Rubio: Likelihood of negotiated agreement with Cuba ‘not high’

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a press conference at the US Embassy in Rome, Friday, May 8, 2026. (Stefano Rellandini/Pool Photo via AP)

The likelihood of a negotiated, peaceful agreement between the United States and Cuba is not high at the moment, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday as Washington steps up its pressure campaign against the island’s communist government.

Rubio said the United States always prefers a negotiated settlement.

“That remains our preference with Cuba,” he told reporters. “I’m just being honest with you, you know, the likelihood of that happening, given who we’re dealing with right now, is not high. But if they have a change of heart, you know, we’re here. And in the meantime, we’ll keep doing what we need to do.”

President Donald Trump is pushing for “regime change” in Cuba, where Castro’s communists ‌have been in charge since his late brother Fidel Castro led a revolution in 1959.

Cuba has accepted the U.S. offer of $100 million in humanitarian aid, Rubio said.

The United States announced murder charges against former Cuban President Raúl Castro on Wednesday, a major escalation that marked a new low in relations between the longtime Cold War rivals.

Rubio denied the U.S. was nation-building.

“It’s not nation-building,” he told reporters before leaving for a NATO ministers meeting in Sweden. “We are addressing something that’s directly related to the national security of the United States.”

(Reporting by Katharine Jackson, Doina Chiacu and Michelle Nichols; Editing by David Ljunggren)