By Connor Stringer

 

WASHINGTON, 12 January. - (ANA) - US President Donald Trump has told Cuba to “make a deal before it’s too late” and floated the idea of installing Marco Rubio as the country’s new leader.

 

The US president urged Havana on Sunday to comply with his administration’s demands or face economic collapse, warning that the flow of Venezuelan oil and money would now stop.

 

Cuba’s president, in response, refused to bow to the threat and pledged to defend the island “to the last drop of blood”.

 

“No one dictates what we do. Cuba does not aggress; it is aggressed upon by the United States for 66 years, and it does not threaten; it prepares, ready to defend the homeland to the last drop of blood,” said Miguel Díaz-Canel.

 

Cuba, which has long relied on the sanctioned crude imports to prop up its ailing economy, has been left increasingly isolated after US forces seized Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, in a nighttime raid last week.

 

“THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO!” Mr Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social. “I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”

 

He also responded to a post saying that Mr Rubio, the Cuban-American US secretary of state, should be inserted as the country’s leader, writing: “Sounds good to me!”

 

The White House has signalled that the communist-run island is next in the crosshairs of Mr Trump, as he continues with his campaign to remake the Americas and rid them of adversaries.

 

The US military attack on Caracas came at a high cost for Cuba, with Havana reporting that 32 of its citizens, including military leaders, were killed.

 

In an indication further pressure would be put on Cuba, the US appeared to reposition two of its most powerful amphibious assault ships, the USS Iwo Jima and USS San Antonio, just miles north of the island.

 

“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!” Mr Trump added.

 

“Most of those Cubans are DEAD from last weeks [sic] U.S.A. attack, and Venezuela doesn’t need protection anymore [sic] from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for so many years.”

 

The island’s reliance on Venezuela’s subsidised oil makes it vulnerable now that reserves are making their way into US hands.

 

Cuba, which has been the subject of its own US blockade, last year received an average of 27,000 barrels per day from Maduro’s regime, covering roughly 50 per cent of Cuba’s oil deficit.

 

Experts have warned that a sudden halt in Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba could lead to widespread social unrest and mass migration.

 

Cuba’s foreign minister Bruno Rodrigue said on Sunday that Cuba had the right to import fuel from any suppliers. He also denied that Cuba had received financial or other “material” compensation in return for security services provided to Maduro.

 

Long before the deposed Venezuelan leader’s capture, severe blackouts were side-lining life on the island, where people endured long lines at gas stations and supermarkets amid the island’s worst economic crisis in decades.

 

Then the Covid-19 pandemic coupled with a radical increase in US sanctions levied by Mr Trump to pressure political change has stifled every sector imaginable.

 

For Mr Trump, the intervention is another step in his plan dubbed the “Donroe Doctrine”, which aims to rid America’s neighbouring countries of Russian and Chinese influence.

 

Any deal with Havana would likely mean sanctions are eased in return for concrete concessions on political reforms and on Havana changing its relationship with Moscow and Beijing.

 

Mr Rubio, whose parents left Cuba before Fidel Castro, has made no secret of his desire to end the island’s communist rule. “If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned,” he said following Maduro’s ousting.

 

On Friday, Mr Trump met with oil bosses in the hopes of convincing them to spend the millions needed to rebuild Venezuela’s infrastructure and get oil flowing. At the round-table, he suggested he would soon decide which companies would go to Caracas.

 

The White House is hoping to ease Mr Trump’s domestic economic headache by unlocking millions in untapped “liquid gold”.

 

The plan hinges on the world’s largest oil reserves that lie beneath Venezuela. It has more oil than Saudi Arabia, Russia or the United States, but exports only one per cent of the world’s oil owing to poor infrastructure. Venezuela’s crude accounts for about 88 per cent of its $24bn (£17.8bn) in exports.  - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/12 January 2026 - - -