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Secretary Rubio Answers Press Questions in Saint Kitts and Nevis, Feb. 25, 2026

February 25, 2026 · U.S. Department of State · 0:34:53

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Secretary of State Marco Rubio answered questions in Saint Kitts and Nevis on February 25, 2026 (uploaded February 26), where he had met that day with the leaders of CARICOM. He led with an incident reported that morning by Cuban authorities: a shootout at sea off Cuba involving a boat the regime said was registered in Florida. Rubio said the Coast Guard and the U.S. Embassy in Havana were working to determine what happened and whether those aboard were American citizens or permanent residents, and that most public information so far came from Cuban authorities. “We will verify that independently,” he said. “We’re not going to base our conclusions on what they’ve told us” — calling open-sea shootouts “highly unusual” and not something that has happened with Cuba in a very long time.

On Treasury’s announcement on Venezuelan oil sales to Cuba’s private sector, Rubio said such sales have always been legal, would not go to the government or to military-owned GAESA, and would expand the number of licensed sellers. Cuba, he argued, faces perhaps its worst economic climate since 1959 because its model — sustained first by Soviet subsidies and then by Venezuelan oil, much of it resold for cash — does not work. He told the CARICOM leaders, he said, that Cuba’s status quo is unacceptable and unsustainable: “Fifteen percent of the people of Cuba have left since 2021. That is not a system that’s working.” He declined to confirm or deny reported contacts with Raúl Castro’s grandson but said the United States is always prepared to listen to officials of any government, while judging by actions. He also addressed Iran (Tehran has not abandoned its intent to enrich again; its insistence on excluding ballistic missiles from talks is “a big, big problem”) and Venezuela’s recovery phase, citing freed political prisoners, the closed Helicoide prison, and an amnesty law as positive but insufficient steps toward elections.

Why it matters

The Saint Kitts availability is the earliest full statement of the Secretary’s 2026 Cuba line — verification before response on the boat incident, private-sector-only oil, and dramatic reform as the only alternative to collapse — delivered to Caribbean leaders whose region absorbs Cuba’s migration outflow, alongside the missile-scope condition on any Iran agreement.

Sources: U.S. Department of State, “Secretary Rubio Remarks to Press in Saint Kitts and Nevis” (official upload, embedded above); full transcript via state.gov as linked in the upload description. Remarks as delivered February 25, 2026.