Donald Trump has suggested the United States could carry out a “friendly takeover” of Cuba as tensions between Washington and Havana reach a new high after the capture of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.
Leaving the White House for a campaign rally in Texas on Friday, Trump said: “The Cuban government is talking to us. They’re in big trouble.”
Although he did not give further details, it was widely reported that US officials had met with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, Raúl Castro’s 94-year-old grandson, on the sidelines of the Caribbean leaders’ summit, Caricom, as part of negotiations over the opening of the island.
Trump said Friday: “They have no money, they have nothing right now. But they are talking to us and maybe we will have a friendly takeover of Cuba.”
The president’s comments come as relations between the two countries have sunk to one of their lowest points in an often bitter 67-year history. The United States has increased pressure on Cuba’s struggling regime after its successful kidnapping of Venezuelan President and Cuban ally Nicolás Maduro in January.
Before the attack on Caracas, U.S. officials obtained a promise of cooperation from Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, now Venezuela’s interim president, who promised to open the country’s significant oil reserves to foreign companies.
Pressure from Washington also led to the departure of Attorney General Tarek William Saab and led Venezuela to cut off oil exports to Cuba. The United States has imposed an oil blockade on the island, strangling what was left of its already pitiful economy.
Trump said: “I’ve heard about Cuba since I was a little kid, but they’re in big trouble.”
Alluding to the large community of Cuban exiles in the United States, he suggested that a takeover of the island could be “a good thing… very positive” for them, saying: “You know, we have people living here who want to return to Cuba, and they are very happy with what is happening.”
Trump’s acquisitive language will cause concern among Cubans that history is repeating itself: American financial dominance of the Cuban economy was one of the main drivers of Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution.
His statement marked a surprising departure from previous public statements. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel had previously said that although his government is willing to dialogue, the discussions could not involve Cuba’s internal affairs and had to come “from a position of equals, with respect for our sovereignty, our independence and our self-determination.”
“Cuba’s Berlin Wall moment is just around the corner,” said Manuel Barcia, a history professor at the University of Bath who has family on the island he left in 2001. “It looks as if (U.S. Secretary of State) Marco Rubio has orchestrated a very impressive takedown.”
Trump has long had the electoral support of Cuban exiles concentrated in Miami who have dreamed of overthrowing the island’s communist government, established by Fidel Castro.
Pedro Freyre, a prominent figure in the exile community who acts as a lawyer for companies that want to do business on the island, said Trump’s language suggested a deal similar to the one in Venezuela was underway, where many of the regime’s top figures could remain in place.
“This is couched in business terminology. When read alongside Rubio’s recent comments, it points to economic rather than political openings, all under the aegis of the United States,” Freyre said.
That could go down very badly in Miami. William LeoGrande, a government professor at American University in Washington, believes the White House is focused on attracting Cuban Americans. He pointed out an international tour that Mike Hammer, chargé d’affaires of the United States in Havana, is currently carrying out.
“Hammer is functioning more as an ambassador to the diaspora than as a representative of the United States to the Cuban government,” LeoGrande said. “By traveling to Miami and Madrid, he makes Cubans in exile feel heard, making them more likely to accept a change in US policy if Trump manages to reach an agreement with Cuba.”
Trump’s comments come days after what appeared to be a group of heavily armed exiles from Florida attempted to disembark a speedboat packed with weapons on the island’s northern coast, sparking a gunfight at sea that left four dead and seven wounded.
