Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel rebuked the U.S. threat to take over his country, warning that efforts to do so would lead to “incalculable” loss of life.
The communist leader referenced the teachings of Fidel Castro, the guerrilla revolutionary who originally established Marxist policies in Cuba in 1959, as he issued a sober message to the United States during an interview with Newsweek.
“Should we fall in battle, to die for the homeland is to live,” Diaz-Canel said in remarks published Tuesday. “If military aggression occurs, we will fight back, we will battle, we will defend ourselves.”
The development follows President Donald Trump’s threats to mount a “friendly takeover” of Cuba earlier this year, after the U.S. similarly took over Venezuela. Diaz-Canel said any U.S. military attack would “result in immense losses for both nations and peoples.”
“The loss of life and material destruction would be incalculable,” he said. “Such an act of aggression would be extremely costly in every respect, and it is not what our peoples deserve.”
The communist leader has maintained tough rhetoric against the U.S. in recent months and public resistance toward making democratic reforms that Washington is pushing for. However, Cuba has begun to take steps of concession toward the Trump administration as Washington continues its campaign to trigger changes by placing intense economic pressure on the island. In recent weeks, Cuba announced plans to allow nationals living in the U.S. to invest in private businesses and released over 2,000 prisoners that the State Department said had been locked up for political reasons.
“We continue to call for the immediate release of the hundreds of other brave Cuban patriots who remain unjustly detained,” the State Department told the Washington Examiner last week.
The U.S. has had sanctions on Cuba for decades due to concerns about the lack of political, economic, and social freedom the country is afforded under communist leadership.
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“Suffice it to say that the embargo is tied to political change on the island,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in March. “The law is codified, but the bottom line is their economy doesn’t work. It’s a nonfunctional economy.
“They’re in a lot of trouble, and the people in charge, they don’t know how to fix it, so they have to get new people in charge.”