Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez has declared that the communist regime would defend itself “to the last drop of blood” before making a deal with the United States.
Bermúdez responded defiantly to pressure from President Donald Trump, who urged Havana to strike a deal with Washington.
Trump addressed Cuba earlier in the day in a Truth Social post, warning the regime to negotiate while it still can and signaling a dramatic shift in U.S. policy toward the island.
“They make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE,” Trump wrote.
Bermúdez reacted with a series of posts on X, blaming the island’s economic collapse on U.S. sanctions rather than decades of communist mismanagement.
“Those who blame the Revolution for the severe economic shortages we suffer should hold their tongues out of shame,” Díaz-Canel wrote, according to an English translation of his Spanish-language post.
“Because they know it and acknowledge it: they are the fruit of the draconian measures of extreme strangulation that the U.S. has been applying to us for six decades and now threatens to surpass.”
In a second post, the Cuban leader escalated his rhetoric further.
“#Cuba is a free, independent, and sovereign nation,” he wrote.
“No one dictates what we do.
“Cuba does not aggress; it is aggressed upon by the United States for 66 years, and it does not threaten; it prepares, ready to defend the Homeland to the last drop of blood.”
Trump, however, made clear that Cuba’s longtime economic lifeline through Venezuela is coming to an end.
“THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO!
“I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”