The President of the United States, Donald Trump, said on Friday that ‘Cuba is next’ during a speech at an investment forum in Miami, at which he praised the successes of the U.S. military action in Venezuela and Iran.
Although the president has not specified exactly what he plans to do with the island nation, he has frequently said that he believes the Havana government, which is facing a severe economic crisis, is on the verge of collapse.
His administration has begun negotiations with elements of Cuba’s leadership in recent weeks, while Trump himself has indicated that kinetic action could be possible.
‘I built this great army. I said, ‘You will never have to use it.’ But sometimes you have to use it. And, by the way, Cuba is next,’ Trump said at Friday’s conference.
‘But pretend I didn’t say that. Pretend I didn’t say that.’
The Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, acknowledged that the country is in negotiations with the United States in an attempt to avert a potential military confrontation. Cuba’s economy has been harmed by disruptions in oil imports, on which the country depends to operate power plants and transportation.
Before the U.S. operation to capture the Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, now deposed, in January, Venezuela supplied a large portion of Cuba’s petroleum needs, but the new Caracas government, under pressure from Washington, halted those shipments.
In early March, Trump had said that Cuba could be subject to a ‘friendly takeover’, before adding: ‘It may not be a friendly takeover’.
