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The United States is prepared to discuss with Havana how Cuba could make a political transition towards new leadership, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday, according to Al Jazeera.
“Cuba has a golden opportunity to place itself on an irreversible path towards a better future,” Rubio told reporters in New York. “We are prepared to be helpful in that regard if they are open to it.”
Washington calls for change in Havana
The United States has previously said it wants a change in Cuba’s government. Since the beginning of the year, Washington has also imposed an oil blockade, adding to fuel shortages and nationwide power outages. Cuban officials have blamed the pressure for worsening difficulties in providing food and other basic necessities.
Rubio said the United States was willing to work with Cuban officials whose “hands are not stained with blood”, while acknowledging that some members of the leadership remained “at least publicly quite recalcitrant”.
The secretary of state, whose parents left Cuba before the 1959 communist revolution, said US companies, investors and members of the Cuban diaspora were ready to assist the country’s economic transition if political reforms were made.
Trump calls Cuba a “failed state”
US President Donald Trump described Cuba as a “failed state” in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday and said his administration was seeking “a fundamental change” on the island.
Trump said the communist government was facing its greatest pressure yet and that the United States was prepared to use military power when necessary. His remarks prompted the Cuban delegation to leave the assembly.
Cuban officials have denied that negotiations with Washington are taking place. The United States has sought to remove Cuba’s post-revolutionary government since it came to power in 1959.
Embargo continues to draw criticism
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez earlier this month described the US embargo as a policy of “economic asphyxiation” and called the blockade “genocidal”.
The Cuban government says the embargo cost its economy $8 billion between March 2025 and February 2026. It described the figure as the highest recorded to date and 7 percent higher than in the previous reporting period.
According to Cuban officials, the total does not include more recent US measures, including restrictions on the island’s energy supply introduced in January and secondary sanctions imposed in May.
Several leaders criticised the embargo during this year’s UN General Assembly, including Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who said 10 million Cubans were facing “collective punishment” from an economic embargo and energy siege.
Since 1992, the UN General Assembly has adopted a non-binding resolution each year calling for the embargo to be lifted. In July, 136 member states supported holding a debate on the resolution, while nine opposed it and 30 abstained, including Germany and Canada.
