Trump Warns Cuba 'Ready to Fall' After Maduro Capture, Will Collapse Without Venezuelan Oil

The political ground beneath Cuba's feet is crumbling faster than anyone anticipated. On Sunday, as Air Force One cut through the skies above America, President Donald Trump made a chilling prediction about the Caribbean nation's imminent demise — one that has rippled throughout Latin America and beyond. With Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro now in US custody following a surprise military operation in Caracas, the regime in Havana faces an existential crisis that could reshape the hemisphere's geopolitical landscape in the coming months.

Trump's stark assessment aboard his presidential aircraft left no room for ambiguity. 'Cuba is ready to fall,' he declared to reporters, a statement that encapsulates years of tension, failed socialist economics, and Washington's renewed assertiveness in its backyard.

The president's confidence rests on a single, brutal reality: Havana has become economically parasitic, dependent almost entirely on Venezuelan oil shipments that have now evaporated. 'They got all of their income from Venezuela, from the Venezuelan oil,' Trump explained, adding with characteristic bluntness, 'They're not getting any of it. Cuba literally is ready to fall'.

The Maduro Capture: A Regional Turning Point

The detention of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, represents far more than a single arrest — it signals a dramatic shift in American willingness to project military power in Latin America. The operation, which took place in Caracas, resulted in significant casualties, a fact Trump acknowledged with troubling directness.

According to reports emerging from Havana, 32 Cubans lost their lives during the incursion, though Trump's own characterisation was deliberately vague: 'You have a lot of death on the other side, unfortunately'. These deaths underscore the human cost of geopolitical manoeuvring, families separated and lives extinguished in pursuit of regime change.

The Venezuelan leader and his spouse now face drug trafficking charges in a New York courtroom, marking what could be a watershed moment for anti-narcotics enforcement in the region. Yet Trump's remarks suggested this is merely the opening chapter of a much larger strategy.

When pressed about Colombia — another nation he views with suspicion — the president issued thinly veiled warnings, stating bluntly that the country is 'very sick' and run by a leader who 'likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States'. Asked whether these comments portended military intervention, Trump simply replied, 'Sounds good to me'.

Trump's Hemisphere Doctrine: A Return to 19th Century Influence

What emerges from Trump's comments is a troubling vision of American dominance in the Western Hemisphere, one that resurrects the spirit of the 19th century Monroe Doctrine. Trump has rechristened this vision the 'Don-roe Doctrine' — a framework that essentially reasserts Latin America as America's sphere of influence.

The president has made clear that Venezuela remains under US control, a claim that contradicts Venezuela's own Supreme Court naming Vice President Delcy Rodriguez as acting leader. Trump seems unconcerned with such legal niceties, warning that should Venezuela 'not behave', American military forces stand ready to return.

For Cuban Americans watching from exile communities across South Florida and beyond, Trump's words carry the resonance of long-deferred hope. The president nodded towards this constituency explicitly, noting that 'a lot of great Cuban Americans are going to be very happy about this'.

Yet for ordinary Cubans facing economic collapse, the warming prospect of regime change offers little comfort in the immediate term. Economic collapse rarely brings swift relief; it brings hunger, chaos and suffering.

The question now facing the international community is whether Trump will follow through on these threats and predictions, or whether they represent rhetorical posturing designed to maximise pressure on wavering allies.

What remains certain is that the capture of Maduro has fundamentally altered the calculus in Latin America, and Cuba's days of economic stability — what little remained — appear numbered.