As the streets of Cuba are filled with some of the largest anti-government protests in the country’s history, we’re seeing a predictable, reckless response from US policymakers. That would be the exact same one we see anytime one of the Washington foreign policy Blob’s many official enemies face unrest: calls for the US government to intervene and, hopefully, help topple the government in power.

“The White House must move swiftly,” was the demand from Democratic representative Val Demings, currently trying to poach Marco Rubio’s Senate seat, later insisting that “US policy must support the protesters, their safety, and their right to self-determination.” Right-wing Florida officials like Miami mayor Francis Suarez and Representative Carlos Gimenez called for “the international community, led by the United States, to intervene” and to “LEAD on promoting a free and democratic #Cuba.” Four other Florida mayors wrote to President Joe Biden asking that the US government “intervenes to help the Cuban people break the chains that have kept them in shackles for so many years.”

Most of these calls are, by necessity, vague. After all, whatever legitimate grievances Cubans have with their government would likely be eclipsed by the news of a Washington-led regime change operation coming to their shores. But make no mistake: all of this is the typical wink-and-a-nod vernacular of Washington regime change.