The president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel stated in an interview with the US network NBC broadcast this Sunday that Cubans would “die” to defend the island. of an eventual invasion by the United States.
“If that happens there will be fighting, there will be fighting, 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'”declared to the program Meet The Press.
“If the time comes, I don’t think there is any justification for the United States to launch military aggression against Cuba, nor for it to carry out a surgical operation or the kidnapping of a president,” Díaz-Canel said in the interview.
NBC broadcast the full interview this Sunday, the first of the Cuban president with a US network, although last Thursday it already published a preview of the conversation, recorded in Havana through a translator, in which Díaz-Canel ruled out resigning despite pressure from the Donald Trump Administration.
“Giving up is not part of our vocabulary,” declared the president, who seemed annoyed by the interviewer’s question, Kristen Welker, and asked if he could ask Trump the same question or if the questioning was an order from the State Department.
After the capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela in January, Trump imposed an energy blockade on Cuba, aggravating the energy and social crisis that the island has been experiencing for years.
The American leader declared last month that he has plans for “a friendly or not friendly takeover” of Cuba and his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said that the Cuban country’s economic system is failed.
However, both countries announced negotiations to resolve their conflict and in March Washington allowed an oil tanker to reach the island to alleviate energy shortages.
