Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has rejected assertions by US President Donald Trump that Havana is moving closer to Washington’s orbit, instead declaring that the island is preparing for a potential military confrontation. In an interview with Britain’s Sky News on 2 July, Díaz-Canel said Cuba “does not want a war, but neither are we afraid of one” and that the country is readying itself “so that we are not taken by surprise nor defeated.” He described near-daily threats from the US administration as part of “a strategy of media intoxication and psychological warfare” designed to destabilise Cuban society, and vowed to fight “to the last drop of blood” to defend national sovereignty.

The remarks came one day after Trump, speaking in North Dakota, claimed that “after many, many decades, Cuba is coming closer to our orbit.” The US president offered no details, and the statement contrasted sharply with a sustained campaign of economic and military pressure. According to the Cuban government, Washington has imposed more than 240 sanctions since January 2026, including personal measures against Díaz-Canel and his wife announced on 4 June. The US Navy aircraft carrier USS Nimitz was deployed to the Caribbean in May, and the Pentagon has reportedly placed forces on standby. The State Department has described recent Cuban economic reforms as “long-awaited but ultimately superficial smoke signals,” while Secretary of State Marco Rubio has insisted there will be no deal as long as the current government remains in power.

The tightening of sanctions has deepened an energy crisis that has plagued Cuba since mid-2024. US measures have effectively blocked most fuel imports, with the exception of a single Russian shipment, and secondary sanctions have compelled foreign hotel operators and mining firms to withdraw. The United Nations has warned that the resulting blackouts are pushing the island of 10 million people toward a humanitarian emergency. Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez cautioned that any military attack would become “a bloodbath” and called Rubio a “liar,” while Havana has requested a special session of the UN General Assembly on 7 July to condemn the intensified embargo. Bilateral talks, Rodríguez said, have made “no progress.”

Viewed from Havana, the US posture is an attempt to force regime change by collapsing the economy. In response, the Cuban government last month approved 176 economic reform proposals, including privatisation of state enterprises, elimination of price controls, and opening to foreign investment—moves that some economists in the region describe as the most ambitious market-oriented shift since the 1959 revolution. Yet Washington has dismissed these as insufficient, and analysts in Latin America note that the sequencing of reforms remains unclear, with risks of social unrest if safety nets are removed too quickly. The UN General Assembly session on 7 July is expected to provide a forum for Cuba to rally international condemnation of the US embargo, though the vote will be non-binding and the diplomatic standoff shows no sign of easing.