By Laura Sharman, Michael Rios, CNN
(CNN) — Cuba’s leader has pushed back on Donald Trump’s demand that the Caribbean nation “make a deal” with Washington, as the US president warned that Havana would be cut off from the Venezuelan oil and money that it’s relied on for decades.
“No one dictates what we do,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said Sunday on X, responding to Trump’s insistence that the communist nation do a deal “before it’s too late.”
Cuba has long received massive aid packages from oil-rich Venezuela, but the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro during a US operation, and Trump’s announcement that Venezuela will turn over 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil to the US, is expected to leave Havana with an economic challenge.
“Cuba lived, for many years, on large amounts of OIL and MONEY from Venezuela. In return, Cuba provided ‘Security Services’ for the last two Venezuelan dictators, BUT NOT ANYMORE!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday.
“THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO!” he said before making the demand for a deal. Trump did not elaborate on what a deal with Havana could involve.
The Cuban government has said 32 of its citizens were killed “in combat actions” during the US operation to capture Maduro.
Díaz-Canel was quick to reject external interference in Cuba’s affairs.
“Cuba does not aggress; it is aggressed upon by the United States for 66 years, and it does not threaten; it prepares, ready to defend the Homeland to the last drop of blood,” said Díaz-Canel.
In an apparent reference to Trump, he said those who turn everything into a business, “even human lives,” have no moral authority to point fingers at his country.
Earlier, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez asserted the country’s “absolute right” to import fuel from economic partners without US interference and rejected Trump’s claim that Cuba exchanged security services for Venezuelan oil and money.
“The US is behaving like a criminal and uncontrolled hegemon that threatens peace and security not only of Cuba and this hemisphere but of the entire world,” Rodriguez said.
In subsequent comments aboard Air Force One, Trump told reporters the US was “talking to Cuba” but it was not immediately clear at what level discussions are taking place.
In his comments Trump said that one of the topics he wanted addressing was “the people that came from Cuba that were forced out or left under duress.”
Reactions from Cuba
The US has long wanted regime change in communist Cuba, a country governed by a socialist political system since 1961, based on the “one state, one party” principle.
A key supporter of regime change within Trump’s cabinet is Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants who came of age immersed in Miami’s exile community, rising politically within a culture where memories of the island and a deep fear of socialism remained powerful forces.
Havana residents voiced mixed reactions following Trump’s threat to cut off Venezuelan oil shipments to the island.
Paola Perez told Reuters that Cuba is not to blame for US-Venezuelan relations, but that Cuba will be “affected, quite a lot.”
“He (Trump) knows perfectly well that he has to find a solution, because he can’t just take over Cuba like that,” she added.
Another resident, Luis Alberto Jimenez, told the outlet that he is not scared by Trump’s threat to cut off Cuba’s oil supply.
“At no point does that scare me because I’m prepared,” he said. “The Cuban people are prepared for anything, any situation that may arise, for everything. We are prepared for that.”
“The whole committee has to make a decision because it is the people who are suffering,” Maria Elena Sabina told Reuters, calling for swift action to alleviate shortages on the island.
“There’s no electricity here, there’s no power here, there’s no gas here, no liquefied gas. There’s nothing here. So… where is the oil that Venezuela or Mexico was sending?
CNN’s Steve Contorno and Julia Benbrook contributed to this report.
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