US President Donald Trump touted the strength of the US military and warned that "Cuba is next," while authorities in Havana offered to compensate US companies in Cuba nationalized after the 1959 revolution.
This is reported by EU media and shows that the offer of the authorities in Havana for compensation seems completely unbelievable and is intended to at least temporarily calm the risk of American intervention, because there is no money in Cuba's state coffers, as the French economic daily Les Echos claims.
It has been estimated that the sum of nine billion dollars is the minimum amount for the redemption of the nationalized assets of companies, among which are Exxon Mobil (Exxon Mobil), Chevron (Chevron), Hilton hotels, AT&T and Bacardi.
Western European media point out that, in a situation where, due to US sanctions and mismanagement of the economy, the Cuban population has been severely affected by a lack of electricity, food and medicine, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel announced that the authorities in Havana are ready to negotiate with Washington.
Officials in Havana said for the first time that they are ready for American investment in Cuban companies.
However, President Díaz-Canel stressed that negotiations with Washington cannot imply a change in the one-party communist political order.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio responded with a message that economic changes must be accompanied by a change in the country's political system and governance. "Who is crazy enough to invest billions of dollars in a country ruled by an incompetent communist government?" Rubio asked.
Potential financiers, especially those of Cuban descent in Florida, say capital can only go to Cuba if there are legal guarantees for it and if a new political system is established.
Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants in the US, said that "the Cuban economy must change radically and this is impossible if the system of government is not changed... those who manage the economic model must also be changed, because the current one is not working."
