Florida Straits
The 90-mile water corridor between Cuba and Florida; site of US naval and Coast Guard operations.
Last refreshed: 7 May 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Are US naval operations in the Florida Straits legally a blockade of Cuba?
Timeline for Florida Straits
Mentioned in: Universal drifts 1,000 nm off Cuba
Cuba Dispatch- How wide is the Florida Straits between Cuba and the US?
- The Florida Straits are approximately 90 miles wide at their narrowest point between Cuba's north coast and the Florida Keys.
- Is the US running a naval blockade of Cuba in 2026?
- The US has not declared a formal blockade, but Bloomberg reported US naval presence in the Caribbean was deterring sanctioned tankers from declaring Cuban destinations; S.J.Res.124 defined those operations as hostilities under the War Powers Resolution.Source: Bloomberg
- How many Cuban migrants are intercepted in the Florida Straits?
- The US Coast Guard publishes weekly interdiction counts; 2022-2023 saw record numbers exceeding 100,000 interceptions. 2026 counts reflect renewed migratory pressure driven by economic collapse and grid failures.
Background
The Florida Straits (also known as the Straits of Florida) is the roughly 90-mile-wide channel separating Cuba's north coast from the Florida Keys. It is the primary maritime corridor for Caribbean traffic into the Gulf of Mexico and forms a strategic chokepoint for shipping, migration, and military operations. In 2026, the Straits became the focal legal and operational contest between the US and Cuba: the Senate's failed S.J.Res.124 specifically defined US Coast Guard blockade and quarantine operations in the Florida Straits as 'hostilities' for War Powers Resolution purposes (see ID:2847).
US Coast Guard Southeast interdicts Cuban migrants attempting the crossing in small vessels and rafts; interdiction counts are published weekly and tracked as a migration-pressure indicator. The Straits are also the most direct route for Cuban-bound tankers, making US naval presence in the area a real deterrent to vessels like the Sovcomflot Universal, which Bloomberg reported was drifting 1,000 nautical miles from Cuba at 2-3 knots with no declared destination, citing the Caribbean naval picture as one of the deterrents.
Historically, the Florida Straits have defined the physical limit of Cuban state sovereignty versus US enforcement. During the 1994 Balsero crisis, roughly 35,000 Cubans crossed in an uncontrolled wave; in 2022-2023 a second major wave produced record US Coast Guard interdiction counts. The Straits' 90-mile dimension has made it central to US-Cuba policy debates: close enough for military deterrence to be operationally credible, FAR enough that direct US military action would constitute a significant escalation.