Will Trump abandon Miami's ‘Crazy Cubans'? Venezuela announces shift on U.S. strategy
That was the message this week from Venezuela's powerful Interior Minister, Diosdado Cabello, who claimed that U.S. policy toward Venezuela is quietly but decisively shifting — and leaving some of Florida's most influential voices out in the cold.
In a nationally televised address, Cabello said Donald Trump no longer needs support from Miami's hardline Cuban-American House Representatives, María Elvira Salazar, Carlos Jimenez and Mario Diaz-Balart, mocking them as the 'Crazy Cubans' and suggesting they've been tossed aside like yesterday's talking points.
'Trump has politically abandoned the so-called 'Crazy Cubans,'' Cabello said, claiming they could be sidelined in next year's midterm elections. 'Despite their lobbying for more attacks, Washington is forming a wall — a wall of containment. And it's not the kind they wanted.'
Instead, Cabello says a powerful coalition — including major U.S. corporations and senior Republican strategists—is now pushing for a different approach: a deal with Nicolás Maduro's regime.
According to an unnamed source he called 'Charlot,' key Trump advisers believe it's time to pivot — to talk, not fight. To make a deal, not trigger another standoff.
Cabello, who controls the regime's security apparatus, is considered to be the most powerful man in Venezuela after Maduro. Both have been accused by the U.S. Department of Justice of turning the country into a narco state while using their positions in government to run the so called De Los Soles drug cartel. In January, the State Department increased its reward for their capture to $25 million each, the highest available for a drug offense.
The idea of cutting any deal with Maduro is political dynamite in Florida, where more than 350,000 Venezuelan Americans have made their homes and where emotions over Venezuela's collapse on the hands of the Maduro regime run deep.
Two options for Trump's White House?
But a new report from the Atlantic Council lays out the stark choice facing the White House: double down on pressure — or try something new.
Option one: Offer the Caracas socialist regime a path out. Loosen targeted sanctions in exchange for real reforms. Get cooperation on migration. Open space for American oil companies to operate — especially in a country with the world's largest proven reserves. Florida-based businesses could benefit, and so could drivers at the pump.
Option two: Hit Maduro harder. Cut off all oil deals. Indict his top officials. Punish foreign firms that do business with the regime. The goal: create so much internal pressure that something—someone—breaks.
Supporters of the hardline path say history has shown Maduro can't be trusted. 'We've been here before,' said one Latin America analyst. 'He negotiates, he stalls, and he consolidates. Meanwhile, people starve or flee.'
But critics of the pressure-only model point to the fallout back home: Florida's social services are strained by a new migrant wave, housing costs are rising, and local governments are overwhelmed.
Cabello claims high-level communication between Caracas and Washington is already underway. 'Phones are ringing—and they're being answered in Miraflores,' he said, adding that this secret diplomacy is 'deeply unsettling' to opposition figures, including its top leader, María Corina Machado.
For longtime South Florida political players, Cabello's comments are a shocking claim. Trump built his Venezuela policy during his first term around sanctions, oil freezes, and criminal indictments — earning loyal support from Miami's exile community. If he's now rethinking that approach, it could trigger serious political blowback in the Sunshine State.
As of now, both strategies appear to be running on parallel tracks in Washington.
According to an article published last week by The New York Times, a high-level effort to free a group of detained Americans and dozens of Venezuelan political prisoners collapsed earlier this year due to internal conflict within the Trump administration.
Sources cited by the newspaper said Secretary of State Marco Rubio was leading advanced negotiations with Venezuela to exchange approximately 250 Venezuelan migrants — previously deported from the United States and held in El Salvador — for 11 American citizens and about 80 political prisoners incarcerated by the Maduro regime.
The plan, coordinated by U.S. diplomat John McNamara, had progressed to the point where flights were scheduled and logistics were set by May.
However, the operation fell apart after Richard Grenell, Trump's special envoy to Venezuela, launched a parallel negotiation with a different proposal, which included lifting oil sanctions in exchange for the release of detained Americans.
Grenell's plan — which was not coordinated with Rubio or the State Department — involved renewing Chevron's license to operate in Venezuela, offering crucial economic relief to Maduro's regime.
The proposal reportedly attracted interest in Caracas but clashed with Rubio's diplomatic approach, spurring confusion among officials in both countries.
As for who was truly representing President Trump, Venezuelan authorities were unclear. The discord echoed similar internal struggles during Trump's first term, when competing factions often pursued their own foreign policy agendas.
'The feeling we had as parents was that there were several people talking, but they weren't working together — one negotiator said one thing, and another said something different,' underscored Petra Castañeda, whose son, a Navy SEAL, is detained in Venezuela, in an interview withThe New York Times.
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