Gov. John Bel Edwards suffered a setback during his trade mission to Cuba when officials there rejected a deal that would have sent Edwards’ chief political rival to the island nation.

Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment Rodrigo Malmierca Díaz balked at a proposal that would have resulted in Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry being exported to the communist country.

“I’m going to do you a favor and stop you right there,” Díaz told Edwards and his entourage through a translator during trade talks Wednesday in Havana. “I don’t think you boys want to embarrass yourselves more than you did with the Bay of Pigs.”

“We already have a self-styled, power-hungry despot — with a much less ridiculous accent — who took over decades ago.”

Despite an impassioned sales pitch by Edwards, Díaz insisted the leaders and people of Cuba neither wanted nor needed the Republican attorney general from St. Martinville.

“We already have a self-styled, power-hungry despot — with a much less ridiculous accent — who took over decades ago,” Díaz explained. “And we certainly don’t need any more cocaine.”

While Edwards remained upbeat about the trip as a whole, the first-term Democrat was visibly disappointed about failing to reach an agreement that would have unloaded Landry on the Cubans.

“I’m proud to say we’ve secured a good number of mutually beneficial trade agreements with the good people of Cuba this week,” Edwards insisted. “We made a lot of good deals. Unfortunately, the Landry deal fell through, which means we’re still stuck with that pain in the ass for now.”

Edwards then speculated about exporting Landry to another sanction-laden country desperate to trade with the U.S.

“There’s always Venezuela,” he added.