New Delhi: Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel warned Monday that a US military assault on Cuba “will cause a bloodbath with incalculable consequences” amid renewed tension between Havana and Washington. The warning came after reports claimed the United States was considering tougher measures against Cuba, including possible legal action against former Cuban leader Raul Castro and increased military pressure in the Caribbean.
What is being said?
“Cuba poses no threat, nor does it have aggressive plans or intentions against any country. It has none against the US, nor has it ever had any, something the government of that nation knows well,” the leader said in a post on X. Díaz-Canel added that Cuba “is already suffering a multidimensional aggression from the US” and that it “has the absolute and legitimate right to defend itself against a military assault,” though he maintained that this “cannot logically or honestly be used as an excuse to impose a war against the noble Cuban people.”
“I think they’re going to have to come to us,” Trump told Fox News in an interview regarding the latest crisis in Cuba. “It’s a failed nation. It’s a totally failed nation.”
Cuban foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez also commented on the matter, taking to social media platform X, saying that Cuba “has the right to legitimate self-defense against any external aggression.” “Those who seek to illegitimately attack Cuba resort to any pretext, no matter how deceitful and ridiculous, to justify an attack that runs contrary to US and world public opinion,” he wrote.
Behind the conflict
The current crisis is linked to broader regional tensions after the US-backed operation in Venezuela earlier this year that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. Cuba, a long-time ally of Cuba, was heavily affected after Venezuelan oil supplies to the island were disrupted.
The fuel shortages have pushed Cuba deeper into an economic crisis. It has caused long blackouts, shortages of food and medicine and growing public anger.
Another flashpoint is Washington’s reported move to indict Raúl Castro over the 1996 shootdown of aircraft operated by the exile group Brothers to the Rescue. The possible indictment would mark one of the most serious escalations in US-Cuba relations in decades.