WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump urged Cuba on Sunday (Jan 11) to “make a deal” or face unspecified consequences, warning that the flow of Venezuelan oil and money to Havana would now stop.
“THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO!” Trump said on his Truth Social channel. “I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”
His remarks come a week after US forces seized Venezuela’s authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro in a nighttime operation in Caracas that killed dozens of Venezuelan and Cuban security forces.
Earlier on Sunday, Trump reposted a message suggesting that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio could become the president of now communist-ruled Cuba.
Trump shared that post with the comment: “Sounds good to me!”
In his own post soon afterwards, Trump said that “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!”
“Most of those Cubans are DEAD from last week’s U.S.A. attack, and Venezuela doesn’t need protection anymore from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for so many years.”
Under a US trade embargo, Havana since 2000 has increasingly relied on Venezuelan oil provided as part of a deal struck with Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chavez.