Trump: Cuba’s regime will fall very soon

President Donald Trump said Friday that Cuba will fall very soon, in a new threat to the communist island under a US oil blockade.

“They very much want to make a deal,” Trump told CNN in an interview the day after he hinted at a plan for Cuba after the war on Iran ended.

“We’ve plenty of time, but Cuba is ready, after 50 years,” he said, adding that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would be in charge of the Cuban file.

Neither Trump nor Rubio, who is of Cuban descent, has made no secret of their desire to change the regime in Havana.

Washington is imposing an oil embargo on the Caribbean country that has led to a sharp decline in its fuel stockpile, following the United States’ arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whose country is Cuba’s main oil supplier.

Cuba hasn’t received any oil supplies since January 9, forcing airlines to scale back flights to the island and exacerbating a deepening economic crisis.

From its part, Havana accuses Trump of seeking to stifle the Cuban economy.

Cuba, which has been under a US trade embargo since 1962, has been in the grip of a severe economic crisis for years, with frequent power cuts and severe shortages of fuel, medicine and food.

On Friday, the US Embassy in Cuba announced that US State Department Coordinator for Cuban Affairs Rob Allison met in Havana with two senior officials of the island’s Catholic Church.

In a post on X, it said Allison met with US Chargé d’Affaires Mike Hammer and Cuban bishops and that the meeting touched on the Trump administration’s humanitarian assistance that Caritas is distributing in the eastern provinces of the island, as well as the need for change to improve the situation in Cuba.