Cuba's top diplomat to the United States says recent sanctions targeting the island's leadership and the indictment of former President Raúl Castro are a "pretext" for the Trump administration to persuade the American people to support a U.S. military intervention in Cuba. In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Ambassador Lianys Torres Rivera complained bitterly that the U.S. is targeting Cuban civilians with its decades-old embargo and new blockade of energy shipments to the island. She described the situation as "a war without bombs." Trump has been threatening military action in Cuba for months, while his energy blockade has choked off fuel shipments.
President Donald Trump this week said he believes he'll have "the honor of taking Cuba" soon. Without declaring a formal blockade, Trump and his administration have already crippled trade with the island and threatened the future of the Communist Party regime. In March, supplies of oil, food and other goods to the island collapsed, with no foreign-originating tankers arriving to Cuba, according to shipping data analyzed by Windward, a maritime intelligence firm. The volume of port calls, which includes tankers moving from one Cuban port to another, averaged around 50 per month in 2025 but fell to just 11 in March - all of them arriving from domestic ports. It was the lowest since 2017.
President Donald Trump says the United States is talking with Cuba and raised the possibility of a "friendly takeover" of the island without explaining what that means. Trump told reporters on Friday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is speaking with Cuban leaders at a "very high level," but the White House offered no further details. Trump suggested that Cuba is facing economic collapse. His comments come as Cuba says it is communicating with U.S. officials after a deadly shooting involving a Florida-registered speedboat in waters off the island. Rubio has said that investigators are looking into it.
Tens of thousands of Cubans have gathered in Havana to protest the killing of 32 Cuban officers in Venezuela. The demonstration took place Friday at the "José Martí Anti-Imperialist" plaza across from the U.S. Embassy. The crowd demanded the release of former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, who was arrested by the U.S. on Jan. 3. Cuba's Foreign Ministry described the protest as a response to threats against peace and sovereignty. President Miguel Díaz-Canel attended the event. The protest follows U.S. President Donald Trump's recent demands for Cuba to negotiate with him amid tightened sanctions and economic struggles.
