The Secretary of State Marco Rubio sparked laughter this Wednesday at a press conference held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, when a journalist asked him another question about Cuba.
“Why do I always get the questions about Cuba?”, Rubio said before humorously apologizing and proceeding to respond seriously. The moment was captured in a video posted by the State Department on X.
The joke has an obvious context: Rubio, the son of Cuban exiles who left the island in 1956, has kept Cuba on the agenda since he became Secretary of State in January 2026, and each public appearance before the press ends with some question about the island.
The day before, President Trump himself had sparked laughter at the UN General Assembly by saying that “he would leave Marco in the middle of Cuba” on an aircraft carrier to “sort everything out.”
After the humorous moment, Rubio provided an extensive response regarding investments in Cuba. He explained that the U.S. policy towards the island is encoded in the Helms-Burton Act, passed by Congress, which imposes strict conditions for any commercial interaction between U.S. companies and Cuba.
But the Secretary of State went beyond the legal restrictions characteristic of the U.S. He pointed out that the real obstacle for any foreign investor—regardless of their nationality—is the lack of legal certainty within the Cuban regime.
“Why would I invest ten million dollars in Cuba if two years later they decide to change the rules, take it away from me, and keep the money without ever paying me?” And this has happened time and again in Cuba,” he stated, using a hypothetical Spanish businessman as an example.
Rubio also referred to the reforms that the regime has recently announced and dismissed their credibility: "Everyone says these things are just on paper. First, you have to implement them, and then you have to sustain them."
His diagnosis was emphatic: «There is no legitimacy or credibility that this regime will ever meet these conditions, because it has never done so before».
The Secretary of State acknowledged that there are companies and individuals interested in participating in Cuba's economic future, but emphasized that this is currently not feasible, both due to the Helms-Burton restrictions and the uncertainty caused by the island's government model.
Rubio also highlighted the potential of the Cuban diaspora: "One of the great opportunities Cuba has is its large community of Cuban Americans and Cubans in other parts of the world who could contribute immensely to the future of the island."
The video concluded with the statement that the State Department chose as the headline: «No one is going to invest in Cuba under its current model of government. They simply will not do it».
The statements made on Wednesday come during a week of heightened media exposure regarding Cuba. On Tuesday, Trump referred to Cuba as an "absolutely failed state" before world leaders at the UN General Assembly, asserting that it will "collapse," which led to the Cuban regime's delegation leaving the room.
In previous weeks, Rubio announced new sanctions against the Cuban nickel sector and stated that the U.S. has imposed "the strongest sanctions in history" of the bilateral relationship with the island.
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