On January 11, US President Donald Trump once again used his social media platform, Truth Social, to “warn” the Cuban government that if it does not “make a change,” there will be serious consequences.
“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. Venezuela now has the United States of America, the most powerful military in the World (by far!), to protect them, and protect them we will”, Trump wrote.
He also added a clear warning against the revolutionary government in Havana: “THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO! I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”
One of the major incidents that marked the tension in the Caribbean Sea was the seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker bound for Cuba on December 10, 2025. Both Caribbean nations face serious challenges in finding other countries that are willing to trade with them due to, in Cuba’s case, over 60 years of the US economic and commercial blockade, as well as its inclusion on the US States Sponsors of Terrorism (SSoT) list. Such restrictions, as well as other US legal frameworks like the Title III of the Helms Burton Act, mean that those who engage in trade with Cuba risk criminal prosecution. The comprehensive net of unilateral coercive measures imposed on Venezuela by the US also seeks to isolate it and strangle it economically.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel responded harshly to Trump on X: “Cuba is a free, independent, and sovereign nation. No one dictates what we do. Cuba does not attack; it has been attacked by the US for 66 years, and it does not threaten; it prepares itself, ready to defend the homeland to the last drop of blood.”
He added: “Those who blame the Revolution for the severe economic shortages we suffer should be ashamed to speak. Because they know and acknowledge that these shortages are the result of the draconian measures of extreme suffocation that the US has been applying to us for six decades and now threatens to exceed… Those who turn everything into business, even human lives, have no moral right to point the finger at Cuba for anything, absolutely anything. Those who today hysterically rail against our nation do so out of rage over the sovereign decision of this people to choose their political model.”
Regarding Trump’s “warning,” which some have called a threat, demanding negotiations, Díaz-Canel said: “There are no talks with the US government, except for technical contacts in the area of migration. We have always been willing to engage in serious and responsible dialogue with the various US administrations, including the current one, based on sovereign equality, mutual respect, principles of international law, reciprocal benefit without interference in internal affairs, and with full respect for our independence.”
For his part, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez reported that it is false that Cuba has received money or oil in exchange for the security activities carried out by several Cubans in Venezuela, of whom 32 were killed during the US attack on January 3 against the South American country.
“Cuba does not receive nor has it ever received any monetary or material compensation for the security services rendered to any country. Unlike the US, we do not have a government that lends itself to mercenarism, blackmail, or military coercion against other states,” Rodríguez wrote in X.
This exchange of statements comes at one of the most critical moments in the history of the Caribbean. The Trump administration has increased measures that strengthen the economic blockade. In addition, one of its first orders of business in January 2025 was to include Cuba once again on the SSoT list, which has had serious economic consequences for the Caribbean island. With the announced suspension of oil shipments to Cuba, the United States seeks to further suffocate an island that has resisted, in its own way, one of the longest-running economic blockades against an entire country in history.
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