The Secretary of State Marco Rubio broke his silence this Thursday regarding the photo that went viral on social media showing him in the same gray Nike Tech Fleece tracksuit worn by Nicolás Maduro when he was captured in January, stating that it was just a mere "coincidence."
Rubio went straight to answer whether the outfit was similar to Maduro's: "No, I think it was the same one. But it's a coincidence. It's a coincidence. It's a very comfortable thing that I own. And I'm not going to stop wearing it."
The Secretary of State also denied any intention behind the image: "I didn’t even know they were going to take that photo. All I can tell you is that it's a Nike tracksuit that is very comfortable. It’s just a coincidence that I own the same Nike tracksuit he wore that night, but I didn’t know, and there’s no message behind it."
The photo was taken last Tuesday aboard the Air Force One, as Rubio was traveling to Beijing to accompany President Donald Trump on his state visit with Xi Jinping.
Steven Cheung, White House Communications Director, was the one who posted the image on X with the caption: "Secretary Rubio sporting the Nike Tech 'Venezuela' on Air Force One!"
An additional detail that sparked humorous comments was that Rubio paired the Nike tracksuit with Adidas sneakers, which many interpreted as a "betrayal" of brand consistency.
The image resonated with particular strength because Maduro wore that same outfit on January 3, 2026 when he was transported handcuffed, blindfolded, and wearing noise-canceling headphones to the USS Iwo Jima after being captured by Delta Force units while sleeping at his residence in Caracas.
The Cuban community in exile reacted immediately, interpreting the photo as a symbolic message, with comments such as "They are giving us clues," "They already have the clothes ready, #CUBANEXT," and "The message is clear, there will be an extraction in Cuba."
The political context amplified this interpretation: the photo was published on the same day that Trump declared on Truth Social that “Cuba is asking for help, and we’re going to talk!”, and just five days after Rubio announced new sanctions against GAESA, the military conglomerate that controls between 40% and 70% of the Cuban economy.
That same Tuesday, Miguel Díaz-Canel responded with a defiant statement: "Cuba does not threaten or challenge, but it is not afraid either."
The gray Nike Tech Fleece tracksuit had already become a cultural phenomenon since Maduro's capture. After the publication of his image in handcuffs, searches for "Nike Tech" on Google reached a peak of 100 points on Google Trends on January 4. The garment—renamed "Maduro gray"—sold out in almost all sizes on Nike's website in the United States, and social media was flooded with memes featuring the slogan "Just Coup It," a parody of the brand's famous "Just Do It."
Since January, Rubio has accumulated more than 240 sanctions against the Cuban regime and warned Díaz-Canel on May 7: "The Trump administration will not sit idly by while the communist regime of Cuba threatens our national security in our hemisphere."
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