US President Donald Trump raised the possibility of the US “taking” Cuba on Monday, telling reporters at the White House: “I do believe I will be having the honour of taking Cuba.
“Taking Cuba. I mean, whether I free it, take it. I think I can do anything I want with it,” he said. “They’re a very weakened nation right now.”
He added: “It’s a beautiful island. Great weather. They are not in a hurricane zone which is nice for a change. They won’t be asking us for money for hurricanes every week.”
The President’s words came on the same day as Cuba experienced a nationwide blackout, amid diminishing fuel supplies. On Monday evening, Cuban officials had also planned to announce that the country’s Communist government would open itself to foreign investment, including from the US, Cuba’s Deputy Prime Minister, Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga, told NBC News.
“Cuba is open to having a fluid commercial relationship with US companies, also with Cubans residing in the US and their descendants,” the Deputy Prime Minister
said in a clip of an interview posted by the network on Monday morning.
It is unclear how widely Cuba intends to open its economy, or how the moves compare with those made a decade ago under President Barack Obama. But the scheduled announcement coincides with a severe humanitarian and energy crisis, with some experts saying the island could run out of fuel within weeks because of a de facto blockade by the Trump administration.
For the past three months, the US has choked off Cuba’s access to foreign oil, blocking shipments from Venezuela and elsewhere. Frequent blackouts have followed — including the broad power outage on Monday — and hospitals have had to postpone some procedures, deepening a humanitarian crisis that has also involved food shortages and has led to rare protests on the island.
Officials had planned to announce the economic changes on an evening television programme, Mesa Redonda, or Round Table. The programme was not broadcast at the scheduled hour. It was not immediately clear if that was the result of power outages.
The Obama administration had opened up business opportunities for American investors in the Cuban private sector, but the Cuban bureaucracy was unable to rapidly adapt and the Trump administration rescinded Obama’s measures.
Russia ‘solidarity’
Russia said it had unwavering solidarity with Cuba on Tuesday.
Without mentioning Trump by name, Russia’s foreign ministry expressed serious concern about the escalation of tension around what it cast as the “Island of Liberty”.
“Russia reaffirms its unwavering solidarity with the government and fraternal people of Cuba,” the ministry said.
It added: “We strongly condemn attempts of gross interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state, intimidation and the use of illegal unilateral restrictive measures.”
Power restoration
Power was restored in the western and eastern central regions of Cuba on Tuesday as some power plants reconnected to the grid, Cuba’s grid operator UNE said on social media.
Cuba’s national electric grid had collapsed on Monday, leaving about 10 million people without power.
China visit deferred
Trump on Tuesday said he was postponing a highly anticipated trip to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping as the war with Iran upends US foreign policy and delays an effort to ease tensions between the world’s two biggest economies.
"We are resetting the meeting ... We're working with China. They were fine with it," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. Trump had been set to travel to Beijing from March 31-April 2 for the first trip there of his 14-month-old second term. The trip will now take place in about five or six weeks, Trump said.
New York Times News Service and Reuters
