The US president described Cuba as a “failed nation” and recalled that the regime “has treated its people very badly.”
MADRID, Spain.- The president of the United States, Donald Trump, stated this Thursday that Cuba “will not be able to survive” after his administration’s decision to impose tariffs on countries that sell oil to the Cuban regime, as part of the national emergency declared against Havana.
“It seems that it will not be able to survive. Cuba will not be able to survive,” declared Trump when asked about the situation on the Island, during the presentation of a documentary by the American first lady, Melania Trump.
Asked if his policy seeks to “smother” Cuba, the president responded that that term is “very harsh,” although he insisted that the Caribbean country is “a failed nation.” “You have to feel bad for Cuba because they have treated the people very badly,” he said.
Trump also maintained that numerous Cuban-Americans reside in the United States who were treated very poorly by the regime and who “would like to return” to their country of origin, a statement that he frames within his justification for toughening economic pressure on Havana.
The statements came after the president sign an executive order authorizing the imposition of additional tariffs to goods imported from any country that supplies oil to Cuba, a measure that, according to Washington, seeks to limit the financing of the Cuban state apparatus.
The announcement caused a immediate reaction of the regime, which described the decision as a “brutal act of aggression” and accused the United States of trying to subject the Cuban population to “extreme living conditions,” without recognizing its responsibility in the structural crisis of the energy system, marked by prolonged blackouts, deterioration of infrastructure and decades of state mismanagement.
Trump, for his part, insisted that his policy responds to the repressive nature of the Cuban regime and its history of human rights violations, while defending sanctions as a mechanism to hold the island’s authorities accountable.
This same week Donald Trump had stated that Cuba “will fail very soon” due to the loss of the energy and financial support it received from Venezuela. The statements were made before reporters during a visit to a restaurant in Urbandale, Iowa, in the context of an escalation of pressure from Washington on the Havana regime. trump told reporters: “Cuba will collapse very soon. Cuba is really a nation that is very close to collapse.”
