The President of the United States, Donald Trump, issued an enigmatic warning about Cuba on Wednesday, asserting that "many things" will happen on the island in the next two months, without specifying what types of events he was referring to.
The statements were made during an exclusive interview with the chief correspondent of Fox News, Trey Yingst, at the White House, and later shared by the reporter himself on the social media platform X.
"I see Cuba. Many things are going to happen in Cuba in the next perhaps two months, but I don't see it becoming like Venezuela," Trump stated.
In response to the ambiguity of the answer, Yingst directly asked him if he was talking about a possible military action against the island. Trump avoided giving a definitive answer, but he also did not rule out that possibility.
"Venezuela has huge amounts of oil. We could do that with Cuba. It wouldn't be difficult for us to do it," he replied.
The leader explained that Venezuela represented a target of greater strategic value because of its natural resources. "Venezuela is much larger than Cuba, but it has gold. It really has gold. It has a lot of gold, a lot of oil. It probably has the most valuable land in the world in terms of gold and rubies," he noted.
Although he established that difference between the two countries, he left the possibility open for Washington to adopt a similar strategy regarding Cuba.
Increasing pressure on Havana
Trump's statements come amid an escalation of pressure from Washington on the Cuban regime that began earlier this year.
On January 3, 2026, the president announced the capture of Nicolás Maduro during the so-called Absolute Resolution Operation, an action in which 32 Cuban military personnel who were part of the security detail for the Venezuelan leader lost their lives. Five days later, Trump stated: "Cuba is ready to fall".
Since then, its administration has imposed more than 240 sanctions against the Cuban regime, drastically reduced the flow of oil to the island—affecting between 80% and 90% of its crude oil imports—and has the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz deployed in the Caribbean as part of Operation Southern Spear, which began on May 20.
This Monday, Trump once again raised the stakes warned that he would act "in a short time" if the presence of Iranian Shahed-136 drones in Cuba was confirmed, which, according to U.S. intelligence, the regime has acquired in numbers exceeding 300 units since 2023.
One day later, an analysis published by The Times argued that the president is preparing to exert a "final pressure" on Havana, an interpretation that gains more significance following his remarks to Fox News.
The regime's response
In the same interview, Trump also issued new threats against Iran, warning that Washington will attack Iranian strategic infrastructure if Tehran does not agree to negotiate under the framework of Operation Epic Fury.
Meanwhile, the regime of Miguel Díaz-Canel maintains a confrontational discourse towards Washington. On July 2, the leader claimed that Cuba is ready to "fight to the last drop of blood".
The internal situation of the country is exacerbated by the deep economic crisis it is experiencing, particularly the impact of the extremely critical energy situation. This Tuesday, Cuba suffered its tenth nationwide blackout in just 24 months, and the third in only eight days of July. On Wednesday the 8th, the largest historical deficit in electricity generation was recorded: 2,341 MW affected, with only 935 MW available against a demand of 3,100 MW.
The regime approved at the end of June a package of 176 economic reforms aimed at reviving the struggling national economy through market-based solutions, while insisting that it will uphold the socialist model established by the late dictator Fidel Castro after seizing power in 1959.
Five years after the largest protests against the government on July 11, 2021, a historical record of 1,306 political prisoners is reported on the island, including 40 minors and 458 sick individuals, according to data from the organization Prisoners Defenders. The mass pardon issued by the regime in April of this year, which freed 2,010 inmates, expressly excluded those convicted of "crimes against authority," the legal term used to imprison protesters from the 11J.
In this context, Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned on July 11 that the Cuban leadership still has the opportunity to undertake "real reforms" before "it is too late."
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