Rubio urges – In a Spanish-language video posted Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio appealed directly to Cubans to align with the Trump administration, tying Cuba’s shortages to leaders under Raúl Castro and the GAESA conglomerate as the United States tightens pressu
Marco Rubio didn’t speak from a briefing room on Wednesday morning. He spoke straight to the Cuban people—on the State Department’s YouTube channel—inside a short video released on the anniversary of Cuba’s independence from Spain and its years under U.S. military occupation.
In the address, delivered in Spanish with English subtitles, the secretary of state urged Cubans to “align” with the Trump administration as it tries to weaken the Cuban regime. “President Trump is offering a new path between the U.S. and a new Cuba,” Mr. Rubio said in the video.
The message is also unusual for Rubio. It is the first direct appeal he has made to the people of Cuba. He has spent decades focused on the island, and he has long been viewed as a hawk on U.S. policy toward Cuba, with little effort to hide hopes to topple or undermine the government.
Rubio’s video also pointed toward a specific figure, mentioning Raúl Castro around the one-minute mark. Mr. Castro. who also served as defense minister. is expected to be indicted by the Justice Department on Wednesday for having ordered the shooting down of two civilian planes in 1996. Four people were killed.
The secretary of state argued that the Cuban leadership is responsible for the country’s deepening hardships. including electricity and resource shortages that have stretched for years. He blamed those shortages on Mr. Castro and GAESA, the military-run conglomerate that controls most aspects of Cuba’s economy.
“The reason you are forced to survive 22 hours a day without electricity is not due to an oil blockade by the U.S. ” Mr. Rubio said in Spanish. “The real reason you don’t have electricity. fuel or food is because those who control your country have plundered billions of dollars. but nothing has been used to help the people.”.
Cuba has been struggling with an energy crisis for more than two years. with worsening conditions driven by crumbling infrastructure and a dwindling supply from Venezuela. its longtime benefactor. This year. after the United States overthrew Venezuela’s leader. Nicolás Maduro. it seized control of Venezuela’s oil industry and imposed an effective blockade barring all foreign oil from reaching Cuba. The Cuban government said last week that its oil reserves had run dry.
Rubio’s appeal arrives as the Trump administration, in its second term, has intensified efforts to isolate the communist government and pull Cuba closer to the American orbit. Maduro’s ouster has been viewed in part as a strategy aimed at weakening Cuba.
On Monday, the administration issued sanctions against some of Cuba’s top leaders, including military and party officials, in hopes of pressuring the government to overhaul its system.
With this video. Rubio is attempting something different from the pressure tactics of the past few days: reaching past the government and addressing ordinary Cubans directly—linking their day-to-day struggle to the leadership he says has failed them and offering the promise of a “new path” under a Trump administration.
Marco Rubio Cuba Trump administration State Department YouTube GAESA Raúl Castro sanctions energy crisis Venezuela oil Nicolás Maduro Justice Department indictment 1996 plane shooting