That’s the charge made by reporter Ryan Grim and two colleagues in an article published Feb. 9 in Drop Site News headlined “Rubio is Deliberately Blocking Trump from Cuba Talks.” The article, picked up by some Ibero-American media, asserts that President Donald Trump’s claims of holding talks with Cuban officials at the “highest level” of the government are not true, based only on lies Rubio is telling him. According to five Cuban and American officials who asked to remain anonymous, Rubio’s plan is to tell Trump the talks are ongoing, but a few weeks or months later will report they’ve failed due to Cuba’s “intransigence.”
Rubio is known to be a pathological liar.
“With diplomatic off-ramps being blocked, this would make Rubio’s vision of regime change the only path forward for an administration loath to reverse course on anything.” The authors report that senior Cuban leaders told Drop Site News they’re open to holding wide-ranging talks on several key issues, only stipulating there can be no preconditions or pressures and Cuba’s sovereignty must be respected. But high-level talks have yet to begin.
When asked, the State Department denied reports of Rubio’s misleading Trump on negotiations, insisting that talks are taking place and cited an administration official warning that Cuba had better make a deal fast because it is a “failing nation.” The only contact going on, according to one State Department official, is “not-substantive,” and “technical” in nature.
The authors also observe that Trump isn’t so interested in having an ideological battle over Cuba–witness how he’s handling post-Maduro Venezuela, where some Maduro loyalists, such as interim President Delcy Rodriguez, are still running the government. Of course, Rubio’s Miami base of Cuban-Americans and exiles would “revolt” if Trump were to make a successful deal with Cuba, and Rubio “would either have to sign off on it or resign in protest,” the authors assert.
