What's next for Cuba after Venezuela?
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What recent actions has the Trump administration taken regarding Venezuela?
President Trump's 270-degree turn on Greenland was well-received by players in financial markets. I'm David Brancaccio in Los Angeles. On Tuesday, the S&P 500 fell more than 2% amid the president's threats of new tariffs on European countries that object to the U.S. taking Greenland. But then, a new day, Wednesday, when all the main stock market indicators, including the S&P, went up 1.2%.
Investors were watching Trump closely as he spoke yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Stocks popped after the president wrote in a social media post that he and the secretary general of NATO had hammered out a framework for a future deal on Greenland. and he would not impose the tariffs he had threatened on eight NATO members starting February 1st. Trump had announced those new import taxes over the weekend, leading to a sharp market sell-off earlier this week. Traders also dumped U.S. bonds, causing Treasury yields to increase. When yields rise, they push up borrowing costs for U.S. consumers and the federal government. I'm Nancy Marshall-Genzer for Marketplace.
After US forces seized the leader of Venezuela and his government moved to fall in line with US interests, the administration is now upping pressure on Communist Party-ruled Cuba. The Cuban economy is a persistent mess and Venezuela had been a key source of its oil. The BBC's Will Grant is just back to his base in Mexico from Cuba. Will, welcome.
It's a pleasure, David.
You were just in Cuba on a reporting assignment. I mean, broad brush, not enough energy to meet needs. Can you see it play out?
Yeah, you can. You can see it play out in real time. I mean, the rolling blackouts in Havana alone, and then add on top of that, in the wake of the removal of Nicolas Maduro from power, the forced removal... Their outlook looks even bleaker for Cubans because they are contemplating the very real possibility of the tap of Venezuelan crude being switched off. And that Venezuelan crude has, to all intents and purposes, propped up the Cuban revolution for the past two and a half decades.
Did you see actual effects of the cutoff of Venezuela's oil?
No.
Well, I don't think we're there yet on that. But let me give you a little picture. There was a sort of anti-US imperialism march that went past the US embassy in Havana, led by the president. And as that was happening, we were getting information on our phone that the now interim president, Del Cid Rodriguez, was meeting with the head of the CIA in Caracas. And of course, I showed this information to a Cuban official and he sort of went grey because it does give the indication, the fear, I think, within the Cuban government is that it does signal a much greater willingness to work with the Trump administration and therefore sort of jettison the close relationship with Havana.
Mexico is a big oil producer and seems poised to send some of its oil toward Cuba.
Correct. And I mean, I think most estimates suggest that Venezuela has remained the main supplier of oil to Cuba. But there's no doubt that Mexico is an important partner. Now, would they step in and replace Venezuela entirely or... Well, I think then we need to look at Claudia Sheinbaum's list of priorities. I think that there will be significant pressure put on her government by the Trump administration to not replace Venezuela, to not replace Nicolas Maduro's relationship with Cuba.
Now, President Trump has urged Cuba to, quote, make a deal before it's too late. I mean, a deal acceptable to the U.S. administration would involve structural political change in Cuba.
Absolutely. And I can't imagine that any kind of negotiation will be acceptable to the White House or to Marco Rubio that didn't involve, as you say, basically root and branch reform. And quite clearly, that isn't acceptable to the Cuban government. So it currently looks like yet another moment of political conflict, if not spilling over into actual conflict for the time being.
Will Grant with our editorial partners at the BBC. Thank you very much.
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