Rubio threatens Cuba, calls for elections in Venezuela 'as soon as possible'

Nora Gámez Torres, Miami Herald on Sep 29, 2026

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Cuba’s leaders will learn “the hard way” if they don't enact political and economic changes, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday night, adding that the Trump administration is pushing for democratic elections in Venezuela.

In a wide-ranging interview with Fox News commentator Sean Hannity, Rubio said Venezuela needs economic recovery after “25 or 30 years of corruption and graft,” and a transition to democracy.

“They need to have free and fair elections in that country,” he said. “We’re working very hard with the 2015 National Assembly to put in place the conditions necessary to have free and fair elections as soon as possible, and then Venezuela will really be on the upswing it deserves to be on.”

The comments follow Trump’s first meeting with Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly last week. According to the Axios news site, Trump stressed the importance of elections but did not insist on a date.

Rubio, who attended that meeting, told reporters the talks centered on restructuring Venezuela’s debt, economic stabilization and a political transition toward free and fair elections. Addressing the UN General Assembly the next day, Rodríguez promised that Venezuela will hold elections, without setting a date.

Many Venezuelan politicians, including opposition leader María Corina Machado, remain barred from running. Machado, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who left Venezuela late last year, has been blocked seven times from returning home, her team said. On Sunday, her supporters took to the streets in Venezuela to demand her safe return and presidential elections that could lead to a democratic transition.

Rubio’s remarks about elections came as some Florida lawmakers have called for concrete steps towards a democratic transition.

“Delcy Rodríguez is NOT the legitimate president of Venezuela,” Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott posted on X. “She is a cartel leader who must cooperate with the United States as we work toward a true democratic transition and ensure the commitments that have been made are fulfilled.”

Scott called for restoring Venezuela’s democratic institutions, “beginning with a legitimate Supreme Court that can guarantee free and fair elections. And for those elections to truly be free, ALL candidates must have the freedom to run and campaign without oppression, intimidation or persecution — starting with María Corina Machado. She must be able to return home and live, organize and participate freely in her own country.”

Cuba changes

Rubio also warned Cuban leaders that under President Donald Trump they would no longer be able to “steal money and make money off the backs of the Cuban people,” nor would he allow Cuba “to become a base of operation against American interests or pose a threat to our national security.”

Rubio said the administration would like to see Cuba making changes that involve both economic and political freedoms: “In fact, you cannot have economic freedom in Cuba if you don’t have political freedom first. You have to have both happening at least at the same time. That will require a period of transition.”

The president prefers to solve “these things diplomatically,” he said, but Cuban leaders “still believe that they could wait out this administration and make no changes or do nothing. They are wrong, and they will learn the lesson the hard way if they don’t correct.”

Asked by Hannity whether Cuba was about to fall, Rubio said the island had “already fallen.”

“It doesn’t have a functional economy and it’s governed by people who continue to preach about some revolution that has been dead for 20 years that’s never worked,” he said. “The problem that Cuba has basically right now is that it is a failed state in every sense of the word.”

Rubio said the government in Havana remains “capable of jailing and killing people” but is “not a functional government and it’s not a functional country.” He noted that “since 2021 at least close to 20 percent of Cuba’s population has left the country.”

He said the administration hopes some of those who “control the arms and the repressive regime” would “open their eyes to the reality of what they’re facing.”

The remarks were sharper than those Rubio made in New York less than a week earlier. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, he said Cuba had “a golden opportunity” to set itself on an “irreversible path” toward a better future and that the U.S. was prepared to help if Havana embraced change.

Asked then whether he would rule out military action against Cuba, Rubio stressed the administration prefers a political solution. “I’m certainly not going to threaten anything,” he said.

Rubio’s interview Monday came amid mounting speculation about U.S. military plans. Trump said Saturday he does not expect the U.S. to need military force against Cuba and predicted the two countries would “make a deal,” a day after CBS News reported that the Pentagon was laying the groundwork for possible operations on the island.

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