Díaz-Canel Accuses US of Seeking to Take Control of Cuba

Dragon Media News Desk

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has accused the United States of attempting to take control of Cuba through economic pressure and called for the resolute defence of national sovereignty.

According to the Cuban presidency, Díaz-Canel made the remarks on Sunday while addressing a ceremony in the western province of Pinar del Río marking the 73rd anniversary of National Rebellion Day.

He said the United States had adopted a policy aimed at economically suffocating the entire Cuban population in order to take control of the country.

Díaz-Canel accused the US government of imposing a policy of “maximum economic suffocation” on the Cuban people and further tightening its decades-long blockade through an energy embargo and financial siege.

According to the Cuban president, these measures have created a severe crisis in the country’s electricity system. He said power cuts lasting more than a day had paralysed industrial activity and disrupted healthcare services and daily life.

Describing the blockade as a weapon of war, Díaz-Canel said it was a crime to create economic hardship in an attempt to incite the Cuban people against their own government.

He recalled that the United Nations General Assembly has adopted resolutions every year calling for an end to the US economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba.

Referring to the impact of US sanctions on access to medicines, medical equipment and treatment, Díaz-Canel said Cuba was the victim of what he described as a “coldly calculated genocide.”

He said Cuba was fighting firmly for its sovereignty and its right to freely choose its system of government, adding that the country would not surrender to external pressure.

Díaz-Canel said Cuba posed no threat to any country and described it as a nation that saves lives by sending doctors, teachers and humanitarian assistance abroad rather than causing destruction.

He said the country’s strategic priority was to implement a recently approved government programme containing 176 measures.

The programme includes promoting different management models, encouraging workers and farmers, and creating more space for responsible investment, according to the president.

Díaz-Canel said Cuba would respond to the US blockade through wisdom, efficient work and increased production. He also stressed that attempts to isolate and divide the country must be countered through national unity.

National Rebellion Day commemorates the events of July 26, 1953, when Fidel Castro and around 100 of his supporters attacked the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba and the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Barracks in Bayamo.

Although the attacks against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista failed, they are widely regarded as the beginning of the Cuban revolutionary movement that succeeded in 1959.