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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to reporters in a departure lounge before returning to Washington following meetings with Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders, at Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport in Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis on February 25, 2026. PHOTO: AFP
HAVANA:
Washington piled pressure on Cuba’s communist authorities Tuesday to allow free market reforms as the impoverished island scrambled to recover from a nationwide electricity blackout.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Cuba’s decision announced this week to let exiles invest and own businesses did not go far enough.
“What they announced yesterday is not dramatic enough. It’s not going to fix it. So they’ve got some big decisions to make,” Rubio, a Cuban-American and vociferous critic of the island’s ruling party, told reporters at the White House.
President Donald Trump, who just Monday had said he would “take” Cuba, added: “We’ll be doing something with Cuba very soon.”
Cuba’s authorities are under increasingly crushing pressure, with Washington openly stating it wants to end the nearly seven-decades-old US standoff with the one-party communist state.
A total electricity breakdown on Monday underscored the parlous state of the economy. Cuba lost Venezuela as its chief regional ally and oil supplier this January after a US military operation to topple Venezuela’s socialist leader Nicolas Maduro.
