A view of the Nico Lopez oil refinery as U.S.-Cuba tensions rise after U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to cease Venezuelan oil and cash from reaching Cuba and steered the communist-run island to strike a cope with Washington, in Havana, Cuba, Jan. 11. Reuters-Yonhap
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Donald Trump on Sunday fired off one other warning to the federal government of Cuba because the shut ally of Venezuela braces for potential widespread unrest after Nicolás Maduro was deposed as Venezuela’s chief.
Cuba, a significant beneficiary of Venezuelan oil, has now been reduce off from these shipments as U.S. forces proceed to grab tankers in an effort to regulate the manufacturing, refining and world distribution of the nation’s oil merchandise.
Trump mentioned on social media that Cuba lengthy lived off Venezuelan oil and cash and had provided safety in return, “BUT NOT ANYMORE!”
“THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO!” Trump mentioned within the put up as he spent the weekend at his dwelling in southern Florida. “I strongly recommend they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.” He didn’t clarify what sort of deal.
Hours later, Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel , responded on X by saying “those that flip every thing right into a enterprise, even human lives, haven’t any ethical authority to level the finger at Cuba in any manner, completely in any manner.”
The Cuban authorities mentioned 32 of its army personnel had been killed in the course of the American operation final weekend that captured Maduro. The personnel from Cuba’s two important safety businesses had been in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, as a part of an settlement between Cuba and Venezuela.
“Venezuela doesn’t want safety anymore from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for thus a few years,” Trump mentioned Sunday. “Venezuela now has the USA of America, probably the most highly effective army within the World (by far!), to guard them, and shield them we’ll.”
Trump additionally responded to a different account’s social media put up predicting that his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will probably be president of Cuba: “Sounds good to me!” Trump mentioned.
This mixture of images created on Sunday exhibits Cuba’s President and First Secretary Miguel Diaz-Canel, left, earlier than a household picture in the course of the BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 7, 2025, and U.S. President Donald Trump as he boards Air Power One earlier than travelling to South Korea at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Oct. 29, 2025. AFP-Yonhap
Trump and prime administration officers have taken an more and more aggressive tone towards Cuba, which had been stored economically afloat by Venezuela. Lengthy earlier than Maduro’s seize, extreme blackouts had been sidelining life in Cuba, the place folks endured lengthy traces at fuel stations and supermarkets amid the island’s worst financial disaster in a long time.
“Those that hysterically accuse our nation right this moment accomplish that out of rage at this folks’s sovereign resolution to decide on their political mannequin,” Díaz-Canel mentioned in his put up. He added that “those that blame the Revolution for the extreme financial shortages we undergo ought to be ashamed to maintain quiet” and he railed towards the “draconian measures” imposed by the U.S. on Cuba.
The island’s communist authorities has mentioned U.S. sanctions price the nation greater than $7.5 billion between March 2024 and February 2025.
Trump has mentioned beforehand that the Cuban financial system, battered by years of an American embargo, would slide additional with the ouster of Maduro.
“It’s happening,” Trump mentioned of Cuba. “It’s happening for the rely.”
