Díaz-Canel warns that Cuba must prepare for a possible war with the United States

Díaz-Canel warns of a possible US aggression, calls for Cuba to prepare for war and denounces the tightening of the blockade and energy pressure.

APRIL, 2026

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.

https://www.democrata.es/en/international/diaz-canel-warns-that-cuba-must-prepare-for-a-possible-war-with-the-united-states/

 Cuba and the lessons of history

Luciano Vasapollo 

(Professor Economy & Statistics, Universitá La Sapienza, Rome) 

April 22, 2026

The blockade is not only economic. A narrative is being constructed that exempts the siege from responsibility and attributes all difficulties to alleged internal failures.

There is a lesson that history constantly repeats, but that many pretend to ignore: you cannot negotiate with imperialism without paying a price. And often that price is the loss of sovereignty, dignity and independence.

This is dramatically demonstrated today by what is happening in Iran. The military and political pressure exerted by the US and its allies is part of a long historical sequence: those who gave in, those who accepted compromises, were progressively dismantled.

From Iraq to Libya to Syria, the script is always the same. The illusion is that we can negotiate on equal terms. The reality is that we are entering a cycle where negotiation becomes surrender, and surrender becomes subordination.

It is no coincidence that, in the Iranian case, the resistance has produced a different result than in other scenarios. When a country does not surrender, when it maintains the capacity to respond, the balance is broken.

It is not a question of glorifying war, but of recognizing a political fact: peace is not built on capitulation.

We note that the same scheme is applied against Cuba. In this case, the strategy is slower but equally fierce: a criminal economic blockade, intensified in recent years, which seeks to suffocate the population and undermine a political project that has lasted for more than sixty-five years.

The objective is clear: to force the surrender of an island that has chosen an autonomous path, has asserted its sovereignty and continues to promote a socialist transition process based on internationalism.

A concrete, not rhetorical, internationalism. We saw it in Italy during the pandemic, when Cuban medical brigades arrived in Lombardy and Piedmont, providing aid where others had failed. We see it today with hundreds of doctors and nurses present in Calabria. "Doctors, not bombs": a position that says much more than a thousand statements.

And this is precisely what Trump wants to attack: not just a government, but an alternative model. A model that guarantees fundamental rights – housing, health care, education – and that continues to be a benchmark for many people in the world. Faced with this situation, the answer cannot be ambiguity.

It is necessary to continue to provide political support to the Cuban Revolution and to provide concrete assistance to its population, which is currently under unsustainable pressure. International solidarity initiatives, such as the Our America convoy, are heading in this direction: medicines, humanitarian aid and presence.

But another battle is also necessary: that of information.

Because the blockade is not only economic, but also related to the media. A narrative is being constructed that exempts the siege from responsibility and attributes all difficulties to alleged internal failures.

For this reason, it is essential to relaunch counter-information capable of restoring the veracity of the facts and explaining what Cuba really represents in today's world.

Because this issue is not just about Cuba or Iran. It's about everyone. It is about the right of peoples to choose their own destiny. And history, once again, teaches us that those who surrender to the empire lose everything. Those who resist, at least, retain their dignity.

Labyrinth

https://www.lahaine.org/mundo.php/cuba-y-las-lecciones-de-la-historia

 Letter writing campaign

Liberal Party caucus, 

House of Commons, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

 

 Dear member of the Liberal Party caucus, House of Commons,

 

We write to you today from urgent concern about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Cuba. Canada can and must do more to assist the people of Cuba. We are: John Kirk, emeritus professor of Latin American Studies at Dalhousie University, and author and editor of several books about Cuba; and Jim Hodgson, retired now from 40 years of work among churches and NGOs in Latin America and the Caribbean, including Cuba.

 

We begin by reminding you of the Prime Minister’s remarks in his January Davos speech: Canadian values encompass “respect for human rights, sustainable development, solidarity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations.”

 

These are noble goals, and Mr. Carney’s words were rightfully lauded by observers who saw the speech as a commitment by Canada to stand up to the bullying behaviour of Donald Trump.

But the need to respect the necessary “rules and values” he espoused at Davos is being put to the test in Cuba. And so far, the Canadian government response has been poor.

Canada and Cuba have important ties.  In 1959 Progressive Conservative Prime Minister John Diefenbaker initiated diplomatic relations with revolutionary Cuba. Canada in 1962, along with Mexico, was the only country in the Western Hemisphere not to break relations with Cuba, despite massive pressure from Washington. In 1970, in a humanitarian gesture, Cuba was the only country willing to accept the FLQ terrorists—as a favour to Canada. In 1976 Pierre Trudeau became the first leader of a NATO country to visit Cuba. In 2000, Fidel Castro was invited by the family to be an honorary pallbearer at Trudeau’s funeral.

In more recent times Canada has been the most important country for Cuba’s economic ties.  Sherritt International, the large mining/energy company based in Toronto and Fort Saskatchewan, is one of the largest investors in Cuba. Canadians are also the largest block of tourists to Cuba—42 per cent of all tourists last year (750,000).  Before COVID-19 just over a million of us headed to Cuba’s beaches annually.

The US fuel blockade (condemned by United Nations human rights experts) has caused enormous harm to Cuba. It seeks to bring about regime change by starving the Cuban people into submission.  Trump’s actions threaten the “sovereignty and territorial integrity” of Cuba—key concepts in the Davos speech of Mr. Carney.

The impact of an illegal fuel blockade by the Trump administration has resulted in a massive humanitarian crisis on the island.  There is very little fuel for anything. There are daily blackouts, and on three occasions recently the entire national grid collapsed. Water delivery, pumped by oil, is becoming increasingly scarce. Transportation is grinding to a halt. Food cannot be transported from the countryside to the cities. Factories have closed, as have universities. The much-vaunted public health system is in disarray. Some 96,000 Cubans (including 11,000 children) have had their surgery postponed, while 32,000 pregnant women are unable to have ultrasound.

“Health should be protected at all costs and never be at the mercy of geopolitics, energy blackouts and power outages,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization on March 25. Meanwhile, over 100 British MPs signed a motion calling on the U.K. government to uphold international law and oppose Trump’s increased sanctions against Cuba.

At the National Prayer Breakfast on March 24, Prime Minister Carney spoke of generosity, but the Canadian government has provided only limited aid to Cuba’s population this year: just $8 million channeled through UN agencies, or roughly $1 per Cuban. By contrast the Mexican government has already sent three Navy shiploads of food. Their president has been outspoken, supporting Cuba’s political independence, and condemning U.S. policy.  Why can’t Canada at least match what our CUSMA partner has done? 

The need to respect “rules and values” espoused by the Prime Minister is now being challenged by U.S. threats to “take” the island, whether it is a “friendly takeover” or a brutal regime change operation.  As Trump recently noted, “Whether I free it, take it—I think I can do anything I want with it.”

Surely you must feel offended by such crude threats against a developing country—one that has long ties with Canada. At Davos he spoke about the “power of legitimacy, integrity and rules.”  It is time for Canada to show some diplomatic backbone, providing material assistance to Cuba, while lobbying Washington to cease threatening this small island.

 

John Kirk, Halifax, N.S.

 

Jim Hodgson, Summerland, B.C.

 

_______________

Information: List of Nova Scotia Liberal MP's:

Jaime.Battiste@parl.gc.ca 

Kod.Blois@parl.gc.ca braedon.clark@parl.gc.ca 

Chris.dEntremont@parl.gc.ca 

lenametlege.diab@parl.gc.ca jessica.fancy@parl.gc.ca

darren.fisher@parl.gc.ca sean.fraser@parl.gc.ca 

alana.hirtle@parl.gc.ca 

Mike.Kelloway@parl.gc.ca 

shannon.miedema@parl.gc.ca