<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: capitalize; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: nowrap; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; float: none; display: inline !important;" id="isPasted">WASHINGTON:&nbsp;US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday denied a report that US officials have urged Cuba to oust its president, Miguel Diaz-Canel.&nbsp;In a late-night post on X, Rubio said that the article by The New York Times was &quot;fake&quot; and was among media reports that relied on &quot;charlatans and liars claiming to be in the know&quot; as sources.&nbsp;The newspaper reported Monday that officials under President Donald Trump have asked Cuba to remove the president but have not pushed for a complete toppling of the communist government.&nbsp;Rubio did not say if he was denying the whole article or particular parts of it.&nbsp;The newspaper said that US officials saw Diaz-Canel as a hardliner who would not institute change, but that the United States had not gone so far as to issue an ultimatum for his removal.&nbsp;Rubio, a Cuban-American former senator from Miami, has for years pushed for the end to the communist system in Cuba launched by Fidel Castro in a 1959 revolution.&nbsp;Rubio earlier on Tuesday told reporters that Cuba needed to take more &quot;dramatic&quot; action than new measures to allow overseas Cubans to invest and own businesses in the island, which a day earlier suffered a nationwide blackout.&nbsp;Trump has piled pressure on Cuba, which has been suffering an economic crisis. Trump forced Venezuela to stop sending oil, which made up half of Cuba&#39;s needs, after US forces raided Caracas in January and deposed and snatched the leftist president, Nicolas Maduro.&nbsp;Trump has said that he is interested in an unspecified &quot;deal&quot; with Cuba, but has also boasted that he can take over the country, saying that it is weak.&nbsp;In Venezuela and now in Iran, which he attacked with Israel on February 28, Trump has pursued a strategy not of seeking to overthrow governments but of forcing compliance.&nbsp;Trump has voiced happiness with Venezuela&#39;s interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, who was Maduro&#39;s vice president, after threatening her with violence if she does not meet his demands, including preferential treatment for US oil companies.&nbsp;Unlike Venezuela and Iran, Cuba does not have oil wealth, but it carries importance in domestic US politics.&nbsp;Cuban-American lawmakers, mostly part of Trump&#39;s Republican Party, have long pushed for pressure on Havana.

Americas

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied reports that the US asked Cuba to remove President Miguel Díaz-Canel, calling them false, while tensions and pressure on Cuba continue.

Rubio denies US seeking to oust Cuba president

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump urged Cuba on Sunday to &quot;make a deal&quot; or face unspecified consequences, warning that the flow of Venezuelan oil and money to Havana would now stop.&nbsp;&quot;There will be no more oil or money going to cuba - zero!&quot; Trump said on his Truth Social channel. &quot;I strongly suggest they make a deal, before it is too late.&quot;&nbsp;His remarks come a week after US forces seized Venezuela&#39;s authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro in a nighttime operation in Caracas that killed dozens of Venezuelan and Cuban security forces.&nbsp;Earlier on Sunday, Trump reposted a message suggesting that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio could become the president of now communist-ruled Cuba.&nbsp;Trump shared that post with the comment: &quot;Sounds good to me!&quot;&nbsp;In his own post soon afterwards, Trump said that &quot;Cuba lived, for many years, on large amounts of oil and money from Venezuela. In return, Cuba provided &#39;Security Services&#39; for the last two Venezuelan dictators, but not anymore!&quot;&nbsp;&quot;Most of those Cubans are DEAD from last week&#39;s U.S.A. attack, and Venezuela doesn&#39;t need protection anymore from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for so many years.&quot;&nbsp;Under a US trade embargo, Havana since 2000 has increasingly relied on Venezuelan oil provided as part of a deal struck with Maduro&#39;s predecessor Hugo Chavez.

US President Donald Trump warned Cuba to “make a deal” or face consequences, saying Venezuelan oil and money to Havana would stop following US actions against Venezuela’s leadership.

Articles tagged with "cuba"

Rubio denies US seeking to oust Cuba president

Trump tells Cuba to 'make a deal, before it is too late'