The Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel issued a defiant message towards Washington on Tuesday, stating that Cuba "will never again be a colony of any empire" and that its sovereignty will be defended "at all costs," representing his latest response to the maximum pressure campaign of the Trump administration.
The leader posted the message a few hours after midday in Havana, invoking the island's colonial history to implicitly reject the pressures from Washington.
"Cuba, which knows well the meaning of having been a colony and neocolony of two empires, is clear that it will never again be one of them. The blood that has been shed for its independence, sovereignty, and self-determination will not be in vain, and we will defend it to the last consequences," he affirmed.
The reference to "two empires" alludes to Spain—from which Cuba gained independence in 1898—and to the United States, whose influence over the island during the first half of the 20th century is described by the official Cuban discourse as a "neocolonial" period.
The most likely trigger for the tweet was the statement by Secretary of State Marco Rubio on September 3, when he asserted that “Trump and I are steadfast that Cuba will be free”, a phrase that the Cuban government interprets as an expression of interventionist intentions.
Díaz-Canel's message reflects a rhetoric he has maintained throughout all of 2026. In January, he declared that "no one tells us what to do"; in July, he insisted that "we will not surrender our sovereignty or our independence"; and at the end of that same month, he accused the United States of being a “neofascist regime”.
This rhetoric arises while the Trump administration has imposed over 240 sanctions against Cuba since January 2026, including Executive Order 14404 signed on May 1, which expanded the blockade of assets and interests related to the Cuban government in U.S. territory.
Among the most recent measures are direct sanctions against Díaz-Canel himself, his wife Lis Cuesta, and Alejandro Castro Espín in June, as well as new restrictions approved in August against entities linked to foreign trade, mining, and the acquisition of arms for the Armed Forces.
The that the expanded sanctions since June have even blocked the purchase of fuel for humanitarian purposes, worsening an energy crisis that was already dragging down the Cuban economy after an accumulated decline of approximately 15% between 2024 and 2025, with widespread blackouts and a shutdown of transportation.
The popular response to Díaz-Canel's tweet was revealing. While some users echoed official slogans, one internet user summarized the contradiction of the discourse with irony: "Today Cubans are a colony of a Party."
Rubio has set the goal of placing Cuba on an "irreversible trajectory towards a different future" before Trump's term ends in January 2029.
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