Cuba’s political temperature rose sharply after U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington could take “imminent action” against the island’s government, a remark that prompted Cuba’s president to respond with a warning of resistance and renewed criticism of U.S. pressure.
Late Tuesday, Díaz-Canel lashed back at Trump’s comments on social media, writing that the Trump administration “publicly threatens” Cuba’s government “almost daily” with overthrowing it and that any act of aggression “will clash with an impregnable resistance,” according to The Associated Press. Cuba’s government also criticized Costa Rica for closing its embassy in Cuba on Wednesday, saying in a statement that the decision was “arbitrary” and made under U.S. pressure to isolate the island.
U.S. officials have been pressing for political change while pursuing negotiations with Havana, according to AP reporting. The administration is looking for Díaz-Canel to leave as the U.S. continues negotiating with the Cuban government, AP said, citing a U.S. official and a source familiar with talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss sensitive negotiations. AP said no details have been provided about which leaders the administration might want to see in power.
The pressure has intensified alongside broader U.S. efforts in the region, AP reported. The administration’s approach to Cuba came more than two months after its raid that captured then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January and a few weeks after joint U.S.-Israeli military strikes against Iran that began Feb. 28, AP said.
On the U.S. side, Secretary of State Marco Rubio also pointed to economic and political conditions in his remarks, telling AP that Cuba’s socialist economic model needs to “change dramatically.” AP reported that while Cuba restricts parts of its private sector, decades of U.S. sanctions have crippled Cuba’s economy.
Many Cubans described a sense that the island is approaching a breaking point, rooted in ongoing crisis conditions and new uncertainty over the direction of U.S. policy. AP said island-wide blackouts have roiled residents already dealing with shortages, with lack of gasoline and basic resources curbing hospital operations and weakening public transport.
Matilde Visoso, 64, told AP she has been “reeling” as the crisis spiraled while caring for a sick daughter, and she said she wants change. “Cuba is waiting for Trump and Marco Rubio, because we can’t wait any longer. It’s too much — there is a lot of repression, there is a lot of hunger,” Visoso said. She added: “Cuba is in tears.”
Not everyone believed the U.S. would follow through on threats of removal or intervention. AP reported that 62-year-old doctor Jesús García cast doubt on that possibility, saying, “Americans can say whatever they want. The ones who decide what is done here in Cuba are the Cuban people.”
AP also reported that some small relief has come through aid shipments. Cuban state television said overnight, five tons of medical equipment, solar panels and other aid arrived to the island, according to the report. Still, residents said the help was limited relative to the scale of the island’s energy and supply problems.
María del Carmen Companioni, 51, told AP that daily life for ordinary Cubans has remained grim as the U.S. and Cuban governments trade pressure and responses, with prices rising and no clear pathway forward. “Really, all of this has people very alarmed and in a bad state. No one knows what is going to happen,” she said.
In Washington, AP reported that Trump’s government has effectively cut Cuba off from key oil shipments in an effort to force change, and that the sanctions’ impact has left many residents desperate. AP’s report described the moment as one in which concern, anger and hope are simmering at the same time, shaped by the possibility of “imminent action,” the risk of escalation, and Cuba’s insistence that it will resist.