Wed | Jan 7, 2026

Concern in Cuba after Venezuela operation

Published:Sunday | January 4, 2026 | 5:47 PM
Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel attends the 17th annual BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, Sunday, July 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel attends the 17th annual BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, Sunday, July 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Concern simmered in Cuba, one of Venezuela’s most important allies and trading partners, a day after the Trump administration warned it could turn its attention to the Caribbean nation.

“If I lived in Havana and I was in the government I’d be concerned, at least,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday.

Cuban authorities called a rally to support Venezuela’s government and railed against the US military operation, writing in a statement: “All the nations of the region must remain alert, because the threat hangs over all of us.”

On Sunday, Cubans like 55-year-old biochemical laboratory worker Bárbara Rodríguez was among many following developments in Venezuela and worried about what she described as an “aggression against a sovereign state.”

“It can happen in any country, it can happen right here. We have always been in the cross-hairs (of the United States),” she said.

Rubio, a former Florida senator and son of Cuban immigrants, has long maintained Cuba is a dictatorship repressing its people.

Follow The Gleaner on X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.