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Canada may have some competition becoming the 51st state.
Some DC powerbrokers are floating the idea of making Cuba a US territory, in the wake of President Trump suggesting he might take it over as its economy teeters.
The one-time “jewel of the Caribbean,” located just 90 miles off Florida, is now one of the region’s poorest countries.
The US has flexed its military muscle in Venezuela, Cuba’s longtime benefactor, and cut off Cuba’s oil lifeline. Street protests have erupted over prolonged blackouts, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has demanded there be “new people” in charge.
“I think it’s a real option. It’s got to be more thought out,” said Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn), one of a handful of members of Congress with Cuban roots now mulling the idea.
The US occupied Cuba from 1898 to 1902, after the Spanish American war, and withdrew recognition after the 1959 communist revolution — a fraught history that has kept Washington fixated on the island nation ever since.
Having ordered the successful extraction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from Venezuela and overseeing an ongoing regional war that is devastating Iranian military targets, President Trump said Monday that he could “take” Cuba.
“I do believe I’ll have the honor of taking Cuba,” Trump said.
“Whether I free it, take it, I think I could do anything I want with it,” said Trump.
The administration hasn’t provided further specifics, following reports US negotiators are demanding that Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel give up power.
Trump’s comments stoked discussions on options beyond the new Venezuelan model — where he now regularly praises Venezuelan leader Delcy Rodriguez, the vice president who stepped up to replace Maduro.
It would be “better if Cuba remained a free nation, sovereign nation” but there could be a match if it’s “the will of the Cuban people to be part of the United States,” Malliotakis said.
Malliotakis, a member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, called for the administration to brief the Cuban-American members “on what possibilities they’re looking at.”
“Nobody knows what the future holds,” said Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.) who was born in Cuba.
“My hope is that the president issues some kind of a warning to the regime that if the people rise, that he will not tolerate wholesale mass slaughter of the Cuban people,” he said.
He said the regime is in its weakest position in six or seven years and “may just topple on itself.” He called for “freedom and democracy in Cuba,” while calling a Puerto Rico-style association with Cuba “an option.” Puerto Rico is a self-ruling commonwealth whose people are US citizens.
Another Cuban-American lawmaker, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), didn’t rule out the idea of a US acquisition.
He said a Cuba with a democratically-elected government that wanted friendly relations would be “profoundly good” for both countries, even as he added he didn’t think Cuba becoming a US territory was “a likely prospect.”
“I think if that happened, you could see Cuba become something like what Hong Kong was in the 90s – an oasis of free enterprise,” said Cruz, whose father was born on the island and fled to the US in 1957. “I think a free Cuba would very quickly become an extremely popular tourist destination.”
Diplomatic talks have yet to bear fruit.
On Friday Cuban’s Vice Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio said Cuba’s political system is “not up for negotiation, and of course neither the president nor the position of any official in Cuba.”
There are clear obstacles — namely that US taxpayers won’t want to foot the bill for the massive upgrades needed to bring the island now suffering from blackouts under a US-imposed oil blockade — up to modern standards, Malliotakis conceded.
“I would love to have Cuba be a territory like Puerto Rico. The problem is, Cuba’s infrastructure is so dilapidated that you need to have a plan in place,” she told The Post.
“You’ve got to figure out how are you going to bring the private sector to the table to upgrade energy infrastructure, its water infrastructure, its roads – it’s a mess.”
Malliotakis’s mom Veralia, 82, migrated from Cuba after 1959 with her own mother.
The lawmaker’s grandmother never saw her husband again — and the communist authorities confiscated his gas stations.
“They tore families apart, they split families and they stole from people. It’s a complete atrocity,” the three-term congresswoman said.
She ripped a proposal by Cuban dictator Daiz-Canel to let Miami expats invest in Cuba, calling it a “lifeline for the regime.”
Lefty Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), whose family comes from Puerto Rico, has blasted the oil blockade that is crippling communist Cuba’s economy, calling it part of a “new era of depravity.”
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