US top diplomat blasts Cuba’s leadership in direct address to islanders

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio marked Cuban Independence Day with a direct appeal to the Cuban people, accusing the island’s communist leadership of causing the country’s deepening economic and humanitarian crisis.

In a Spanish-language video message — his first address directly to Cubans since becoming secretary of state — Rubio blamed the population’s “unimaginable hardships” on corruption and mismanagement by the ruling elite, Axios reports.

“The real reason you don't have electricity, fuel, or food is because those who control your country have plundered billions of dollars, but nothing has been used to help the people,” Rubio said.

The remarks form part of the Trump administration’s broader pressure campaign against Havana. Rubio focused heavily on GAESA, the powerful military-run business conglomerate founded by former Cuban leader Raúl Castro. According to Rubio, GAESA controls roughly 70% of Cuba’s economy through its interests in hotels, banks, construction, retail, and remittances.

“Cuba is not controlled by any ‘revolution.’ Cuba is controlled by GAESA,” Rubio said, contrasting the wealth of the ruling elite with widespread poverty among ordinary Cubans.

The speech coincided with reports that the US Justice Department would unveil an indictment against Raúl Castro over the 1996 downing of two Miami-based rescue planes.

Rubio also outlined a vision for a “new relationship” between the United States and Cuba, saying Washington was prepared to provide “$100 million in food and medicine” to the Cuban people, provided the aid is distributed through trusted charitable organizations rather than state-controlled entities.

“President Trump is offering a new relationship between the US and Cuba. But it must be directly with you, the Cuban people, not with GAESA,” he said.

Cuba’s government and its supporters, however, continue to blame the island’s economic difficulties on the long-standing US embargo and newly imposed sanctions under the Trump administration.

Rubio argued that democratic freedoms and economic opportunity available elsewhere in the Caribbean should also be possible in Cuba. 

“A new Cuba,” he said, would be a country “where you can complain about a failing system, without fear of going to jail or being forced to leave your island.”

By Vafa Guliyeva