a nascent capitalist black market. One businessman involved in the fuel trade said some Cuban businesses have even sent human mules to Miami, dripping in heavy gold chains to use as currency because U.S. banking restrictions make financial transactions with Havana impossible. In the first six months of the year, U.S. fuel exports to Cuba jumped to $96 million — more than half of which was in June as the economic forces take their toll, according to the nonprofit U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council . "Trump and Rubio have initiated the most effective sanctions program against a target country than any of their predecessors," said the council's president, John Kavulich. "We've been around since 1994 and never seen anything like this." Nothing has hurt Cuba as much as Trump's Jan