Julian E. Barnes

You have to reset and come back for Cuba.

And it

wouldn't necessarily have the same effect.

Like, Nicolas Maduro was the official president of Venezuela.

Pulling him out triggered a change in leadership.

It allowed Vice President Delcy Rodriguez to become the acting president, to take power.

Raul Castro is a very important figure in Cuba.

He is very politically influential.

But if you grabbed him, it wouldn't change any official leadership, right?

The Cuban government would continue on.

Right.

And so when you talk to outside experts, it is that reason that in the end they see this as a threat, as pressure, as a signal more than a sign of what is to come.

They've been a little unclear in their public comments about this, and certainly the Cuban government wants to know what the U.S.

demands are.

But we did, in recent days, start to get some answers.

John Ratcliffe, the CIA director, last week took a trip to Cuba, first Trump cabinet official to go down there.

He delivered a message to the grandson of Raul Castro, the interior minister, and the head of Cuba's intelligence services.

And he talked vaguely about economic and political change, but he also said that Cuba can't be a platform for America's adversaries.

And the Cubans knew exactly what he was talking about.

That was a reference to the Chinese intelligence post and the Russian military posts that are on Cuba.