Marco Rubio poses in front of Cuba map after | Political News

Secretary of State Marco Rubio was noticed posing in front of a map of Cuba after President Donald Trump made a number of threats about taking over the nation.

The image, which options Rubio visiting General Francis L. Donovan at the headquarters of the U.S. Southern Command, states that the Trump official and Donovan “targeted on U.S. efforts to counter threats that undermine security, stability, and democracy in our hemisphere.” It provides, “The Secretary attended the 2026 Chiefs of Mission Conference at SOUTHCOM, which convened senior U.S. government leaders to discuss advancing National Security Strategy objectives in our region.”

Hours later, Rubio was questioned about Cuba while filling in for press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who is presently out on maternity depart. “So incompetent communists run that country,” Rubio told members of the assembled press.

“They don’t know how to fix it. They really don’t,” he added. “And we have 90 miles from our shores, a failed state that also happens to be friendly territory for some of our adversaries.”

“So it’s an unacceptable status quo,” Rubio continued. “I will be addressing it, but not today.”

It was reported last month that a U.S. Navy surveillance plane was caught flying a mission close to Cuba, monitoring areas around Havana and Guantánamo Bay as tensions between Cuba and the U.S. mount. the mission was first reported by Clash Report, which said: “A U.S. Navy MQ-4C Triton surveillance drone flew a 12+ hour mission near Cuba, monitoring areas around Havana and Guantánamo Bay from international airspace.”

Miguel Díaz-Canel, Cuba’s president, declared that, while Cuba has no want for navy battle with the United States, the nation stands prepared to defend itself if mandatory. Díaz-Canel made the declaration before lots of of attendees at a rally marking the sixty fifth anniversary of the Cuban Revolution’s socialist declaration.

“The moment is extremely challenging and calls upon us once again, as on April 16, 1961, to be ready to confront serious threats, including military aggression,” he said.”We do not want it, but it is our duty to prepare to avoid it and, if it becomes inevitable, to defeat it.”

President Trump has repeatedly instructed his administration may flip its consideration to Cuba once the battle in Iran concludes. “We may stop by Cuba after we finish with this,” he is said.

Trump has beforehand threatened to intervene in Cuba, related to the motion taken in early January when the U.S. navy struck Venezuela and disrupted vital oil shipments from the South American nation. Shortly thereafter, Trump threatened to impose tariffs on any nation that provides oil to Cuba.

Both Trump and Rubio — whose mother and father emigrated from Cuba in the Nineteen Fifties forward of the revolution — have characterised the island’s authorities as ineffective and abusive. Washington’s circumstances for easing sanctions against Havana embody halting political repression, releasing political prisoners, and opening up the nation’s struggling financial system. Díaz-Canel accused them of trying to assemble a “narrative” that has no justification.

“Cuba is not a failed state. Cuba is a besieged state. Cuba is a state facing multidimensional aggression: economic warfare, an intensified blockade and an energy blockade,” said Díaz-Canel.”Cuba is a threatened state that does not surrender. And despite everything. And thanks to socialism. Cuba is a state that resists, creates, and make no mistake, a state that will prevail.”