US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been holding secret talks with the grandson of former Cuban dictator Raúl Castro as Washington exerts unprecedented pressure on the Havana regime, the portal reported. Axios this Wednesday (18).
The conversations between Rubio and Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro are taking place outside the official channels of the Cuban dictatorship and demonstrate that Donald Trump’s administration considers the 94-year-old revolutionary to be truly responsible for decision-making on the island, even though he is no longer the acting leader, says the American portal.
“I wouldn’t call them ‘negotiations,’ but ‘discussions’ about the future,” said a senior Trump administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Rubio – who has Cuban roots – and his team see Castro’s 41-year-old grandson and his circle as representing younger, business-minded Cubans for whom revolutionary communism has failed and who value a rapprochement with the United States.
“Our stance – the US government’s stance – is that the regime has to go,” the official told Axios“but exactly what that will look like depends on President Trump, and he hasn’t decided yet. Rubio remains in talks with his grandson.”
Trump’s advisers spoke to other influential Cubans besides the young Castro, but he is considered the most important figure on the island with whom to cultivate relations.
“He is the apple of his grandfather’s eye,” served as the dictator’s bodyguard and also has allies who run the giant Cuban military-business conglomerate known as GAESA, said the source, who described the talks between Rubio and Castro as “surprisingly” friendly.
The possibility of a dialogue between Washington and Havana that could alleviate the island’s oil asphyxiation is gaining ground once again with the latest statements from the American administration, which point to negotiations.
Trump reiterated last Monday, in line with what he has already signaled several times in recent weeks, that his government is holding talks with senior officials from the Cuban Executive, something that Havana denied.
“We’re talking to Cuba right now. Marco Rubio is talking to Cuba right now, and they should totally come to an agreement, because it’s… really, a humanitarian threat,” Trump said aboard the presidential plane.
The US energy blockade on the island has had consequences for the supply of all types of products. Vehicles gradually disappear from the streets and hospitals and state offices operate with minimal services, while blackouts last for hours across the entire territory.
