Cuban leader, marking Bay of Pigs anniversary, vows to defeat US forces if attacked again
By Patrick Oppmann, CNN
Havana, Cuba (CNN) — Cuba’s president says his nation does not want war with the United States, but he vows that, if attacked, Cubans would defeat American forces.
Dressed in military fatigues, Miguel Díaz-Canel addressed a crowd of government supporters commemorating the 65th anniversary Thursday of the start of the US-backed Bay of Pigs invasion. The failed attempt by a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to oust Fidel Castro prompted the Cuban revolutionary leader to openly declare his support for socialism for the first time, setting up a Cold War-era standoff with the US that endures to this day.
The 1961 debacle at the Bay of Pigs, one of the CIA’s most conspicuous failures, has been enshrined ever since by Cuban officials as the David vs. Goliath moment that cemented support for Castro’s revolution.
Referencing growing tensions with the Trump administration, Díaz-Canel told the crowd: “We have to be ready to resist serious threats, including military aggression. We do not seek it, but it is our duty to prepare to avert it, and, should it prove inevitable, to win it.”
“As long as there is a woman and a man willing to give their lives for the revolution, we will be victorious,” Díaz-Canel added.
“We don’t want to be an American colony,” chanted a group of government supporters in the crowd.
The Cuban leader made the comments three days after US President Donald Trump again threatened the communist-run island with military strikes.
“We may stop by Cuba after we’re finished with this,” Trump said Monday, referring to the Iran war.
Saber rattling between the US and Cuba has reached a fever pitch following a US military operation in Caracas in January that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, a staunch ally of the Cuban government.
During the operation, US forces killed 32 Cuban soldiers and intelligence officials who formed part of a secret contingent guarding Maduro. Since his capture, the Trump administration has blocked all oil shipments to Cuba except for one tanker of Russian oil that Trump says he allowed to reach the island in March out of humanitarian concerns.
Under the oil blockade, the already struggling Cuban economy has all but ground to a halt. Power shortages now extend for most of the day in many parts of the island, hospitals are unable to treat thousands of patients, and fuel has become increasingly scarce.
The Trump administration has called on the Cuban government to open the communist-run island politically and economically. It has also said some Cuban officials, including Díaz-Canel, should step down as part of a deal.
US officials have contacted members of the Castro family to reach a deal with Raúl Castro, who retired in 2021 as president but is still considered to be the ultimate power broker in the island’s hermetic political system.
“My father is rigorously following all the news, participating all the analyses for the making of decisions,” his daughter Mariela Castro, a member of the island’s National Assembly, told CNN during Thursday’s ceremony when asked about her family’s role in the negotiations.
Raúl Castro will turn 95 in June and has been less visible in recent months.
“The years don’t weigh on him so much,” said Mariela Castro, who stood near the front of the crowd listening to Díaz-Canel’s speech. “They weigh a little. His mind is still active. He is very committed, and his experience is very valuable.”
Regarding threats of a US attack on the island, Mariela Castro replied, “We are not alarmed.”
“We are busy,” she said. “We are preparing.”
The-CNN-Wire
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