Cuba’s leadership responded sharply to Donald Trump’s threats to starve the island of oil, while ordering the government to “make a deal or else.” The island is now on full military alert and defense mobilization in what is being called “a War of all the People.” On National Defense Day Jan. 10, military exercises were held in the provinces of Santiago, Matanzas, Sierra Maestra, La Tunas, Cienfuegos and Camagüey, where attacks on communications infrastructure and a bombing of a rum factory were simulated. Various contingencies are being discussed, especially the implications of a shortage of fuel. Participants included all sectors of the population, including armed forces, militias, reserve officers, etc.
In a message reported by the Communist Party daily Granma today President Miguel Diaz-Canel warned that “Cuba is a free, independent and sovereign nation. No one tells us what to do. Cuba does not attack, it has been attacked by the U.S. for 66 years; it doesn’t threaten, it prepares, willing to defend the Homeland to the last drop of blood.” Moreover, he added, the U.S “doesn’t have the moral authority to accuse us of anything... Those who turn everything into a business, including in human lives, those who hysterically rail against our nation do so sick with rage over the sovereign decision of this people to choose their political model.”
