On Monday, Trump told reporters he thinks he will have the honor of taking Cuba, “You know, all my life I’ve been hearing about United States and Cuba, when will the United States having the honor of taking Cuba? That’s a big honor,” Trump said in remarks from the Oval Office. “Taking Cuba in some form, yeah, taking Cuba — I mean, whether I free it, take it, I think I can do anything I want with it.”
“I do believe I’ll be … having the honor of taking Cuba. That would be good. That’s a big honor,” he said during an executive order signing at the White House.
On Tuesday, Díaz-Canel said the U.S. would face “unbreakable resistance” if it attempted a takeover.
In a post on X, Díaz-Canel said the U.S. publicly threatened Cuba, almost daily, to overthrow the constitutional order by force.
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“This is the only way to explain the fierce economic war being waged as collective punishment against the entire people.”
For weeks, Trump has been repeating that Cuba is on the brink of collapse.
Under Trump, Washington has increased economic pressure on Cuba, aiming to cut off the flow of foreign currency and oil to the Caribbean island.
The pressure intensified after U.S. authorities carried out an operation in January in which Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, was arrested in the capital Caracas and taken to the U.S.
The move deprived Havana of one of its most important allies, which had long supported the island, particularly through oil supplies, amid the decades-long U.S. trade embargo with Cuba.
Currently, it is in one of its most severe economic crises since the revolution led by Fidel Castro in 1959.
Trump’s comments came as Cuba was once again plunged into darkness through a power failure. There were no faults detected in the electrical units operating at the time Cuba’s grid collapsed, the state-owned grid operator said on Monday, adding it was working to restore power across the country.
NAN
