WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that crisis-hit Cuba’s leadership must change as Washington renewed an offer on Wednesday of $100 million in aid if the communist-run island agrees to cooperate.
Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday.
Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions but Rubio, a Cuban-American and vociferous critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame including corruption by the military.
“It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Air Force One as he traveled with President Donald Trump to China.
“We’ll give them a chance. But I don’t think it’s going to happen,” Rubio said.
