Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said last night that his country will never again become a colony or neo-colony, after President Donald Trump published a map showing the communist island as part of American territory, Agence France-Presse reported, BTA reported.
"Cuba, which knows well what it means to have been a colony and neo-colony of two empires, knows clearly that it will never again become one - of any empire," Miguel Diaz-Canel said in Aix, without directly mentioning the message that the US president published on Monday on his Truth Social network.
Donald Trump's message shows a manipulated map on which the United States, Mexico, Canada, Cuba, Greenland and Iceland are covered with the American flag.
"The blood that (for Cuba) cost its independence, sovereignty and self-determination will not be in vain, and we will defend them to the end", warned the Cuban president.
Cuba was a Spanish colony for nearly 400 years. In 1898, Spain lost control of the island after the Spanish-American War. Cuba came under American military occupation until 1902, when it became an independent republic, albeit one heavily dependent on Washington.
This period under American influence lasted until the success of the revolution led by Fidel Castro in 1959.
Since the beginning of the year, relations between Cuba and the United States have been very tense. Donald Trump has claimed that Cuba, located 150 kilometers off the coast of Florida, poses an "exceptional threat" for US national security and has repeatedly threatened to "take control" of the island.
Washington makes no secret of its desire to see regime change in its neighbor and ideological adversary, and since January has imposed a de facto oil blockade on the island with a population of 9.4 million, which has plunged the country into a very severe economic and energy crisis.