Washington, March 17 – President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio sharply criticised Cuba’s leadership on Tuesday following a nationwide power outage, calling the island’s economic system “non-functional” and urging sweeping political change.
Speaking during a meeting with Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin, Trump said the United States was closely watching developments in Cuba and signalled possible action.
“Cuba is currently in very bad shape,” Trump said. “We will be taking action against Cuba soon.”
Rubio, responding to questions about the island’s economic crisis, said the situation reflected deeper structural problems. “Cuba has an economy that doesn’t work and a political and governmental system that they cannot fix,” he said.
“Therefore, they must make dramatic changes.”
Rubio said recent measures announced by Havana were inadequate to address the crisis. “What they announced yesterday is not sufficient. It will not solve the problem,” he said.
He described the Cuban economy as fundamentally broken. “It’s a non-functional economy,” Rubio said, adding that the system had survived for decades on external support. “It’s not even a revolution; that system has survived on subsidies from the Soviet Union and now from Venezuela.”
According to Rubio, that support has largely disappeared, leaving the country in deep trouble. “They no longer receive subsidies. So they are in a lot of trouble,” he said.
He also questioned the leadership’s ability to respond to the crisis. “And the people in charge, they don’t know how to fix it. So they need new people in charge,” Rubio said.
On US policy, Rubio declined to say whether Washington would consider easing the trade embargo in exchange for Havana’s cooperation. He said the embargo remains tied to political change on the island.
The comments came as Cuba’s electrical grid collapsed on Monday, leaving large parts of the country without power and underscoring the severity of its ongoing energy crisis.
Later, a senior State Department official echoed the administration’s position, linking the blackout directly to governance failures.
“Widespread blackouts have sadly become common in Cuba – a symptom of the failing regime’s incompetence and inability to provide even the most basic goods and services for its people,” the official said.
The official described the situation as the result of decades of political rule. “This is the tragic result of over sixty years of Communist rule,” the official said.
In a stark assessment, the official said the island had sharply declined. “An island that was once the crown jewel of the Caribbean has plunged into extreme poverty and darkness,” the official said.
The official also pointed to Trump’s position on the future of the Cuban government. “As President Trump has said, what remains of the regime should make a deal and finally allow the Cuban people to be free and prosperous, with the help of the United States,” the official said.
The administration’s remarks suggest Washington sees the latest blackout as part of a broader economic and political crisis rather than a one-off infrastructure failure.