US President Donald Trump on Sunday warned Cuba to “make a deal” with Washington or face serious consequences, saying the flow of Venezuelan oil and financial support to Havana would be cut off.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said Cuba had long depended on large quantities of oil supplied by Venezuela, but stressed that this arrangement would not continue. He urged Cuban leaders to enter negotiations with the United States “before it is too late.”
Under the decades-long US trade embargo, Cuba has increasingly relied on oil shipments from Venezuela under agreements forged during the rule of late Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez.
Trump’s warning comes a week after US forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife during a nighttime operation in Caracas, an action that reportedly resulted in heavy casualties among Venezuelan and Cuban security personnel.
Cuban authorities said 32 Cuban nationals assigned to protect Maduro were killed in the raid, along with 23 Venezuelan troops. Of the Cuban casualties, 21 were from the Interior Ministry, which oversees the country’s intelligence services, while 11 belonged to the Cuban military.
Trump said Venezuela, which had previously supplied oil and funds to Cuba, “doesn’t need protection anymore” from what he described as “thugs and extortionists.”
“Venezuela now has the United States of America — the most powerful military in the world, by far — to protect them, and protect them we will,” he wrote.
Earlier in the day, Trump also reposted a message suggesting that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, could one day become president of Cuba, which is currently ruled by a communist government.
The repost, originally shared on January 8, read, “Marco Rubio will be president of Cuba,” accompanied by a laughing emoji. Trump added his own comment: “Sounds good to me!”
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