With increasing tension between Cuba and the United States, President Miguel Diaz-Canel warned on Monday that any American military action against his country would result in a “bloodbath with incalculable consequences.”
There has been increased tension in recent months between Diaz-Canel and President Donald Trump, though it seemed to reach a new intensity recently, in part due to an Axios report alleging Cuba has secretly received more than 300 attack drones from Iran and Russia over the span of the last couple of years. The Pentagon declined to comment about the report.
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Diaz-Canel added, “Cuba poses no threat, nor does it have aggressive plans or intentions against any country. It has none against the U.S., nor has it ever had any—something the government of that nation knows full well, particularly its defense and national security agencies.”
Trump could authorize a military operation using the drone threat as the pretext for it.
The threat of drone attacks against American personnel was further scrutinized during the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran, which began on Feb. 28. Iran fired thousands of drones at civilian and military targets in countries all over the region, including one attack that killed six American service members in Kuwait.
Cuba’s ties to U.S. adversaries such as China, Russia, and Iran have concerned American leaders for decades, given the island’s proximity to the U.S. homeland, though this is the first reporting that those countries allegedly provided drones to them.
“I think the Trump administration is seriously focused on how to change history and how to bring about the democratic change in Cuba that’s necessary to convert Cuba from an adversary to hopefully, at one point, especially given the geographic proximity … to a U.S. ally,” Jason Marczak, a Latin America expert with the Atlantic Council, told the Washington Examiner.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth told Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) during a congressional hearing last week, “We’ve long been concerned that a foreign adversary using that kind of location that close to our shores is highly problematic,” when asked about Cuba’s intelligence collection and sharing with China and Russia.
Another Cabinet official, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, visited Havana last week to discuss with his Cuban counterparts the “current scenario,” Cuba’s government said.
His visit came the same day that Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy revealed that Cuba has “absolutely nothing” left in diesel fuel and oil reserves. The island has faced significant blackouts and more hardship after its Venezuelan oil lifeline was cut off in January, following the U.S. military’s capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.
CUBA HAS COMPLETELY RUN OUT OF FUEL DUE TO US SANCTIONS: ‘THERE’S ABSOLUTELY NOTHING’
Marczak said: “Venezuela was long time a strong supporter of Cuba, and the heydays of Venezuelan oil output, especially under Chavez at the time, Venezuela was a major provider of oil to Cuba, that began to dry up as Venezuela faced its own economic crunch, but now with Maduro out, part of the pressure from the United States has been that Venezuela can no longer continue to support the Cubans.”
Without Venezuelan support, Cuba is now even more desperate for a lifeline, while the U.S. has also sought to further squeeze the Cuban government, implementing new sanctions earlier this month.
The U.S. has also made “numerous private offers to the Cuban regime to provide generous assistance to the Cuban people, including support for free and fast satellite internet and $100 million in direct humanitarian assistance,” the State Department said in a statement last week.
“The regime refuses to allow the United States to provide this assistance to the Cuban people, who are in desperate need of assistance due to the failures of Cuba’s corrupt regime,” the statement said.
The Justice Department is also reportedly preparing to seek an indictment against former Cuban President Raúl Castro for his alleged role in the shooting down of four planes operated by the Miami-based exile group Brothers to the Rescue. With a possible Castro indictment looming, the administration could consider a similar mission to the one that resulted in Maduro’s capture because they used his federal indictment as the pretext for the raid.
