Cuba’s leader says U.S. aggression would meet ‘impregnable resistance’

St. Francis Xavier University Latin American politics senior researcher Yvon Grenier talks about the impact of the U.S. oil blockade on Cuba's economy.

HAVANA — Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has lashed out after U.S. President Donald Trump said that he can do “whatever he wants” with the Caribbean island and that Washington could take “imminent action” against it.

Diaz-Canel said on X late Tuesday that the Trump administration “publicly threatens” Cuba’s government almost daily with overthrowing it, and any act of aggression “will clash with an impregnable resistance.”

The comments came after the new threats by Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said that the Cuban government’s socialist economic model needs to “change dramatically.”

While the Cuban government places heavy restrictions on the country’s private sector, decades of U.S. sanctions have crippled Cuba’s economy.

The Trump administration is looking for Diaz-Canel to leave as the U.S. continues negotiating with the Cuban government, according to a U.S. official and a source with knowledge of talks between Washington and Havana. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss sensitive talks.

No details have been offered about who the administration might like to see in power.

Trump’s comments on Cuba came more than two months after his administration’s military raid that captured then Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January, and a few weeks after the launch of joint U.S.-Israeli military strikes against Iran on Feb. 28.

The administration has effectively halted vital oil exports to Cuba, pushing the Caribbean nation to the brink.

The Cuban people that Trump and Rubio say they want to help have been left reeling.

Overnight, activist groups from various countries delivered five tons of medical equipment, solar panels and other aid, according to Cuban state television, while crippling blackouts plague the island.

Rigoberto Zarza, European director for the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, said that the aid, especially solar panels, will be crucial to assist health institutions.

“The support provided by this aid is of great importance, not only for what it represents materially and from a medical standpoint,” he said.

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Milexsy Durán, The Associated Press

Seung Min Kim, Aamer Madhani and Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.