The former Venezuelan ambassador Orlando Viera-Blanco rejected this Saturday the notion that Washington has abandoned Cuba in the midst of the transition process taking place in Venezuela, and offered an interpretation that reverses the question: Trump's silence, he said, is not inaction.
“Silence is sometimes more thrilling and thunderous than words or loud action,” Viera-Blanco stated in an interview with Tania Costa for CiberCuba, on the occasion of Independence Day in the United States.
The analyst and diplomat stated that, alongside the progress of the Venezuelan transition, there are movements toward a political change in Cuba: "I believe that the movements for progress continue to ensure that we soon see both the arrival of democratic transition in Venezuela and, at the same time, the process of filtering and the political transition in Cuba."
But Viera-Blanco made it clear that the two cases are not comparable.
In Venezuela, despite the repression, an opposition with visible leadership has survived: “Today we see the leadership of María Corina Machado and the leadership of a civil society that has given everything, blood, sweat, and tears.”
Cuba, on the other hand, represents a structurally more challenging scenario.
"In Cuba, there has been much more political violence. There has been a complete dismantling of all rights. There is a state design that is a much more aggressive model of repression," described the former ambassador.
That systematic brutality has had a direct consequence: repression has made it almost impossible for a minimal organized opposition to consolidate on the island, complicating any transition process in the short term.
However, Viera-Blanco warned that the lack of visible structure does not equate to a lack of will.
"There are many voices of Cubans abroad who raise their voices and are known to be there, while others are still taking risks back in Cuba," he pointed out.
To illustrate that latent energy, the analyst referred to the movement “Patria y Vida” as proof that the desire for freedom persists in the hearts of Cubans.
"Not homeland and life for a deodorant, not homeland and life for a toothpaste, homeland and life for being free. And that is also at the heart of Cuba," he declared.
Viera-Blanco compared that process to the birth of a baby: when democracy is ready to be born, "what seemed to not exist will suddenly emerge."
The former ambassador concluded with a direct message to the White House: the silence imposed by the regime on Cubans should not be underestimated by Pennsylvania Avenue.
"The fact that they keep them silent, suddenly Pennsylvania Avenue should not underestimate it. Because there is a very [relevant] actor there," he warned, referring to the Cuban citizenry and the diaspora as forces that Washington should not ignore.
The interview takes place at a time of maximum pressure on the Cuban regime: following the capture of Nicolás Maduro on January 3, 2026, Cuba lost its main political ally and oil supplier, exacerbating an already devastating energy and humanitarian crisis, while the Trump administration tightens sanctions and the president himself has publicly stated that “Cuba is next” on Washington's agenda.
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