Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel did not mince words on Friday when he reacted to President Donald Trump’s latest round of economic punishments on the communist island nation.
Condemning the White House’s new round of tariffs on Cuban imports, he lambasted the administration as a “clique” run by “fascist, criminal, and genocidal” leaders who have “hijacked the interests of the American people for purely personal ends.
“Under a mendacious and empty pretext, devoid of arguments, peddled by those who engage in politics and enrich themselves at the expense of the suffering of our people, Trump seeks to strangle the Cuban economy by imposing tariffs on countries that sovereignly trade oil with Cuba,” Díaz-Canel said in a statement on social media.
Trump signed an executive order on Thursday declaring a national emergency over alleged support from Cuba toward “malign actors adverse to the United States.” The directive aims to create a “tariff system” with an “additional ad valorem duty” on goods sold directly or indirectly to Cuba, including oil.
“Didn’t the Secretary of State and his clowns keep saying the blockade didn’t exist? Where are those who bore us with their fake stories about it just being a simple ‘bilateral trade embargo?’” the president asked.
The White House accused the Cuban government of illicit cooperation with powers such as Russia, China, Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah.
“Cuba blatantly hosts dangerous adversaries of the United States, inviting them to base sophisticated military and intelligence capabilities in Cuba that directly threaten the national security of the United States,” the directive stated.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been unambiguous about his desire to see the Cuban regime ousted and replaced with a noncommunist government.
“Regime change? Oh no, I think we would love to see the regime there change,” Rubio said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Wednesday when asked if the administration would rule out regime change.
He continued: “That doesn’t mean we are going to make a change, but we would love to see a change. There’s no doubt about the fact that it would be of great benefit to the United States if Cuba was no longer governed by an autocratic regime.”
MEXICO HALTS OIL SHIPMENTS TO CUBA AS TRUMP EYES REGIME CHANGE
The long-tense relationship between Cuba and the U.S. deteriorated further following the Trump-ordered abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro earlier this month.
Approximately 32 Cuban officers were allegedly killed in the operation, having been stationed in the country as part of Maduro’s security detail.