The Cuban regime recently published a video on the Facebook page "Razones de Cuba" featuring a speech by Raúl Castro in which he warns that any military aggression from the United States against Cuba would necessitate a ground invasion, at which point Cuban soldiers would be "on equal footing" with the enemy.
The video, accompanied by the hashtags #RaúlEsRaúl and #ResistenciaCubana, is part of an official campaign aimed at celebrating the figure of Raúl Castro on his 95th birthday.
The release of the old speech comes at a time when the dictator's name appears in a federal criminal indictment in the United States, and the Trump Administration is bolstering its military presence in the Caribbean, sending a clear message to Cuba.
Raúl states: "We have not had peace, we have not had tranquility. The enemy says that socialism has been a failure. Why can't they leave us alone to fight on equal terms? Socialism has not been a failure, not even under these conditions. It has been an incessant struggle."
The former leader defends the regime's strategy: "For us, avoiding war is winning it, but to win it by avoiding it, one must shed rivers of sweat and not a few resources."
The most direct statement from the video targets the cost of a supposed ground invasion.
«No matter how much they may bombard one day, no matter how much they may block us, to solve the problem of Cuba, we must land. And then, when we are face to face, soldier to soldier, the situation will be different.»
Castro also warns about the consequences for the Cuban people. “I wouldn’t want to see even in a laboratory what an aggression against Cuba by the United States would look like, because the price our people would have to pay would be very high, very steep.”
Raúl closes his message by paraphrasing José Martí: «Freedom is very costly and one must resign oneself to living without it, or be willing to pay whatever price is necessary. We know what we have done. For over a century, we have been willing to pay whatever price is necessary. We have paid it».
The widespread dissemination of the video occurs amid the highest escalation of military tension between Cuba and the United States in decades.
On May 20, the U.S. Department of Justice filed federal charges against Raúl Castro for the downing of the Brothers to the Rescue planes on February 24, 1996.
On that same day, the Southern Command deployed the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier in the Caribbean as part of the multinational exercise Southern Seas 2026.
Days earlier, leaks regarding possible military options against Cuba prompted Miguel Díaz-Canel to warn that any military aggression from the United States would result in "a bloodbath with incalculable consequences."
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