Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel asserted on Saturday that the Caribbean nation will not yield to new coercive measures imposed by the U.S. government, measures he accused of attempting to suffocate the Cuban economy.
“It is part of the same design of economic strangulation and collective punishment intended to subjugate an entire nation, based on false and absurd justifications that neither the rest of the world nor U.S. citizens believe,” Díaz-Canel wrote in a message posted on the social network X.
“They will not break us!” the Cuban president emphasized, maintaining that the true threat is not Cuba, but rather the economic, commercial, and financial blockade that the United States has maintained against the country for more than six decades.
Last Thursday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced five new sanctions targeting individuals, companies, and vessels linked to Cuba’s oil and technology sectors, including two Chinese firms.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez stated on the same social media platform that the sanctions against the Chinese firms, imposed over alleged ties to Cuban institutions, are part of a “pathological policy of economic strangulation” devised and directed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
According to the Foreign Minister, these measures serve as “further proof of the extraterritorial and illegal nature” of the blockade, which operates outside the laws governing international trade. Rodríguez added that Washington is seeking to hinder and sabotage the “strategic, multifaceted, and legitimate” cooperation between China and Cuba.
China’s Ministry of Commerce expressed firm opposition to the unilateral U.S. sanctions against Chinese companies, stating that they violate international law and the fundamental norms governing international relations, a spokesperson noted the day before. Since the executive order of January 29, the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has tightened measures against Cuba by imposing an oil blockade, restricting fuel supplies to the island, as well as sanctions on Cuban companies and threats against foreign firms that conduct business with the country.
