(The Hill) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Saturday warned Cuba’s leaders that “I’d be concerned” following the United States’ capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro during an attack earlier in the day.
Rubio spoke to reporters at a press conference at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. The secretary accused Cuba of being “run by incompetent, senile men, and in some cases not seen now, but incompetent nonetheless.” He claimed Maduro’s guards and Venezuela’s “whole spy agency” were “full of Cubans,” and that “this poor island took over Venezuela.”
“In some cases, one of the biggest problems Venezuelans have is they have to declare independence from Cuba,” Rubio added. “They tried to basically colonize it from a security standpoint. So, yeah, look, if I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned at least a little bit.”
Before Rubio spoke, Trump said his administration “wants to surround ourselves with good neighbors” but added that Cuba is “not doing very well right now” and a “failing nation.”
“It’s very similar in the sense that we want to help the people in Cuba, but we want to also help the people who are forced out of Cuba and living in this country,” he said.
Cuban officials condemned the strikes and capture. Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla wrote on the social platform X that his country condemned the “military aggression” of the U.S. “against Venezuela and the kidnapping of its legitimate President Nicolás Maduro Moros and his wife.”
The U.S. struck Venezuela early on Saturday, with explosions seen in its capital Caracas and three other states. The military’s Delta Force entered Maduro’s compound and captured him and his wife Cilia Flores. Trump said Maduro and Flores were aboard the USS Iwo Jima and heading for New York, where they will face charges.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the duo was indicted in the Southern District of New York. Maduro and Flores face charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machineguns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machineguns and destructive devices against the United States.
Trump at his press conference declared that the U.S. will “run” Venezuela until a “safe” transition could take place.
“We’re going to be running it with a group, and we’re going to make sure it’s run properly,” Trump said. “We’re going to make sure the people of Venezuela are taken care of and we’re going to make sure the people of Venezuela who were forced out by this thug are taken care of.”
Democratic lawmakers criticized the attack and said it was illegal without congressional approval. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called Maduro “an illegitimate dictator” but said his capture “without congressional authorization and without a credible plan for what comes next is reckless.”