The Secretary of State says he wants to speak with Pope Leo XIV about sending humanitarian aid to the island.
EFE (via 14ymedio), Washington, May 5, 2026 — US Secretary of State Marco Rubio downplayed on Tuesday the fact that he was photographed with the head of the US Southern Command in front of a map of Cuba and the apparent possibility that Washington is preparing an imminent military offensive against the island.
“Cuba is within the Southern Command. You know, it’s the closest part,” Rubio said at an unusual White House press conference, explaining that the decision to pose with the map of Cuba during his visit to the military command headquarters was simply because there was one in the room where the picture was taken.
Southern Command is one of the ten unified combatant commands and its area of influence includes all Latin American countries, except for Mexico.
“As it happened, there was a map of Cuba, and I commented: it would be a good idea for us to take a picture in front of that map, since it’s the closest thing to the US that we have inside the Southern Command.”
The Secretary of State visited the main headquarters of this command today, located in Miami, his hometown. “On my second visit there, our chiefs of mission from across the Western Hemisphere were present. I was addressing them, and at that moment, I met the general who had just assumed command of Southern Command,” he explained.
“As it happened, there was a map of Cuba, and I commented: it would be a good idea for us to take a picture in front of that map, since it’s the closest thing to the United States that we have within the Southern Command,” added the head of US diplomacy.
Marco Rubio himself, the grandson of Cuban immigrants, has been one of the leading advocates for Washington to take a hard line against the government of Miguel Díaz-Canel. This includes the oil embargo that the Trump administration has imposed on the island since January, after the Pentagon captured former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and cut off the flow of crude oil from Caracas to the island.
At the same press conference, Rubio stated that he wants to speak with Pope Leo XIV about the possibility of Washington providing more humanitarian aid to Cuba, to be distributed by the Church, but stressed that Cuban authorities must allow the operation.
The US Secretary of State explained that the trip to the Vatican will serve to address the possibility of expanding cooperation with the Church to channel assistance to the island.
Rubio insisted that the United States has already tried to send aid but faces obstacles from Havana.
Similarly, he emphasized that the United States has already tried to send aid but faces obstacles from Havana, and recalled that in February the White House sent $6 million to be distributed through Caritas. “We are prepared to provide more humanitarian aid to Cuba (…) but the Cuban regime has to allow us to do so,” the Secretary of State stated.
Rubio added that his agenda with the Holy See, which begins this Thursday, will also include broader topics, such as the defense of religious freedom globally. “We have shared concerns about religious freedom, and we would like to discuss that with them,” Marco Rubio stated, highlighting the shared interests between Washington and the Vatican in this area.
In that regard, Rubio commented on Leo XIV’s recent trip to West Africa, where he addressed the issue of freedom of worship, a matter that has greatly concerned the Trump Administration in countries like Nigeria, where Washington bombed Islamist groups at Christmas in retaliation for the killing of Christians.
Amid the recent controversy, Rubio downplayed the tensions between President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV, denying that the president had directly accused the pontiff. Since January, the United States has imposed an oil embargo as a pressure tactic against the government of Miguel Díaz-Canel, and last week Trump threatened to take immediate control of Cuba after the end of the war in Iran.
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