Rubio says the White House is very focused on toppling the socialist government of Cuba to address what he says are national security risks. He also stressed that Havana will not be able to outwait the Trump administration, urging them to strike a deal before it is too late.
US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday again raised the spectre of US military intervention in Cuba, a renewed threat that takes on greater weight a day after the administration announced criminal charges against the island's former leader, Raúl Castro.
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Trump said previous US presidents have considered intervening in Cuba for decades but that “it looks like I’ll be the one that does it.”
“Other presidents have looked at this for 50, 60 years, doing something,” Trump told reporters when asked about Cuba in the Oval Office. “And, it looks like I’ll be the one that does it. So, I would be happy to do it.”
Top US diplomat Marco Rubio, who is of Cuban descent himself, told reporters separately that Havana has been a national security threat for years because of its ties to US adversaries and that Trump is intent on addressing it.
Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants who has long taken a hardline stance against Cuba’s socialist leadership, said the Trump administration wants to resolve differences with Cuba peacefully but is doubtful the US can reach a diplomatic resolution with the island's current government.
Trump's “preference is always a negotiated agreement that’s peaceful. That’s always our preference. That remains our preference with Cuba,” Rubio said in Miami before boarding a plane to attend a NATO meeting in Sweden and then visit India.
“I’m just being honest with you, you know, the likelihood of that happening, given who we’re dealing with right now, is not high,” he said.
Top Trump aides — including Rubio, CIA chief John Ratcliffe and other senior national security officials — have met with Cuban officials in recent months to explore possible improvements in relations.
But the US side has come away unimpressed from those talks, leading to even more sanctions imposed on the Cuban government in the past week.
Over the years, Cuba has gotten used to “buying time and waiting us out,” Rubio said. “They’re not going to be able to wait us out or buy time. We’re very serious, we’re very focused.”
When asked whether Washington would use force in Havana to change the island's political system, Rubio repeated that a diplomatic settlement was preferred but noted that “the president always has the option to do whatever it takes to support and protect the national interest.”
He pushed back on a reporter’s suggestion that it sounded like “nation-building,” insisting it was about addressing a national security risk.
Federal prosecutors unveiled on Wednesday an indictment that accuses Castro of ordering the shootdown of civilian planes flown by Miami-based exiles in 1996. The charges, which were secretly filed by a grand jury in April, included murder and destruction of an airplane.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel condemned the indictment as a political stunt that sought only to “justify the folly of a military aggression against Cuba.”
The Castro indictment has led many to believe that the Trump administration is following the same playbook it did when it captured then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a military operation in early January.
Maduro, who has been imprisoned in the US since his seizure, faces federal drug trafficking charges and has pleaded not guilty.
Rubio would not discuss how the US might move to implement the indictment against Castro, who turns 95 next month.
Trump has been threatening military action in Cuba ever since ousting Maduro and then ordering an energy blockade that choked off fuel shipments to Cuba. That has led to severe blackouts, food shortages and an economic collapse across the island.
The Trump administration this month also has slapped new sanctions on Cuba, the largest of which is against Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A., a business conglomerate operated by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces.