Fox News aired an interview Tuesday with Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, Cuba’s minister of foreign affairs, in which he openly challenged Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s claims about Cuba, including saying that the Cuban regime presented a national security threat to the United States.

Earlier this month, the Department of Justice unsealed a superseding indictment charging former Cuban President Raúl Castro, the 94-year-old brother of the late dictator Fidel Castro, and five other members of the Castro regime. The indictment comes after months of escalating rhetoric from President Donald Trump’s administration against Cuba and other regime leaders. Raúl Castro led Cuba after his brother became ill and then turned over the position to current leader Miguel Díaz-Canel in 2021.

The indictment of Raúl Castro and the other defendants was a rare topic of bipartisan agreement, especially in Florida where both Republican and Democratic elected officials and candidates in the state with a border 90 miles from Cuba’s shores loudly denounced the Castro regime and applauded the indictments as “long overdue.”

Trump has repeatedly made threats to use military action against Cuba, suggesting the U.S. would take a similar approach as when it captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro in early January.

Thus far, the Cuban government remains defiant and has vowed they are ready to defend against any U.S. attacks. A recent report by Axios said “Cuba has acquired more than 300 military drones and recently began discussing plans to use them to attack the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, U.S. military vessels and possibly Key West.”

Fox News anchor and senior foreign policy correspondent Gillian Turner interviewed Rodríguez, who replied in Spanish and his remarks were translated into English by an interpreter, about the latest developments in the relations between the U.S. and Cuba, including asking about recent comments by Trump and Rubio.

Regarding Trump’s repeated comments that Cuba was a “failing nation,” Rodríguez said that if Cuba was such an “inefficient state,” and “if the Cuban economy would not be viable,” then “what would be the use” of Trump issuing the executive order declaring a complete energy blockade against Cuba, or other economic sanctions.

And now the U.S. has “resorted to a military threat,” Rodríguez continued, arguing that the “difference” in the two countries’ “political system” or government should not be “the reason for provoking a war or to cause a bloodbath or a humanitarian catastrophe.”

Turner said that Rubio had said to her that “the Cuban regime poses a direct national security threat to the United States of America,” and had mentioned “an arsenal of military drones provided to the regime by the Russians, by the Chinese,” plus the recent news reports that “the Cuban government has even discussed internally potential plans to attack U.S. military targets.”

“Is any of that true?” she asked.

Rodríguez scoffed, replying, “Well, just imagine Cuba is a small island, 100,000 square kilometers and 10 million inhabitants. Based on what logic — what would be the common sense behind the idea that Cuba could threaten a nuclear superpower?”

“Second, we will have to ask the secretary of state if he has any evidence,” Rodríguez added. “I have heard him lie on and on regarding this issue.”

Turner brought up the indictment of Raúl Castro and other regime members, and the fact that it was “the same type of decision that was made about Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro before the United States captured him, removed him from the country.”

“Do you have concerns about the United States plotting potential regime change in Cuba? Are you prepared to defend against that militarily?” she asked.

“We will have to ask the U.S. government, why did it wait for 30 years to do this,” said Rodríguez. “We will have to ask, what is the ethical value, what is the legal value behind these allegations right now, or if this is part of the political narrative aimed at manipulating the U.S. public opinion to testify the military aggression against Cuba.”

Turner wrapped the interview by asking for Rodríguez to respond to a video message Rubio posted last week speaking to the Cuban people directly, in which “he said that the real reason for your suffering right now is because they Cuban regime has plundered all of your country’s resources.”

Rodríguez replied by calling Rubio a liar:

The secretary of state is one of the main masterminds behind the military threat against Cuba: the energy blockade, I mean the complete blockade on fuel supplies to Cuba. He was one of the authors of the extreme tightening of the blockade against my country.

In all areas however, he lies. He lies on and on. He continuously intends to deceive the public opinion in the U.S., the U.S. Congress, and the international committee. I have heard him say very often that the blockade, that is, the energy the blockade, does not exist. This message has been incorporated as an unfortunate act to the perception that Cubans have about the secretary of state.

He was not born in Cuba, he does not know Cuba, he knows nothing about Cuba.

Turner said that Fox News had reached out to the State Department for a response to the foreign minister’s accusations and promised to report if they got a response.

Watch the clip above via Fox News.

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