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HAVANA (AP) — Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said Thursday that while Cuba does not want military aggression from the United States, his country is prepared to fight should it happen.
Díaz-Canel spoke during a rally that drew hundreds of people to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the declaration of the Cuban Revolution’s socialist essence.
“The moment is extremely challenging and calls upon us once again, as on April 16, 1961, to be ready to confront serious threats, including military aggression. We do not want it, but it is our duty to prepare to avoid it and, if it becomes inevitable, to defeat it,” Díaz-Canel said.
He spoke as tensions remain high between the two countries, with Cuba’s crises deepening as a result of a U.S. energy blockade.
Earlier this week, Trump said his administration could focus on Cuba after the war in Iran ends.
“We may stop by Cuba after we finish with this,” he said. He described it as a “failing nation” and asserted that it’s “been a terribly run country for a long time.”
Trump previously has threatened to intervene in Cuba, like he did in early January when the U.S. military attacked Venezuela and halted key oil shipments from the South American country.
Weeks later, Trump threatened tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba.
Both Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio — whose parents emigrated from Cuba in the 1950s before the revolution — have described the island’s government as ineffective and abusive. The U.S. demands on Cuba’s government in return for easing sanctions have included an end to political repression, a release of political prisoners and a liberalization of the island’s ailing economy.
Díaz-Canel accused them of trying to construct a “narrative” that has no justification.
“Cuba is not a failed state. Cuba is a besieged state. Cuba is a state facing multidimensional aggression: economic warfare, an intensified blockade and an energy blockade,” said Díaz-Canel, the main speaker at Thursday’s rally.
“Cuba is a threatened state that does not surrender. And despite everything. And thanks to socialism. Cuba is a state that resists, creates, and make no mistake, a state that will prevail,” Díaz-Canel added.
Both Cuba and the U.S. have acknowledged talks to resolve the tension, but no details have been disclosed.
The Cuban president recalled the achievements made possible by the revolution and its social welfare system, which allows for free education that has trained thousands of professionals, many of whom have chosen to emigrate due to the country’s economic crisis.
The oil embargo imposed by Trump worsened the already harsh conditions brought on by an economic crisis that has lasted for five years, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and a tightening of U.S. sanctions aimed at pressuring for a change in the island’s political model.
Experts have warned of a humanitarian crisis.
Measures to prevent the island from acquiring oil from its Venezuelan, Mexican and Russian suppliers are exacerbating the already poor living conditions of the population, including prolonged blackouts and fuel shortages.
The rally commemorated the 65th anniversary of a historic speech by the late leader, Fidel Castro, during a crisis with the United States. That moment marked the ideological course the Caribbean nation would take and its opposition to Washington’s continental hegemony.
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