Cuba Denies Negotiations With U.S. Despite Trump’s Claims

At the United Nations last month, Donald Trump claimed Secretary of State Marco Rubio was “deep into negotiations” with Cuba.

Lianys Torres Rivera, Cuba’s top diplomat in Washington, told Reuters Monday there are no negotiations.

She clarified that the two governments remain in contact through meetings, phone calls and WhatsApp messages, but have made no progress toward an agenda or restarting formal talks.

Cuban officials have been saying the same for months. Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said talks—not negotiations—initiated earlier this year had stalled by June. 

Back in February, a senior Trump official told Drop Site that Trump’s insistence that negotiations with Cuba were ongoing was based on a lie being told to him by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. According to the official, Rubio’s plan was to eventually declare the talks a failure, blame Cuban intransigence and convince Trump that regime change was the only path forward.

Eight months later, Trump is still predicting the two countries “will make a deal.” Meanwhile, Rubio has overseen a relentless escalation of U.S. sanctions, rolling out new measures almost weekly that have pushed Cuba toward a humanitarian crisis.

Trump is also saying he doesn’t think the U.S. will “need the military.”

But Cuba is preparing for that possibility, anyway.

“We are increasing our [defense] capabilities now more than ever before,” Torres Rivera said.

She said Cuba was open to dialogue, but that regime change imposed by the United States was a “red line.”