US talking deal with 'highest people' in Cuba: Trump

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Sunday that Washington was negotiating with Havana’s leadership to strike a deal, days after he threatened Cuba’s reeling economy with a virtual oil blockade.

“Cuba is a failing nation. It has been for a long time, but now it doesn’t have Venezuela to prop it up. So we’re talking to the people from Cuba, the highest people in Cuba, to see what happens,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

“I think we’re going to make a deal with Cuba.”

Trump gave no indication what such a deal might entail.

His second administration has been ratcheting up pressure on the communist-run island nation off south Florida since the January 3 US ouster of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, whose country was a close ally of Havana and a crucial source for oil exports to Cuba.

On Thursday, the Republican president signed an executive order threatening to impose additional tariffs on countries that sell oil to Cuba.

The following day, Cubans were queueing up in long lines at gas stations in Havana.

Mike Hammer, the US charge d’affaires to Cuba since 2024, said during a visit this weekend to Trinidad province in central Cuba that he encountered residents who “shouted some insults” at him.

“I think they belong to a certain party, but I know they do not represent the Cuban people, the ordinary Cubans,” Hammer said in a video posted to X, in reference to the Cuban Communist Party.

Meanwhile, the US State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said in a statement on X: “The illegitimate Cuban regime must immediately stop its repressive acts of sending individuals to interfere with the diplomatic work of CDA Hammer and members of the @USembcuba team.”

“Our diplomats will continue to meet with the Cuban people despite the regime’s failed intimidation,” the agency added.

Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Miami-born son of Cuban exiles, have made no secret of their desire to bring regime change in Havana.

After Maduro’s fall, the US president warned Havana to “make a deal soon” or face unspecified consequences.

“NO MORE OIL OR MONEY FOR CUBA: ZERO!” Trump had stated earlier, claiming Cuba was “ready to fall.”

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Sunday her administration was planning to send humanitarian aid to Cuba, including “food and other products,” while working on a diplomatic solution to continue sending oil to the island despite Trump’s threatened tariffs.

“We never discussed with President Trump the issue of oil with Cuba,” Sheinbaum added, after the two leaders had spoken by phone Thursday.

For its part, Cuba’s government has accused Trump of seeking to economically strangle the island, where daily power cuts are intensifying and lines at gas stations keep getting longer.