Washington and Havana Are Talking & a Deal to End Cuba’s 67-Year Standoff May Be Days Away

MIAMI – As freedom demonstrations spread across Cuba for a third consecutive night and the island’s Cuban energy crisis deepened with blackouts stretching beyond 20 hours a day, a bombshell report emerged Sunday that could rewrite the history of U.S.-Cuba relations: the Trump administration is actively negotiating an economic agreement with Havana that could be announced within days—and it may include a negotiated exit for President Miguel Díaz-Canel himself.

The report, first published by USA Today and confirmed by multiple sources, describes secret talks that go far beyond anything previously disclosed.

Discussions have included an off-ramp for Díaz-Canel, the Castro family remaining on the island, and deals on ports, energy, and tourism. The U.S. government has also floated dropping some sanctions as part of the potential agreement—and Trump would not need Congressional approval to loosen travel restrictions, say reports.

The strategy—dubbed “Cubastroika” by USA Today—represents a dramatic pivot in the administration’s approach. Rather than pursuing regime change through direct confrontation, the Trump administration is advancing moves that reframe the endgame through economic integration—prioritizing U.S. commercial interests while engineering a managed political transition.

According to Axios, and confirmed by multiple sources, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has held secret conversations with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro—the 41-year-old grandson of Raúl Castro, nicknamed “El Cangrejo”—bypassing Díaz-Canel’s official channels entirely.

A senior administration official was explicit about the ultimate objective: “The U.S. government’s position is that the regime has to go.”

Trump himself has done little to hide what is coming. In a CNN interview on Friday, the president stated, “Cuba will fall very soon. They are eager to reach an agreement.” The following day at the ‘Shield of the Americas’ summit in Doral, he quipped about Rubio’s negotiating speed: “He will take an hour off and finish a deal on Cuba.”

Anonymous sources cited in recent reporting described the regime’s collapse as “100% an event of 2026.”

The timing of the talks is directly tied to the Cuban energy crisis that has paralyzed the island. Cuba has reached a breaking point that even its crisis-hardened leadership cannot ignore—running out of fuel amid U.S. pressure, having last received oil on January 9 from Mexico.

This has prompted airlines, including Air Canada, to cancel all flights to Cuba, devastating the tourism lifeline that accounts for most of the island’s foreign currency. The UN has warned of a possible “humanitarian disaster” if Cuba’s oil needs go unmet.

Cuba’s significant deposits of nickel and cobalt are also of strategic interest to Washington, which has made access to critical minerals a national security priority, providing the U.S. additional economic incentive to strike a deal that opens the island to American investment.

Still, significant obstacles remain. There are legal limits on what the Trump administration can offer in any potential deal—the 1996 Liberty Act reconfirmed the U.S. embargo as law. Within the Cuban regime itself, it is uncertain exactly where the real power lies, and public officials and the Revolutionary Armed Forces have been deeply indoctrinated in the myth of the revolution and fear change.

Former U.S. officials who have worked on Cuba policy have privately questioned how close the administration actually is to finalizing any agreement.

For Miami’s Cuban exile community—which has watched three nights of freedom demonstrations with a mixture of hope and anguish—the prospect of a negotiated transition rather than an outright collapse of the regime is already generating fierce debate. Trump told Inter Miami owner Jorge Mas, whose father was born in Cuba, at a White House event on March 5: “You won't need my approval, you just fly back in.”

Whether that moment arrives through a deal, a collapse, or something in between, one thing is clear: after 67 years, the endgame for Cuba has begun.

Sociedad Media will continue reporting on events in Cuba as they develop. If you have family on the island and want to share their story, contact our editorial team.