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The apical US subject commandant for Latin America met Cuban subject officials connected Friday adjacent the US naval basal astatine Guantanamo Bay, marking a uncommon high-level engagement betwixt the 2 sides contempt mounting tensions betwixt Washington and Havana.US General Francis L Donovan held what US Southern Command described arsenic a "brief speech connected operational information matters" with Cuban subject leaders adjacent the base. He besides reviewed information conditions astatine Guantanamo Bay and discussed operational readiness and the information of US unit stationed there.The gathering comes arsenic the Trump medication ramps up unit connected Cuba done sanctions, an lipid blockade and an expanded subject beingness successful the Caribbean.
President Donald Trump has besides adopted progressively assertive rhetoric toward Havana, informing earlier this twelvemonth that Cuba "is next" aft US forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro successful a January operation. He has since repeated it aggregate times.At the aforesaid time, elder medication officials person continued contacts with Cuban counterparts. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe person met Cuban officials successful caller months to research imaginable improvements successful relations, though those efforts person reportedly yielded small advancement and were followed by further US sanctions.
The United States continues to support its naval basal astatine Guantanamo Bay contempt decades of disputes with Cuba's socialist government. Friday's gathering took spot against that backdrop of strained relations and heightened US unit connected the land nation.The Pentagon separately announced that a caller contingent of astir 1,300 sailors and Marines volition regenerate the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, which has been operating successful the Caribbean since past summer.
