Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said the island will “defend itself” against a US attack in an interview with NBC News’ Meet the media per week.
Díaz-Canel, 65, said the US had no good reason to attack the island or try to depose him.
He said that an attack on Cuba would be very expensive and disrupt security in the region, but if it happens, the Cuban people will defend themselves – even if it means losing their lives in the process.
“When the time comes, I don’t think there would be any reason for the United States to launch a military attack on Cuba, or for the US to carry out an operation or kidnap the president,” said Díaz-Canel, speaking through a translator.
“If that happens, there will be a fight, there will be a struggle and we will defend ourselves, and if we have to die, we will die, because as our national anthem says, ‘To die for one’s country is to live.’
“Before making that decision, which is irrational, it is rational, that is, the idea of dialogue, engaging in discussions, negotiating and trying to reach agreements that can remove us from conflict.”
Journalist Kristen Welker asked Díaz-Canel if he was willing to commit to responding to “important demands” from the US, such as freeing political prisoners and organizing multi-party elections.
“No one has made those demands, and we have found that in terms of our political system or constitutional order, these are issues that are not subject to negotiations with the United States,” Díaz-Canel replied.
When Welker pressed Díaz-Canel on the topic of political prisoners, and specifically named the Cuban rapper Maykel Osorbo, who has been imprisoned since 2021 for writing a protest song, the president said that there are people in Cuba who do not support the revolution “and they show themselves every day” who are not in prison.
“This created narrative, that image that anyone who speaks against the revolution is thrown in jail, that is a big lie, a slander, and that is part of this construction to clean up and include the assassination of the character of the Cuban Revolution,” said Díaz-Canel, without responding to Osorbo.
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In a segment of the interview shared Thursday, Welker asked Díaz-Canel if he “would be willing to resign if it meant saving Cuba.”
Before answering, Díaz-Canel asked Welker if he had ever asked that question to any other president in the world.
He asked: “Is that a question from you, or is that from the State Department of the US government?”
“In Cuba, the people in leadership positions are not chosen by the US government, and they have no authority from the US government. We have a free independent country, a free country. We are self-governing and independent, and we are not subject to the designs of the United States,” said Díaz-Canel.
“The idea that revolutionaries give up and step down – it’s not part of our vocabulary.
Díaz-Canel said he became president not because of “personal ambitions or business ambitions or party ambitions,” but because of the mandate of the people.
“If the people of Cuba understand that I am not fit for the position, I have no reason to be here, I should not be holding this position of president, I will answer them,” he said.
Díaz-Canel also accused the US government of using a “hostile policy” against his country and said that “it is immoral to demand anything from Cuba.”
“I think the most important thing would be for them to understand and take this critical position, an honest position, and realize how much it has cost the Cuban people – and how much it has deprived the American people of a normal relationship with the Cuban people,” he added.
Díaz-Canel said that Cuba is interested in entering into negotiations and negotiating any topic without conditions, “not wanting changes in our political system as we do not want changes in the American system, about which we have many doubts.”
In response to Díaz-Canel’s comments on Thursday, a White House official said the Trump administration is talking to Cuba and that the country’s leaders “want to make a deal and they have to make a deal.”
“Cuba is a failing country whose rulers have had serious problems with the loss of support from Venezuela,” a White House official told NBC News on Thursday.
The Cuban president’s comments come as the situation between Cuba and the United States is still tense. US President Donald Trump called Cuba a “failing nation” last month, and said he would “have the right to take over Cuba” soon.
In February, Trump also said the US was negotiating with Havana and suggested it might “take a more friendly stance,” without sharing details on what that would mean.
“The Cuban government is talking to us,” Trump said. “They have no money. They have nothing right now. But they are talking to us, and maybe we will take Cuba as a friend.”
Last month, Trump said he might make a deal with Cuba or take other measures, following protests in the island nation’s capital as its people grapple with power outages, fuel shortages and economic turmoil.
Díaz-Canel confirmed that the country is in talks with the US
“These talks were aimed at finding solutions through dialogue to the differences between the two countries,” Díaz-Canel said in a video broadcast on state television, adding that he hoped the talks would remove the adversaries “from the conflict.”
Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga, Cuba’s Deputy Prime Minister, said in an interview in Havana that “Cuba is open to having fluid commercial relations with American companies” and “Cubans living in the United States and their descendants.”
– With files from Global News by Rachel Goodman and The Associated Press
