{"id":48191,"date":"2026-05-22T09:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T03:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=48191"},"modified":"2026-05-22T09:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T03:21:11","slug":"rubio-says-cuba-is-threat-to-us-as-havana-accuses-him-of-lies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/rubio-says-cuba-is-threat-to-us-as-havana-accuses-him-of-lies\/","title":{"rendered":"Rubio says Cuba is threat to US as Havana accuses him of ‘lies’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BBC:<\/strong> Cuba poses a “national security threat” to the US and the likelihood of a peaceful agreement is “not high”, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said.<\/p>\n

His comments come just a day after the US charged Cuba’s former president Ra\u00fal Castro with murder over the 1996 downing of two planes resulting in the killing of US nationals.<\/p>\n

Rubio said Washington’s preference was “a diplomatic solution” but warned that President Donald Trump had the right and obligation to protect his country against any threat.<\/p>\n

Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodr\u00edguez accused Rubio of “lies” and said the island had never posed a threat to the US.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Rubio said diplomacy “remains our preference with Cuba”, but added: “I’m just being honest with you, you know, the likelihood of that happening, given who we’re dealing with right now, is not high.”<\/p>\n

He also accused Cuba of being “one of the leading sponsors of terrorism in the entire region”, which Rodr\u00edguez vehemently denied in a post on X.<\/p>\n

The Cuban foreign minister criticised Rubio for trying to “instigate a military aggression” and accused the US government of “ruthlessly and systematically” attacking his country.<\/p>\n

Cuba is suffering from a fuel crisis exacerbated by an effective US oil blockade, while under pressure from the Trump administration to make a deal.<\/p>\n

Its citizens have experienced extended blackouts and food shortages over the last few months.<\/p>\n

Rubio said the country had accepted a US offer of $100m (\u00a374.4m) in humanitarian aid.<\/p>\n

Trump has repeatedly sought to exert pressure on Cuba and has openly discussed toppling its communist regime.<\/p>\n

Wednesday’s indictment of the former Cuban president is seen by some as reminiscent of Trump’s seizure of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro in January.<\/p>\n

Asked by reporters whether – and how – his government would get Castro to the US to face the charges, Rubio replied: “I’m not going to talk about how we’re going to get him here, if we were trying to get him here, why would I say to the media what our plans are about that?”<\/p>\n

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who announced the charges in Miami on Wednesday, said the US “expect he will show up here, by his own will or another way”.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Rubio also announced on X that the US had arrested Adys Lastres Morera, the sister of one of the top officials of a Cuban military-run conglomerate that controls most of the lucrative parts of the country’s economy.<\/p>\n

Morera was living in Florida “while also aiding Havana’s communist regime”, Rubio alleged. She was arrested by immigration enforcement and will remain in custody pending deportation proceedings.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BBC: Cuba poses a “national security threat” to the US and the likelihood of a peaceful agreement is “not high”, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said. His comments come just a day after the US charged Cuba’s former president Ra\u00fal Castro with murder over the 1996 downing of two planes resulting in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48191"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48191"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48194,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48191\/revisions\/48194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}