The Republican senator Ted Cruz stated this Sunday that, under the presidency of Donald Trump, there is a greater likelihood today than at any point in our lives of witnessing new governments in Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran within the next six months.
Cruz made the statements in a video posted on X in which he attributes this historic scenario to the strong policy of the Trump administration and cites the capture of Nicolás Maduro by the Delta Force unit on January 3, 2026, as a paradigmatic example.
“At 3 a.m. on January 3rd, when our Delta Force captured Maduro, all the Latin American dictators had to change their pants,” Cruz declared, emphasizing the deterrent effect the operation had on the regimes in the region.
The senator acknowledged that there are a thousand ways this could go wrong, but he insisted that American pressure is creating historical conditions for change: "America is safer. And the world is safer when the president is strong and his enemies fear him."
Cruz's statements come at a time of maximum pressure on Havana.
The Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanded last Friday a total change in Cuba in terms of leadership, political system, and economic model, warning that any information that does not come from me or the president is a lie.
Trump himself noted earlier that "Cuba is talking to Marco Rubio, we will do something very soon," while the White House denied reports on possible transitions that would preserve the Castros.
The capture of Maduro carried out without American casualties, although with 32 Cuban soldiers dead, cut off Venezuela's oil supply to Cuba, which was between 26,000 and 35,000 barrels per day, worsening an already devastating energy crisis.
Since February, the U.S. has also blocked oil tankers headed to the island, which has exacerbated the massive blackouts affecting 64% of the Cuban territory, with outages lasting between twenty and thirty hours daily and a power deficit of 2,040 megawatts.
The internal context in Cuba could not be more critical: the GDP has fallen by 23% since 2019, with a projected additional decrease of 7.2% by 2026, and the country has lost approximately 10% of its population due to emigration.
Díaz-Canel acknowledged the popular discontent following the disturbances in Morón on March 14, admitting that "life is very tough," but rejected any political change and dismissed the idea that Washington decides whether I stay or go.
The regime released 51 political prisoners as an initial gesture in diplomatic talks with Washington, although nearly 700 political prisoners in Cuba in October 2025 were accounted for by Human Rights Watch.
Cruz and Rubio are leading the Cuban-American Republican axis within the Trump administration, which currently sees the greatest opportunity for geopolitical transformation on the island since the fall of the Berlin Wall, a stance that the Cuban exile community has celebrated as the most promising in decades.
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