Cuba prepares for US military action

Cuba is preparing for possible military aggression from the US, one of the island’s leading diplomats has said.

The two countries have been in talks for weeks as an oil blockade of Cuba has caused one of the worst energy crises on the island in decades.

But in recent days, Donald Trump and senior administration officials have ramped up their rhetoric about hopes of seeing a change of government, with Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, saying on Tuesday that Cuba needed “new people in charge”.

Speaking to reporters this week, Mr Trump said he believed he would have “the honour of taking Cuba”. Asked what he meant by “taking” the country, he said: “Whether I free it, take it – I think I can do anything I want with it.”

In an interview aired on Sunday, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, Cuba’s deputy foreign minister, told NBC it would be “naive” for the country’s leaders to ignore the possibility of conflict with the US.

“Our military is always prepared, and in fact it is preparing these days for the possibility of military aggression,” he said.

But he added that Cuba remained open to diplomatic talks, saying: “Cuba has no quarrel with the United States. We do have the need and the right to protect ourselves. But we are willing to sit down.”

The fact that talks are ongoing between the two nations will be of no solace to officials in Havana. The US was also in talks with Iran and Venezuela before the US government launched recent military interventions.

In January, Nicolás Maduro, the former Venezuelan president, was captured in the country’s capital, Caracas, and he and his wife now face drug trafficking charges in the US.

The Trump administration could replicate these efforts in Cuba, The Atlantic reported on Sunday, citing unnamed officials who referred to the Caracas operation as a “dry run” for Havana.

Cuba, which only produces around 40 per cent of the fuel it needs to power its economy, was heavily dependent on supplies from Venezuela.

Since Mr Maduro’s capture, Mr Trump has imposed a punishing blockade and threatened to slap tariffs on any country that sells oil to the island. It has not received an oil shipment so far this year, and is now facing its worst energy crisis in decades.

Cuba’s energy ministry reported a “total disconnection” of the national electric system on Saturday.

On Sunday, officials were scrambling o to restore power, which was back on in some parts of Havana but many of the country’s 10 million people remained in darkness. It was the second nationwide blackout in less than a week.

Protests in Cuba are rare, but frequent power outages have sparked civil unrest, with schools forced to close and rubbish piling up in the streets. 

Residents of Havana have been banging pots and pans and, in some cases, lighting fires to block major roads.

“We do hope that fuel will reach Cuba one way or the other and that this boycott that the United States has been imposing does not last and cannot be sustained forever,” Mr Fernández de Cossío said.

[Source: Daily Telegraph]