Cuba’s leader pushed back against US President Donald Trump’s demand that the Caribbean nation “make a deal” with Washington, as Trump warned that Havana would be cut off from Venezuelan oil and funding it has relied on for decades.
“No one dictates what we do,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said Sunday on X, responding to Trump’s insistence that Cuba reach a deal “before it’s too late.”
Cuba has long received significant aid from oil-rich Venezuela. But following the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in a US operation, and Trump’s announcement that Venezuela will deliver 30 to 50 million barrels of oil to the US, Havana now faces economic uncertainty.
“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!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO!” He did not clarify what a deal with Havana would involve.
The Cuban government reported that 32 of its citizens were killed “in combat actions” during the US operation to capture Maduro.
Díaz-Canel emphasized Cuba’s sovereignty and readiness to defend itself.
“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,” he said. He added that those who turn everything into a business, “even human lives,” have no moral authority to criticize Cuba.
Earlier, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez defended Cuba’s “absolute right” to import fuel from its economic partners and rejected Trump’s claim that Cuba exchanged security services for Venezuelan oil.
“The US is behaving like a criminal and uncontrolled hegemon that threatens peace and security not only of Cuba and this hemisphere but of the entire world,” Rodriguez said.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that the US was “talking to Cuba,” though details of the discussions were unclear. He added that he wanted the talks to address “the people that came from Cuba who were forced out or left under duress.”
The US has long sought regime change in Cuba, a socialist state governed under a “one state, one party” system since 1961.
A prominent advocate for this within Trump’s administration is Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants and a political figure in Miami’s exile community.