The Cuban-American businessman Raul Mas Canosa stated this Thursday that he is convinced the new commander of the U.S. Southern Command, General Francis Donovan, delivered a clear message to the Cuban regime during the visit of high-ranking officials from the Cuban Armed Forces to the Guantanamo Naval Base in May 2026: "Either you change or I will change you. Period."
These statements were made by Mas Canosa in an interview with Tania Costa for CiberCuba, during which they also analyzed the results of the primaries held on Tuesday in Florida.
Mas Canosa, the younger brother of the historic leader of the Cuban exile community Jorge Mas Canosa, stated that he personally met General Donovan about two months ago and that the profile of this military leader sets him apart radically from all the previous heads of Southern Command he has dealt with over the past two decades. "This man came here, and the speech he delivered had absolutely nothing to do with what I have seen over the last 20 years," he affirmed.
According to Raul Mas Canosa, Donovan —a four-star general in the Marine Corps, a branch associated in the United States with combat operations— outlined three priorities upon assuming command. The first: to impose "systemic and total friction" on drug traffickers and money launderers in the region. Mas Canosa emphasized that this phrase did not come from the general's communications team, but from Donovan himself. "I know this because I later asked the person who normally writes the speeches. He told me, 'No, no, that was his idea; that phrase came from him,'" he explained.
The second priority that Mas Canosa assigns to Donovan is to transform the nature of Southern Command. "I need fighters, I don't need people who are here to carry out humanitarian missions," he quoted. This shift materialized in early August with the activation of JTF-WHEM, the Joint Task Force for the Western Hemisphere, described as the permanent action arm of Southern Command with participation from 18 allied nations. The third stated priority is to shift Chinese influence from the Western Hemisphere.
Mas Canosa himself acknowledged that he does not have direct evidence that Donovan conveyed that ultimatum to the regime during his meeting with officials of the Revolutionary Armed Forces at the perimeter of the Guantánamo Naval Base, held at the end of May. "No, I do not have any confirmation, but I deduce it based on the conversation I had with him and the mentality of this man...", he said, leaving the sentence unfinished for the context to speak for itself.
Regarding the state of conversations between Washington and Havana, the businessman was categorical: "There is no progress being made." The Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez had stated in July that these conversations "show no progress," in line with Mas Canosa's assessment.
The interviewee described the Cuban regime as "completely intransigent" and dismissed the possibility of a Venezuelan-style solution—capturing a single leader—as viable in Cuba due to the number of leaders involved. "It won't be like kidnapping him, as they did with Maduro, because there are too many of them. Perhaps they will come in and drop some bombs, who knows," he warned, without ruling out that Washington might choose more drastic action if the regime does not relent.
Mas Canosa concluded his analysis of Cuba with a powerful image: “Cuba is rotten, but the rot begins with the people at the top. That’s where the rest of society starts to become contaminated.”
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