Rubio denies U.S. seeking to oust Cuba President

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday (March 17, 2026) denied a report that U.S. officials have urged Cuba to oust its President, Miguel Diaz-Canel.

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In a late-night post on X, Mr. Rubio said that the article by The New York Times was “fake” and was among media reports that relied on “charlatans and liars claiming to be in the know” as sources.

The newspaper reported Monday (March 16) that officials under President Donald Trump have asked Cuba to remove the president but have not pushed for a complete toppling of the communist government.

Mr. Rubio did not say if he was denying the whole article or particular parts of it.

The newspaper said that U.S. officials saw Mr. Diaz-Canel as a hardliner who would not institute change, but that the United States had not gone so far as to issue an ultimatum for his removal.

Mr. Rubio, a Cuban-American former senator from Miami, has for years pushed for the end of the communist system in Cuba, launched by Fidel Castro in a 1959 revolution.

Mr. Rubio earlier Tuesday (March 17) told reporters that Cuba needed to take more “dramatic” action than new measures to allow overseas Cubans to invest and own businesses in the island, which a day earlier suffered a nationwide blackout.

Mr. Trump has piled pressure on Cuba, which has been suffering an economic crisis. Trump forced Venezuela to stop sending oil, which made up half of Cuba’s needs, after U.S. forces raided Caracas in January and deposed and snatched the leftist president, Nicolas Maduro.

Mr. Trump has said that he is interested in an unspecified “deal” with Cuba, but also has boasted that he can take over the country, saying that it is weak.

In Venezuela and now in Iran, which he attacked with Israel on February 28, Mr. Trump has pursued a strategy not of seeking to overthrow governments but of forcing compliance.

Mr. Trump has voiced happiness with Venezuela’s interim President, Delcy Rodriguez, who was Mr. Maduro’s Vice President, after threatening her with violence if she does not meet his demands, including preferential treatment for U.S. oil companies.

Unlike Venezuela and Iran, Cuba does not have oil wealth, but it carries importance in domestic U.S. politics.

Cuban-American lawmakers, mostly part of Trump’s Republican Party, have long pushed for pressure on Havana.