WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that Cuba’s people can have a “new relationship” with the US in a message condemning the Communist island’s current leadership.
“The reason you are forced to survive 22 hours a day without electricity is not due to an oil blockade by the US,” Rubio said in the Spanish-language message posted to X, blaming the GAESA conglomerate run by Cuba’s armed forces and founded by former leader Raul Castro.
“Cuba is controlled by GAESA,” the secretary said. “While you suffer, these businessmen have $18 billion in assets and control 70% of Cuba’s economy.”
“President Trump is offering a new relationship between the US and Cuba. But it must be with you, the Cuban people, and not GAESA,” continued Rubio, reiterating an offer of $100 million in food and medical assistance from the US, to be distributed through the Catholic Church and other non-government organizations.
The Justice Department is expected later Wednesday to unseal an indictment of Raul Castro, charging him with ordering the shootdown of two Miami-based rescue planes in 1996, killing four people.
“The real reason you don’t have electricity, fuel, or food is because those who control your country have plundered billions of dollars, but nothing has been used to help the people,” Rubio said in the five-minute video.
The Cuban Embassy in Washington dismissed Rubio as a liar.
“The reason the US Secretary of State lies so repeatedly and unscrupulously when referring to Cuba and trying to justify the aggression to which he subjects the Cuban people is not ignorance or incompetence,” the Embassy wrote on its X account.
“He knows full well that there is no excuse for such cruel and ruthless aggression.”
Food and fuel are scarce on the island, while electricity is available for only two hours a day in many places.
The Havana government blames the problems on the US embargo. But the island is no longer receiving free fuel from Venezuela after the Trump administration ousted that country’s left-wing leader, Nicolás Maduro, this past January.
