Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned of a migration crisis to the U.S. from Cuba, comments that follow President Trump recently threatening the island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDoes it matter to U.S. national security what happens on this island?\u201d CBS News\u2019s Margaret Brennan asked Gates on \u201cFace the Nation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think that, actually, the biggest risk is, that we end up with another Mariel evacuation from Cuba that has tens of thousands of Cubans heading to the United States out of desperation, as has happened a number of years ago,\u201d Gates responded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the National Coast Guard Museum, the Mariel Boatlift involved a large group of people fleeing from Cuba in 1980.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo, I think that\u2019s actually, at this point, the biggest threat. You know, the Cubans have \u2014 have had a lot of security people in Venezuela, they were, they were \u2014 formed the security cordon around [Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s] Maduro. He didn\u2019t trust his own people. They\u2019ve done this in other countries, so they have been involved in ways that have impacted our national security and our interests, in their engagement in other countries, for a long time,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Friday, Cuban officials announced that the country had run out of oil and diesel as it dealt with a humanitarian crisis that was growing worse due to an increase in pressure from the Trump administration to change its ways to follow U.S. terms or face potential military action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cuban officials, however, have stayed defiant against demands from the U.S., and Cuban President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel said recently that the U.S. blockade on Cuba was \u201cgenocidal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is a perverse design whose main objective is the suffering of the entire people, to hold them hostage and turn them against the Government,\u201d he wrote on the social platform X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n