DONALD Trump today teased a “friendly takeover” of Cuba, suggesting that Washington’s long-time nemesis is on the brink of collapse.
Speaking to reporters on the White House lawn, the president revealed that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is locked in “very high level” talks with Cuba’s top brass.
Trump’s comments come after Cuban border guards killed four US-based exiles as they charged towards the coast on a speedboat.
“The government is talking with us,” he said.
“They have no money. They have no anything right now.
“We could very well end up having a friendly takeover.”
Trump did not elaborate on his comments, but he has repeatedly mocked the communist state’s rapidly deteriorating financial position.
Cuba has been on the president’s mind since the US military’s daring capture of Venezuelan tyrant Nicolas Maduro.
The ousting of one of Havana’s closest allies delivered a bitter blow to the island’s economy.
Trump even suggested that initiating military action against Cuba might not be necessary as the absence of Venezuelan oil shipments had already brought the country to its knees.
“We’ve had a lot of years dealing with Cuba,” he told reporters today.
“I’ve been hearing about Cuba since I was a little boy. But they’re in big trouble.”
Trump also alluded to the Cuban exile community living in the US, saying: “There could be something coming that I think [is] very positive for the people that were expelled, or worse.”
The US has maintained a strict trade embargo on Cuba since 1962, the year after a failed, CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion left the White House with egg on its face.
Havana confirmed it was speaking to US officials following the shooting of the American boat carrying Cuban exiles.
Cuban authorities accused its ten occupants of plotting a terrorist attack, saying that they found a sizeable stash of guns and Molotov cocktails on board.
Rubio has vowed the US will “find out exactly what happened” and “respond accordingly.”
“We’re not gonna base our conclusions on what they told us,” he said.
In January, Trump signed an executive order punishing countries that supplied oil to Cuba with tariffs.
The move has sent an already reeling economy into a tailspin and deepened an energy crisis that has already caused mass blackouts across the country.
Carlos Fernndez de Cosso, Cuba’s deputy foreign minister, said today that the US’ fuel embargo remains in full force.
“Nothing announced in recent days changes that reality,” he wrote on X.
“The possibilities of conditional sales to the private sector already existed and do not alleviate the impact on the population.”
Meanwhile, over 40 US civil society organisations sent a letter to Congress today warning that cutting oil shipments to the Caribbean island would spark a humanitarian crisis.
Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/16015041/america-friendly-takeover-cuba-trump-talks/
