<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: capitalize; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: nowrap; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; float: none; display: inline !important;" id="isPasted">WASHINGTON:&nbsp;US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday denied a report that US officials have urged Cuba to oust its president, Miguel Diaz-Canel.&nbsp;In a late-night post on X, Rubio said that the article by The New York Times was &quot;fake&quot; and was among media reports that relied on &quot;charlatans and liars claiming to be in the know&quot; as sources.&nbsp;The newspaper reported Monday that officials under President Donald Trump have asked Cuba to remove the president but have not pushed for a complete toppling of the communist government.&nbsp;Rubio did not say if he was denying the whole article or particular parts of it.&nbsp;The newspaper said that US officials saw Diaz-Canel as a hardliner who would not institute change, but that the United States had not gone so far as to issue an ultimatum for his removal.&nbsp;Rubio, a Cuban-American former senator from Miami, has for years pushed for the end to the communist system in Cuba launched by Fidel Castro in a 1959 revolution.&nbsp;Rubio earlier on Tuesday told reporters that Cuba needed to take more &quot;dramatic&quot; action than new measures to allow overseas Cubans to invest and own businesses in the island, which a day earlier suffered a nationwide blackout.&nbsp;Trump has piled pressure on Cuba, which has been suffering an economic crisis. Trump forced Venezuela to stop sending oil, which made up half of Cuba&#39;s needs, after US forces raided Caracas in January and deposed and snatched the leftist president, Nicolas Maduro.&nbsp;Trump has said that he is interested in an unspecified &quot;deal&quot; with Cuba, but has also boasted that he can take over the country, saying that it is weak.&nbsp;In Venezuela and now in Iran, which he attacked with Israel on February 28, Trump has pursued a strategy not of seeking to overthrow governments but of forcing compliance.&nbsp;Trump has voiced happiness with Venezuela&#39;s interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, who was Maduro&#39;s vice president, after threatening her with violence if she does not meet his demands, including preferential treatment for US oil companies.&nbsp;Unlike Venezuela and Iran, Cuba does not have oil wealth, but it carries importance in domestic US politics.&nbsp;Cuban-American lawmakers, mostly part of Trump&#39;s Republican Party, have long pushed for pressure on Havana.

Americas

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied reports that the US asked Cuba to remove President Miguel Díaz-Canel, calling them false, while tensions and pressure on Cuba continue.

Articles tagged with "Miguel Diaz-Canel"

Rubio denies US seeking to oust Cuba president

Rubio denies US seeking to oust Cuba president