Cuba’s Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio declared over the weekend that the nation stands prepared for a military engagement with the U.S., directly responding to Donald Trump’s threats to take over the Caribbean island.
Trump escalated his rhetoric on Monday, stating he expected to have the “honor” of taking Cuba. This comes as an oil blockade he imposed pushes the Communist-run nation deeper into economic crisis, despite Havana and Washington entering talks earlier this month.
De Cossio told NBC’s Meet the Press in remarks aired Sunday, “Our country has historically been ready to mobilize as a nation as a whole for military aggression … We don’t believe it is something that is probable, but we would be naive if we do not prepare.” He added, “We don’t see why it would have to occur, and we find no justification whatsoever.”
Reports had previously suggested the Trump administration was seeking to remove Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel from power.
De Cossio also said any suggestion of the nature, the structure, or members of the Cuban government being subject to negotiation in talks with the U.S. is untrue.
He added a regime change is “absolutely” off the table in discussions with the United States.
The U.S. military is not rehearsing for an invasion of Cuba or actively preparing to militarily take over the island, the top general overseeing American forces in Latin America told lawmakers on Thursday.
Cuba also initiated efforts to restore its national energy system on Sunday, a day after a complete grid collapse left millions without power for the third time this month.
The island nation is grappling with an unprecedented energy crisis. While its aging infrastructure has significantly deteriorated in recent years, the government also attributes the widespread outages to a U.S. energy blockade.
