Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and U.S. President Donald Trump.
Sergey Bobylev | Nathan Howard | Reuters
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel on Tuesday condemned U.S. sanctions on the country as “immoral, illegal, and criminal,” lashing out at prolonged economic pressure on the communist-run island as tensions escalate.
In a social media post on X, Díaz-Canel said the fuel-starved nation would “continue to denounce, in the firmest and most energetic way possible, the genocidal siege that seeks to strangle our people.”
Cuba’s president singled out President Donald Trump’s executive order that threatens third parties from selling oil to Havana with tariffs, as well as U.S. measures that seek to penalize companies that may want to invest in the country or provide it with basic goods.
His comments come after a fresh wave of U.S. sanctions and amid mounting speculation that the U.S. could carry out military strikes against Cuba.
The U.S. government on Monday imposed sanctions on 11 Cuban officials and its main intelligence agency.
The move forms part of a broader pressure campaign that has included efforts to implement an oil blockade on the island since January, shortly after its ally and a key provider of oil, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, was seized in an audacious military operation.
An Axios report on Sunday, citing classified intelligence, said Cuba had acquired more than 300 military drones from Russia and Iran and had recently began discussing plans to use them to attack U.S. targets.
These targets reportedly included the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, U.S. military vessels and potentially Key West, roughly 90 miles north of Cuba.
Cuba’s Díaz-Canel said in a separate social media post on Monday that U.S. threats of military aggression against Havana were well known, adding that if they were to materialize, “it would trigger a bloodbath with incalculable consequences.”
A White House spokesperson was not immediately available to comment when contacted by CNBC on Tuesday.
A man wearing shorts bearing a US flag walks along a street in Havana on May 18, 2026.
Yamil Lage | Afp | Getty Images
Trump has previously talked up the prospect of a “friendly takeover” of Havana and said the White House could turn its sights on Cuba after the Iran war. The U.S. president has also said he could do anything he wanted with the country, adding that he thinks he will have the “honor” of “taking Cuba.”
Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, meanwhile, said that the country neither threatens nor desires war.
“Without any legitimate excuse whatsoever, the #US government builds, day after day, a fraudulent case to justify the ruthless economic war against the Cuban people and the eventual military aggression,” Parrilla said via X on Monday.
“As we, I think, approach the day where we finally see a free and democratic Cuba, 90 miles from our shores, the process of bringing freedom and democratization to Cuba is going to take some twists and turns,” Jorge Mas, chairman of the Cuban American National Foundation, a political advocacy group, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday.
“I think threats are to be taken seriously but at the end of the day the destiny of Cuba is not going to change, and I think that we’re getting closer to seeing a regime change in Cuba in the next few months,” he added.
