The Republican senator Lindsey Graham, one of the most influential allies of President Donald Trump in foreign policy, celebrated the capture of Nicolás Maduro and issued a stern warning to the Cuban regime, stating that “their days are numbered.”
The statements were made during the flight of Air Force One, in the same exchange with journalists in which Trump asserted that "Cuba is ready to fall".
“Wait and see what happens with Cuba”, Graham said, visibly exuberant. “Cuba is a communist dictatorship that has murdered priests and nuns, that has preyed upon its own people. Their days are numbered. One day we are going to wake up —I hope it’s in 2026— and in our own neighborhood we will have allies in those countries, doing business with the United States, not narco-terrorists and dictators who kill Americans.”
The senator from South Carolina described the military operation that led to Maduro's capture as "a historic day," emphasizing that "everyone is thinking differently now than they were just a few days ago, because of what you did."
Graham, 70 years old, is one of the most influential voices of the hardline faction of the Republican Party on national security matters. As Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a veteran of the Air Force, he has been a persistent advocate for a confrontational stance toward Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran.
In 2019, Graham was one of the first to publicly propose a "surgical" intervention against Maduro's regime, asserting that the United States should "accelerate the end of the Venezuelan narco-state."
Since then, he has maintained a rigid stance towards Cuba, which he has referred to as "the head of the snake" in reference to the axis of leftist authoritarian regimes in Latin America.
"Cuba is not a victim; Cuba is the source. Every dictator in our hemisphere traces their support back to Havana," he stated in July 2021 following the protests of July 11, holding the Cuban government responsible for exporting repression and sustaining allied dictatorships like those in Venezuela and Nicaragua.
Graham's words amplify the message issued by Trump hours earlier, when the president declared that "Cuba has no income and is ready to fall," following the capture of its main economic ally.
In Washington, the alignment between both Republican leaders reinforces the perception that the White House is preparing for a shift in strategy towards Cuba, focused on accelerating the collapse of the regime through economic suffocation and political isolation.
“This is a great day,” concluded Graham. “And the whole world knows it.”
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