The newspaper reveals how Cuban American legislators derailed an agreement between Trump and the Castro regime to supply fuel in exchange for US control of Cupet
14ymedio, Madrid, September 10, 2026 / The Cuban regime has given the green light for a US company to acquire the stake held by Canada’s Sherritt International in Cuban mines, according to a source familiar with the negotiations who spoke to the Miami Herald on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the matter. The outlet does not reveal which of the two contenders vying to replace the mining giant would have come out on top.
Competing for the gap left by Sherritt’s departure from Cuba in May — forced by Donald Trump’s sanctions — are Gillon Capital, owned by the family of Ray Washburne, a former adviser to President Donald Trump and one of the leading donors to his campaign, which went on to sign a preliminary agreement with the Canadian company that same May, and an international group backed in the United States by the giant Glencore.
The information appears in a Miami Herald exclusive that lays out details, now revealed by its source, about the negotiations between Cuba and the United States, allegedly derailed by Cuban American politicians. Since the talks leaked in February, there has been a constant back-and-forth between the positions of President Donald Trump, more inclined to reach a deal, and Florida’s Republican representatives, who need to satisfy an exile community that wants nothing to do with pacts with the Castro regime. Caught in the middle is Marco Rubio, pushed to satisfy both sides.
Caught in the middle is Marco Rubio, pushed to satisfy both sides
That idea, shared by many, is now confirmed by the Miami newspaper’s source, which lays out chronologically how the talks stalled, dating back to the start of the year, when the US administration offered Cuba an energy deal. The plan involved guaranteeing the island oil and fuel in exchange for the privatization of Cupet, which would be acquired by one or more US companies. Part of the plan included Miguel Díaz-Canel’s departure from the top of the government, though no further political changes are mentioned.
That was the offer conveyed to Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, grandson of the former president and known as El Cangrejo (The Crab), just after the capture of Nicolás Maduro on January 3, with the threat of an end to the flow of oil from the Venezuela hanging over their heads. Experts calculated that this, along with the oil blockade Washington introduced afterward, would leave the island without reserves within weeks, forcing them to accept.
According to the Herald, the permission granted in February for US companies to sell to private parties in Cuba was a goodwill gesture on the part of the United States, just as authorizing private individuals to import it was on Cuba’s part. But the regime was not satisfied with the Americans wanting to take full control of its reserves through Cupet. That is why Trump’s envoys offered an alternative: acquiring the company jointly with the Cuban government and bringing in investors from other countries. One condition, however, was resolving ExxonMobil’s ownership claims against the state oil company.
According to the sources, the Cuban regime began weighing this offer, which would help solve the population’s problems and, by extension, its own. With growing power shortages, the economy had no chance of recovering either, and discontent did it no favors. But then Axios leaked the negotiations and the exile community cried foul.
According to the Herald, Cuban American representatives could not believe that Rubio — who had always voiced the same views as them toward the Castro leadership — was brokering deals with Raúl Castro’s favorite grandson. Some even dismissed the talks as false, and many expressed, both openly and quietly, their fear that things would play out as they did in Venezuela, where the population has seen the Americans take control of its oil while leaving Chavismo in power.
Cuban American representatives could not believe that Rubio — who had always voiced the same views as them toward the Castro leadership — was brokering deals with Raúl Castro’s favorite grandson
“The Cuban people deserve freedom, not another deal to keep the same regime in power. I made it clear: no negotiations with the Castro family to preserve a dictatorship. Cuba’s future must be decided by its people, not a dynasty,” said María Elvira Salazar.
Although Havana agreed — reluctantly, according to the source — to reforms liberalizing the economy in some respects, it insisted there was a red line. Rodríguez Castro himself reportedly said that, “with his grandparents’ blessing, he was open to all kinds of economic reforms and agreements with the United States, but that the US government could not dictate how Cubans should be governed.”
The source also described El Cangrejo as an “unpredictable element” and said that his newfound prominence had not done the favorite grandson any good. His days of enjoying luxury with a degree of anonymity had apparently come to an end, much to his displeasure. To make matters worse, Díaz-Canel began taking up more space, adopting a defiant rhetoric to appease the hardliners.
In the end, “the Cubans were not ready yet,” the Herald’s source says.
What followed was Washington’s abandonment of its conciliatory strategy, which ended in a wave of sanctions and the indictment of Raúl Castro over the shootdown of the Brothers to the Rescue planes.
In recent months, the talks have apparently stalled, something Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez also stated when presenting the report on the damage caused by the US “blockade.” Nevertheless, fuel continues to reach private businesses, and the contract to enter the mining sector shows that something is still moving.
Translated by GH
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