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Exclusive: Cuba’s top diplomat outlines red lines to Trump as it braces for US invasion

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by Rebecca Beitsch - 05/15/26 11:24 AM ET

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by Rebecca Beitsch - 05/15/26 11:24 AM ET

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Cuba’s top diplomat in the U.S. said the country is sticking to its red lines amid faltering negotiations it says have made “no progress” and a looming threat from President Trump to invade the nation.

Lianys Torres Rivera sat down with The Hill at a critical 24-hour period for Cuba. The island’s energy minister announced Thursday the country had completely exhausted its fuel supplies amid a U.S. blockade, leading to widespread protests in the streets of Havana after weeks of extended blackouts.

The U.S. also publicly acknowledged what it called “numerous private offers” previously made to Cuba for $100 million in aid.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Cuba on Thursday, meeting with officials as the agency warned the window for negotiations “will not stay open indefinitely” and that “the Cubans should have no illusions that the president will not enforce red lines.”

Torres Rivera repeated that Cuba’s independence was not up for negotiation.

And while she said protests over the power outages are understandable, she cautioned against taking a “wrong reading” that they were a sign of weakening Cuban resolve.

“When they are enduring 20 hours of blackouts, they have grievances, and they express it,” she told The Hill of her country’s citizens. But she added that the U.S. should not mistake that to mean “the Cuban people won’t defend [themselves] from a U.S. aggression, won’t defend our homeland from an invasion.”

Speaking at the Cuban Embassy, Torres Rivera said the U.S and Cuba are “going through one of the most, if not the most difficult times in the bilateral relation.”

Lianys Torres Rivera, Cuban ambassador to the U.S., sits down with The Hill for an interview at the Cuban Embassy in Washington, D.C., on May 14, 2026. (Greg Nash)

The Cuban government is running drills in preparation for an invasion, she said, remarks that come after President Miguel Díaz-Canel, in a rare interview with a U.S. media outlet, told NBC News the island “will defend ourselves, and if we need to die, we’ll die.”

“We are preparing for this,” Torres Rivera told The Hill of an invasion.

“Now we are doing more than ever. We cannot be naive. We cannot be naive. And in the way that we are preparing, it’s not in an offensive way. It’s not that we are preparing to be the first to do any action against the U.S. territory or against the U.S. people. We don’t want that. We are preparing to defend ourselves. And our minister was saying the other day, it could be a big mistake. It could be a bloodbath. We don’t want Cubans dying in Cuba,” she said, nor “any American soldier.”

CBS News reported Thursday night that the Trump administration was preparing to indict former Cuban President Raúl Castro on charges in connection with shooting down planes 30 years ago, a move that would mirror the process for indicting deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro before his capture.

Negotiations were launched after Trump floated a “friendly takeover” of what he called a “failed nation,” while Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the country would need to change not just its economic policies but move away from the current regime, which he has called “incompetent.”

“It’s in our national interest, and to have a prosperous Cuba, not to have a failed state 90 miles from our shores,” Rubio told NBC News during a trip to China.

“We want Cubans not to have to leave that island in order to be successful. But they can’t, because the current model they have … it’s broken. It doesn’t work, and it’ll never change, as long as the people that are there now are running it.”

Cuba has taken actions recently to open its economy, announcing in March it would allow Cubans living abroad to invest in the country and open businesses. The government also signed into law a policy giving small businesses greater autonomy. But the rollouts have not moved the needle with the U.S.

Torres Rivera said the country has a policy of being “discreet” when it comes to ongoing negotiations and would largely not comment on what is being discussed.

Cuba has repeatedly said it is open to negotiations with the U.S., particularly on matters involving drugs and human trafficking.

“The only exception,” she said, is “our sovereignty, independence and right to self determination.”

“We don’t see the need for a war or any military action from the U.S. towards Cuba, sim