U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio renewed U.S. pressure on Cuba on Thursday, again raising the prospect of military intervention. The comments come a day after the U.S. administration announced criminal charges against Cuba’s former leader Raúl Castro, which multiple outlets say has intensified the standoff.
In their remarks, Trump suggested that previous U.S. presidents had considered intervention for decades and indicated he could be the one to act, portraying military action as a possibility. Rubio, according to several reports, says the United States remains open to diplomacy but doubts that a negotiated solution is likely under current circumstances. Multiple outlets also characterize Rubio’s assessment as reflecting the view that the likelihood of a diplomatic resolution is “not high.”
Overall, the coverage agrees that the U.S. is combining legal actions against Raúl Castro with heightened rhetoric toward Cuba, while maintaining that diplomacy has not been ruled out even as the option of military force is publicly invoked.
