The Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated this Wednesday that full normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba is legally impossible as long as the island does not advance towards democracy.
In an interview with Brian Kilmeade on Fox Radio, the official emphasized that this condition does not depend on the will of the Trump administration but rather on a law from Congress that has been in effect for over two decades.
Rubio invoked the Helms-Burton Law of 1996 to explain the limits of any engagement: "U.S. policy toward Cuba, unlike that toward Venezuela or other countries, is codified; it is in a statute. There is a law, and that law regulates what we can and cannot do with Cuba, and it makes it very clear that normalization between our countries cannot fully occur under that law — passed by Congress more than 20 years ago — unless there is a functioning democracy or at least steps towards a functioning democracy."
In the same conversation, the Secretary of State referred to Cuba as a "failed state" and outright rejected the idea that Washington is responsible for the crisis: "Cuba is a failed state right now. And it is not our fault. People say it's our fault. It isn't."
Rubio attributed the island's energy collapse to the loss of free oil supplies from Venezuela —up to 100,000 barrels per day— that the regime received before Nicolás Maduro's capture in January 2026.
According to the Secretary of State, the Cuban regime did not allocate that crude oil to benefit the population: "Cuba was receiving free oil from Maduro. Maduro was literally stealing oil from the Venezuelan people and giving it away for free to Cuba," and most of that fuel was resold for cash that "went into their pockets."
Regarding the chronic blackouts affecting the island, Rubio was blunt: "You see these blackouts in Cuba; they aren't new. They have been experiencing blackouts for five or seven years. Do you know why? Because their system doesn't work. It doesn't work. They have equipment from the 1940s and 50s, and they haven't renewed or invested in it at all because their economic model isn't effective."
The head of U.S. diplomacy described the only possible way forward for the island: "The only solution and response for Cuba, and we are prepared to play a productive role in this, is to embark on an irreversible path toward becoming a normal and functional state that will eventually also be democratic."
This position aligns with the strategy that Rubio had publicly articulated weeks earlier. In a interview with Axios published on August 7, the secretary set the goal for Cuba to be on an "irreversible path towards a different future" by the end of the Trump administration, and warned: "Every time you create a new mechanism to untangle the knot, we close it off."
Since January 2026, the administration has executed more than two dozen actions against the Cuban regime, including sanctions on 40 entities and measures against at least 38 individuals. On August 6, a new round targeted five military entities and eight officials from the Ministry of the Armed Forces, including minister Álvaro López Miera, due to links with arms purchases from Russia and China.
Rubio also addressed the transition process in Venezuela, which he described as a three-step model —stabilization, economic recovery, and democratic transition— and announced that conversations between the 2015 National Assembly and the Venezuelan government would continue in about 10 days, facilitated by Washington.
When asked how much time is left for the Cuban regime, Rubio did not provide a timeline but did offer a warning: "This is not going to disappear in the next 2.5 years."
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