President Donald Trump warned brutal world leaders such as Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel during a Saturday press conference that what happened to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro could happen to them.
Trump announced in a post on Truth Social that U.S. military forces protected a law enforcement operation to arrest Maduro and his wife in Caracas early Saturday morning. Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio later said at the press conference that current members of the Cuban regime could meet the same fate as Maduro.
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“Well, Cuba’s an interesting case. Cuba is, you know, not doing very well right now. That system has not been a very good one for Cuba. The people there have suffered for many, many years, and I think soon Cuba is gonna be something we’ll end up talking about, ’cause Cuba is a failing nation right now, very badly failing nation,” Trump said. “It’s very similar in the sense that we wanna help the people in Cuba, but we wanna also help the people that were forced out of Cuba and living in this country.”
“Suffice it to say, you know, Cuba is a disaster. It’s run by incompetent, senile men, and, in some cases, not senile but incompetent nonetheless,” Rubio added. “It has no economy. It’s in total collapse. And by the way, you know, all the guards that helped protect Maduro — this is well known — their whole spy agency, all that were full of Cubans. I mean, they basically— it’s amazing — this poor island took over Venezuela in some cases. One of the biggest problems that Venezuelans have is they have to declare independence from Cuba, that tried to basically colonize it from a security standpoint. So yeah, look, if I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned at least, a little bit.”
Trump also warned additional military action could be taken if remnants of the Maduro regime did not satisfy American demands.
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“I will never allow terrorists and criminals to operate with impunity against the United States,” Trump said. “This extremely successful operation should serve as warning to anyone who would threaten American sovereignty or endanger American lives. Very importantly, the embargo on all Venezuelan oil remains in full effect.”
“The American armada remains poised in position, and the United States retains all military options until United States demands have been fully met and fully satisfied,” Trump continued. “All political and military figures in Venezuela should understand what happened to Maduro can happen to them, and it will happen to them if they aren’t just, fair, even to their people. The dictator and terrorist Maduro is finally gone in Venezuela. People are free, they’re free again. It’s been a long time for them, but they’re free.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on X that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, would be taken to New York to be arraigned on charges stemming from a March 2020 indictment on drug trafficking and firearms charges. Congressional Democrats decried the operation as an illegal use of military force, with some prominent figures taking to BlueSky to demand Trump’s impeachment.
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