Rubio doubts diplomacy with Cuba as Trump threatens possible intervention

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President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio renewed warnings on Thursday that the United States could resort to military action toward Cuba, while both framed diplomacy as the preferred route. The remarks came a day after the Trump administration announced criminal charges involving Cuba’s former leader, Raúl Castro, a move that Cuban officials said aimed to set up justification for force.

Trump told reporters during an environmental event in the Oval Office that “Other presidents have looked at this for 50, 60 years, doing something,” when asked about Cuba. He added, “And, it looks like I’ll be the one that does it. So, I would be happy to do it.”

Rubio, speaking separately after traveling, said Cuba has long posed a national security threat to the United States because of its ties to U.S. adversaries. He said the Trump administration wants to resolve differences peacefully, but he expressed doubt about reaching a diplomatic resolution with Cuba’s current government.

Rubio said in Miami that Trump’s “preference is always a negotiated agreement that’s peaceful. That’s always our preference. That remains our preference with Cuba.” He then said, “I’m just being honest with you, you know, the likelihood of that happening, given who we’re dealing with right now, is not high,” as he prepared to attend a NATO meeting in Sweden and then visit India.

The renewed rhetoric followed a week in which the administration imposed additional sanctions on Cuba, while also exploring potential improvements in relations through meetings involving top Trump aides, including Rubio and CIA chief John Ratcliffe. Rubio said the United States has come away “unimpressed” from those talks, leading to further sanctions imposed on the Cuban government in the past week, and he warned that Cuba has relied on “buying time and waiting us out.”

Rubio told reporters that when the question is whether the United States would use force to change Cuba’s political system, a diplomatic settlement remains preferred while the president retains options. He also pushed back when a reporter suggested the approach sounded like “nation-building,” saying it was about addressing a national security risk.

The new threats took on greater weight after U.S. prosecutors unveiled the Castro indictment on Wednesday. The indictment accuses Castro of ordering the 1996 shootdown of civilian planes flown by Miami-based exiles, according to the report, and it included charges involving murder and the destruction of an airplane.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel condemned the indictment as a “political stunt” and said it sought only to “justify the folly of a military aggression against Cuba.” Rubio also declined to discuss how the United States might implement the indictment against Castro, who turns 95 next month.

The developments also coincided with a visible U.S. military posture in the Caribbean. The U.S. military touted the arrival of the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and accompanying ships to the region on the same day the charges were announced, and U.S. Southern Command said the vessels were taking part in maritime exercises with partners in Latin America that began in March.

The story has built on earlier moves by the Trump administration toward tighter pressure on Cuba, including talk of regime change after Trump pledged a “friendly takeover” if Cuba did not open its economy to American investment and remove U.S. adversaries. The report said that Trump has threatened military action since ousting Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and then ordering an energy blockade that choked off fuel shipments to Cuba, leading to blackouts, food shortages and an economic collapse on the island.

Rubio on Thursday also announced a new enforcement action tied to Cuba’s military-linked conglomerate GAESA, or Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A. He said the sister of the GAESA executive president—described as living in the United States—had her green card revoked and was arrested, with Rubio saying she was in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, adding that the Trump administration said past administrations allowed family members of Cuban military elites and “Iranian terrorists and other reprehensible organizations” to live in the United States on what Rubio called “stolen blood-money.”

China condemned the U.S. pressure, with a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, saying Thursday that China opposes “external interference” and “firmly supports Cuba in safeguarding its national sovereignty and national dignity and opposes external interference.”