Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel affirmed that the people of Cuba would defend themselves should the U.S. attempt to invade the communist country and depose him.
During an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press," Diaz-Canel discussed the negative economic and regional security effects that could occur if the U.S. launches a military campaign on the island nation.
“An invasion to Cuba would have costs... It would affect the security of Cuba, the United States, and of the region,” Diaz-Canel stated. “If that happens, there will be fighting, and there will be a struggle, and we will defend ourselves, and if we need to die, we’ll die, because as our national anthem says, ‘Dying for the homeland is to live.’”
“Before making that decision, which is so irrational, there is a logic, that is, the logic of dialogue, to engage in discussions, to debate and try to reach agreements that would move us away from confrontation,” he added.
Diaz-Canel's first American broadcast interview comes amid increased tensions between the U.S. and Havana, which have impacted the communist-led island through rampant fuel shortages following a U.S.-imposed oil embargo and widespread electrical blackouts.
During the interview, moderator Kristen Welker asked Diaz-Canel whether the Cuban government was willing to respond to “‘key demands’ from the U.S., including releasing political prisoners, scheduling multiparty elections and recognizing unions and a free press.”
“Nobody has made those demands to us, and we have established that in respect to our political system or constitutional order, these are issues that are not under negotiations with the United States,” Díaz-Canel contested, asserting that those issues are “extensively manipulated.”
“This narrative that has been created, that image that anyone who speaks against a revolution is thrown into jail, that’s a big lie, that’s a slander, and that’s part of that construct in order to vilify and to engage a character assassination of the Cuban Revolution,” he remarked.
