"Make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE"

"It is inconceivable ... that there is enough opposition in Cuba [to allow for a smooth regime change operation]."

"Since 1960 the U.S. has pursued a strategy to bring about the complete economic suffocation of Cuba in order to precipitate regime change."

"The Cubans wrote the rule book on resilience [and should not be underestimated]." 

Helen Yaffe, professor of Latin American political economy, University of Glasgow 

 

"[Maduro's forced exile to the U.S.] helps Cuba greatly."

"[The absence of a Venezuelan government that] funnels oil revenue into ... the dictatorship in Havana [used to] fill the coffers [of Cuban government functionaries and fund] repression ... against the Cuban people [would be a particularly positive development]."

Allan Collazo, executive director, Cuban Freedom March 

 

"[For] relations between the U.S. and Cuba to progress, they must be based on international law rather than hostility, threats, and economic coercion."

"We have always been willing to hold a serious and responsible dialogue with the various U.S. governments, including the current one, on the basis of sovereign equality, mutual respect, principles of International Law, and mutual benefit without interference in internal affairs and with full respect for our independence."

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel 

People hold flags and light up their phones outside the U.S. consulate during a rally in support of nationwide protests in Iran, in Milan, Italy, January 13, 2026. REUTERS/Claudia Greco

Following the U.S. attack on Caracas, and the spiriting away of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, the world waited with bated breath for the mercurial president of the United States to act on his implied threats to Cuba, who gloated that Cuba "now has no income", inferring a severe reduction of oil from Venezuela to Cuba. In the wake of the Trump warning that Cuba must "make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE", Cuba's president issued a number of brief statements. Making it clear that Cuba's dignity as a nation must be respected.

 

A delusional hope, in view of the character of the man whose respect for international norms in global relations between states he might hope to appeal to. Relations between socialist/communist-branded Venezuela and Cuba are guaranteed to become more bitterly soured given the new more forceful political climate exemplified by the U.S. administration, representing a due absence from regard as national governments to be respected by the U.S. government under President Donald J. Trump. 

 

Patriotic Cubans mounted organized large-scale protests encouraged by their government before the U.S. Embassy in Havana as President Diaz-Canel demanded the liberation of his Venezuelan counterpart from U.S. custody, calling for an end to "Yankee imperialism". An event and statement guaranteed to elicit contempt and anger from the  target of their criticism that would certainly not endear them to the man who potentially holds the direction of their near future in his irascible hands.

 

Despite decades of an economic strategy that has strangled the island state's finances, the country has still managed to forge neighbourly alliances with like-minded governments prepared to provide support both practical and sympathetically symbolic. The 35,000 barrels a day Cuba was receiving from Venezuela augmented by about 5,500 barrels daily from Mexico and about 7,500 from Russia certainly helped Cuba to scrape by. 

 

While deigning not to provide data on oil shipments or commit to increasing them to Cuba, Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum stated that aid from Mexico to Cuba "has been ongoing for a long time; it's not new". But it would newly place her and Mexico on Mr. Trump's crosshair sighting for possible reprisals, just as he has penalized countries committing oil transactions with Iran, with punitive increased trade tariffs. 

 

 Cuba's widespread blackouts resulting from fuel shortages despite the oil provided by its friendly allies, along with its aging electric grid, will now impact the country's economy even more stringently than previously. According to Cuba's own admission, U.S. sanctions have cost the country over $7.5 billion in the period between March 2024 and February 2025 alone. And no one can really discount the possibility of an invasion of some meaningful measure, given rising tensions between Washington and Havana.

 

Confirming that 32 members of its armed forces and intelligence agencies were killed in  the U.S. operation that captured the Venezuelan leader, elicited a response from President Trump: "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! THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO! I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE."

 

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"Cuba has neither received nor ever received monetary or material compensation for the security services it has provided to any country."

"Unlike the U.S., we do not have a government that lends itself to mercenarism, blackmail, or military coercion against other States."

"Like any country, Cuba has the absolute right to import fuel from those markets willing to export it and that exercise their own right to develop their trade relations without interference or subordination to the unilateral coercive measures of the US."

"Right and justice are on Cuba's side. The US behaves like a criminal and uncontrolled hegemon that threatens peace and security, not only in Cuba and this hemisphere, but in the entire world."

Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodriguez