Trump on Rubio as Cuba’s Future Leader

BarcelonaThe President of the United States, Donald Trump, said this Sunday that he “feels good” that his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is the next president of Cuba, after urging the island’s government to reach “an agreement, before it is too late”. “I think it’s good!”, Trump commented on his social network Truth Social when sharing a post on X by a user who predicts that “Marco Rubio will be the president of Cuba”. Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, has been one of the main drivers within the administration of the actions of the United States against Venezuela and Cuba.

Shortly after, Trump warned Cuba that it will no longer receive money or oil from Venezuela and pointed out that the island has been “living for years” thanks to 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 that they make an agreement before it is too late,” the president wrote on the same social network, where he did not clarify which agreement he was referring to.

The White House leader has suggested he might focus on Cuba after the January 3 U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, where they captured Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, to transfer them to New York, where they face drug-trafficking and terrorism-related charges.

Havana rejects the interference

The Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez, has replied 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 has also referred to the operation to capture Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, who are now facing charges in the United States for drug trafficking and other crimes. He explained that among the people who are now “in charge” of the South American country is Rubio, whom the press has pointed out as the “Viceroy of Venezuela”, which is added to his positions as Secretary of State, National Security Advisor and former head of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Operation Absolute Resolution, as the US attack to depose Maduro has been dubbed, has caused the death of at least 56 military personnel, 32 of whom were Cuban, according to the government in Havana, who formed the president’s personal guard.