WASHINGTON — President Trump on Sunday crowed about cutting off Venezuelan money and oil to Cuba and encouraged Havana to “make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”
“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!” Trump posted on Truth Social.
“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,” he continued.
“THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO! I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”
Trump did not provide specifics on what kind of deal he’d like to see from Cuba, which has been a rival of the US for decades.
Top Trump administration officials, including the president and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have claimed that Cuban security forces were protecting Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro when US Delta Forces ripped through them during the Jan. 3 raid.
Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel was defiant in the face of Trump’s threat, insisting that “nobody dictates what we do.”
“Cuba is a free, independent, and sovereign nation. Nobody dictates what we do,” Diaz-Canel posted on X, per a translation.
“Cuba does not attack; it has been attacked by the U.S. for 66 years, and it does not threaten; it prepares, ready to defend the homeland to the last drop of blood.”
Up until recently, Venezuela had been Cuba’s largest oil supplier, but Trump cut that off by imposing a quarantine on most oil entering and exiting the South American country.
At the moment, the US and Venezuela are eying a $2 billion deal in which Venezuela would send as much as 50 million barrels of oil to America, with the funds to be deposited into supervised accounts.
Trump unveiled that deal last week.
Venezuela has the largest confirmed oil reserves in the world, but has struggled with a lack of sophisticated infrastructure to extract it.
Last week, Trump held a meeting with oil executives to map out ways to boost Venezuela’s oil production.
Top administration officials have also hinted at the president’s aspirations for Cuba.
“If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I would be concerned. At least a little bit,” Rubio told reporters after the capture of Maduro.
