After decades of conflict, the U.S. government is offering Cubans a new kind of relationship.
May 20, 2026, 4:15 p.mMay 20, 2026, 4:15 p.m
“In the United States, we are ready to open a new chapter in the relationship between our peoples and our countries,” said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose parents themselves immigrated to the United States from Cuba, in a video message in Spanish. However, this new relationship must be forged directly with the Cubans, not with the communist government.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is the son of Cuban immigrants.Image: keystone
In view of the catastrophic supply situation on the Caribbean island, Rubio promised aid deliveries worth 100 million US dollars. However, the food and medicine would have to be distributed by the Catholic Church or aid organizations and not by the Cuban military holding company Gaesa, which controls large parts of the island’s economy.
US government wants relationship with new Cuba
“President Trump is offering a new path between the United States and a new Cuba,” said Rubio. «A new Cuba where ordinary Cubans, not just Gaesa, can own a gas station, a clothing store or a restaurant. A new Cuba in which you, not just the Communist Party, can own a television station or a newspaper.”
Video message for Cuba’s Independence Day
The US Secretary of State released his video message on Cuban Independence Day. On May 20, 1902, after four years of US occupation, the Cuban Republic was proclaimed. The communists in power today rejected the republic and the government allied with Washington and, after the victory of the revolution in 1959, established a socialist state model.
«Intervention, interference, robbery, frustration: This is what May 20th means in the history of Cuba. We have only one thing to thank for this day: it sowed an anti-imperialist feeling in the Cubans, which continues to grow with the constant threats against the independence and sovereignty of the fatherland,” wrote Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel on Platform X. (hkl/sda/dpa)