Fears are growing that Donald Trump may be preparing for military action in Cuba once his war in Iran comes to an end, as Washington ramps up rhetoric against the island’s communist government.
Donald Trump dramatically turned up the heat on Thursday as he told reporters he could be the president who finally takes direct action against Havana after decades of failed threats from Washington.
“Other presidents have looked at this for 50, 60 years,” Trump said. “It looks like I’ll be the one that does it.”
Separately, his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said the chances of a negotiated settlement with Havana were “not high” and cast the dispute as a threat to American national security.
In response, Cuba’s foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez accused Rubio of lying “to instigate a military aggression that would provoke the shedding of Cuban and American blood”.
The escalation came just a day after the US charged Cuba’s former president Raúl Castro with murder over the downing of two planes in 1996, which resulted in the killing of US nationals.
Cuba’s current president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, blasted the charges as a “political stunt” designed to justify possible American aggression against the island.
Trump has openly discussed toppling Cuba’s regime and demands vague political reforms. The dispute has invited pointed criticism from Russia and China, urging Washington to stop threatening Cuba with force.
Meanwhile, Cubans continue to suffer from a fuel crisis exacerbated by a US oil blockade, with citizens still experiencing food shortages and recurring blackouts.
For months, the US president has been clear in his intentions with the Caribbean island. “I do believe I’ll have the honour of taking Cuba,” he told reporters in March. “That would be good… I think I can do anything I want with it.”
Maintaining strategic ambiguity, Trump then said in a string of mixed messages on Wednesday that while “we have to help Cuban people”, he can’t say what’s next for the island nation, and there “won’t be escalation in Cuba”.
Havana has responded forcefully to the threats from Washington, accusing it of “economic warfare” and saying suggestions that Washington could “liberate” Cuba were cynical and hypocritical.
Fresh sanctions on the Cuban regime were announced on 1 May by the White House, who said they would target entities and individuals that are complicit with alleged corruption and rights violations by the Cuban government and its security apparatus.
The US and Cuba have had strained relations for decades, stemming from the island’s communist revolution and the disastrous Washington-backed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.
President Donald Trump has pushed for “regime change” in Cuba, where communists have been in charge since Fidel Castro led a revolution in 1959.
But Marco Rubio insists the United States would prefer a diplomatic solution to the crisis.
“That remains our preference with Cuba,” he told reporters this week.
“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. But if they have a change of heart, you know, we’re here. And in the meantime, we’ll keep doing what we need to do.”
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez accused Rubio of inciting military aggression and falsely labeling Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism.
For months, the United States has upped rhetoric against the regime, buoyed by the successful ousting of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro in January.
Speaking in early March after launching the US-Israeli war on Iran, Trump told Fox News: “Cuba’s next. They’re going to follow this communist dictatorship in Cuba. Their days are numbered.”
The White House has said the Cuban regime “aligns itself with countries and malign actors hostile to the United States, going so far as to facilitate their military and intelligence operations”.
It accused the country of hosting “foreign adversary facilities focused on targeting and exploiting sensitive national security information from the United States”.
The United States announced murder charges against former Cuban President Raul Castro on Wednesday, in a sharp escalation of tensions between the longtime Cold War rivals.
The indictment prompted speculation that US forces could launch an operation to capture him. But so far, the US has stopped short of direct military intervention.
