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<\/p>\nJust one day after the U.S. conducted a military operation that led to the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and his wife, Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated a warning to Cuba, telling NBC News\u2019 \u201cMeet the Press\u201d that he thinks \u201cthey\u2019re in a lot of trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to talk to you about what our future steps are going to be and our policies are going to be right now in this regard,\u201d Rubio said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t think it\u2019s any mystery that we are not big fans of the Cuban regime, who, by the way, are the ones that were propping up Maduro.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rubio\u2019s latest remarks come after he and President Donald Trump signaled in a press conference Saturday that the administration could begin targeting Cuba\u2019s government next, with the secretary of state issuing a stern warning to Cuban officials: \u201cIf I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I\u2019d be concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Trump on Saturday compared Cuba\u2019s situation to that of Venezuela, telling reporters, \u201cI think Cuba is going to be something we\u2019ll end up talking about, because Cuba is a failing nation right now, a very badly failing nation, and we want to help the people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The president added, \u201cIt\u2019s very similar [to Venezuela] in the sense that we want to help the people in Cuba, but we want to also help the people that were forced out of Cuba and are living in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rubio added on Sunday that Cuban officials were with Maduro in Venezuela ahead of his capture.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was Cubans that guarded Maduro,\u201d the secretary of state told \u201cMeet the Press\u201d moderator Kristen Welker. \u201cHe was not guarded by Venezuelan bodyguards. He had Cuban bodyguards.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rubio added that Cuban bodyguards were also in charge of \u201cinternal intelligence\u201d in Maduro\u2019s government, including \u201cwho spies on who inside to make sure there are no traitors.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are all Cubans,\u201d the secretary of state said.<\/p>\n
Trump on Saturday also spoke about his outlook on foreign policy<\/a> in Latin America, referencing the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine<\/a>, a policy by which the U.S. sought to shape the Western Hemisphere and defend the Americas against influence from European powers.<\/p>\n Pointing to China, Iran and Russia\u2019s influence on the oil industry in Venezuela, the president said, \u201cAll of these actions were in gross violation of the core principles of American foreign policy, dating back more than two centuries.\u201d<\/p>\n He added, \u201cAll the way back, dated to the Monroe doctrines. And the Monroe Doctrine is a big deal, but we\u2019ve superseded it by a lot, by a real lot. They now call it the Donroe doctrine.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the weekend, Trump took jabs at other Latin American presidents, like Gustavo Petro of Colombia and Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico. <\/p>\n Trump, during the press conference Saturday, accused the Colombian leader of having “cocaine mills” and reiterated that he should “watch his ass.”<\/p>\n “He has cocaine mills. He has factories where he makes cocaine. And yeah, I think I stick by my first statement. He\u2019s making cocaine. They\u2019re sending it into the United States. So he does have to watch his ass,” the U.S. president said Saturday.<\/p>\n And in an interview Saturday morning with Fox News, Trump accused Sheinbaum of allowing drug cartels to operate in her country, saying “something is going to have to be done with Mexico.”<\/p>\n On Saturday, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel denounced the United States\u2019 attacks on Venezuela and the capture of Maduro, calling them an act of \u201cstate terrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c#Cuba denounces and urgently demands the reaction of the international community against the criminal attack by the U.S. on #Venezuela. Our #ZonaDePaz [Zone of Peace] is being brutally assaulted. State terrorism against the brave Venezuelan people and against Our America,\u201d he wrote in a post on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n And an official statement from the Cuban government said it \u201cstrongly condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the military aggression carried out by the United States against Venezuela, while categorically reaffirming Cuba\u2019s absolute support and solidarity with the sister Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its government.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis cowardly U.S. aggression constitutes a criminal act and a violation of international law and the Charter of the United Nations. It represents a dangerous escalation of the sustained campaign of war waged for years by the United States against that sister nation,\u201d the statement added. \u201cAll nations of the region must remain alert, as the threat hangs over all. In Cuba, our determination to struggle is firm and unwavering. The decision is one and only one: Homeland or Death.\u201d<\/p>\n Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants to the U.S., has long been a Cuba hawk and has for years pursued regime change in Cuba and Venezuela.<\/p>\n In 2019, during Trump\u2019s first term, the president was vocally supportive<\/a> of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who at one point declared himself president of Venezuela, a move that was recognized by the U.S.<\/a> and dozens of other countries.<\/a> Guaido was later targeted by Maduro with criminal charges<\/a>.<\/p>\n