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Miami Herald
13-07-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Will Trump abandon Miami's ‘Crazy Cubans'? Venezuela announces shift on U.S. strategy
The phones are ringing in Venezuela's Miraflores Presidential Palace — and someone in Washington is on the other end. 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.
Axios
04-03-2025
- Business
- Axios
Exclusive: How Congress' "Crazy Cubans" pushed Trump to kill oil deal
President Trump 's decision to cancel a major oil deal with Venezuela came amid pressure from Miami's three GOP House members who oppose enriching Nicolás Maduro's dictatorship, four sources tell Axios. Why it matters: To get their way, the three House members suggested — but never explicitly threatened — that they would withhold votes Trump needed for the GOP budget deal that the House narrowly passed last week. "They're going crazy and I need their votes," Trump explained to confidants when he privately signaled he would cancel the license allowing Venezuelan oil exports to the U.S. Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart, Carlos Gimenez and Maria Elvira Salazar then voted for the budget deal, which passed 217-215. Eight hours later, Trump announced on Truth Social that he was canceling the oil deal. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) related some of the behind-the-scenes story to a group of Republican donors during a fundraiser Friday at the Miami-area waterfront mansion of local health insurance magnate Ivan Herrera. Johnson told the crowd they "should be proud" of Diaz-Balart, Gimenez and Salazar. "The three Crazy Cubans, as we affectionately call them," Johnson said, "stood on principle" and delivered for their community, according to two sources at the fundraiser. They said Gimenez and Diaz-Balart chuckled approvingly at the nickname along with the donors, many of whom have Cuban roots. The big picture: In a more conventional White House, power flows through a more defined process, through "proper channels" that involve careful vetting. In Trump's White House, power often circulates instantly, improvisationally and unexpectedly, based on Trump's gut, his needs at the time — or on catching him with the right idea at the right time, with the right words. This previously untold story helps explain the contradictory positions that Trump's administration sometimes appears to take. It also highlights Trump's hands-on involvement in salvaging the House's controversial budget plan — and his familiarity with Florida's unique politics and its international reverberations. Zoom in: Last Tuesday, the final day of the budget talks, Johnson put Diaz-Balart on the phone with Trump so the Miamian could make his pitch against the Venezuelan oil deal. The week before, Diaz-Balart and Gimenez had met with Trump in the White House to voice their concerns, two sources said. During Tuesday's call, Diaz-Balart reminded Trump of his campaign promises to crack down on Maduro, two sources briefed on the call said. Diaz-Balart told Trump that Maduro's dictatorship was "thrown a lifeline" by President Biden when he relaxed sanctions, which Trump had slapped on Venezuela during his previous administration. "Mario never threatened their vote or offered a quid pro quo because threatening Trump is just counterproductive," said one of those sources. "They all know that." Diaz-Balart, Gimenez and Salazar declined to comment. A Johnson spokesperson confirmed the House members fought to end support to Maduro's government but wouldn't comment further. Between the lines: Trump already wasn't inclined to continue the Venezuela petroleum deal, partly because Biden had struck it. Trump also didn't want to appear to be negotiating an oil-for-migrants deal with Maduro, a White House official and an outside adviser told Axios. The Trump administration is trying to boost deportations of Venezuelan unauthorized immigrants as well as some with pre-existing deportation protections. Trump's administration is stocked with Florida Republicans who are anti-Maduro: Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Latin American envoy Mauricio Claver-Carone and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. Trump's special envoy to Venezuela, Richard Grenell, is still in talks with Maduro's regime. Grenell last month secured the release of six U.S. prisoners in Venezuela and persuaded Maduro to accept Venezuelans deported from the U.S. Grenell has said the U.S. doesn't want regime change in Venezuela. But other White House officials said regime change is preferred because the socialist dictator has mismanaged his country's finances, destabilizing the region by leading to the Western Hemisphere's biggest mass migration of modern times. "The win-win for all of us is to somehow get the dictator to give up power on a glide path of maybe two years," a Trump Latin America adviser said. "So go ahead, keep robbing your country and getting rich off socialism while everyone else gets poor. But ya gotta go." The backstory: Chevron produces about 220,000 oil barrels daily in Venezuela, about a quarter of the country's production, according to the Miami Herald, which also reported that Palm Beach oil magnate Harry Sargeant III, was closely involved in efforts to broker a deal between Trump and Maduro. What they're saying: Trump's decision to cancel Biden's 2022 oil deal came as a surprise to Venezuela's government and to Chevron, which under the deal was allowed to pump Venezuelan oil. "Chevron lobbied hard and fell hard. So did Harry," said a Republican advising the Trump White House. "This is just going to raise the price of oil," said another Trump Republican allied with Sargeant. "In reality, damage is being inflicted on the United States, its population and its companies," Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela's vice president, said in a social media post criticizing Trump's decision. Zoom out: The Cuban-American community dominates the politics of Miami-Dade County, the most populous in the state. Cuban Americans, including those in Congress, have found political common cause in the state with exiles who fled other countries because of leftist violence, oppression or dysfunction. Those include Nicaragua, Colombia and Venezuela, where Cuban intelligence services protect Maduro. Cuban Americans are among Trump's strongest supporters; he's frequently boasted about that. But Trump's decision to end Temporary Protected Status for as many as 300,000 Venezuelans is deeply unpopular in Miami politics. The three Cuban-American House members oppose it, but know it's hard to change Trump's mind. "Helping out Maduro and Big Oil was just a bridge too far for them," said a Republican allied with the congressional members. "They're happy Trump kept his promise. At least for now."
