Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Cuba on Thursday that the United States was laser-focused on changing the communist system, after the island was stunned by a US indictment of its former president Raúl Castro.
Rubio, a Cuban-American and vociferous opponent of Havana's government, described the island 145 kilometres from the US shore as a "failed state" as it suffers a major economic crisis.
"Their economic system doesn't work. It's broken, and you can't fix it with the current political system that's in place," Rubio told reporters in Miami.
"What they've gotten used to all these years is just buying time and waiting us out. They're not going to be able to wait us out or buy time. We're very serious. We're very focused."
Rubio said that the US preference was "always a diplomatic solution" but warned that Trump had other options to perceived threats.
