Marco Rubio: Maduro's Removal Ominous Sign for Cuban Leaders

One day after a U.S. operation removed Nicolas Maduro from Venezuela, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Cuba’s communist leaders are "in a lot of trouble."

Rubio's comments Sunday on NBC’s "Meet the Press" underscored what the Trump administration is signaling as a new reality in the Western Hemisphere: Regimes that export instability, harbor America’s adversaries, and enable narco-trafficking will face direct consequences — and Cuba, Rubio suggested, may be next in line for maximum pressure.

Asked whether the Cuban government is the administration’s next target, Rubio didn’t mince words.

"I think they’re in a lot of trouble, yes," he said, while declining to outline future steps.

Rubio argued that Cuba has been "propping up Maduro" for years and claimed Havana effectively controlled the Venezuelan dictator’s internal security structure.

"His entire internal security force … is entirely controlled by Cubans," Rubio said, adding that Maduro was guarded by Cuban bodyguards and that Cuban operatives ran intelligence operations designed to detect "traitors," inside the regime.

Rubio also defended the legality and scope of the Maduro operation, dismissing Democrats’ complaints about Congress not being consulted.

He said the mission did not require congressional approval, calling it "akin to what virtually every single president for the last 40 years has conducted."

The difference, Rubio argued, is political: "When it’s Donald Trump, all these Democrats go bonkers."

The response from Havana was swift and furious.

In a sweeping statement, Cuba’s government condemned the U.S. action as "military aggression" and demanded the immediate release of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

Cuba accused Washington of "state terrorism," claimed the operation violated international law, and framed it as an imperial attempt to seize Venezuela’s resources under a revived Monroe Doctrine.

The statement also endorsed remarks from Venezuela's interim leadership and warned the entire region should remain "alert" to what it called U.S. escalation.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel echoed that message at a rally outside the U.S. Embassy in Havana, condemning the Maduro capture as "an act of state terrorism" and a "shocking violation" of international norms.

Behind the outrage is the reality that Cuba relies heavily on Venezuela for energy.

Venezuela supplies roughly 30% of Cuba’s already scarce oil imports, exchanged for thousands of Cuban medical personnel deployed in Venezuela.

Analysts warned that losing that oil would be devastating for Cuba's fragile power grid, worsening blackouts and shortages in a country already battered by a multiyear economic collapse.

That dependency is exactly why Rubio's warning hits home for Havana.

If Maduro is gone and Venezuela's oil trade is disrupted or redirected, Cuba’s lifeline could be cut — and its communist rulers could face deeper unrest.

President Donald Trump suggested in comments that Cuba may collapse without additional U.S. military action.

In an interview with the New York Post, Trump said he is not considering strikes against Cuba, arguing instead that "Cuba is going to fall on its own volition," largely because it has long depended on Venezuela.

For conservatives, the bigger takeaway is that the Trump administration appears determined to reassert U.S. influence in the region — not through endless nation-building, but through hard leverage, aggressive enforcement, and disrupting hostile regimes that fuel drugs, migration, and foreign adversary activity close to America’s borders.

Reuters contributed to this report.