Cuba faces collapse as Venezuelan oil dries up
Joseph Hernandez, a Cuban immigrant and N.Y. comptroller candidate, shares his family’s experience fleeing communist Cuba and discusses the country’s uncertain future after Maduro’s capture, emphasizing its oil dependency on Venezuela.
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Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez declared Sunday that the island nation would defend itself “to the last drop of blood,” responding to pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to strike a deal with Washington.
President Trump had spoken about Cuba in a Truth Social post earlier in the day, urging that “they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”
“Those who blame the Revolution for the severe economic shortages we suffer should hold their tongues out of shame. Because they know it and acknowledge it: they are the fruit of the draconian measures of extreme strangulation that the U.S. has been applying to us for six decades and now threatens to surpass,” the Cuban wrote on X, according to a translation of the Spanish-language post.
“#Cuba is a free, independent, and sovereign nation. No one dictates what we do. Cuba does not aggress; it is aggressed upon by the United States for 66 years, and it does not threaten; it prepares, ready to defend the Homeland to the last drop of blood,” he wrote in another post, according to the translation.
CUBA IDENTIFIES 32 MILITARY PERSONNEL KILLED IN US OPERATION AGAINST MADURO REGIME IN VENEZUELA
Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel gestures during the BRICS summit second plenary session in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on July 6, 2025. (PABLO PORCIUNCULA/AFP via Getty Images)
U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., who was born in Cuba, responded to the foreign figure’s post.
“You dictators, henchmen, and executioners of the Cuban nation think you own the island. You don’t have much time left,” he declared, according to the translation of his post, also written in Spanish.
CUBAN-BORN GOP LAWMAKER WARNS VENEZUELA ELECTIONS MUST HAPPEN IN ‘MONTHS,’ NOT ‘YEARS’ AFTER MADURO DOWNFALL
Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla, speaks during the Congressional Hispanic Conference press conference in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Trump declared in a Truth Social post on Sunday, “Cuba lived, for many years, on large amounts of OIL and MONEY from Venezuela. In return, Cuba provided ‘Security Services’ for the last two Venezuelan dictators, BUT NOT ANYMORE! Most of those Cubans are DEAD from last weeks U.S.A. attack, and Venezuela doesn’t need protection anymore from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for so many years.
“Venezuela now has the United States of America, the most powerful military in the World (by far!), to protect them, and protect them we will. THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO! I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE,” he warned.
TRUMP ULTIMATUM TO CUBA: ‘MAKE A DEAL, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE’ OR FACE CONSEQUENCES
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Rep. Gimenez thanked the president.
“I was born in Cuba & forced from home shortly after the Communist takeover. Today, I represent my community in Congress. Thank you, President Trump, first Venezuela & next is Cuba. We will be forever grateful. Our hemisphere must be the hemisphere of liberty,” the lawmaker wrote in a post on X.