Cuba’s leader warns of ‘unbreakable resistance’ as US pressure mounts over political reforms and a crippling oil blockade deepens an economic crisis

HAVANA: Cuba’s leader vowed “unbreakable resistance” to any US attempt to take over the island nation. The defiant statement comes as Washington intensifies pressure on the communist government and a nationwide electricity blackout highlights a deepening economic crisis.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio dismissed Cuba’s recent move to allow exiles to invest and own businesses. He stated the reforms did not go far enough to meet the Trump administration’s demands for free-market changes.

President Donald Trump said he would “take” Cuba, adding “We’ll be doing something with Cuba very soon.” His Cuban counterpart, Miguel Diaz-Canel, responded forcefully on social media platform X.

“Faced with the worst-case scenario, Cuba has one guarantee: any external aggressor will encounter an unbreakable resistance,” Diaz-Canel wrote.

A Cuban envoy said the country is open to broad talks with Washington and more investment. Tanieris Dieguez, Cuba’s deputy chief of mission in Washington, stated political system change is off the table.

“Nothing related with our political system, nothing with our political model — our constitutional model — is part of the negotiations, and never will it be part of that,” she told AFP.

“The only thing that Cuba asks for any conversation is respect to our sovereignty and to our right to self-determination.”

A total electricity breakdown on Monday underscored Cuba’s economic woes. Power was restored to two-thirds of the country and 45% of the capital, Havana, by early Tuesday.

The island’s economy has been hammered by a de facto US oil blockade since January. This followed the US military ousting of Venezuela’s socialist leader Nicolas Maduro, Cuba’s chief regional ally and oil supplier.

Cuba’s ageing electricity generation system is in shambles, with daily outages of up to 20 hours common. The lack of fuel has also forced airlines to curtail flights, dealing a blow to the vital tourism sector.

A 5.8-magnitude earthquake struck off Cuba’s coast early Tuesday, though no casualties or damage were immediately reported. Residents expressed fear over the prolonged blackout’s impact on their scarce food supplies.

“What we fear all the time is that the blackout will drag on and we will lose the little bit that we have in the fridge, because everything is so expensive,” said Olga Suarez, a 64-year-old retiree.

Trump explicitly stated his desire for the Cuban government to fall. “I do believe I’ll be… having the honor of taking Cuba,” he told reporters, calling the nation “very weakened.”

 The Sun Malaysia