The U.S. could have what President Donald Trump on Friday called a “friendly takeover” of Cuba because the U.S. continues blockading the island’s predominant fuel supplier.
President Donald Trump on Friday said he’s considering what he called a “friendly takeover” of Cuba because the U.S. continues blockading the island’s predominant fuel supplier.
Trump told reporters outside that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been coping with the problem at a “very high level.”
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“The Cuban government is talking with us, they usually’re in a giant deal of trouble,” Trump said as he left the White House for a visit to Texas. “They haven’t any money. They haven’t any anything immediately, but they’re talking with us, and possibly we’ll have a friendly takeover of Cuba.”
Cuba is within the midst of a fuel shortage and humanitarian crisis, the newest in a few years of economic hardship. Trump effectively cut off oil shipments to the island by blockading Venezuela and threatening tariffs on any country that stepped in to fill the void.
Cuba’s ambassador to Canada told a House of Commons committee earlier this week the U.S. is “suffocating” the people living there.
Trump has mentioned the potential of the U.S. taking on other countries, including Canada and Greenland.
More to come back.
— With files Reuters