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Kristen Welker: "I want to start with President Trump because President Trump's threats to take over Cuba come as the United States has removed President Maduro from power, has invaded Iran and killed its Supreme Leader. Do you fear you could be killed or arrested by the United States?" Miguel Díaz-Canel: "That is a very interesting question. Those of us who have leadership positions in the revolution have a strong commitment to our revolution and to our heroic people. In this connection, our responsibility entails the conviction and the commitment that we are willing to give our lives for the...

WASHINGTON — Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel revealed that his island nation is bracing for an attack from the US and declared that he is willing to die resisting President Trump. Since last December, the US has imposed a blockade around Venezuela as part of its Operation Southern Spear effort, and used that to cut off oil supplies to Cuba, which has since plunged further into an energy crisis. “I don’t think there would be any justification for the United States to launch a military aggression against Cuba, or for the US to undertake a surgical operation or the kidnapping of...

The NY Times is reporting this afternoon that President Trump is demanding Cuba's current president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, be removed from power in any deal with the country. This may be the first time people inside the administration have said so directly, but it has been obvious for weeks that this is what they had in mind.The other part of this, which also isn't really news, is that Trump is willing to leave some version of the regime in place so long as that regime is America friendly moving forward.As U.S. and Cuban officials negotiate over the future of the Communist-ruled...

The Cuban government is in talks with Trump administration officials, the country's president said Friday, as Havana works to halt a potential regime change as it deals with a widening energy crisis. In a 90-minute news conference broadcast by state media, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said talks with Washington were aimed at finding solutions to the political differences that divide the communist island and the United States, The New York Times reported. However, changes to Cuba's political system are off limits, Lianys Torres Rivera, Cuba’s chief of mission in the United States, told Politico in an interview. Cuba's economy has...

Sanctioned Ilyushin Il-76 follows same flight pattern seen before Maduro's capture in VenezuelaA Russian cargo plane typically used to transfer military equipment landed at a military airfield in Havana Sunday night, echoing flight patterns seen ahead of the capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela.The U.S.-sanctioned Ilyushin Il-76, operated by Russian state-linked airline Aviacon Zitotrans, was tracked landing at San Antonio de los Baños Airfield, a Cuban military installation roughly 30 miles south of Havana, according to public flight data.Flight-tracking records show the aircraft stopped in St. Petersburg and Sochi in Russia; Mauritania, Africa; and the Dominican Republic. Each landing would...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday fired off another warning to the government of Cuba as the close ally of Venezuela braces for potential widespread unrest after Nicolás Maduro was deposed as Venezuela’s leader.Cuba, a major beneficiary of Venezuelan oil, has now been cut off from those shipments as U.S. forces continue to seize tankers in an effort to control the production, refining and global distribution of the country’s oil products.Trump said on social media that Cuba long lived off Venezuelan oil and money and had offered security in return, “BUT NOT ANYMORE!”“THERE WILL BE...

I'm probably one of the most antiwar posters on Free Republic. I hate every bit of what we're doing in the Mideast and Europe. Deploying troops to Syria and Gaza, funding and aiding the Ukraine s**thole. Constantly warring with other nations on behalf of our (lol) "allies." It's all folly, even evil. This is hitting different. Venezuelan Communist criminals confiscated -literally stole - American oil fields, private property that belonged to Americans and American companies. Nobody has been held to account until now. Maduro is a criminal dictator who fk'd with our electoral and immigration systems in a major way....

As video of U.S. military operations inside Venezuela began to surface on social media, President Donald Trump has announced that overnight the U.S. military carried out a “large scale strike” against Venezuela and captured President Nicolas Maduro.

BREAKING: President Trump announces successful strike against Venezuela, says Nicolas Maduro has been captured

Loud explosions, accompanied by sounds resembling aircraft flyovers, were heard in Caracas around 2:00 am (06:00 GMT) Saturday, an AFP journalist reported. The explosions come as US President Donald Trump, who has deployed a navy task force to the Caribbean, has raised the possibility of ground strikes against Venezuela. Thick columns of black smoke also rose over the city’s skyline. On Monday, Trump claimed a strike had been carried out against a "docking facility" in the country, though today’s blasts appear to be centered within the capital's metropolitan core rather than on the coast.