The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has stressed that Cuba is going through "deep problems" on the humanitarian front and has warned that the current situation could lead "to a friendly, or not, takeover" by Washington, in coherence with the warnings it has been issuing in recent weeks against the island.
"It could be a friendly takeover, it could not be a friendly takeover. It doesn't matter, because they are, as I say, in ruins," the US leader has stated. "They have no energy, they have no money. They have deep problems at a humanitarian level," he insisted, describing the deterioration of the internal situation.
Trump has added that "we don't want to see that, but they were very bad for many people," alluding to the role of the Cuban Government in the past. In this sense, he has stated that Cuba "lived at Venezuela's expense" and has stressed that "it no longer lives at Venezuela's expense, which does not send them energy, fuel, oil, money or anything. We cut off their access to everything else," in reference to the reinforcement of the blockade imposed by the United States.
According to the president, US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, would be in contact with Cuban authorities to explore a possible negotiated exit, a point that has been rejected by Havana. Even so, Trump has reiterated his confidence that some kind of understanding will be reached. "They will reach an agreement or we will do it just as easily, equally," he warned, before praising the head of Foreign Affairs, of whom he said that "he is doing a great job."
In recent months, Cuba has suffered a significant cut in oil supply after the capture of Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, in early January 2026, during a surprise operation by US forces in Venezuelan territory that resulted in more than a hundred deaths.
After this operation, Trump signed an executive order that contemplates the imposition of tariffs on all countries that sell or deliver crude oil to Cuba, a measure that has aggravated the energy shortage and has intensified, in turn, the humanitarian crisis on the island.