Trump ultimatum to Cuba: ‘Make a deal, before it is too late’ or face consequences
President Donald Trump signaled a hardline stance toward Cuba on Sunday, vowing to halt all oil and financial support and urging the island nation to “make a deal” before it is “too late.”
“THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO! I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
‘WE BUILT VENEZUELA’S OIL INDUSTRY:’ TRUMP VOWS US ENERGY RETURN AFTER MADURO CAPTURE
Venezuela has long been Cuba’s largest oil supplier, though Trump has successfully secured oil shipments to the U.S. on the heels of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro‘s capture by U.S. forces.
“Cuba lived, for many years, on large amounts of OIL and MONEY from Venezuela,” Trump added.
The warning comes as the Trump administration intensifies its efforts to isolate regional allies of Venezuela following Maduro’s capture.
Venezuela’s massive oil reserves, the largest in the world, have historically underpinned its influence across the region, particularly through subsidized shipments to allies like Cuba.
VENEZUELA STILL OWES US ENERGY COMPANIES BILLIONS AS TRUMP CALLS FOR NEW INVESTMENT
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That leverage is now at the center of Trump’s push to reshape regional energy flows following the collapse of Venezuela’s former government.
On Friday, Trump hosted a lineup of U.S. and international oil executives representing key sectors of Venezuela’s energy supply chain, including producers, refiners and traders.
Trump pledged to bring U.S. companies back to the forefront of Venezuelan oil production and exports, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Nobel Institute shuts down talk of Venezuelan leader sharing Peace Prize with Trump
The organization that oversees the Nobel Peace Prize rejected recent suggestions that Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado could give or share her award with President Donald Trump.
The Norwegian Nobel Institute shut down the idea Friday, after Machado suggested that she might transfer the prestigious award to Trump earlier this week.
“Once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others,” the institute said in a statement. “The decision is final and stands for all time.”
The statement comes after Machado floated the idea during an appearance Tuesday on Fox News’ “Hannity.”
UNITED NATIONS ‘UPSET’ THAT TRUMP TOOK ‘BOLD ACTION’ TO IMPROVE VENEZUELA, SAYS UN AMB. MIKE WALTZ
“Did you at any point offer to give him the Nobel Peace Prize?” Sean Hannity asked. “Did that actually happen?”
Machado responded, “Well, it hasn’t happened yet.”
“I certainly would love to be able to personally tell him that we believe — the Venezuelan people, because this is a prize of the Venezuelan people — certainly want to give it to him and share it with him,” Machado continued. “What he has done is historic. It’s a huge step toward a democratic transition.”
TRUMP ADMIN SAYS MADURO CAPTURE REINFORCES ALIEN ENEMIES ACT REMOVALS
On Jan. 3, Trump announced that the U.S. had successfully completed an operation to capture authoritarian Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who is now facing drug trafficking charges in New York.
Trump was asked during an appearance Thursday on “Hannity” whether he would accept the Nobel Prize from Machado.
“I’ve heard that she wants to do that,” Trump responded. “That would be a great honor.”
TRUMP OUSTING OF MADURO DRAWS PARALLELS TO US RAID IN PANAMA – BUT THERE ARE SOME MAJOR CONTRASTS
Machado secretly escaped Venezuela last month and traveled to Norway to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, which she dedicated to Trump.
“Let me be very clear. As soon as I learned that we had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, I dedicated it to President Trump because I believed at that point that he deserved it,” Machado said on “Hannity.” “And a lot of people, most people, said it was impossible to achieve what he has just done on Saturday, Jan. 3.”
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Trump said he plans to meet with the Venezuelan opposition leader in Washington next week.
He has previously stated that Machado “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country” to lead. Trump has supported acting President Delcy Rodríguez, a longtime Maduro loyalist, who served as vice president under Maduro.
Trump says Venezuela has begun releasing political prisoners ‘in a BIG WAY’
President Donald Trump said Saturday that Venezuela has begun releasing political prisoners “in a BIG WAY,” crediting U.S. intervention for the move following last week’s American military operation in the country.
“Venezuela has started the process, in a BIG WAY, of releasing their political prisoners,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Thank you! I hope those prisoners will remember how lucky they got that the USA came along and did what had to be done.”
He added a warning directed at those being released: “I HOPE THEY NEVER FORGET! If they do, it will not be good for them.”
The president’s comments come one week after the United States launched Operation Absolute Resolve, a strike on Venezuela, and captured dictator Nicolás Maduro as well as his wife Cilia Flores, transporting them to the United States to face federal drug trafficking charges.
US WARNS AMERICANS TO LEAVE VENEZUELA IMMEDIATELY AS ARMED MILITIAS SET UP ROADBLOCKS
Following the military operation, Trump said the U.S. intends to temporarily oversee Venezuela’s transition of power, asserting American involvement “until such time as a safe, proper and judicious transition” can take place and warning that U.S. forces stand ready to escalate if necessary.
At least 18 political prisoners were reported freed as of Saturday, but there is no comprehensive public list of all expected releases, Reuters reported.
Maduro and Flores were transported to New York after their capture to face charges in U.S. federal court. The Pentagon has said that Operation Absolute Resolve involved more than 150 aircraft and months of planning.
TRUMP ADMIN SAYS MADURO CAPTURE REINFORCES ALIEN ENEMIES ACT REMOVALS
Trump has said the U.S. intends to remain actively involved in Venezuela’s security, political transition and reconstruction of its oil infrastructure.
The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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Aurora terrorized by Venezuelan gang as dictator Maduro let Tren de Aragua seize power
A sprawling prison in a quaint Venezuelan town served as the birthplace of one of the most notorious gangs within the region, with its infamous leader escaping his life behind bars under the nose of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro – leading to the newly-minted band of criminals wreaking havoc on American cities.
Tocorón, located in a town of the same name, once mirrored a luxury living community – outfitted with swimming pools, a nightclub and even a zoo – for some of the country’s most dangerous criminals.
For years on Maduro’s watch, the Aragua jail operated under the control of its own inmates. Kidnappings, extortions and countless other violent crimes were planned and orchestrated from the confines of Tocorón, according to The Associated Press.
Shortly after Maduro’s presidential election win in 2013, notorious criminal Héctor “Niño” Guerrero returned to Tocorón to serve time behind bars for the murder of a police officer, along with several other convictions. Guerrero seized on the widespread corruption within the prison to expand on his up-and-coming gang – Tren de Aragua, now designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States.
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT UNSEALS MULTI-STATE INDICTMENTS AGAINST TREN DE ARAGUA LEADERS FOR VIOLENT CRIMES
“When a country undergoes a sort of economic whiplash or a sort of economic negative indicator, it can lead groups to come together – especially in places like jails or prisons where you have a collection of people with criminal records [and] violent histories who are competing for control over contraband markets and other things behind bars,” David Pyrooz, a professor of sociology at the University of Colorado Boulder, told Fox News Digital.
Inmates were expected to pay weekly dues to the leaders, amounting to $3.5 million flowing into the new gang annually – with money also streaming in from crimes committed outside the prison’s walls.
“What happens in prison, influences what happens on the street, and what happens on the street, influences what happens in prisons,” Pyrooz said. “So those walls are pretty porous between prisons and the communities.”
“State control, or the lack thereof, has been found in leading to gang activity in the United States, in our prison systems and across the world. So it’s not out of the ordinary, or there’s no reason to believe that Venezuela would be immune to that.”
ALLEGED TREN DE ARAGUA BOSS ADDED TO FBI’S MOST WANTED, SANCTIONED BY TREASURY: ‘NO BORDER WILL SHIELD HIM’
The corruption thrived under the Maduro administration, which did not crack down on Tren de Aragua’s grip on Tocorón until a decade later, when 11,000 Venezuelan troops stormed the prison to regain control in 2023.
However, Maduro’s efforts to restore order in Tocorón were perhaps too late. By the time troops arrived, Tren de Aragua had amassed over 4,000 members and had a presence in 11 of the country’s 23 states, according to the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence. As officials worked to dismantle the culture that had been cultivated in Tocorón, Guerrero – who now sat at the helm of the transnational gang – broke out of the prison, along with several other members.
“The fact that it was a leader, there’s no coincidence behind that,” Pyrooz told Fox News Digital. “So it does say a lot that there could be some sort of internal strife or corruption that would lead to that sort of escape.”
Following Guerrero’s escape, crimes involving members of Tren de Aragua began to skyrocket throughout the U.S. – with perhaps one of the epicenters of violence landing in a residential Colorado town.
US ACCUSES VENEZUELAN REGIME OF NARCO-TERRORISM OVER ALLIANCES WITH TREN DE ARAGUA, SINALOA CARTEL
In 2024, the gang commandeered several apartment buildings in Aurora, making national headlines as violent criminals held the complexes for ransom.
Surveillance video from The Edge at Lowry apartments sparked national outrage after a group of heavily-armed men, believed to be members of Tren de Aragua, were seen pacing the halls of the building.
Additional video showed one of the building’s representatives being violently assaulted after he refused to accept a bribe at the Whispering Pines Complex in 2023, the company told FOX 31.
In a post to X, the company revealed the employee encountered the group living inside a vacant apartment, and was subsequently assaulted after he refused to accept $500 to overlook the situation. Following the attack, the employee reportedly began receiving online threats that included his home address and spouse’s name, which were later tied to Tren de Aragua by the FBI.
“I think they were trying to kill me. I don’t know how I got out, but I got out,” the employee, whose bloodied photograph was posted by the management company on X, told FOX 31.
In another instance, a company property manager was assaulted by known Tren de Aragua member Yoendry Vilchez Medina-Jose in November 2023, according to a police report obtained by Denver 7.
Additionally, a group of gang members took over a tenant’s apartment while they were away on vacation, forcing the renter to find a new place to live.
A Colorado judge later ordered the apartment complex to temporarily close due to an “immediate threat to public safety,” with city officials assisting about 85 families in finding a new place to live where they would not be revictimized.
Surveillance video shows Aurora, Colorado apartment worker allegedly assaulted by Tren de Aragua gang
“The gang specifically targeted its own community, Venezuelan immigrants, through violence, intimidation, extortion and even kidnapping,” Aurora Police Department Chief Todd Chamberlain said at the time. “The complex became a hub for drug trafficking, home invasions, shootings and violent assaults.”
In 2025, Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in New York City, with officials alleging the Venezuelan national is the heavily-armed man seen on video kicking down a door inside the Aurora apartment complex.
“There are ways to stamp out these problems before they can rise to the point of Tren de Aragua,” Pyrooz said. “But it can be really difficult to do it, especially when you have very ineffective government mechanisms in place to stop these groups.”
TRUMP’S CRACKDOWN NETS OVER 2,700 ALLEGED MEMBERS OF NOTORIOUS VENEZUELAN GANG
“And it can lead to the sort of accusations or anecdotal evidence that the government could have led to the migration of Tren de Aragua members to the United States.”
Last year, the Aurora Police Department released a doorbell video showing a group of nine suspected Tren de Aragua members terrorizing an apartment tenant from Venezuela, in an incident officials referred to as “very reminiscent” of the 2024 takeover at a nearby building in the city.
Video shows the group pointing guns and repeatedly knocking on an apartment door in a building near 6th Avenue and Potomac Street in Aurora, Chamberlain said during a news conference.
WATCH: Disturbing video shows suspected TdA gang members brandish guns at Colorado apartment complex
“This might sound like déjà vu,” Chamberlain said at the time. “We are addressing this actively, effectively and immediately.”
Authorities ultimately arrested two suspects in relation to the incident, while detaining four other suspected criminals.
However, the influx of activity by the Venezuelan gang within the Colorado community has since diminished, according to Pyrooz.
“It’s quieted down a lot in 2025,” Pyrooz said. “The dynamics of Tren de Aragua in the area did quiet a lot. It does seem like some of the enforcement actions did correspond with lessening some of the influence of groups like Tren de Aragua.”
In December, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced two alleged leaders of Tren de Aragua were indicted by a federal grand jury in connection with a series of crimes in Colorado.
Brawins Dominique Suarez Villegas and Giovanni Vicente Mosquera Serrano are facing several charges, including a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) conspiracy, marking yet another attempt to hold members of the violent street gang accountable within the parameters of the U.S. justice system.
Similarly, the Southern District of New York unsealed an indictment late last year charging Guerrero – who remains on the run – with various federal charges stemming from his role as the leader of Tren de Aragua.
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However, his capture would likely not be necessary, had he not escaped from Tocorón under the Maduro regime.
“If you let gangs take control of these institutions, it could be related to more of an abject failure of the state to either support the conditions of confinement,” Pyrooz told Fox News Digital. “[Or] to correctional officers having the effective governance in place to stamp out these conflicts before groups can rise to power.”