Cuba's president says 'we would die' to defend against U.S. invasion

( NBC )

President Miguel Díaz-Canel stood by Cuba’s leadership and didn’t concede a need for any changes to its government amid President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign against the communist country.

In a wide-ranging interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker in Havana on Thursday, Díaz-Canel said there’s no “justification for the United States to launch a military aggression against Cuba.”

“An invasion to Cuba would have costs. ... It would affect the security of Cuba, the United States and of the region,” he said through a translator in his first American broadcast interview.

“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.

Welker asked Díaz-Canel whether he was willing to commit to responding to “key demands” from the U.S., including releasing political prisoners, scheduling multiparty elections and recognizing unions and a free press.

“Nobody has made those demands to us, and we have established that in respect to our political system or constitutional order, these are issues that are not under negotiations with the United States,” Díaz-Canel answered, adding that those issues are “extensively manipulated.”

Welker then pressed Díaz-Canel on the issue of political prisoners, asking whether Cuba would commit to their release and specifically naming Cuban rapper Maykel Osorbo, a Latin Grammy winner who has been in prison since 2021 for writing a protest song after thousands of Cubans took to the streets to protest conditions and shortages during the Covid pandemic.

Díaz-Canel did not commit to releasing political prisoners and rejected their characterization as such, saying there are people in Cuba who are not in favor of the revolution “and manifest themselves on a daily basis” who are not in prison.

“This narrative that has been created, that image that anyone who speaks against a revolution is thrown into jail, that’s a big lie, that’s a slander, and that’s part of that construct in order to vilify and to engage a character assassination of the Cuban Revolution,” Díaz-Canel said.

International human rights organizations like PEN International and Amnesty International have called for Osorbo’s release.

There is evidence that the Trump administration’s pressure campaign has been felt in the country. Around mid-March, Cuban officials took a sharp turn in their tone toward the U.S., saying they are prepared to confront any attacks from the U.S. The government ordered an increase in military exercises that often air during national newscasts.

Díaz-Canel has insisted Cuba’s position is “entirely defensive and not aggressive,” and he’s made similar remarks in recent speeches and interviews.

“Again, let me repeat. This is not what we want. We don’t want war. We don’t want an attack,” he said.

Díaz-Canel urged a dialogue based on “respect” between the two countries’ forms of government.

Welker asked if it was possible to “get a deal with President Trump.”

“I think dialogue and deals with the U.S. government are possible,” Díaz-Canel answered, “but they’re difficult.” He said he had not spoken to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and he doesn’t know him.

Trump said last month when asked about Cuba that there may be “a friendly takeover, it may not be a friendly takeover.” Rubio told reporters on March 27, “You have to change the people in charge,” adding the country was a “disaster” because its economic system didn’t work.

In response to Díaz-Canel’s comments to NBC News, a White House official on Thursday said that the administration is talking to Cuba, adding its leaders want to make a deal and should make a deal, which Trump believes “would be very easily made.”

“Cuba is a failing nation whose rulers have had a major setback with the loss of support from Venezuela,” the White House official said Thursday.

Throughout the interview, Díaz-Canel blamed the 67-year-old U.S. economic embargo when he was asked about Cuba’s existing conditions, including its electricity crisis as well as ongoing supply shortages and poverty.

When asked whether Cuba would “take some responsibility” and change its economic system to relieve suffering in the country, Díaz-Canel said, “That’s got nothing to do with the political system.”

The U.S. imposed the embargo in 1962 as a response to Fidel Castro’s confiscation of American businesses and properties on the island following the 1959 revolution.

Díaz-Canel called the embargo “genocidal and cruel” and said that even during the Covid pandemic, the policy prevented the country from accessing certain components — though he touted his country’s ability to manufacture a Covid vaccine and other equipment.

“I think the U.S. government should review how cruel and how mean they’ve been to Cuba and to the Cuban people,” he said.

When asked why Cuba hasn’t made reforms like other communist or one-party countries like Vietnam and China, Díaz-Canel cited the embargo as well as the fact that Cuba is an island 90 miles from the U.S.

Cuba produces less than 40% of the fuel it needs and relies on imports to operate its crumbling electric grid. Venezuela was Cuba’s main supplier of oil until it was cut off following the U.S. capture of former President Nicolás Maduro.

Trump then threatened to impose tariffs on any country that sells or supplies oil to Cuba, though he recently said he had “no problem” with a Russian oil tanker delivering relief to the island.

People were already dealing with inflation, shortages and blackouts, and the shortage has exacerbated an already dire situation.

Amid the massive fuel shortage, Díaz-Canel said Cuba was open to doing business with U.S. companies.

“We’re open for foreign investment in Cuba in oil exploration and drilling. And that’ll be an opportunity for American businessmen and firms who can come and participate in Cuba in the energy sector,” Díaz-Canel said.

It is against U.S. law for Americans (individuals and companies) to invest in Cuba’s oil sector, but the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control can issue a license allowing an American company to do so.

Díaz-Canel cited collaborations between the U.S. and Cuba such as medical research and combating drug trafficking as he agreed there’s a need to engage in dialogue.

But he also alluded to the war in the Middle East — and the Trump administration’s previous calls for dialogue.

“The U.S. has been engaged in talks with other countries, and while these negotiations are underway, they have attacked those countries, and all of this creates a lot of distrust,” Díaz-Canel said.