Cuba's Economic Challenges and Future Prospects

Is the goal still

of creating regime change through economic collapse,

or is the military option still?

I think the goal is to have a Cuba where the people of Cuba can experience

prosperity, safety, security,

and a better life moving forward.

The way, you know,

Cubans are able to do all over the world when they leave Cuba.

And we're prepared to be, you know,

very realistic about how you do that, and patient about how, you know,

in a serious process that leads to that.

And we've engaged them from time to time in that regard,

and they know where we stand on that issue.

And hopefully that's where it arrives.

The fundamental problem Cuba has right now is two things.

Number one is their economic system doesn't work,

because that economic system doesn't exist anywhere else in the world.

It's completely backwards.

It just doesn't work. And that's why people have to leave that country.

And number two, it's they're no longer getting free oil from Venezuela.

That's their biggest problem.

They're not getting free oil from Venezuela, which, by the way,

they weren't using for their power grid.

They were taking about 60 of

the free oil they were getting from Venezuela and reselling it for cash.

So the biggest problem Cuba has is that their regime is a disaster,

their economic model doesn't work,

and the people who run the country don't know what the hell they're doing.

And all they're most interested in is holding on to power.

They are afraid of economic prosperity,

because they are afraid that economic prosperity and economic liberties will,

they will lose control over people.

And that's always been the struggle they've faced in recent times.

But again, look, we've been, just today,

we began shipping over 100 million of humanitarian assistance to Cuba.

Which will be distributed by non governmental entities on the ground.

So, you know, we're willing to engage with them.

We've engaged with them in the past.

We'll keep talking to them about the kind of changes they can make.

But this is 90 miles from our shores.

This is a government that has spent,

a regime that has spent the better part of 30, 40,

50 years destabilizing the region and the movements that they've supported.

And they've lost, I don't know, 10 to 15 of their population since 2021

because of how mismanaged the country is.

We want it to have a better future and we're prepared to do things that

help them get there. But they have to decide they want to do that.

The people that are in charge of it right now just don't want to do it.

It's unfortunate.