Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said Monday that his country had a “legitimate” right to defend itself against a potential U.S. attacks after U.S. media reports alleged the island was considering mounting drone attacks on American targets.
U.S. news site Axios on Sunday quoted U.S. intelligence sources as claiming that Cuba had obtained more than 300 military drones with a view to possibly attacking the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, U.S. military vessels and possibly even Florida.
Axios quoted unnamed U.S. officials as saying that Cuba's acquisition of attack drones from Russia and Iran was proof of the "growing threat" that the Caribbean island nation poses to the United States.
Writing on X, Diaz-Canel did not directly address the accusation in the Axios report. But he said Cuba had "the absolute and legitimate right to defend itself against a military onslaught."
"Yet that cannot be wielded, logically or honestly, as an excuse for imposing war on the noble Cuban people," he wrote.
The Cuban government has accused Washington of trying to create a pretext for a military intervention against its arch-foe after first trying to "strangle" Cuba's economy with a crippling fuel blockade.
Diaz-Canel said a U.S. attack would "trigger a bloodbath with incalculable consequences" and repeated that Cuba "poses no threat" to the United States or any other country.
Trump, who since the start of the year has deposed Venezuela's leftist leader and gone to war against Iran, has suggested that Cuba could be next in his sights and mused about "taking over" over the island situated 145 kilometers (90 miles) from Florida.
He cut off one of Cuba's last economic lifelines in January by halting oil shipments from Venezuela, its main fuel supplier, and threatening tariffs on any other country that attempted to make up the shortfall.
The Axios report of the alleged Cuban drone threat came days after CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Havana for negotiations.
It also comes amid U.S. media reports that the Trump administration is also seeking to indict Raul Castro, the 94-year-old brother of the late Cuban communist leader Fidel Castro, as part of its pressure campaign.
Trump's oil blockade has exacerbated a severe humanitarian and energy crisis in Cuba, marked by ever more frequent blackouts.
The government says it has run out of diesel and fuel oil needed to power the generators that supplement the electricity production of its dilapidated power plants.
On Monday, the island received a new shipment of humanitarian aid from Mexico, its fifth from Mexico's left-wing government since February.
Unlike the previous shipments, which were carried by the Mexican navy, Monday's aid consignment was transported by a merchant ship, sailing under a Panamanian flag, AFP journalists observed.
