Louisville Cubans react to Rodriguez Castro negotiations with Donald Trump
Updated Aug. 14, 2026, 11:29 a.m. ET
- Raúl Castro’s grandson, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, has offered to negotiate with the U.S. on Cuba’s behalf.
- Louisville’s Cuban community holds differing views on the best path forward, from U.S. military intervention to continued negotiations.
- Some Cuban-Americans believe the country’s communist system is the root cause of its problems.
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Sometimes going days without power at their home in La Habana, Cuba, Louisville resident Yensy González’s parents struggle to stay in touch with her. In their city, trash accumulates on their street while they stockpile food rations in their kitchen.
“Right now they are in total misery,” González explained in Spanish. “Poverty is one thing. … You can find poverty in any Latin American country. In Cuba, there is nothing but misery – and we’re way beyond that.”
She attributes her family’s suffering to one thing: Cuba’s communist government.
“Now, what is clear to everyone is that as long as the Castros are in power, there won’t be any real change, because there simply isn’t any real change when those responsible for the disaster in Cuba remain in power,” she said.
‘Misery’ in Cuba
Cuba has been under an authoritarian rule since the Cuban Revolution ended in 1959, during which Fidel Castro seized control of the government and transformed it into a single-party nation.
Following the United States’ intervention in Venezuela in January, U.S. President Donald Trump cut off Cuba’s essential Venezuelan oil supply and imposed strict fuel tariffs on other countries targeting the Caribbean nation for export opportunities. According to a report by Al Jazeera, the tightened oil restrictions sent the island into further economic turmoil and made blackouts a growing concern for its aging power grid.
In early July, USA TODAY published an exclusive interview with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, the grandson of Raúl Castro ― Cuba’s former president and brother to Fidel. The young Castro, known by Cubans as “El Cangrejo” ― the Crab ― asserted he was the one who should negotiate with the Trump administration on behalf of the country.
While he told USA TODAY he would not throw away his family’s ideology, Rodríguez Castro has kept the door open to increasing conversations with the U.S., and a former U.S. official confirmed to USA TODAY the Americans have been quietly vetting Rodríguez Castro for months.
Cuba’s communist political framework currently exists within a socialist republic, and it is undergoing what Rodríguez Castro considers significant reforms to its state-run economy. Leaders proposed a plan in June to privatize a vast swath of its socialist economy, which would also require compensation for Cubans and Americans whose assets were taken during the revolution.
Despite never holding political office, Rodríguez Castro’s proximity to the Castro family has positioned him within Cuba’s political and financial elite, but many who make up Louisville’s Cuban population, the largest such community outside of Florida, doubt his ability to enact substantial change.
Louisvillians consider how U.S. can help
Communism has occupied Cuba for the 67 years González’s father has been alive. She said there are people who “die without ever knowing anything else.”
“Given the truly, truly dire situation Cuba is in right now, I honestly believe there’s no other solution but military intervention,” González said.
By allowing the U.S. to intervene, González believes a democratic government could guide Cuba, both economically and socially, toward a better future. It could also allow Cuba to remain under U.S. protection.
Any other solution would just be “más de lo mismo” to her ― more of the same ― including Rodríguez Castro’s negotiations with Trump.
“It’s nothing new. Because Cuba’s biggest problem isn’t the economy – which doesn’t even exist – it isn’t the so-called blockade, and it isn’t the current fuel crisis,” González said. “Those are just the consequences. Cuba’s biggest problem is communism, which is what has led Cuba to the massive disaster it is today. Because communism is a system that doesn’t let you prosper.”
While she said a young Castro could differ ideologically and strategically from the family, González doubts that is the case with Rodríguez Castro, based on his interview with USA TODAY.
In contrast, Osvaldo Pérez, who moved to the U.S. in 2019 to work at Bodega Mi Sueño in West Buechel with his family, said the negotiations between the U.S. and Cuba could be a step in the right direction.
“It’s high time they were released urgently so that the people – who are severely oppressed, who have no freedom of expression, who have nothing – can be set free,” he said in Spanish. “They are a people who have completely collapsed.”
But Maily Quesada, a Cuban Louisvillian who moved to the U.S. three years ago, said the nation’s economic reliance on Cuba could make change difficult.
“I don’t know, maybe Trump has good intentions regarding a negotiation, but I don’t think they’ll ever manage to scare Cuba. Cuba has been a source of profit for them for many years,” she said in Spanish. “But … let’s hope something happens someday.”
Julie Bunck, a political science professor at the University of Louisville who has authored several academic works about Cuban history, said if the communist system were to change, Cuba would have plenty of economic and social opportunities, especially with tourism and cultural endeavors.
While Bunck agrees Cuba desperately needs a new government system, she questions what Rodríguez Castro brings to the table.
“He’s a playboy. Everybody in Cuba knows it. He’s not really very popular, flaunts his wealth. He’s got a ton of money. He’s got more money than virtually every American,” Bunck said. “I don’t really know why the government thinks he’s (a way in).”
She hypothesized that because his father is the head of Cuba’s Business Administration Group, known as GAESA ― one of the island’s most powerful institutions ― U.S. officials may think he is well positioned to influence its leaders.
While everyone who spoke with The Courier Journal wanted to see Cuba prosper, none could quite agree on a solution. As its bright youth flees, Bunck said Cuba is left with an aging and shrinking population fighting for sustenance and power.
“And that leaves a devastated country, one that is so hard to replace, so hard to fill those gaps,” González said. “All of us who are outside of Cuba, if Cuba were to change tomorrow – God willing, and even if it were tomorrow – well, not all of us are going to return.”
(This story has been edited to correct a translation.)
USA TODAY reporters Romina Ruiz-Goiriena, Kim Hjelmgaard, Rick Jervis, Francesca Chambers and Nick Penzenstadler contributed. Reach breaking news reporter Ruby Grisin at rgrisin@usatodayco.com.