Even with a fuel siege, Cuba will not be defeated by the empire

Havana, Jan 31. - "We are living through a moment in which imperialism is emboldened and has once again set its sights on Cuba with increased aggressiveness, which grows in the same measure as the days go by," denounced the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, on Friday morning, during the Extraordinary Plenary of the Provincial Committee of the Party in Havana.

The Head of State gave an incisive analysis of the events that have unfolded in the region and the world since last January 3rd, following the aggression against Venezuela by the U.S. government, and which now threaten the Island.

Faced with the aggressiveness of imperialism against Cuba, whose direct lines of action have been clearly announced by Trump, Marco Rubio and other spokespersons of that government, we – Díaz-Canel pointed out – have to be prepared and we are preparing.

The President detailed that these lines of action consist of, one, total asphyxiation, continuing with economic pressure, to which the decisions announced this Thursday by Trump on the blockade through tariffs on the supply of oil to Cuba respond, and the other is military aggression.

He recalled at this point the comments made by the occupant of the White House in early January, following the aggression against Venezuela and the kidnapping of its legitimate President, when he expressed that not much more pressure could be put on Cuba and that what had to be done was to go in and destroy the place.

The first of these comments, when he said I don't think much more pressure can be put on Cuba – Díaz-Canel pointed out – is the confirmation of the extreme levels of pressure of all kinds they have exerted on our country, although, indirectly, Trump has had to recognize that we have resisted.

They have applied all possible pressure and here we are. And that phrase, said with such arrogance, collapses the lie of (Cuba being a) failed state, because they have had to admit that the fundamental cause of the economic crisis the country is experiencing has to do with that pressure that they themselves categorize as maximum.

With this phrase – added the First Secretary – Trump has also had to recognize that there is nothing left to deprive and blockade the Cuban people of, and now, with the executive order to impose tariff sanctions on those who supply us with oil, they want to deprive us of fuel, something necessary for any country to develop its economy, to develop its life, and one must see – he denounced – with what malice, with what perversity, they are proposing this policy.

Regarding the second part of the comments made by Trump at the beginning of the month, when he said that with Cuba all that's left is the option to go in and destroy the place, Díaz-Canel stated that this is a phrase that provokes popular indignation and repudiation, because it implies a massacre without consideration in our country.

The Head of State repudiated at this point "the unmasking of the annexationist swarm" that, on social networks, with euphoria, is celebrating Trump's executive order to block our access to oil.

What worries imperialism – he emphasized later – is the example of Cuba, what Cuba can do without a blockade, what it could mean for the world as another type of model, another type of construction, another type of popular empowerment that, even blockaded, in 65 years has had social results that the United States does not have.

Díaz-Canel analyzed the elements that are facilitating, or imposing, the behavior of the current U.S. administration.

He spoke about the update of the Monroe Doctrine with the Trump corollary and the criterion of imposing peace through the use of force, although – he noted – one must see what that peace is, because wherever they have applied force, in all conflicts involving the United States, there is no peace; what there is is chaos. With the application of force – he stressed –, the U.S. is crushing the conceptions of multilateralism defended by most of the world.

Díaz-Canel asserted that when an empire is in decline, it is totally irrational, and what can be expected from it is "a reaction of arrogance, of overbearingness, of blackmail, of pressures, of coercive measures, of violence, of slander and lies."

EMPIRE OF EVIL

The President returned to the evaluations of the military invasion of the Empire against Venezuela and the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro Moros and his wife Cilia Flores.

This aggression – he recalled – was preceded by an intense campaign of economic, political and propaganda pressure that intensified from September 2025 and the largest U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean area in more than 20 years.

In the way the aggression against Venezuela was structured – commented the Caribbean leader – are also the elements of the war that we are facing, because this – he emphasized – is also an ideological war, it is a cultural war and it is a media, communicational war.

Ideological, because what is being imposed here is the hegemony of an empire and its eagerness to conquer and dominate the world. And it is a hegemony that responds to the great imperialist powers and responds to the rich minorities of the world.

It is a cultural war, because to hegemonically conquer the world, the relationship of each people with its culture, with its historical roots, must be broken, so that people see their values, their history as obsolete and then assume the patterns that imperialist hegemony wants to impose.

In the media order, the dignitary explained the multiple communication matrices that were generated from the Empire's propaganda platforms, including social networks, to shape a state of opinion that would justify what they were going to do later and that intensified since last September.

Afterwards – he recounted following the thread of events – came the pressures, the naval blockade, the illegal bombing of vessels supposedly dedicated to drug trafficking, the blockade of hydrocarbons and the seizure of oil tankers, and, finally, the invasion and kidnapping of a country's legitimate President and his wife to illegally try them in another country.

And these – denounced Díaz-Canel – are the same pretexts that they are already building against us to justify aggression against Cuba, to justify coercive measures, to continue increasing pressure against Cuba.

We are facing an imperial doctrine that also has Greenland, Iran in its sights; that is – he explained – we are facing a raw imperialist and fascist aggression where the President of the Empire is behaving like a Hitler, with a criminal, contemptuous policy that aims to take over the world.

SURRENDER WILL NEVER BE THE OPTION

Delving into the threats looming over Cuba, Díaz-Canel stated: Now they are deluded that the days of the Revolution are numbered, that we are going to fall under our own weight, that they are going to asphyxiate us, and that is, once again, an expression of imperial arrogance.

It is a delusion that contrasted with the reaction the Cuban people had to the aggression against Venezuela last January 3rd. A people – he recalled – that reacted with indignation, with patriotism, against imperialism and with unity.

During the aggression – he recalled –, the Cubans fought and fought hard, faced elite U.S. forces that had rehearsed an operation to carry out the kidnapping of the president in a few minutes, with superiority in men, technological superiority, superiority in weaponry, with drones, with a sophisticated deployment of technology and with tremendous firepower.

One day – Díaz-Canel emphasized – it will have to be recognized how much the courage and example of the 32 Cubans who fell facing the U.S. invasion of Venezuela contributed to everything that is happening and what may happen in the future. And the Empire – he said – has to calculate what an aggression against Cuba would cost it.

Therefore – he said – our premise will continue to be to prepare ourselves to advance even when aggressiveness and restrictions intensify further. "Never – assured the Cuban President – will surrender be the option, and hard times like these must be faced with courage and bravery."

"Our Party, the State, the Government, the Revolutionary Armed Forces, the Ministry of the Interior and the united people are willing to face any additional blockade measure and every threat or military aggression with the same courage and the same determination of the 32 Cuban combatants who fell heroically on January 3rd in Venezuela," he emphasized.

In the face of the increasing aggressiveness of the U.S., the First Secretary stated that an international denunciation will be made in all possible spaces about this new coercive measure and work will continue with friendly countries and the international community.

"We – the President explained – are a peaceful country. We, even in the midst of all this aggression and the blockade of all these years, have said that we have the capacity and willingness to dialogue with the U.S. government. The thing is, dialogue cannot be under pressure. Dialogue has to be under conditions of equality, of respect, without preconditions." (Text and photo: Granma Digital)