US President Donald Trump told Cuba to “make a deal” or face unspecified consequences, drawing an angry retort from its leader who said “no one” tells the communist-ruled country what to do.
The island nation near Florida has been a US foe and ally of Caracas for decades, but Trump has ramped up his threatening language in recent days – particularly after Washington toppled Venezuela’s leftist leader Nicolas Maduro.
“THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA - ZERO!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”
He provided no details about what potential deal he referred to, or what such an arrangement would achieve.
His remarks come a week after US forces seized Venezuela’s leader Maduro in a nighttime operation in Caracas that killed dozens of Venezuelan and Cuban security forces.
A week ago, Trump stated that “Cuba is ready to fall”, noting that the island’s economic crisis was worsening and that it would be difficult for Havana to “hold out” without receiving heavily subsidised Venezuelan oil.
Earlier Sunday the president reposted a message suggesting that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio – a child of Cuban immigrants – could become the president of Cuba.
Trump shared that post with the comment: “Sounds good to me!”
In a separate message soon afterwards, Trump said that “Cuba lived, for many years, on large amounts of OIL and MONEY from Venezuela. In return, Cuba provided ‘Security Services’ for the last two Venezuelan dictators, BUT NOT ANYMORE!”
“Most of those Cubans are DEAD from last week’s U.S.A. attack, and Venezuela doesn’t need protection anymore from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for so many years.”
Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel rebuffed Trump’s threatening language, saying that the Caribbean island’s residents were “ready to defend the homeland to the last drop of blood”.
“Cuba is a free, independent, and sovereign nation. Nobody dictates what we do,” he said on X. “Cuba does not attack; it has been attacked by the US for 66 years, and it does not threaten; it prepares, ready to defend the homeland to the last drop of blood.”
Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez also weighed in to stress that Cuba is within its rights to import fuel from any willing exporter, “without interference or subordination to the unilateral coercive measures of the United States”.
Under a US trade embargo, Havana since 2000 has increasingly relied on Venezuelan oil provided as part of a deal struck with Maduro’s predecessor, the firebrand leftist Hugo Chavez.
Trump’s provocative language on Cuba comes as the emboldened American leader has hinted he has other countries in his sights after capturing Maduro.
Trump, who had openly sought last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, has recently threatened Colombia, Mexico, Iran and Greenland.
Some Republican US lawmakers have lauded Trump for his aggressive comments on Cuba, including Mario Diaz-Balart, a US congressman from Florida.
“We are witnessing what I am convinced will be the beginning of the end of the regime in Havana,” Diaz-Balart posted in Spanish Sunday on X. “The tyranny in Cuba will not survive the second term of President Trump, and Cuba will finally be free after decades of misery, tragedy, and pain.”
Trump’s push on Cuba represents the latest escalation in his move to bring regional powers in line with the United States and underscores the seriousness of the administration’s ambition to dominate the Western Hemisphere.
Trump’s top officials, including Rubio, have made no secret of their expectation that the recent US intervention in Venezuela could push Cuba over the edge.
US officials have hardened their rhetoric against Cuba in recent weeks, though the two countries have been at odds since former leader Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution.
Cuba relies on imported crude and fuel mainly provided by Venezuela, and Mexico in smaller volumes, purchased on the open market to keep its power generators and vehicles running.
As its operational refining capacity dwindled in recent years, Venezuela’s supply of crude and fuel to Cuba has fallen.
However, the South American country is still the largest provider with some 26,500 barrels per day exported last year, according to ship tracking data and internal documents of state-run PDVSA, which covered roughly 50% of Cuba’s oil deficit.
Even before Maduro’s capture, Cuba had been struggling to keep the lights on.
Vast swaths of the island live without electricity for much of the day, and even the capital Havana has seen its economy crippled by hours-long rolling blackouts.
Shortages of food, fuel and medicine have put Cubans on edge and have prompted a record-breaking exodus, primarily to the United States, in the past five years.
Mexico has emerged in recent weeks as a critical alternative oil supplier to the island, but the supply remains small, according to the shipping data.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum last week said her country had not increased supply volumes, but given recent political events in Venezuela, Mexico had turned into an “important supplier” of crude to Cuba.
