Key takeaways
- Díaz-Canel said on Friday that Cuba is activating wartime structures to operate in peacetime and will intensify popular defense training.
- The speech came a day after Trump told Hugh Hewitt he would consider military force, and Díaz-Canel did not name Trump.
- Analysts cited by CNBC see further economic pressure as more likely than a military campaign, and no US attack order has been reported.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said that Havana has decided to "activate wartime structures to operate in peacetime." The Cuban Presidency's website carried the phrase. He spoke at a National Defense Day session of the Zone Defense Council (CDZ) in Boyeros, a municipality on the southern edge of Havana. He tied the move to more intensive popular defense training under Cuba's "War of All the People" doctrine. He demanded an end to the US embargo.
The speech came a day after US President Donald Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt in a phone interview on Thursday: "I want to get Cuba done before I leave." Asked whether he would use "a little bit" of military force in a short campaign, Trump said he "would certainly consider that." Díaz-Canel did not name Trump. He denounced what he described as repeated statements by US officials and politicians encouraging military aggression against the island.
A defense zone built around an airport
The Boyeros defense zone covers about 15 square kilometres and has more than 29,000 residents, CiberCuba reported. It includes José Martí International Airport. In a conflict the zone must operate 36 production and defense brigades, according to CiberCuba. Local officials said two exercises had already been held so residents would know how to act if an attack appeared imminent.
Díaz-Canel pointed to Strategic Exercise Moncada 2026, which CiberCuba reported took place on 4 and 5 November, and to weekly National Defense Day training in defense zones nationwide. The Spanish news agency EFE has reported that such Friday drills have been held across the country since tensions with Washington sharpened. National Assembly President Esteban Lazo Hernández and the ministers of the armed forces and the interior, Generals Álvaro López Miera and Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas, accompanied him.
Díaz-Canel said Cuba was determined to reject any attempt at foreign military aggression and was preparing for it, while insisting that Cuba threatens no other nation. He demanded an end to what he called the "collective punishment" of Cubans and pointed to the recent UN General Assembly vote on Cuba's resolution against the embargo as a sign of international support, according to CiberCuba.
Observers are reading: How Havana's defense doctrine, Washington's mixed signals and the oil squeeze fit together, and who carries the cost.
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What is not established
The reporting does not show that a US attack is imminent or that US forces have received any order. US officials told CBS News in July that Pentagon briefings on military options for Cuba were not an indication that the president or the Pentagon had decided to go forward with an operation, and Washington had announced no decision on direct military intervention. Díaz-Canel named no US decision or deadline, and the Rio Times noted Cuba has not published figures on troops or civilian defense units. By 14:30 GMT on Saturday, the Rio Times said, no formal US government reply to his remarks had been published.
The Rio Times describes the risk as a longer period of tension rather than a single decision point. For Boyeros residents, that means rehearsing for an attack no one has ordered while the economic pressure continues.
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