{"id":404248,"date":"2026-01-12T08:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T08:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/404248\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T08:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T08:18:08","slug":"cuban-leader-says-no-one-dictates-what-we-do-as-trump-tells-regime-to-make-a-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/404248\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuban leader says \u2018no one dictates what we do\u2019 as Trump tells regime to make a deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Cuba\u2019s leader has pushed back on Donald Trump\u2019s demand that the Caribbean nation \u201cmake a deal\u201d with Washington, as the US president warned that Havana would be cut off from the Venezuelan oil and money that it\u2019s relied on for decades.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cNo one dictates what we do,\u201d Cuban President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel said Sunday on X, responding to Trump\u2019s insistence that the communist nation do a deal \u201cbefore it\u2019s too late.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Cuba has long received massive aid packages from oil-rich Venezuela, but the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro during a US operation, and Trump\u2019s announcement<\/a> that Venezuela will turn over 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil to the US, is expected to leave Havana with an economic challenge.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cCuba lived, for many years, on large amounts of OIL and MONEY from Venezuela. In return, Cuba provided \u2018Security Services\u2019 for the last two Venezuelan dictators, BUT NOT ANYMORE!\u201d Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cTHERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO!\u201d he said before making the demand for a deal. Trump did not elaborate on what a deal with Havana could involve.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Cuban government has said 32 of its citizens were killed \u201cin combat actions\u201d during the US operation to capture Maduro.\n <\/p>\n

\n D\u00edaz-Canel was quick to reject external interference in Cuba\u2019s affairs.\n <\/p>\n

\"Cuba's<\/p>\n

\n \u201cCuba does not aggress; it is aggressed upon by the United States for 66 years, and it does not threaten; it prepares, ready to defend the Homeland to the last drop of blood,\u201d said D\u00edaz-Canel.\n <\/p>\n

\n In an apparent reference to Trump, he said those who turn everything into a business, \u201ceven human lives,\u201d have no moral authority to point fingers at his country.\n <\/p>\n

\n Earlier, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez asserted the country\u2019s \u201cabsolute right\u201d to import fuel from economic partners without US interference and rejected Trump\u2019s claim that Cuba exchanged security services for Venezuelan oil and money.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe US is behaving like a criminal and uncontrolled hegemon that threatens peace and security not only of Cuba and this hemisphere but of the entire world,\u201d Rodriguez said.\n <\/p>\n

\n In subsequent comments aboard Air Force One, Trump told reporters the US was \u201ctalking to Cuba\u201d but it was not immediately clear at what level discussions are taking place.\n <\/p>\n

\n In his comments Trump said that one of the topics he wanted addressing was \u201cthe people that came from Cuba that were forced out or left under duress.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The US has long wanted<\/a> regime change in communist Cuba, a country governed by a socialist political system since 1961, based on the \u201cone state, one party\u201d principle.\n <\/p>\n

\n A key supporter of regime change within Trump\u2019s cabinet is Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants who came of age immersed in Miami\u2019s exile community, rising politically within a culture where memories of the island and a deep fear of socialism remained powerful forces.\n <\/p>\n

\n Havana residents voiced mixed reactions following Trump\u2019s threat to cut off Venezuelan oil shipments to the island.\n <\/p>\n

\n Paola Perez told Reuters that Cuba is not to blame for US-Venezuelan relations, but that Cuba will be \u201caffected, quite a lot.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHe (Trump) knows perfectly well that he has to find a solution, because he can\u2019t just take over Cuba like that,\u201d she added.\n <\/p>\n

\n Another resident, Luis Alberto Jimenez, told the outlet that he is not scared by Trump\u2019s threat to cut off Cuba\u2019s oil supply.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAt no point does that scare me because I\u2019m prepared,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Cuban people are prepared for anything, any situation that may arise, for everything. We are prepared for that.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe whole committee has to make a decision because it is the people who are suffering,\u201d Maria Elena Sabina told Reuters, calling for swift action to alleviate shortages on the island.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere\u2019s no electricity here, there\u2019s no power here, there\u2019s no gas here, no liquefied gas. There\u2019s nothing here. So\u2026 where is the oil that Venezuela or Mexico was sending?\n <\/p>\n

\n CNN\u2019s Steve Contorno and Julia Benbrook contributed to this report.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cuba\u2019s leader has pushed back on Donald Trump\u2019s demand that the Caribbean nation \u201cmake a deal\u201d with Washington,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-404248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}