U.S. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, stated that Washington does not rule out the possibility of a military intervention in Cuba, while maintaining that Havana “would do well to pay attention” to the “will” of the White House chief, Donald Trump, to “assert the strategic prerogatives” of the North American country.
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“As I have said before, and I think you have seen what has happened in other cases, all options are on the table, including military ones”, Hegseth said in statements to the media during his visit to Panama, a country where he participated in an event of the military coalition promoted by Washington against the cartels.
Immediately after, the senior official considered that the Caribbean island “would do well to pay attention to President Trump’s will to assert U.S. strategic prerogatives.”
After that, he added that, in his opinion, “no one can compare to the United States”, adding that “what foreign influence has been able to achieve in its hemisphere has been quite insignificant.”
“The Russians, Cubans, Iranians, and Venezuela… The way those countries have approached the United States and the Coalition Against Cartels of the Americas (A3C) shows that they understand where the balance of power lies, especially in this hemisphere. And that, without a doubt, applies to Cuba,” Hegseth said.
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It is worth remembering that last June, Trump himself referred to a possible military operation similar to those in Venezuela or Iran in Cuba.
However, Trump then stated he maintained a “flexible” stance regarding Havana.
“The difference is that Venezuela has oil, Cuba does not. Cuba has good properties and a beautiful coast,” the president said, stating that Cuban authorities are “very eager” to dialogue with Washington.
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