I'm John Batchler. I welcome Mary Anastasio Gradyady, the Americas columnist and editor for the

Wall Street Journal editorial board, looking at the very rapid changing situation for Cuba.

I read this headline from the meeting of Karakom, the Caribbean States, with Secretary of State

Rubio. Secretary of State Rubio urges Caribbean leaders to cooperate on gangs as Cuba worries grow.

Mary, a very good day to you.

The Cuba situation is dynamic and non-transparent.

What I know to be accurate is that over these last weeks, the humanitarian crisis, so-called,

is exacerbated by the decision of the Trump administration to restrict or limit or cut off. Oil deliveries from Venezuela and or Mexico

to Cuba, therefore the electric grid, which is fragile to the point of not existing, is said to

no longer work at all, darkness everywhere,

maybe some attempt at electricity in Havana, but not much.

The humanitarian crisis follows from that.

At the same time, Marco Rubio, who is Cuban origin, is looking to make a case for what? Where do we think this is going, Mary?

What is the best outcome? What is a realistic outcome of a regime that has brutalized its own people and resisted all change for 60, 70 years? Good evening to you.

Well, good evening, John. Just to clarify one point, Rubio is born in the U.S.

His parents are immigrants from Cuba. Yeah, I think he was smart this week to go to the Caribbean

and talk to the islands about crime. You know, there's always been this, Cuba has very effectively used nationalism and

sovereignty as a check against U.S. efforts to get rid of the dictatorship.

And he didn't talk about that.

He talked about something that the islands themselves have interest in,

which is, you know, tapping down organized crime,

which is as it is in Mexico and in Central America,

...