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The Cuban opposition leader José Daniel Ferrer warned this Saturday that the Cuban regime will not yield to the military pressure from the aircraft carrier promised by Donald Trump, and openly called for a direct armed intervention to put an end to the dictatorship, in statements collected from Madrid-Barajas airport.
Ferrer responded to the question of whether the regime would surrender if Trump fulfills his promise to send the USS Abraham Lincoln to the Cuban coast, announced on May 1 during a dinner at the Forum Club in West Palm Beach, where the U.S. president stated that the U.S. "will take Cuba almost immediately" after completing operations in Iran.
"They will not surrender just because they see or feel the aircraft carrier nearby. Not because they are brave, but because absolute power has driven them insane to the point that they believe something will happen at the last moment to free them from prison, like Maduro, or from hell, like Jamenei," Ferrer stated.
The opposition figure went further and called for decisive military action: "They will need a dose of Tomahawk to come to their senses. The exact dose of Tomahawk with two or three GBU-57A/B MOPs will make them understand that their story has ended forever and that the Cuban people must be free."
Ferrer arrived in Madrid to begin a month-long tour across over 10 European countries alongside Javier Larrondo from Prisoners Defenders, aiming to align Europe with the demands of the Cuban people: the freedom of political prisoners and the freedom of Cuba.
Upon connecting to the internet at the airport and reading Trump's statements, Ferrer admitted he was alarmed: "I was so scared that I thought I need to book a return ticket to the United States, to Miami, to the American continent. I need to be as close as possible to Havana."
He decided to continue the tour upon realizing that Trump conditioned any action on Cuba on first resolving the situation in Iran: "I kept reading, and it says Donald Trump that when they finish with Iran, I believe I can carry out or at least start my tour in Europe."
To justify his position in favor of an intervention, Ferrer resorted to a medical metaphor: "He who, out of hatred for chemotherapy, prefers the killer cancer, will tell you he prefers innocent Cubans to continue dying rather than sending, in first-class tickets, the criminals who cause so much death, suffering, and pain, to keep company with Maduro or Jamenei. I prefer chemotherapy and radiotherapy to eliminate the cancer."
The statements come at a time of intense pressure from Washington on Havana. On May 1, Trump signed a new executive order that expands sanctions against Cuban officials in the energy, defense, mining, and finance sectors, and imposes secondary sanctions on foreign banks that do business with the regime.
Since January 2026, the Trump administration has imposed more than 240 sanctions and intercepted at least seven oil tankers intended for Cuba, reducing energy imports by between 80% and 90% and causing blackouts of up to 25 hours a day in more than 55% of the territory.
The regime responded defiantly. Díaz-Canel stated: "No aggressor, no matter how powerful, will find surrender in Cuba." Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez affirmed that Cuba "will not be intimidated" and described the sanctions as "illegal and abusive."
Ferrer, forcibly exiled to Miami in October 2025 after more than four years imprisoned in the Mar Verde prison in Santiago de Cuba, concluded with a phrase that summarizes his expectation about the tour: "I hope we don't have time for our mission. I hope we have to return immediately."
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