There are reports this week that Cuba is now talking to the Trump administration about the future of the country. Despite those reports, Cuba seems to be publicly denying the talks are even happening. What’s going on here? Here’s President Trump yesterday saying “we’re talking to the people from Cuba.”
Trump on Cuba:
We’re talking to the people from the highest levels in Cuba. Let’s see what happens.
I think we’re going to make a deal with Cuba. pic.twitter.com/R9PEQfKcnm
— Clash Report (@clashreport) February 1, 2026
There are reports today indicating Cuba has changed its tone toward the US compared to just a few days ago. Here’s the Miami Herald:
The Cuban government has exchanged its fierce rhetoric and vows to resist President Donald Trump’s “threats” for a more conciliatory offer to renew cooperation on security matters and maintain a “respectful dialogue” amid increasing diplomatic tensions and several incidents of harassment of U.S. diplomats on the island. “Cuba is prepared to reactivate and expand bilateral cooperation with the United States to address shared transnational threats, without ever relinquishing its sovereignty and independence,” the island’s foreign affairs ministry said in a statement late Sunday, noting that the two countries would benefit from “constructive engagement.”
It certainly sounds like something has changed, but the AP reports that a Cuban diplomat is denying any talks with the US. He says they are open to dialogue so long as the country’s socialist government isn’t threatened.
Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío spoke days after U.S. President Donald Trump said his administration is starting to talk with Cuban leaders after he threatened tariffs on any country providing oil to the island.
“We’re not talking specifically about negotiation yet,” Cossío said. “That’s another issue.”
“We are open to dialogue,” he added. “If we can have a dialogue, maybe that can lead to negotiation.”
Cossío said Cuba is ready to have “informal dialogue” with the U.S. “with the aim of ensuring that we can have a respectable, serious coexistence in spite of the differences between our two countries.”
But Cossío stressed that certain things are off the table for Cuba, including the country’s constitution, economy and system of government, which is socialist.
It’s actually hard to tell what is really happening here. Are we having talks with someone in Cuba like we apparently did with people inside Venezuela prior to arresting Maduro? If so, Trump may have revealed something that not everyone in the Cuban government knows about.
Whatever the case, Cuba is running out of time. They will be out of oil reserves by the end of this month.
Cuba has only 15-20 days of oil left. The Trump admin has blocked all deliveries from Venezuela, and Mexico, Cuba’s only other supplier, canceled all contracts.
This will sharply worsen Cuba’s economic crisis. Since 2021, already ~10% of Cuba’s population has fled to the US. pic.twitter.com/poOG2WPq0Z
— Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban) January 29, 2026
Even before the tank reads empty, Cubans are struggling to get by as inflation eats away at what they can afford.
Cuba’s peso has lost more than 10% of its value against the dollar in three weeks, pushing up the price of groceries.
“This has put me in an impossible situation,” said Yaite Verdecia, a Havana resident and housewife. “There’s no salary that can cope with this.”…
“I’m just praying God finds a way to get us out of this (mess),” said Mirta Trujillo, a 71-year-old street vendor from Guanabacoa who burst into tears as she told Reuters she could no longer afford food. Previously, she had depended on a ration book of basic goods provided by the government, but that was phased out post-pandemic as tourist income and other sources of hard currency dried up.
“I’m not against my country… but I don’t want to die of hunger,” she said.
People are willing to tolerate a lot but dedication to politics probably ends when starvation is a real possibility. And Trump issued an executive order last week that seems like it will ensure no relief is coming.
The Government of Cuba has taken extraordinary actions that harm and threaten the United States. The regime aligns itself with — and provides support for — numerous hostile countries, transnational terrorist groups, and malign actors adverse to the United States, including the Government of the Russian Federation (Russia), the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Government of Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah. For example, Cuba blatantly hosts dangerous adversaries of the United States, inviting them to base sophisticated military and intelligence capabilities in Cuba that directly threaten the national security of the United States. Cuba hosts Russia’s largest overseas signals intelligence facility, which tries to steal sensitive national security information of the United States. Cuba continues to build deep intelligence and defense cooperation with the PRC. Cuba welcomes transnational terrorist groups, such as Hezbollah and Hamas, creating a safe environment for these malign groups so that these transnational terrorist groups can build economic, cultural, and security ties throughout the region and attempt to destabilize the Western Hemisphere, including the United States…
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, find that the situation with respect to Cuba constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national security and foreign policy of the United States and hereby declare a national emergency with respect to that threat.
What follows is a plan for tariffs aimed at anyone selling oil to Cuba. So, Cuba is truly isolated and without help from other socialists they are on the brink of a real crisis. At some point very soon, support for the current government is going to end and whatever Trump is offering is going to look pretty good.
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