Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel pushed back against the “almost daily” threats from the U.S. as President Donald Trump continues to suggest that he may “take” the Caribbean nation, vowing to meet the Trump administration’s efforts to cut off the country’s fuel supplies with “unyielding resistance.”
“They intend to... announce plans to take over the country, its resources, its properties, and even the very economy they seek to suffocate in order to force us to surrender,” Díaz-Canel wrote on X. “This is the only way to explain the fierce economic war being waged as collective punishment against the entire people. Faced with the worst-case scenario, #Cuba is guided by one certainty: any external aggressor will face unyielding resistance.”
Diaz-Canel’s comments come after energy officials say the communist-led island nation partially restored its power grid on Tuesday evening, following a nationwide blackout that reportedly lasted more than 29 hours.
President Trump has repeatedly mentioned the potential of a “friendly takeover” of the island nation, revealing that Cuba could be on the administration’s agenda after it concludes the war in Iran. When talking to reporters, President Trump stated that he could do anything with the country, expressing that he believes he will have the “honor” of “taking Cuba.”
On Mar. 13, Diaz-Canel confirmed that the Cuban government and the U.S. are holding talks, noting that any agreement between the two could take time.
On Monday, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment, Óscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga, announced that Cuban exiles are welcome to invest in the island privately, in infrastructure projects, or open accounts in state banks.
State Secretary Marco Rubio chimed in on the decision, expressing that the decision to open foreign investment is not enough to make a change.
"Cuba has an economy that doesn't work and a political and governmental system that can't fix it," Secretary Rubio commented. "So they have to change dramatically. What they announced yesterday is not dramatic enough. It's not going to fix it. So they've got some big decisions to make over there."
