The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has asked that the Castro regime in Cuba “choose a different path”
The complicated relationship between Washington and Havana is coming back into the spotlight. “We hope that Cuba chooses a different path,” the US Secretary of State said on Monday, Marco Rubio. «Unfortunately, too many people who continue to chant revolutionary slogans still believe they can wait out the end of this government without making changes or doing anything. They are wrong and will learn their lesson the hard way if they don’t correct themselves,” he continued.
Trump’s aims on Cuba
“I would say we will reach an agreement with Cuba. I don’t think we will need the army,” he declared on Saturday. Donald Trump. Words, those of the US president, which seemed to deny a CBS article, according to which Washington was preparing for a military intervention against the Castro regime. All this, while, speaking on September 22 at the UN, the occupant of the White House had hoped for “a fundamental change in the situation in Cuba”, and then added: “Marco Rubio is handling a negotiation. He is in the midst of negotiations with Cuba. Let’s see what happens.”
In short, it seems that the US administration is alternating between the stick and the carrot.
What happened in the last year between the USA and Cuba
Moreover, relations between Washington and Havana have fluctuated between tensions and negotiations for months. In May, Axios reported that, according to American intelligence, the Castro regime was considering using 300 drones, purchased from Iran and Russia, to strike the United States. That same month, the Justice Department in Washington formally indicted the former Cuban president, Raul CastroWhile Rubio imposed sanctions against the Gaesa conglomerate (which is historically managed by the top brass of the Havana army).
However, despite these fibrillations, some significant meetings had also been held. Also in May, the director of the CIA, John Ratcliffein fact he went to the island to speak with some exponents of the Castro regime. A few weeks later, Southcom’s commander, Francis Donovaninstead had a meeting with senior officials of the armed forces of Havana near the Guantánamo Bay naval base.
The White House’s criticism of the Castro regime
In the midst of this tangled situation, something began to unblock. As reported by TheHill“in June Cuba announced a sweeping package of 176 economic reforms that included significant measures to open its economy to foreign investment.” Washington, however, expressed skepticism. “First, you have to implement them, and second, you have to maintain them,” he said Rubiolast week, talking about Cuban reforms. “The problem is certainty, and there is no legitimacy or credibility that this regime could ever comply with these conditions, because it has never done so before,” he continued.
In short, the administration Trump He judges progress with Havana to be too slow and uncertain. A situation which, if it does not change, could, sooner or later, lead the American president to choose the military option.
How the tycoon aims to revive the Monroe Doctrine
Let’s not forget that, since he returned to the White House, Trump promoted an updated reissue of the Monroe Doctrine with the express purpose of stemming Chinese influence in the Western Hemisphere. It is in this sense that Washington’s recent agreement on Greenland, the capture of, must be read Nicolás Maduro and the US pressure that (successfully) pushed Panama to abandon the Belt and Road Initiative.
Well, it is no mystery that the Castro regime is historically one of Beijing’s main points of reference in Latin America. This helps to explain the line that the American president is pursuing towards Cuba.
