“National Security Threat”: America Is Doing Everything Short of War to Regime Change Cuba

U.S. Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio told reporters this week that Cuba poses a national security threat to the United States and said the likelihood of a peaceful agreement with Havana is not high. The comments came one day after the U.S. Justice Department charged former Cuban president and military chief Raúl Castro with the murder of U.S. nationals.

War with Cuba Coming Soon? 

President Donald Trump plays golf in the Senior Club Championship at Trump National Golf Club Jupiter, Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Jupiter, Florida. (Official White House Photo by Molly Riley)

President Donald Trump signs executive orders alongside Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and wounded warriors in the Oval Office, Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)

US Secretary of State Rubio Calls Cuba a Threat to US National Security: The American Secretary of State and National Security Advisor (NSA) to US President Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, has said Cuba poses a “national security threat” to the US. He further stated that the likelihood of a peaceful agreement between Washington and the island communist nation is “not high.”

Rubio made his comments while speaking to a group of reporters on Thursday and emphasized that diplomacy “remains our preference with Cuba”, but then added: “I’m just being honest with you, you know, the likelihood of that happening, given who we’re dealing with right now, is not high.”

Earlier in the month, Rubio had discussed the situation with Cuba after providing the press with an update on the conflict in Iran. Describing the mounting crisis with the Cuban economy, he stated, “Their economic model doesn’t work. It doesn’t work. And the people who are in charge can’t fix it.”

“And the reason that they can’t fix it is not just because they’re communists – that’s bad enough, but they’re incompetent communists. The only thing worse than a communist is an incompetent one, and that’s what – so incompetent communists run that country. They don’t know how to fix it. They really don’t. And we have 90 miles from our shores a failed state that also happens to be friendly territory for some of our adversaries. So, it’s an unacceptable status quo, and we’ll be addressing it, but not today.”

Indictment of Raúl Castro

“Today” may just be around the corner.

Rubio’s comments about his pessimism as to the probability of a peaceful resolution come just a day after the US Justice Department charged Cuba’s former president and head of the island’s military, Raúl Castro, with the murder of US nationals in 1996.

The US citizens were members of an anti-Castro Cuban exile organization called “Brothers to the Rescue” (Hermanos al Rescate). They were killed when the two private civil aircraft that were flying near Cuba to drop leaflets were shot down by a Defensa Anti-Aérea y Fuerza Aérea Revolucionaria (Cuban Air Force) two-seat Mikoyan MiG-29UB-9.51 fighter aircraft.

Rubio said that Washington’s preference was still for “a diplomatic solution,” but he made it clear that President Trump retains the right and has the obligation to protect his country against any threat. In response, the Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez, accused Rubio of “lies” and claimed the island did not now, nor had it ever, posed a threat to the US.

Speaking to reporters Thursday, Rubio explained that diplomacy “remains our preference with Cuba”, and that “I’m just being honest with you, you know”. He then added that the odds of this dispute being resolved peacefully were low at present because of the nature of the regime and its leadership.

Ratcheting Up Pressure

Rubio also accused Cuba of being “one of the leading sponsors of terrorism in the entire region”, which Rodríguez then denied in a post he made on the X messaging platform.

The Cuban foreign minister also denounced Rubio for attempting to “instigate a military aggression” and accused Washington of “ruthlessly and systematically” attacking his country.

Currently, Cuba is suffering from a fuel crisis that has been exacerbated by a US oil blockade.

That cutoff of the island’s oil supply has been maintained while the Cuban Government is under increasing pressure from the White House to make internal changes. The general public in Cuba has been living with severe power blackouts – sometimes lasting up to 22 hours a day – and shortages of food, water, and medicine.

Those changes amount to dismantling the communist-style dictatorship and restoration of human rights and civil liberties in Cuban society. Havana would also be forced to expel intelligence and military personnel from the People’s Republic of China, Russia, Iran, and other nations hostile to the US from the island.

In a separate event, Trump spoke to reporters in the Oval Office, saying that Cuba was a “failed country” and that his administration was trying to help them “on a humanitarian basis”. He continued by saying Cuban-Americans “want to go back to their country” and help Cuba succeed.

President Donald Trump greets members of the Navy Midshipmen football team from the U.S. Naval Academy, Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in the State Dining Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)

“Other presidents have looked at this [freeing Cuba] for 50, 60 years doing something, and it looks like I’ll be the one that does it, so I would be happy to do it,” Trump said.

About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson 

Reuben F. Johnson has thirty-six years of experience analyzing and reporting on foreign weapons systems, defense technologies, and international arms export policy. Johnson is the Director of Research at the Casimir Pulaski Foundation. He is also a survivor of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He worked for years in the American defense industry as a foreign technology analyst and later as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Defense, the Departments of the Navy and Air Force, and the governments of the United Kingdom and Australia. In 2022-2023, he won two awards in a row for his defense reporting. He holds a bachelor’s degree from DePauw University and a master’s degree from Miami University in Ohio, specializing in Soviet and Russian studies. He lives in Warsaw.