Marco Rubio Is Intentionally Blocking Trump From Cuba Talks

[ad_1] A disaster is quickly creating in Cuba, because the Trump administration’s efforts to dam gasoline from reaching the island have turn out to be more and more efficient since an govt order threatened tariffs on any nation buying and selling with Cuba. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has buckled beneath the stress and halted oil deliveries to Cuba. Drop Website’s José Luis Granados Ceja stories on the catastrophic penalties of the power hunger.

Read his dispatch here .

In the meantime, again in Washington, President Trump claims that negotiations are underway to resolve the standoff. That, it seems, is just false—a lie being informed to him by Secretary of State Marco Rubio as a part of his bold play to overthrow the Cuban authorities.

The story beneath is written by Noah Kulwin, who reported from Havana; Granados Ceja, who reported from Mexico Metropolis; and myself. This type of reporting isn’t low cost, however is made obtainable to the general public without spending a dime due to readers who fund Drop Website Information.

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<source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7rF9!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1f2ca63c-cd0a-4fab-b570-d43219b0a24c_8256x5504.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7rF9!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1f2ca63c-cd0a-4fab-b570-d43219b0a24c_8256x5504.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7rF9!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1f2ca63c-cd0a-4fab-b570-d43219b0a24c_8256x5504.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7rF9!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1f2ca63c-cd0a-4fab-b570-d43219b0a24c_8256x5504.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"/><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7rF9!,w_2400,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1f2ca63c-cd0a-4fab-b570-d43219b0a24c_8256x5504.jpeg" width="1200" height="800.2747252747253" data-attrs="{"src":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/1f2ca63c-cd0a-4fab-b570-d43219b0a24c_8256x5504.jpeg","srcNoWatermark":null,"fullscreen":false,"imageSize":"large","height":971,"width":1456,"resizeWidth":1200,"bytes":16439925,"alt":null,"title":null,"type":"image/jpeg","href":null,"belowTheFold":false,"topImage":true,"internalRedirect":"https://www.dropsitenews.com/i/187426624?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1f2ca63c-cd0a-4fab-b570-d43219b0a24c_8256x5504.jpeg","isProcessing":false,"align":"center","offset":false}" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7rF9!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1f2ca63c-cd0a-4fab-b570-d43219b0a24c_8256x5504.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7rF9!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1f2ca63c-cd0a-4fab-b570-d43219b0a24c_8256x5504.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7rF9!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1f2ca63c-cd0a-4fab-b570-d43219b0a24c_8256x5504.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7rF9!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1f2ca63c-cd0a-4fab-b570-d43219b0a24c_8256x5504.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high" class="sizing-large"/> Secretary of State Marco Rubio arms a observe to President Donald Trump throughout a gathering with U.S. oil corporations executives on the White Home on January 9, 2026. Picture by SAUL LOEB / AFP through Getty Photographs. To listen to President Donald Trump inform it, the USA is deep in negotiations with Cuban authorities officers because the U.S. applies most stress to the island. “We’re speaking to the individuals from Cuba, the very best individuals in Cuba, to see what occurs,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Sunday, February 1. “I believe we’re going to make a cope with Cuba.”

Cuban leaders, in the meantime, have mentioned they're open to negotiations on the whole lot from human rights to democracy to tourism and direct overseas funding. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel mentioned in a current press convention that Cuba is keen to have interaction in dialogue with the USA on any challenge, supplied talks happen with out stress or preconditions, on the idea of respect for Cuban sovereignty. Senior Cuban leaders reiterated to Drop Website that the federal government is critical about being open to wide-ranging talks. And Trump is not any stranger to the island’s potential for American corporations, having himself long held a registered trademark for a Trump Havana property that he has yearly renewed.

All of the proof would appear to counsel that the chance for Trump to strike a historic deal is at hand. However, regardless of the president’s claims, there are and have been no negotiations involving high-level officers between Havana and Washington, in accordance with 5 Cuban and American officers, all of whom requested for anonymity given the sensitivity of the Cuba-U.S. relationship.

On the subject of Trump’s claims of these talks, it seems he isn’t mendacity. As a substitute, sources inform Drop Website, he’s being lied to. “He’s saying that as a result of that’s what Marco is telling him,” mentioned a senior Trump official, referring to an inner effort by Secretary of State Marco Rubio to make Trump consider that the U.S. and Cuba are engaged in critical negotiations with out ever doing so. The thought, the supply mentioned, is that in a number of weeks or months, Rubio will have the ability to declare that the talks have been futile due to Cuban intransigence. With diplomatic off-ramps being blocked, this might make Rubio’s imaginative and prescient of regime change the one path ahead for an administration loath to reverse course on something.

Requested about the truth that Rubio is deceptive Trump about talks that aren’t occurring, the State Division’s press workplace stood by the declare that such negotiations are certainly occurring, forwarding alongside remark from an administration official: “Because the President said, we're speaking to Cuba, whose leaders ought to make a deal. Cuba is a failing nation whose rulers have had a serious setback with the lack of assist from Venezuela and with Mexico ceasing to ship them oil.” The assertion supplied no proof the talks are going down, named no officers taking part, no dates of any conferences, nor did it establish a location the place the supposed talks are occurring.

Trump, in the meantime, has indicated he isn’t all for an ideological confrontation with Cuba. This, sources counsel, is one solution to perceive why, after kidnapping Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the U.S. has made Venezuela roll back key Chávez-era oil laws through a reform that opens up the nation to overseas funding as a substitute of fixing its regime. Rubio, in the meantime, pushed onerous internally for a full regime change in Venezuela, however needed to accept merely eradicating Maduro. Finally, although, for Rubio, the actual prize has at all times been Cuba.

The Cuban-American Rubio solutions to a political base in south Florida that will revolt if he struck any deal normalizing relations with the communist authorities—and who, finally, would have the facility to undo him. Rubio’s rise by Florida and nationwide politics — which now has him on the cusp of the Oval Workplace — has been accompanied by a string of corruption scandals , but with unified assist again residence, he has managed to emerge with a comparatively clear popularity nationally. If Trump efficiently lands a cope with the Cuban authorities that Rubio must log out on, Rubio can be left to both betray his life’s cause and that of his backers in Miami , or resign in protest.

For Rubio’s opponents contained in the administration, the second represents a chance to make Cuba into his Waterloo .

Within the wake of Trump’s claims of high-level talks, confused Cuban officers insisted to Drop Website that no such talks have been then underway, however that they have been anticipating them to begin. Misinformation within the media, nonetheless, has muddied the state of affairs.

On February 2, the day after Trump’s feedback, Politico highlighted a report that the son of Raúl Castro had traveled to Mexico Metropolis for talks with the Central Intelligence Company and requested in a headline: “Might a Castro turn out to be our man in Havana?”

The article, nonetheless, is sourced to 14YMedio , a information outlet run by Havana-based dissident blogger Yoani Sánchez, which itself primarily based its reporting on a single, fantastical Facebook post made by a Spain-based Cuban journalist. But the Politico report started circulating in Washington and has been accepted as reality. Senior Cuban officers inform Drop Website there are not any talks occurring in Mexico or anyplace else.

“In the mean time, we’ve had some exchanges of messages, however we can not say we've got set a bilateral dialogue at this second,” Cuba’s Deputy Minister of Overseas Affairs Carlos Fernandez de Cossio affirmed in a CNN interview this previous Wednesday. “Most issues in Cuba coping with the USA are linked to the very best degree. It’s a big challenge for us, so there’s no determination, no motion taken that doesn’t contain the excessive degree of presidency in Cuba.”

A “senior State Division official” informed the New York Times recently that contact between the Cuban and U.S. authorities was “not substantive” and merely mentioned migrant repatriation. Elaborating, a senior Cuban official informed Drop Website that the contacts are purely technical, with the U.S. telling Cuban officers when flights with deported migrants can be heading to Havana, and Cuban officers acknowledging receipt of the message.

An article on Wednesday within the Spanish outlet ABC Internacional added to the confusion, claiming that Mexican official Efraín Guadarrama is facilitating the talks. A well-placed supply with direct information tells Drop Website Guadarrama is doing no such factor.

Within the wake of the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, prime Cuban authorities officers have turn out to be more and more all for wide-ranging talks with the Trump administration—talks that might even embody Rubio, a longtime foe of the federal government, a number of Cuban officers inform Drop Website. The one purple line, they mentioned, is that the island’s sovereignty isn't up for negotiation.

Havana’s want for talks, bordering on desperation, has been signaled to the USA by a wide range of channels, together with by press statements and up to date interviews with the Associated Press and CNN . “Cuba reiterates its willingness to maintain a respectful and reciprocal dialogue with the Authorities of the USA,” the Cuban overseas ministry mentioned in a February 1 launch, “directed towards concrete outcomes, grounded in mutual curiosity and worldwide legislation.”

The ministry added that Cuba was keen to “broaden” the scope of talks, saying the nation “firmly rejects being portrayed as a risk to the safety of the USA. It has by no means engaged in hostile actions in opposition to that nation, nor will it allow its territory for use in opposition to some other nation. Cuba, quite the opposite, is ready to renew and broaden bilateral cooperation with the USA in addressing shared transnational threats, whereas unwaveringly defending its sovereignty and independence.”

In an interview with Newsweek , Cuban Everlasting Consultant to the U.N. Ernesto Soberón Guzmán mentioned Cuba can be comfortable to work with Trump on immigration, drug interdiction, well being analysis—he famous Trump’s reward for Cuba’s comparatively decrease charges of autism—and different areas.

Along with the continuing financial crisis , the proximate trigger for Cuban concern is an executive order issued on January 29 by President Donald Trump threatening heavy tariffs on “some other nation that immediately or not directly sells or in any other case offers any oil to Cuba.”

Although not talked about by title, the tariff risk is geared toward Mexico, whose state oil firm has in recent times been the first provider of oil to the small island nation situated 90 miles off the southern coast of Florida. In response, Mexico’s state oil firm, PEMEX, has reportedly suspended at the least one deliberate cargo of oil to its Cuban ally, leaving Cuba with an estimated two to three weeks’ worth of oil to maintain the nation working.

Overburdened, underfueled, and out of date, Cuba’s electrical energy grid is barely hanging on , whereas the Cuban authorities publicly says it's getting ready to manage life within the nation with virtually zero energy. On Friday, ministers started to roll out a nationwide energy rationing plan . The measures embody chopping mass transit, slashing particular person gasoline allotments, and decreasing in-person days for secondary faculty college students. Whereas People sat down for Tremendous Bowl Sunday, Cuban authorities told airlines there was solely at some point’s provide of aviation gasoline left within the nation. On Monday, the U.S. intercepted an oil tanker as far-off because the Indian Ocean for allegedly planning to ship gasoline to Cuba.

Read more from Drop Site on Cuba’s oil crisis here.

At a prolonged press convention this previous Thursday, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel reiterated his nation’s emphatic openness to negotiation with the USA with out “stress” or “preconditions.” Broadcasted on TV and radio around the globe, Díaz-Canel’s feedback have been made, as one Wall Road Journal reporter observed , “with an viewers of 1 in Washington”—Donald Trump.