Díaz-Canel Says Cuba Is Preparing to Reject Foreign Military Attack

Speaking at a National Defense Day session in the Havana municipality of Boyeros on Friday, President Miguel Díaz-Canel told local defense officials that Cuba would reject any foreign military assault and was already training for that contingency.

“We have the decision to reject any attempt at foreign military aggression against our country, and we are preparing for that,” he said, according to an official account published by the Cuban presidency.

The remarks, also carried by state television, came a day after President Donald Trump said he would “certainly consider” a short military campaign against the island.

Warning Aimed at Washington

Díaz-Canel, who chairs Cuba’s National Defense Council, did not name the U.S. president. He denounced what he called repeated recent statements by American spokespeople and politicians “encouraging and reaffirming the purpose of military aggression against our country.”

In a Thursday telephone interview with Hugh Hewitt, broadcast on Salem News Channel, Trump said he wanted to “get Cuba done” before leaving office. Asked whether he would accept “a little bit of military force” in “a week campaign,” he replied, “I would certainly consider that, yes.”

The Cuban leader said that rhetoric had led Havana “to activate wartime structures to work in peacetime” and to intensify popular defense training under the island’s “War of All the People” doctrine.

Drills After a Year of Pressure

He pointed to Strategic Exercise Moncada 2026, a nationwide drill held the previous week, and to weekly National Defense Day sessions used to tighten territorial command.

EFE reported that those Friday drills have been held across the country since tensions with Washington sharpened. Der Spiegel wrote that regular exercises and civilian military instruction increased after U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January.

U.S. officials have also stepped up public pressure on Havana in recent weeks, including appeals for Cubans to work with American intelligence.

Havana Says It Poses No Threat

Díaz-Canel said Cuba “does not threaten or attack any nation.” He described the island as “a peaceful nation” that “does not constitute a threat to the national security of any nation in the world.”

He called on Washington to end what he termed a “collective punishment” and a blockade, saying the international community had reaffirmed that demand in a recent U.N. vote on Cuba’s embargo resolution despite U.S. pressure.

The presidency said he was accompanied in Boyeros by National Assembly President Esteban Lazo Hernández, Revolutionary Armed Forces Minister Álvaro López Miera and Interior Minister Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas.

The defense zone covers about 15 square kilometers and includes José Martí International Airport. Local officials said they had already run two exercises so residents would know how to act if an attack appeared imminent.