{"id":238797,"date":"2026-05-21T00:44:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T00:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/238797\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T00:44:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T00:44:21","slug":"rubio-in-video-urges-cubans-to-align-with-trump-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/238797\/","title":{"rendered":"Rubio, in Video, Urges Cubans to Align With Trump Administration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a rare direct appeal<\/a> to the Cuban people in a video posted on Wednesday, the anniversary of their independence from Spain and U.S. military occupation, urging them to align with the Trump administration as it seeks to weaken the Cuban regime.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump is offering a new path between the U.S. and a new Cuba,\u201d Mr. Rubio said in the brief video address, which was reported on Wednesday by Axios<\/a> before it was posted.<\/p>\n

In the address, which was in Spanish with English subtitles and posted on the State Department\u2019s YouTube channel Wednesday morning, Mr. Rubio mentions the former Cuban leader, Ra\u00fal Castro, around the one-minute mark. Mr. Castro, who also served as defense minister, was indicted<\/a> by the Justice Department on Wednesday for having ordered the downing of two civilian planes<\/a> in 1996. Four people were killed.<\/p>\n

Mr. Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants who has been fixated on Cuba for decades, blamed the country\u2019s longstanding electricity and resource shortages on Mr. Castro and GAESA<\/a>, the military-run conglomerate that controls most aspects of the country\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason you are forced to survive 22 hours a day without electricity is not due to an oil blockade by the U.S.,\u201d Mr. Rubio said in Spanish. \u201cThe real reason you don\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cuba has been struggling with an energy crisis for more than two years because of crumbling infrastructure and a dwindling supply from its longtime benefactor, Venezuela. After the United States overthrew Venezuela\u2019s leader, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, earlier this year, it seized control of Venezuela\u2019s oil industry and imposed an effective blockade barring all foreign oil from reaching Cuba. The Cuban government said last week that its oil reserves had run dry<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In its second term, the Trump administration has ramped up efforts to isolate the country\u2019s Communist government and draw it closer into the American orbit. Mr. Maduro\u2019s ouster was seen in part as an effort to weaken Cuba<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s message is the first direct appeal Mr. Rubio has made to the people of Cuba. He has long been seen as a hawk on policy<\/a> regarding the island nation and has made little secret of his hopes to topple or undermine its government.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the Trump administration issued sanctions<\/a> against some of Cuba\u2019s top leaders, including military and party officials, in the hopes of further pressuring its government to overhaul its system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a rare direct appeal to the Cuban people in a video posted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4054,1452,27531,9,11,10,5007,27530,1069],"class_list":["post-238797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-cuba","tag-donald-j","tag-marco","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-oil-petroleum-and-gasoline","tag-rubio","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}