Miguel Díaz-Canel warned on Saturday before delegates from 36 countries that there is "the imminence of a military aggression" from the United States against Cuba, invoked the doctrine of the "War of All the People," and declared that "every Cuban has a rifle" and an assigned defensive position, in a speech delivered at the International Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba held at the Palacio de Convenciones in Havana.
The speech was delivered a day after Donald Trump signed a new executive order against the Cuban dictatorship that expands sectoral sanctions effective immediately, targeting the energy, defense, mining, and financial services sectors, and on the same day that Trump declared in Florida that the U.S. "will take Cuba almost immediately" and threatened to send the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln 100 yards off the Cuban coast.
Díaz-Canel described the situation as a "multidimensional aggression" and pointed out that the regime has been preparing defense plans for months since anticipating Trump's return to power.
"There is the imminence of a military aggression, and that is not something we want or desire. Cuba is a country of peace. However, the government of the United States speaks of war every day and raises the rhetoric of threats against Cuba daily," he stated.
To illustrate the resilience of the Cuban people, he recalled the 32 Cuban bodyguards who died in Venezuela during the U.S. operation that captured Nicolás Maduro on January 3, 2026.
According to Díaz-Canel, those combatants confronted elite forces of the American army for more than 45 minutes, whereas the operation was intended to last 100 minutes.
"Imagine what would happen in a military aggression against Cuba, where the example of those 32 would be multiplied by millions of Cubans," he said.
The ruler invoked the doctrine of the "War of All the People," developed by Fidel Castro in the 1980s as a response to the threat of invasion during the Reagan administration, when the USSR did not guarantee direct military intervention.
"In that defensive doctrine, every Cuban has a rifle. Every Cuban has a position in defense and has a mission to fulfill in defense of the homeland, the revolution, and socialism," he stated.
Díaz-Canel also revealed the seriousness of the energy crisis: Cuba went four months without receiving fuel until a Russian ship improved the electrical situation over the last 15 days, but he warned that "this oil is already running out in these days and we don't know when more fuel will arrive in Cuba."
The new executive order signed on May 1 adds to the Executive Order 14380 of January 29, 2026, which declared Cuba an “unusual and extraordinary threat” and imposed an energy embargo that has reduced Cuban oil imports by 80% to 90%, causing blackouts of up to 25 hours a day in over 55% of the territory.
The regime also boasted of having collected more than 6 million signatures in the "My Signature for the Homeland" campaign, although independent sources questioned both those figures and the actual participation in the May Day parades, pointing to coercion and forced attendance.
Chancellor Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla also intensified his tone in rejecting the sanctions: "The Homeland, the Revolution, and Socialism are defended with ideas and with weapons. They will not intimidate us."
Díaz-Canel concluded his speech with a direct warning: "We do not fear war, and there will be no surprise or defeat here," in a discourse that is not the first in which he warns about a possible armed conflict with Washington.
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