The president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, has warned that the island "must prepare for a possible war" with the United States given the scenario that Washington "tries to aggress" the Caribbean country, just as the US president, Donald Trump, has been threatening, who continues to maintain that the country "will fall".
"I tell you that under current conditions it is possible that they will try to attack Cuba. We have to prepare ourselves so that there is no surprise or defeat," the Cuban leader has stated in an interview with the Brazilian portal Ópera Mundi, in which he has insisted on the need to anticipate any eventuality.
During the conversation, Díaz-Canel has underlined that Havana "does not promote war, does not stimulate it", but has remarked that "it is not afraid of it either". "If we have to defend the revolution and the sovereignty of the country's independence, so it will be", he has stressed, while describing the island's defensive strategy as "based on the doctrine known as the war of all the people", which "combines symmetric warfare with irregular and popular participation warfare".
The president explained that "we are preparing not with an offensive vision, we are preparing with a defensive vision (...) where every Cuban has a position and a mission to fulfill in the defense of the homeland", making it clear that the Government's objective is to organize the population to respond to any external aggression.
Asked directly if the country is preparing for an eventual military intervention, Díaz-Canel responded without hesitation: "Of course. We are all prepared in Cuba and all of us who hold responsibilities." In his opinion, such an action would have consequences beyond the military sphere.
On this line, he has warned that "warlike" operations against the island would entail an "international political cost," since a military aggression would be "rejected by a large part of the international community, including a significant part of the US population," which, as he indicated, would further isolate Washington diplomatically.
Willingness to dialogue with Washington
Despite its warnings, the Cuban leader has reiterated his government's willingness to maintain open channels with the United States "as long as it is done with respect for Cuba's sovereignty and independence." "Historically, Cuba has been willing to dialogue with the United States government," he emphasized, defending that the diplomatic route remains on the table.
The interview has been carried out in the Palace of the Revolution, scenario in which Díaz-Canel has described the complex situation that the island faces amid the economic blockade and the energy crisis linked to Washington's policies towards Venezuela, a country where, as he has denounced, they perpetrated an attack at the beginning of the year and captured the president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores.
"We have an energy blockade under the supposed imperialist justification that Cuba is an unusual and extraordinary threat to the United States, something that is contrary to everything we are. It is not a moment of now, it is a situation that has been becoming more complex because it is an accumulated situation," detailed the head of state, alluding to the difficulties in guaranteeing supplies.
Díaz-Canel has recalled that "Cuba has been under blockade for more than 60 years", although he has stressed that the pressure has intensified during Trump's term: "They have also included us in a list of countries that supposedly support terrorism". "The blockade has been internationalized and has been hardened", he added, attributing the worsening of the internal crisis to these measures.
"Therefore, there we already began to suffer a group of problems with the availability of foreign currency, with production, because they did not have assurance of raw materials, supplies, and the limitations of tourism," the president has specified, who has denounced that "energy and financial persecution" as one of the main obstacles to the island's economic development.