On Friday, Cuban dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel confirmed on national television that his government is holding talks with the United States government. The primary goal of the talks is to hammer out an economic deal that would allow oil shipments to Cuba to resume before riots escalate.

• No fuel has entered Cuba since the January 3 U.S. arrest of dictator Nicolás Maduro and the subsequent oil embargo.
• Protesters attacked a Communist Party office in central Cuba early on Saturday.

Díaz-Canel also confirmed that Cuba’s government will release 51 people from the Communist island nation’s prisons. This deal was brokered by the Vatican, which had announced three days prior that it was ensuring a “negotiated solution” between the U.S. and Cuba. The next day, Cuba’s Foreign Ministry said the prisoners were being released in “the spirit of goodwill, and of the close and fluid relations between the Cuban state and the Vatican ….”

• USA Today reports that a deal with Cuba could include changes to port operations, energy and tourism.
• In exchange for these concessions, Cuba may consider replacing Díaz-Canel, whom U.S. officials see as an obstacle to ongoing talks.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has long sought regime change in Cuba and whose parents emigrated from Cuba, has stopped pushing for an abrupt end to communism in favor of more gradual economic reform.

Main player: The Vatican also played a key role in Barack Obama’s negotiations with Cuba in 2013. While many people were optimistic about the “thaw” in relations, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry warned about “the Roman Catholic Church trying to establish a strategic foothold 90 miles from American soil.”

The Vatican’s basic strategy did not change when Obama left the presidency.

“The German-led European Union is the seventh and final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire—that same Holy Roman Empire which, centuries ago, used Cuba so powerfully to fuel its wars,” Mr. Flurry wrote in “The Deadly Dangerous U.S.-Cuba Deal.” “If the present resurrection were to move into Cuba again, it would be well positioned to make these kinds of attacks happen. The advantage is that it could do it in the cloak of secrecy, since Cuba is essentially a police state with tight controls on information. Think of the control that it could have. Think of how valuable Cuba has been to America’s enemies in the past!”

As President Trump tries to reduce the threat posed by communists in Cuba, he must beware Vatican involvement. He likely has the economic tools to topple the island’s Communist government, but the Vatican is trying to convince him to pursue reconciliation with Havana rather than outright victory to ensure the Catholic Church plays a greater role in the island’s future.