Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Vows to Die for the Revolution Amid Trump’s Threats: “I Have No Fear”

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel is making his stance clear as tensions with the United States reach a boiling point.

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In a wide ranging interview with Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press,” the Cuban leader addressed Donald Trump’s repeated talk of “taking” the island, asserting that he is ready for whatever comes next, including a military confrontation.

“I have no fear. I am willing to give my life for the revolution,” Díaz-Canel stated through a translator. The defiant message comes as Cuba faces a nationwide power grid failure and a struggling economy, which the President blames on the “viciousness and evil” of the current U.S. blockade. He argued that the U.S. government should “review how cruel and how mean they’ve been to Cuba” rather than trying to act as the “savior” of the situation.

The possibility of a “surgical operation” or an attempt to capture him, similar to the U.S. apprehension of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro earlier this year, was a major point of discussion.

Díaz-Canel warned that such a move would have “very high costs for everyone involved.” He insisted that the island would not go down without a fight, saying, “If that happens, there will be fighting, and there will be a struggle, and we will defend ourselves, and if we need to die, we’ll die.”

While there have been reports of Secretary of State Marco Rubio holding private talks with the family of Raúl Castro, Díaz-Canel confirmed he has not been part of those negotiations. He also flatly rejected the idea of meeting U.S. demands for multiparty elections, the release of political prisoners, or a free press. For him, the issue is one of “self-determination and independence.”

Despite the immense pressure from the blockade and calls for regime change from both U.S. politicians and Cuban Americans, Díaz-Canel has no intention of stepping away from power.

He made it clear that surrender is not on the table for his administration.

“The concept of revolutionaries giving up and stepping down, it’s not part of our vocabulary either,” he told Welker.