Trump says it would be a "great honor" for him to "take Cuba"

Washington.- U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that it would be "a great honor" for him to "take Cuba", amid tensions between the two countries over the energy blockade against the island.

"Taking Cuba, that would be a great honor. Taking Cuba, taking Cuba somehow, yes. Whether it's liberating it or taking it. I could do whatever I wanted with it," he said in a press conference at the White House. The leader reiterated that his Administration is in talks with the Cuban authorities and described the island as "a failed nation. They have no money, no oil, they have nothing." "They have good land. They have beautiful landscapes. It's a beautiful island," said the Republican, who boasted of having Cuban friends who became millionaires in the United States.

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The Republican president has threatened in recent weeks to take control of the island either "amicably" or by force, and has repeated that the Havana government "will fall very soon" because the country "is in ruins", affected by the crude oil blockade imposed by Washington last January. Last week, Cuba's President Miguel Díaz-Canel confirmed that they are in talks with the U.S. to "seek solutions through dialogue to the differences between both Governments", something that Trump had already anticipated, but that the island had denied. Cuba began the week with a new nationwide blackout, the sixth in the last 18 months, as part of the deep energy crisis they have been experiencing since 2024, a situation that has worsened in the last three months with the oil blockade imposed by the U.S. that is completely paralyzing the economy and fueling social unrest.