The US president has urged Havana to strike a deal with Washington \u201cbefore it is too late\u201d<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump has said Cuba will no longer receive Venezuelan oil and money, warning the island to do a deal with Washington \u201cbefore it\u2019s too late.\u201d
\nCuba, a close ally of Venezuela and a major beneficiary of its subsidized oil, has seen supplies from the OPEC nation dry up since early January. Shipping data show no crude cargoes have left Venezuelan ports for the island since President Nicolas Maduro was abducted by American forces, as a strict US-led oil blockade brought deliveries to a halt.
\n\u201cTHERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA \u2013 ZERO!\u201d Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, adding that \u201cCuba lived, for many years, on large amounts of OIL and MONEY from Venezuela.\u201d
\n\u201cI strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE,\u201d he added.
\nDozens of Venezuelan and Cuban security personnel were killed in the US raid earlier this month, after which Trump said Cuba was \u201cready to fall,\u201d citing the island\u2019s deep economic crisis and warning that Havana would struggle to endure without subsidized Venezuelan oil.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Rubio could lead Cuba \u2013 Trump<\/p>\n
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel rejected Trump\u2019s threat, saying Washington had no moral authority to impose a deal on Havana. \u201cCuba is a free, independent and sovereign nation. Nobody dictates what we do,\u201d Diaz-Canel wrote on X on Sunday, adding that the island had been under US attack for decades and would defend itself if necessary.
\nCaracas and Washington meanwhile are reportedly moving forward on a $2 billion deal under which Venezuela would supply up to 50 million barrels of crude to the US, with proceeds held in Treasury\u2011supervised accounts.
\nSenior Trump officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have made clear they believe that the US intervention in Venezuela could push Cuba to the brink. American rhetoric toward Havana has sharpened in recent weeks. The US has kept a comprehensive trade embargo on the Caribbean nation since the 1960s. While the Obama and Biden administrations took steps to normalize relations, Trump reinstated Cuba on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The US president has urged Havana to strike a deal with Washington \u201cbefore it is too late\u201d US President Donald Trump has said Cuba will no longer receive Venezuelan oil…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t