Cuba slams ‘unprecedented’ Trump threats

Havana, Cuba (AFP) – US President Donald Trump’s threats of military aggression against Cuba have reached a “dangerous and unprecedented level”, Cuban leader Miguel Diaz-Canel said on Saturday, calling on the international community to respond.

During a speech in Florida on Friday, Trump said the United States would be “taking over” the Caribbean island “almost immediately”.

“The US president is escalating his threats of military aggression against #Cuba to a dangerous and unprecedented level,” Diaz-Canel wrote in a post on X.

He called on the international community to take a stance on whether such a “drastic criminal act will be allowed to satisfy the interests of a small but wealthy and influential group, eager for revenge and domination.”

“No aggressor, however powerful, will find surrender in Cuba,” Diaz-Canel added.

Trump’s comments in Florida, home to the largest Cuban diaspora, were made just hours after he signed an executive order tightening sanctions against the government in Havana and entities that collaborate with it.

Trump has repeatedly mused about taking over Cuba, which lies 90 miles from Florida and has been under a nearly continuous US trade embargo since Fidel Castro led a communist revolution on the island in 1959.

Already in the throes of economic stagnation, Cuba’s plight deepened when Washington imposed a fuel blockade in January, with only one Russian oil tanker making it through since then.

On Friday, huge crowds marched to the US Embassy in Havana to mark May Day, denouncing threats of aggression from Washington. Diaz-Canel led the march, along with 94-year-old former leader Raul Castro, Fidel’s brother.