The United States has intensified its rhetoric toward Cuba following the successful military operation in Venezuela, signaling a tougher stance toward Havana unless the island’s communist leadership changes course.

Jeremy Lewin, a U.S. State Department official responsible for foreign aid and humanitarian affairs, told reporters on Thursday that the Cuban government faces a clear choice.

He warned that if Havana continues its repression and diverts recent U.S. aid shipments, it will be held accountable.

According to Lewin, the special forces operation that captured Nicolas Maduro in Caracas earlier this month should serve as a serious warning to Cuba about the credibility of U.S. threats.

He stressed that events in Venezuela should make the Cuban regime—and authoritarian leaders elsewhere—understand that they should not underestimate President Donald Trump, adding that the era of weakness, disorder, internal conflict, and foreign interference in the region is over.

Neither the Cuban Embassy in Washington nor Cuba’s Foreign Ministry in Havana has responded to requests for comment.

Earlier, the U.S. State Department announced a $3 million aid package intended to assist Cubans affected by Hurricane Melissa. The shipment, which included food, water purification equipment, kitchen supplies, blankets, and solar-powered lamps, was sent from Miami to the eastern cities of Holguin and Santiago de Cuba.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez stated on X that while Cuba is, in principle, open to receiving aid, the United States is exploiting humanitarian assistance for political and opportunistic purposes.

Cuba has long been a close ally of Venezuela’s socialist government, providing medical personnel, security forces, and intelligence support in exchange for subsidized oil. Nearly thirty Cuban agents assigned to protect Maduro were reportedly killed during the U.S. operation, and their remains were returned to Cuba in a ceremony attended by Raul Castro and President Miguel Diaz-Canel.

Beyond its deepening economic and humanitarian crisis—marked by shortages of food, fuel, and medicine—Cuba also maintains close ties with U.S. adversaries such as Russia and Iran, relationships that continue to alarm Washington.

Speculation that Cuba could be the next target of the Trump administration has grown since Maduro’s capture, although Trump suggested at the time that the Cuban regime was so fragile it might collapse on its own.

Nevertheless, Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a sharper message, saying that if he were in Havana’s leadership, he would be deeply concerned.

For Rubio, whose parents fled Cuba before Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, toppling the Cuban regime would represent a personal victory and strengthen his prospects for a future presidential bid.