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Brazil’s Lula: Trump indicated he won’t invade Cuba during White House chat

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by Laura Kelly - 05/07/26 6:11 PM ET

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by Laura Kelly - 05/07/26 6:11 PM ET

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Brazil’s president said Thursday that President Trump conveyed he has no intention of ordering a U.S. invasion of Cuba, following a meeting between the two leaders held at the White House earlier in the day.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva made the remarks in a press conference at the Brazilian Embassy in Washington, D.C., following an approximately two-and-a-half hour meeting with Trump. The meeting was not opened to reporters as planned.

“I heard him — assuming the translation was correct — and heard him say that he [Trump] has no intention of invading Cuba; that is what the interpreter conveyed here,” Lula said, in remarks translated from Portuguese and provided by the foreign pool reporter.

Lula called it a “great sign” from Trump and said Cuba has shown a willingness to engage in dialogue.

“Cuba wants to talk, and Cuba wants to find a solution to put an end to the blockade — a blockade that has prevented Cuba from becoming a fully integrated, free nation ever since the victory of the 1959 revolution.”

Trump has put Cuba in his crosshairs since capturing Venezuela’s president in an audacious military operation in January. Trump cut off Venezuela’s oil exports to Cuba and pressured other countries against providing fuel to the island’s communist government.

Trump has tasked Secretary of State Marco Rubio to talk with Cuban officials for an agreement reportedly dealing with the country’s economy and changing its communist leadership. But the president has also suggested that he wants to finish the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran — launched on Feb. 28 — before making any new moves on Cuba.

Rubio announced Thursday additional sanctions on Cuba, which the Trump administration has listed as a state sponsor of terrorism.

The latest sanctions target GAESA, described as “a Cuban military-controlled umbrella enterprise.” The sanctions also targeted GAESA’s Executive Vice President Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera. Additional sanctions were put on MNSA, a joint venture between the Canadian-mining firm Sherritt and Cuba’s state-owned La Compania General de Niquel.

Rubio said that MNSA “exploited Cuba’s natural resources to benefit the regime at the expense of the Cuban people.”

Sherritt announced Thursday it was suspending its operations in joint ventures in response to the U.S. sanctions.

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