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Five years ago, during the 2020 presidential campaign, Donald Trump granted an exclusive interview to CiberCuba in which he issued stern warnings to the Cuban regime. Those statements, which at the time seemed like mere campaign rhetoric, now resonate strongly amidst the deep economic and political crisis facing the island following the fall of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, who was captured last week by U.S. forces.
“The Castro regime does not know what is coming for them; believe me”, Trump said at the time, in a statement that today takes on an almost prophetic meaning. “Cuba wants to reach an agreement because they are desperate”, the president added during that conversation with CiberCuba on November 1, 2020.
The American leader emphasized that his administration had taken "the strongest measures against the Cuban dictatorship" and that he would not repeat "the shame of the agreements made by Barack Obama and Joe Biden," which, he said, "handed millions of dollars to the Castros in exchange for nothing."
He also assured that “Cuban Americans are my friends” and that his commitment to that community would remain strong. “I know how much my great friends from the Cuban American community have suffered under the Castro dictatorship. That regime must pay for what it has done. We need justice for the Cuban people and I will continue to fight for it,” he stated.
Words that resonate once again
Five years later, with the collapse of Venezuelan support and a Cuba suffocated by a lack of income, sanctions, and social protests, Trump's warnings seem to have anticipated the current moment. In recent statements, the U.S. president declared that "Cuba is ready to fall" following the capture of Maduro, noting that the island “was living off Venezuelan oil and that has ended.”
The energy crisis, the prolonged blackouts, and the mass exodus of Cubans confirm the scenario that Trump described in 2020: a weakened regime, “desperate” and without strong allies.
A historic interview
That interview, published by CiberCuba on November 1, 2020, was part of a special coverage in which Joe Biden, then the Democratic candidate, also participated. Trump, however, personally responded to several of the questions about Cuba, leaving phrases that today gain new political and diplomatic relevance.
“What the Castros have done to Cuba, which was once a prosperous country, is a crime. It is absolutely horrible,” Trump said at the time. “That regime must pay for what it has done. We need justice for the Cuban people and I will continue to fight for it.”
Five years later, with Venezuela off the board, Cuba on the brink of economic collapse, and a new phase of tension with Washington, the words that Donald Trump spoke to CiberCuba no longer sound like a distant warning but rather like the prelude to a reality that today seems to be coming to pass.
You can read the interview by CiberCuba with Donald Trump from November 2020 here
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