The leader of Cuba is vowing to put up “resistance” against the U.S. as President Trump suggests he may “take” the island nation, whose communist government has faced months of intense U.S. pressure and has languished under severe energy shortages.
“In the face of the worst scenario, Cuba is accompanied by a certainty: any external aggressor will clash with an impregnable resistance,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez wrote in a post on X late Tuesday, accusing the U.S. of threatening to overthrow the Cuban government and exploit its resources.
The Cuban leader’s comments came hours after Mr. Trump hinted during a White House event that “we’ll be doing something with Cuba very soon.” A day earlier, the president floated the idea of “taking Cuba in some form,” after saying last month a “friendly takeover of Cuba” was possible.
“Whether I free it, take it, I think I could do anything I want with it,” he told reporters on Monday.
He also said Sunday that the Cuban and U.S. governments are talking, and “I think we will pretty soon either make a deal or do whatever we have to do.” He added that he wants to deal with the war with Iran before addressing the island nation.
Mr. Trump hasn’t specified what his plans are for Cuba. But his foreign policy has grown more assertive this year — he ordered a military operation in January to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and just under two months later, he launched a war with Iran.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration threatened tariffs on any countries that sell oil to Cuba, causing petroleum shipments to the island to essentially grind to a halt. The move aggravated the country’s existing energy crises and triggered widespread fuel shortages. The country faced island-wide power blackouts this week, and protests were reported last week.
Meanwhile, federal prosecutors in Miami are targeting Cuban leaders for possible prosecution on economic, drug, violent and immigration offenses, CBS News reported earlier this month.
In January, a U.S. official told CBS News that the U.S. does not seek to trigger a collapse of the Cuban government, but rather seeks to negotiate with Havana to transition away from its authoritarian communist system.
One of Cuba’s top economic officials announced Monday that the country is planning to let Cuban nationals who live abroad — including in the U.S. — invest in companies on the island, in an apparent concession for a country that has had a largely state-controlled economy for decades. It’s not clear whether the move will lead to much new investment, given the tight U.S. sanctions that make it difficult for Americans to do business with Cuba.
On Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the move doesn’t go far enough.
“Cuba has an economy that doesn’t work and a political and governmental system that can’t fix it,” he said. “So they have to change dramatically. What they announced yesterday is not dramatic enough. It’s not going to fix it. So they’ve got some big decisions to make over there.”
