MIAMI — On Thursday, the Trump administration teased what the president calls “talks” with Cuba as the country faces an economic crisis.
South Florida leaders, including U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Florida, are giving better insight as to what that might mean.
He told Local 10 News on Thursday that the talks are a clear indication that Cuban government’s days are numbered.
Diaz-Balart, an ally of President Donald Trump, reiterated his message that the the “talks” are not negotiations.
“It’s the same kind of talks that they had, including the president himself, the United States, with (President Nicolas) Maduro,” he said. “And, basically, those talks were not concessions or not negotiations. They were not for the regime to buy time. It was letting him know that their time is up.”
Diaz-Balart revealed a pattern: Backchannel talks with Venezuela ended with Maduro’s capture. Backchannel talks with Iran ended with bombings. The backchannel talks with Cuba come as people there protest, enduring increasing blackouts and shortages under the U.S.’s tightening economic noose.
At the same time, Trump publicly convened Western Hemisphere countries allied against narco-nrafficking and privately pressuring them to cut ties with Cuba. Ecuador has expelled its Cuban ambassador. Jamaica and Guyana sent Cuban doctors home.
“The president (is) not going to continue to accept an anti-American, state sponsor of terrorism 90 miles away from the United States,” he said.
Trump said he is personally involved, as is Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with those closest to now-94-year old-Raul Castro, including his grandson and gatekeeper, leaving out Cuba’s current officeholders.
“All these guys, they have zero power, zero influence,” Diaz-Balart said. “They’re basically the low-level bureaucrats that do that day-to-day. The power is one person: it’s still Raul Castro.”
But Diaz-Balart said he’s “never been willing to put timelines” on when change might happen.
Local 10’s Glenna Milberg pressed, “Is it weeks? Is it months?”
“It all depends,” Diaz-Balart said.
“Post-Iran?,” Milberg followed up.
“You know, I think it’s post-Iran, but I think it’s imminent,” he replied.
Diaz-Balart he does not think the Castro regime, as is, will last the three years remaining in the Trump administration.
Nicaragua’s leftist government may be in the Trump administration’s sights next; it was left out of the recent summit in Doral.
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