Miguel Díaz-Canel published a message on Wednesday in which he accused Washington of threatening "almost daily" to overturn the constitutional order in Cuba by force, in direct response to a series of statements from President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the days leading up to it.
The immediate catalyst was a series of high-impact statements made on Monday and Tuesday. Trump asserted from the White House that Cuba is a "failed nation" and that he will have the honor of taking Cuba, adding: "If I liberate it, I take it. I think I can do whatever I want with it." He also described the country as a resource-less territory: "They have no money, they have no oil, they have nothing."
The next day, Rubio stated from the Oval Office that the Cuban economy "does not work. It is a non-functional economy," noting that the regime "has survived on subsidies from the Soviet Union and now from Venezuela" and demanded radical changes: "They need to put new people in charge. They must change drastically." Trump backed the ongoing negotiation process that same Tuesday: Cuba is talking with Rubio and announced that they would "do something very soon."
Díaz-Canel responded with a combative tone. "The U.S. publicly threatens Cuba, almost daily, with forcefully overthrowing the constitutional order. And they use an outrageous pretext: the harsh limitations of the weakened economy that they have attacked and sought to isolate for more than six decades," he wrote. He also accused Washington of seeking to "take over the country, its resources, its properties, and even the very economy they aim to suffocate in order to bring us to our knees" and described the embargo as a "fierce economic war" applied as "collective punishment against the entire people." The message includes the hashtag CubaEstáFirme.
The background of this rhetorical escalation is an unprecedented energy crisis. Following the capture of Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces on January 3, Cuba has gone more than three months without receiving Venezuelan oil, which accounted for between 25,000 and 30,000 barrels a day, two-thirds of its crude imports. This Monday, the island experienced another complete collapse of its electrical system — the sixth nationwide blackout in a year and a half — leaving millions of people without electricity.
Meanwhile, a negotiation process is taking place that Díaz-Canel confirmed on March 13 in a meeting of the Political Bureau, describing it as a "first phase" to establish a bilateral agenda. According to Politico and Axios, Rubio has held at least half a dozen meetings with Cuban representatives, including Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, the grandson of Raúl Castro.
The New York Times reported this Monday that Trump demands the resignation of Díaz-Canel as a condition to advance in those discussions, according to four sources familiar with the negotiations. Jorge Mas Santos, president of the Cuban American National Foundation, met with Trump and Rubio at the White House this week and stated: "The day of freedom for our homeland is approaching."
Analysts point out that the pressure from Washington is also a plan to make the island dependent on the U.S., according to a report by Bloomberg. Díaz-Canel concluded his message with a warning: "In the worst-case scenario, Cuba is assured of one certainty: any external aggressor will encounter an impenetrable resistance."
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