Trump said that the Cuban government is allegedly negotiating with the United States because of “serious financial problems.”
“As you know, they have no money now, nothing at all. But they are negotiating with us, and perhaps we can agree on a friendly seizure of Cuba,” the head of the White House noted.
He added that he had heard about Cuba since he was a child and wanted to do “something positive for the people.”
Context
After the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Trump wrote that Cuba had lived “for many years on a lot of oil and money from Venezuela” but that now Venezuela “has the United States.” The head of the White House “strongly recommended” Cuba to “conclude an agreement before it is too late.” In response, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said that the United States would not dictate to Cuba what it should do.
The media wrote that the United States was seeking to change the communist regime in Cuba by the end of the year. In particular, Washington intends to weaken it by cutting off the supply of oil that provides Cuba with electricity. Economists estimate that Cuba could be left without oil for several weeks, leading to a complete shutdown of the economy.
Cuba declared a state of emergency on January 30 after Trump threatened to isolate the island from oil supplies.
European diplomats have warned that the US pressure campaign against the Cuban government could trigger a humanitarian crisis on the island of about 10 million people, leading to mass exodus or even famine, Bloomberg noted.
