Cuba’s president has lashed out at Trump’s threats to annex the island as regional support dwindles
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Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel lashed out after US President Donald Trump said he could do “whatever he wants” with the Caribbean island and that Washington could take a “closer step” towards it.
Díaz-Canel said on X that the Trump administration “threatens” the Cuban government almost daily with overthrowing it, and that any act of violence “will be met with insurmountable resistance.”
These comments come after new threats by Trump and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who say that Cuba’s social economic model needs to “change drastically.” On the same day, another Latin American country criticized Díaz-Canel’s government and said it would close its embassy.
Calling Cuba a ‘failed nation’ and a ‘beautiful place,’ US President Donald Trump said on Monday he thought he would have the ‘glory’ to take over Cuba, adding that he could do whatever he wanted with it.
Trump wants Díaz-Canel out
Although the Cuban government imposes severe restrictions on the country’s private sector, US sanctions have crippled the Cuban economy for decades.
The Trump administration wants Díaz-Canel to leave as the US continues to negotiate with the Cuban government, according to a US official and a source familiar with the talks between Washington and Havana. They spoke without their names being revealed because they were not authorized to discuss sensitive discussions.
No details were given about who the administration would like to see in power.
US President Donald Trump continued his anti-Cuba rhetoric on Tuesday, saying ‘I think I can do whatever I want’ with the country as it tries to recover from Monday’s national power outage. Sebastian A. Arcos, interim director of the FIU Cuban Research Institute, discusses whether this is the only option for the Cuban government.
Trump’s comments on Cuba came more than two months after his administration’s military coup that ousted then-Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January, and a few weeks after the start of a joint US-Israeli attack against Iran on February 28.
The administration effectively halted the export of essential oil to Cuba, pushing the Caribbean nation to the brink. Cubans who say Trump and Rubio want to help them are left stunned.
Costa Rica closes embassy
Also on Wednesday, Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves said his administration does not recognize the legitimacy of the Cuban government and will close the Cuban embassy in its capital, San Jose.
“Costa Rica does not recognize the legitimacy of the Communist regime of Cuba, because of the mistreatment, oppression and degrading conditions endured by the citizens of this beautiful island,” said Chaves in an event attended by the American ambassador.
“We must cleanse the communist hemisphere,” Chaves added.
Earlier this month, Ecuador also closed its embassy in Cuba, after declaring Cuban Ambassador Basilio Gutierrez and his diplomatic staff “persona non grata.”
The presidents of Ecuador and Costa Rica were among the right-wing Latin American presidents to attend Trump’s anti-crime conference in Florida this month, known as the “Shield of the Americas.”
Costa Rica’s announcement comes as several countries in Central America and the Caribbean have announced they will end agreements to employ Cuban doctors in their countries – an important source of income for the Cuban government and a source of medical services for often underserved rural communities.
The US had accused the program of exploiting its workers and threatened to punish officials of countries that took Cuban workers.
Cuba has faced a long-standing economic embargo from the US, whose government blames the economic crisis that has caused more than a million people to leave the island. Many countries around the world oppose the ban, but in October, Argentina and Paraguay joined a few countries in switching their support to the United States in a United Nations vote.
