US President Donald Trump wants regime change in Cuba by the end of the year. Trump wants Cuban defectors to make a deal.

Cuban Communist President Miguel Díaz-Canel promises “no surrender”.

After the ouster and arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, the Trump administration is now looking for Cuban government officials who will make a deal to change leadership, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The White House hopes that by finding an ally within the Cuban government, a deal can be struck to quickly remove the regime. Díaz-Canel has served as president since 2019.

Trump has expressed a desire to restore US hegemony over Latin America. It’s something his allies have described as the “Donroe Doctrine”, a play on Monroe Doctrine of 1823, which made Latin America the US sphere of influence.

The main goal behind the Donroe Doctrine is to free America’s neighbouring countries from Russian and Chinese influence.

After Maduro’s arrest, Trump immediately began threatening Cuba. He wrote on social media on 11 January: “I strongly recommend that they make a deal. Before it’s too late”, adding that all deliveries of oil or money to Cuba from Venezuela would cease.

Trump says Cuba should make a deal with the US “before it’s too late”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose parents escaped from Cuba, has made no secret of his desire to end communist rule on the island.

“If I lived in Havana and was part of the government, I would be concerned,” he said after Maduro was ousted.

US intelligence has painted a bleak picture of the island’s economy, which is plagued by chronic shortages of basic goods, medicines and frequent power cuts. Without deliveries from Venezuela, Cuba will quickly find that the situation becomes even worse.