Trump Admin Reportedly Gives Cuba Two Weeks To Release High-Profile Political Prisoners

The Trump administration has given the Cuban regime a two-week deadline to release high-profile political prisoners as a gesture of good will amid ongoing negotiations, according to a new report.

USA Today detailed that the demand was made during a secret meeting in Cuba earlier this month. It was attended by a senior State Department delegation on April 10, with an official holding a separate meeting with Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro, the grandson of Raul Castro. It was the first time U.S. officials went to the country since then-President Barack Obama traveled in an effort to achieve closer relations.

Axios provided more details about the meeting, noting that State Department officials urged Havana to increase democratic and economic freedom, also warning about the risks of not complying. The delegation also offered to help restore internet services through Starlink terminals.

Officials told their counterparts that their country’s economy is “in free fall and that the island’s ruling elites have a small window to make key U.S. backed reforms before circumstances irreversibly worsen.”

Another recent report from USA Today has also claimed that the Pentagon is intensifying plans for operations in Cuba should President Donald Trump give the green light.

It is unclear whether Trump has given any orders, but he has told press he is focused on the war in Iran at the moment and might “stop by Cuba after we’re finished.”

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has addressed the possibility recently, saying that Havana will fight back should an attack take place.

Speaking to NBC News last week, he warned the Trump administration against potentially invading the island or carrying out an operation similar to the one in Venezuela, when U.S. forces captured Venezuela’s former authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro.

“If that happens, there will be fighting, and there will be a struggle, and we will defend ourselves, and if we need to die, we’ll die, because as our national anthem says, ‘Dying for the homeland is to live,'” Diaz-Canel added.

He went on to say that the country’s strategy is based on a “war of all the people,” which he described as a defensive doctrine involving broad public participation. He also warned that any U.S. attack would cause “immense losses for both nations and peoples,” with “incalculable” human and material costs.

Diaz-Canel also rejected stepping down despite the Trump administration’s ongoing pressure. “In Cuba, the people who are in leadership positions are not elected by the U.S. government, and they don’t have a mandate from the U.S. government,” he said.