One day after the United States brought criminal charges against former Cuban leader Raul Castro over the 1996 shooting down of two civilian aircraft, President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio portrayed Cuba as both a growing national security threat tied to China and Russia and a candidate for a negotiated political transition.
The comments came amid renewed friction between Washington and Beijing over Cuba after China criticised the US charges against Castro and accused Washington of escalating pressure on Havana.
“The US side should stop brandishing the sanctions stick and the judicial stick against Cuba and stop threatening force at every turn,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Thursday.
“China firmly supports Cuba in safeguarding its national sovereignty and national dignity and opposes external interference.”
On Thursday, Rubio repeatedly framed Cuba as a national security concern for the United States, citing the island’s ties to Russia and China as well as the risk of instability near Florida.
“Cuba not only has weapons that they’ve acquired from Russia and China over the years, but they also host Russian and Chinese intelligence presence in their country, not far from where we’re standing right now,” Rubio said during remarks in Homestead, south of Miami.
“So Cuba has consistently posed a threat to the national security of the United States. Our preference in Cuba and anywhere in the world is always a negotiated diplomatic settlement.
“But if there’s a threat to our national security, the president has a right and an obligation to address that threat,” he added.
Trump, meanwhile, described Cuba as “a failed country” suffering from severe shortages of food, electricity and fuel, while also portraying the island as a future destination for investment by Cuban-Americans.
“We have Cuba on our mind, it’s very important,” Trump said. “We want to open it up to Cuban-Americans, where they can go back and help.”
The comments offered the clearest picture yet of how the administration views Cuba after months of escalating pressure and increasingly forceful rhetoric.
Trump also suggested that previous US administrations had hesitated to act more aggressively towards Cuba, but implied his administration could take a different approach.
“Other presidents have looked at this for 50, 60 years, doing something,” Trump told reporters during an Oval Office event on Thursday. “And it looks like I’ll be the one that does it. So, I would be happy to do it.”
The administration’s tougher rhetoric also coincided with a visible increase in US military presence in the Caribbean.
US Southern Command confirmed on Wednesday that the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and its accompanying strike group had entered Caribbean waters, describing the deployment as a demonstration of American “readiness and presence, unmatched reach and lethality, and strategic advantage”.
The deployment came as the Trump administration intensified pressure on Havana and unsealed murder charges against Castro, though US officials did not explicitly link the carrier group’s presence to Cuba.
The strike group includes the guided-missile destroyer USS Gridley and Carrier Air Wing 17, equipped with F/A-18 Super Hornets and electronic warfare aircraft.
Rubio confirmed that US officials continued to engage directly with the Cuban government despite the indictment and broader sanctions campaign.
“Our ambassador has met with them recently. The CIA director was down there a few weeks ago,” Rubio said.
Asked how the administration planned to bring Castro to the United States following the indictment, Rubio declined to elaborate.
“At that point, he becomes a fugitive of American justice,” Rubio said. “If there’s an announcement of what our plans are, we’ll tell you afterwards, not before.”
Washington has tightened sanctions on Cuba since January, increased pressure on foreign fuel suppliers and intensified scrutiny of the military-run conglomerate GAESA, which Rubio has described as “a state within a state” controlling much of the Cuban economy.
Analysts cautioned, however, that there was little evidence the administration was preparing imminent military action against Cuba despite the increasingly confrontational rhetoric.
Cuban officials have rejected the administration’s accusations and described the indictment against Castro as politically motivated.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Wednesday accused Washington of attempting to justify future aggression against the island and defended Cuba’s actions in the 1996 shooting down as “legitimate self-defence”. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
