Miguel Díaz-Canel reacted this Tuesday on his Facebook account to the speech that Donald Trump delivered at the 81st United Nations General Assembly, in which the U.S. president described Cuba as an "absolutely failed state" and predicted the fall of the regime.
The post by the Cuban leader was brief and followed the pattern of responses he has maintained throughout 2026 in the face of each escalation of pressure from Washington.
«Unable to justify the punishment against the Cuban people and its genocidal economic war, the U.S. president repeats at the UN that Cuba represents a threat. The lie is the tool of those who refuse to accept the right to self-determination of the Cuban people, he wrote.»
“We will continue to fight for peace, defending our sovereignty and working together to overcome the ruthless aggression imposed on us by the U.S. government,” he added thereafter.
The post concluded with the hashtag #CubaNoEsUnaAmenaza, and the assertion that "the blockade indeed is."
What Trump said at the UN
In his speech at the world's highest multilateral forum, Trump reserved pointed remarks for Cuba.
According to the speech at the General Assembly, the leader stated: "My administration is also seeking a fundamental change in the situation in Cuba, where the communist regime is under enormous pressure, the greatest pressure it has ever faced. It is an absolutely failed state. And it will fall."
Trump concluded that passage with a strong statement: "Communism will never reach America, but freedom will come to Cuba, and security will come to Mexico."
While Trump was speaking about Cuba, the Cuban delegation left the UN hall in protest.
Additionally, he accused the Havana government of coordinating with "leftist radicals and communist networks" within the United States, and mentioned that Secretary of State Marco Rubio "is conducting negotiations" with Havana.
The Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla had denied any formal process at the beginning of September: "There have been no negotiations, nor are there any agreements or roadmaps."
A pattern of replicas sustained in 2026
This response is part of a series of statements that Díaz-Canel has made in response to each measure of pressure from Washington. On September 8, he challenged the U.S. stating that Cuba "will never again be a colony or neocolony."
Days later, following the sanctions announced by Rubio on September 17 against eight entities and three individuals in the military and nickel sectors, Díaz-Canel described the measures as "new imperial dictates".
Since January 2026, the Trump administration has imposed more than two dozen rounds of sanctions against Cuba, including measures against entities in the energy, mining, and financial sectors linked to the military apparatus of the regime.
The economic context that the regime overlooks
While the Cuban government frames the crisis as solely a consequence of the embargo, the data reflects decades of dictatorial management exacerbated by the sanctions.
CEPAL projects a contraction of the Cuban GDP of 10.3% in 2026, the worst decline in Latin America, with power outages of up to 22 hours daily and an annual inflation rate of 25.19% in August. The Cuban government itself estimates the losses attributed to sanctions at 8.1 billion dollars during 2025.
What's coming: Rodríguez Parrilla before the General Assembly
The official response from the regime to Trump's speech will arrive on Friday, September 26, when Foreign Minister Rodríguez Parrilla will speak before the General Assembly of the UN.
It will be the regime's first formal opportunity to respond, from the very forum, to the words with which Trump predicted this Tuesday the fall of communism on the island.
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