Cuba warns Trump it will die fighting as nation | Political News

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said he will not be stepping down as chief and pushed back against mounting U.S. strain for change on the island.

The Cuban chief revealed that his nation is bracing for an assault from the U.S. and said he’s prepared to die resisting U.S. President Donald Trump.

He said there’s no “justification for the United States to launch a military aggression against Cuba.”

Since last December, the U.S. has imposed a blockade around Venezuela as half of its Operation Southern Spear effort and cut off oil provides to Cuba, which has plunged the island nation into an vitality disaster.

“An invasion to Cuba would have costs. … It would affect the security of Cuba, the United States and of the region,” he said during an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker in Havana on Thursday 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,’” the Cuban president said.

“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,” Díaz-Canel said.

Díaz-Canel is the first politician outdoors the Castro household to lead the island nation since the Cuban Revolution and has refused to step apart.

“I have no fear. I am willing to give my life for the revolution,” he claimed. “I wouldn’t like that to be the attitude of the U.S. government.”

The island nation has seen a rise in blackouts in current weeks as considerations grow that its food provides are dangerously low. In March, the nation suffered three major blackouts as a U.S. fuel blockade cut off overseas oil imports, which had been required to keep energy stations operating.

While specialists say that many of those points predate the blockade, they acknowledge that it has gotten worse since the U.S. cut off crude exports to Cuba.

“We have the accumulated effects of the blockades, plus the effect of the tightening of the blockade, and now the effects are caused by this energy blockade. And I can say this responsibly to you, this is not the fault of the Cuban government,” Díaz-Canel said.

“We conduct very self-critical analysis and assessments of our reality, and we’re trying to constantly transform and change what we do in order to improve what we do.”

Last month, when requested about Cuba, Trump said that there could also be “a friendly takeover, it may not be a friendly takeover.”

Later in March, Marco Rubio told reporters, “You have to change the people in charge,” including the nation was a “disaster” because its financial system didn’t work.