Trump "is fine" with Marco Rubio being the next president of Cuba
The US president says the island will receive no more money or oil from Venezuela.
BarcelonaUS President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he "thinks it's fine" for his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, to be the next president of Cuba, after urging the island's government to reach "a deal, before it's too late." "I think it's fine!" Trump commented on his social media account, Truth Social, sharing a post on X from a user who predicted that "Marco Rubio will be the president of Cuba." Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, has been a key figure in the administration's US actions against Venezuela and Cuba. Shortly afterward, Trump warned Cuba that it would no longer receive money or oil from Venezuela and stated that the island had been "living for years" off Venezuelan resources in exchange for "security services" for the "last two dictators," referring to Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro.
"No more oil or money will be sent to Cuba—zero! I strongly suggest you make a deal before it's too late," the president wrote on the same social media platform, without clarifying which agreement he was referring to.
The White House leader suggested he might focus on Cuba following the US military intervention on January 3 in Venezuela, where they captured Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and took them to New York, where they face charges related to drug trafficking and terrorism.
Havana rejects the interference
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez countered that the Caribbean island has "the absolute right to import fuel" from any exporter willing to sell, "without interference or subordination to the unilateral coercive measures of the United States." Rodríguez added that Cuba does not lend itself to "blackmail or military coercion against other states." Trump also referred to the operation to capture Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, who now face charges in the United States for drug trafficking and other crimes. He explained that among those now "in charge" of the South American country is Rubio, whom the press has dubbed the "viceroy of Venezuela," in addition to his previous roles as Secretary of State, National Security Advisor, and former head of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Operation Absolute Resolve, as the US attack to depose Maduro has been dubbed, has caused the deaths of at least 56 military personnel, 32 of them Cuban, according to the Havana government, who formed the president's personal guard.