Cuba’s foreign minister accuses the U.S. of behaving “like a criminal, out-of-control hegemon that threatens world peace and security”
14ymedio, Havana, January 11, 2026 — U.S. President Donald Trump issued an explicit warning to the Castro regime this Sunday: Cuba must “reach an agreement” with Washington or face the definitive rupture of the economic ties that have sustained the Island for decades. The Republican president stated on his social network Truth Social that “There will be no more oil or money for Cuba: zero!” in a direct reference to the flow of crude oil and resources that Venezuela supplied to Havana for years.
Shortly before, Trump shared on Truth Social a post by an X user suggesting that Secretary of State Marco Rubio could become “president of Cuba,” adding a comment that did not go unnoticed: “Sounds good to me!”
Trump expanded on his message: “For many years, Cuba lived off large amounts of oil and money from Venezuela. In return, Cuba provided security services to the last two Venezuelan dictators. But no more!” he wrote.
The U.S. president went even further when referring to the consequences of the recent military operation in Caracas. “Most of those Cubans are dead from the U.S. attack last week, and Venezuela no longer needs the protection of the thugs and extortionists who held it hostage for so many years,” he added, in one of the harshest statements to date against the Cuban presence in Venezuela.
The bluntness of the message comes at a moment of maximum geopolitical tension in the region following the capture of Nicolás Maduro. The action has triggered a series of statements, warnings, and strategic realignments involving not only Washington and Caracas, but also Havana.
According to public records from Flightradar24, several U.S. military aircraft conducted flights near the northern coast of Cuba.
Since Saturday, January 3, Trump’s statements have oscillated between an emphasis on regional control and direct warnings to historic allies of Chavismo. In recent interviews, the president has said that the Cuban regime “is very close to falling” due to the loss of its main source of oil and financial backing, though he has avoided publicly committing to a direct military intervention on the Island.
Added to this verbal escalation in recent hours was an unusual movement in the regional airspace. According to public Flightradar24 records, several U.S. military aircraft, identified by their speed, altitude, and flight patterns, carried out flights near Cuba’s northern coast without entering Cuban airspace. The routes, visible in real time on the platform, showed paths parallel to the coastline and repeated turns off strategic points in the north of the Island, a deployment that analysts interpret as a signal of pressure and deterrence amid the hardening of Washington’s rhetoric. The aerial presence was widely discussed on social media and reinforced the perception that Trump’s warning to Havana is not limited to rhetoric alone.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reinforced that message. Of Cuban-American origin and a long-time critic of the Havana regime, Rubio has repeatedly stated that Cuba played a key role in the survival of Chavismo and that Venezuela’s security structure was “basically full of Cubans.” In conferences and press briefings following the operation in Caracas, he emphasized that without that support, Maduro’s regime would have collapsed much earlier.
Official figures on casualties during Maduro’s capture vary by source, but dozens of Venezuelan security personnel and at least 32 Cuban soldiers and agents were officially reported as killed during the operation. The Cuban government ultimately acknowledged this figure after repeatedly denying any military presence in Venezuela.
The Cuban regime and its spokespeople respond with the usual repertoire of denial, victimization, and confrontation
This death toll comes amid a climate of sustained repression within Cuba, where hundreds of political prisoners continue to languish in the country’s jails for exercising basic rights such as freedom of expression, assembly, or peaceful protest.
Trump’s warning this Sunday also fits into a context of economic and social collapse that experts describe as unprecedented in the Island’s recent history. Cuba is experiencing an unparalleled crisis, marked by mass emigration, structural failures in essential services such as health care and education, and an exhausted economic model that no longer manages to cover the population’s basic needs.
The end of Venezuelan subsidies, which in 2025 supplied the Island with an average of some 27,000 barrels of oil per day, represents an additional blow to an economy already burdened by frequent blackouts, domestic production at historic lows, and chronic shortages of food and medicines.
The regime’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, rejected Washington’s accusations on the social network X and denied any economic link to security services provided abroad. “Cuba does not receive nor has it ever received monetary or material compensation for the security services it has provided to any country,” he wrote.
In his message, Rodríguez contrasted that position with that of the United States, which he accused of “mercenarism, blackmail, and military coercion against other states,” and invoked the Island’s right to import fuel “from those markets willing to export it.” The foreign minister closed his statement with the customary rhetoric, calling the U.S. a “criminal, out-of-control hegemon” that threatens peace and security not only for Cuba and the hemisphere, but “for the entire world.”
Faced with pressure from the United States, the Cuban regime and its spokespeople respond with the usual repertoire of denial, victimization, and confrontation. But the clock, politicians and analysts warn, is rapidly running against Havana’s interests.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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