Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said the island “will defend ourselves” against a U.S. invasion in an interview on NBC News’ Meet the Press on Sunday.
Díaz-Canel, 65, said the U.S. has no valid reason to carry out a military attack against the island or to attempt to depose him.
He said an invasion of Cuba would be costly and affect regional security, but should it happen, Cubans would defend themselves — even if it meant losing their lives in the process. “If the time comes, I don’t think there would be any justification for the United States to launch a military aggression against Cuba, or for the U.S. to undertake a surgical operation or the kidnapping of a president,” Díaz-Canel said, speaking through a translator. “If that happens, there will be fighting, and there will be a struggle, and we will defend ourselves, and if we need to die, we’ll die, because as our national anthem says, ‘Dying for the homeland is to live.’
“Before making that decision, which is so irrational, there is a logic, that is, the logic of dialogue, to engage in discussions, to debate and try to reach agreements that would move us away from confrontation.”
Journalist Kristen Welker asked Díaz-Canel whether he was willing to commit to responding to “key demands” from the U.S., such as releasing political prisoners and scheduling multi-party elections.
“Nobody has made those demands to us, and we have established that in respect to our political system or constitutional order, these are issues that are not under negotiations with the United States,” Díaz-Canel responded.
When Welker pressed Díaz-Canel on the topic of political prisoners, and specifically named Cuban rapper Maykel Osorbo, who has been in prison since 2021 for writing a protest song, the president said there are people in Cuba who are not in favour of the revolution “and manifest themselves on a daily basis” who are not in prison…
Source: globalnews.ca/news
