US President Donald Trump said he would soon have “the honor” of taking over Cuba, feeding fears in Havana of a potential intervention.
Washington has reportedly told Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel that he would have to leave office for negotiations to have any chance of progressing, though Washington hasn’t disclosed any takeover plans.
Havana is facing mounting domestic pressure, too. A nationwide blackout sparked by a drop in oil imports after the US tightened its embargo left millions in the dark; a similar but smaller outage set off rare protests last week. The economic situation is so desperate that Cuban officials have encouraged the diaspora — many of whom fled an authoritarian crackdown — to invest in the country.
