Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has warned that any US attempt to seize the island would meet “unbreakable resistance,” responding to comments by former US president Donald Trump suggesting he might “take” Cuba.
Díaz‑Canel wrote on X that the United States threatens “almost daily” to overthrow Cuba’s constitutional order by force, using as pretext an economy weakened by policies Washington itself has pursued for decades. He described US measures as a “ferocious economic war” applied as collective punishment against the Cuban people and said that, in a worst‑case scenario, any external aggressor would face resolute opposition.
Trump told reporters he believed he would have “the honor of taking Cuba,” adding, “Whether I free it, take it, I think I can do anything I want with it.” He described Cuba as “a very weakened nation” with no money or oil and said, “We’ll be doing something with Cuba very soon.” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticized recent Cuban measures to allow exiles to invest and own businesses as insufficient, arguing they fall short of the free‑market reforms the Trump administration seeks.
The threats are consistent with broader plans the administration has signaled to reassert US influence in the region. Following 2026 strikes in Venezuela that led to the capture of President Nicolás Maduro, Trump said American dominance in the Western Hemisphere would “never be questioned again.”
Cuba is confronting one of its most severe economic crises since the 1959 revolution. A long-running US trade embargo has weakened the economy, and recent US actions have further tightened pressures, aiming to cut off foreign currency and oil supplies. The island recently emerged from a blackout that lasted more than 29 hours — the first such outage since Venezuela’s oil shipments to Cuba were cut off — though authorities have not publicly identified the cause.
Havana and Washington have opened talks intended to defuse the crisis, but neither side has disclosed details. Trump has sought to portray Cuba as desperate to negotiate.
Communist Cuba faces shortages and mounting public discontent amid the energy crisis and economic strain. Díaz‑Canel framed the confrontation as one between an island under prolonged external pressure and a population ready to resist any military attempt to alter its government.
Image: A street in Cuba after a blackout, with rubbish piled and cables overhead — Norlys Perez/REUTERS
Edited by: Karl Sexton
