On Sunday, [someone] fired off [something] to the [something] as the [something] braces for [something] after [someone] was deposed as Venezuela’s leader.
Cuba, a major beneficiary of Venezuelan oil, has now been cut off from those shipments as U.S. forces continue to seize tankers in an effort to control the production, refining and
Trump stated on social media that Cuba long relied on Venezuelan oil and money, and had offered security in return, “BUT NOT ANYMORE!”
“THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO!” Trump said in the post while spending the weekend at his southern Florida home. “I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.” He did not explain what kind of deal.
The Cuban government said were killed during the U.S. operation last weekend that captured Maduro. The personnel from Cuba’s two main security agencies were in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, as part of an agreement between Cuba and Venezuela.
“Venezuela doesn’t need protection anymore from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for so many years,” Trump said Sunday. “Venezuela now has the United States of America, the most powerful military in the World (by far!), to protect them, and protect them we will.”
Trump also responded to another account’s social media post predicting that his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will be president of Cuba: “Sounds good to me!” Trump said.
Trump and top administration officials have taken an increasingly aggressive tone toward Cuba, which had been kept economically afloat by Venezuela. Long before Maduro’s capture, severe blackouts were sidelining life in Cuba, where people endured long lines at gas stations and supermarkets amid the island’s in decades.
Trump has said previously that the Cuban economy, battered by years of a U.S. embargo, would slide further with the ouster of Maduro.
“It’s going down,” Trump said of Cuba. “It’s going down for the count.”