President Donald Trump once again insisted this Thursday that he believes the Cuban government “is very close” to falling, but he avoided threatening direct intervention during an interview on a conservative radio program.
Trump affirmed that he believed in the possibility of a prompt departure from Miguel Díaz-Canel’s government when conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt asked him about the issue in an interview.
However, the president did not allude to a possible intervention on the ground, assuring that “not much pressure can be exerted” and said that the possible change of Government would be linked to the fact that Havana is losing the economic support of Venezuela, after the US captured the president, Nicolas Maduro, and this week advanced political and economic agreements with the interim Government of Caracas.
Although Trump avoided talking about operations in Cuba, he stressed during the interview that his administration’s policy of pressure on Havana will continue.
On Sunday, Trump had already alluded to the fact that the Caribbean country was “about to fall,” when in statements aboard the presidential plane he justified this extreme on the grounds that Havana would no longer benefit from Venezuelan oil.
Historically, Venezuela and Cuba have maintained a close political and economic alliance since the early 2000s, when President Hugo Chávez signed a cooperation agreement that made Caracas the island’s main supplier of oil with low prices in exchange for sending Cuban professionals such as doctors or teachers who were deployed to carry out social programs.
The military operation ordered by Trump in Caracas, on January 3, to capture Maduro left 32 Cuban soldiers dead, who were serving as part of the cooperation missions between both nations, according to the Cuban Government.
Read: Venezuela: chronic devaluation erodes minimum wage to symbolic levels
In June 2025, Trump signed a memorandum to toughen US policy towards Cuba, prohibiting direct or indirect financial transactions with government-controlled entities, and strengthening the ban on tourism to the island, as well as the supervision of travel and related economic operations.
With information from EFE
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