WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday raised the prospect of a “friendly takeover” of Cuba, saying Secretary of State Marco Rubio is handling contacts with Havana “at a very high level,” as tensions spike and reports surface of back-channel talks with a member of the Castro family.
“The Cuban government is talking with us, and they’re in a big deal of trouble,” Trump told reporters as he departed the White House for a trip to Texas. “They have no money. They have no anything right now, but they’re talking with us, and maybe we’ll have a friendly takeover of Cuba.”
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Trump cast Cuba as a failing nation in need of change. “They have no money, they have no oil, they have no food,” he said. “And it’s really right now a nation in deep trouble and they want our help.”
The Cuban government said it is not in any high-level talks with the United States, but did not outright deny media reports that U.S. officials have engaged informally with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, the grandson of former president Raúl Castro. Axios reported earlier this month that Rubio has held secret conversations with Rodríguez Castro; the Miami Herald reported that U.S. officials close to Rubio met the grandson again on the sidelines of this week’s Caribbean Community conference in St. Kitts and Nevis. Neither government has publicly confirmed the reported contacts.
Strains between Washington and Havana have intensified after an armed maritime confrontation in Cuban waters this week left four Cuban exiles dead and six wounded. The exiles, traveling aboard a Florida-registered speedboat, sailed into Cuban waters and opened fire on a Cuban patrol before Cuban forces returned fire, according to accounts cited by U.S. officials. Rubio denied it was a U.S. operation and said no U.S. government personnel were involved.
U.S. pressure on Cuba has been mounting. Washington has sought to block virtually all oil shipments to the island, tightening an energy squeeze that U.S. officials argue is aimed at forcing political change. Last month, U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, removing a key Cuban ally from power, further isolating Havana, according to U.S. officials.
Rubio has sharply escalated his rhetoric in recent weeks, calling the status quo in Cuba “unsustainable” and saying the island “needed to change dramatically.” The Florida Republican has long been a leading critic of the Communist government and a central player in shaping the administration’s Cuba policy.
Trump nodded to the politically influential Cuban exile community, largely concentrated in the Miami area, which has historically advocated regime change in Havana. He said a U.S. move toward Cuba could be “something good … very positive” for people who were expelled from the country. “We have people living here that want to go back to Cuba, and they’re very happy with what’s going on,” Trump said.
It was not immediately clear what the president meant by a “friendly takeover” or whether the administration is preparing a formal shift in policy. The White House and State Department did not immediately provide further details, and Havana’s statement suggested any engagement—if occurring at all—remains unofficial.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
