Trump: Cuba near collapse, US weighs ‘friendly takeover’

US President Donald Trump said Cuba was in ‘deep trouble’ and that the United States was closely monitoring the situation. Speaking at a press conference in Florida, he said Secretary of State Marco Rubio was looking into the issue and that one option could be a so-called ‘friendly takeover’ of the country.

At the same time, he indicated that the form of any solution was not important in his view, as Cuba was facing a serious economic and energy crisis and ‘has neither energy nor money’.

The Cuban government responded by denying the existence of official high-level negotiations with Washington. However, it did not deny media reports that US officials may be in informal contact with Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro, the grandson of former president Raul Castro.

The future of the Cuban regime has long been discussed among Cuban exiles in the United States, especially in Miami. Many have hoped for decades for the fall of the government that emerged from Fidel Castro’s revolution, and there have been attempts in the past to conspire against the regime.

(reuters, pir)