President Trump added a temporal dimension on July 16, telling Fox News that “many things are going to happen in Cuba over the next perhaps two months, but I don’t see it being like Venezuela.” When pressed on military options, he stated that an operation “would not be hard for us to do” but drew a distinction based on resources, noting Venezuela’s oil and gold reserves. The remarks stopped short of confirming active planning, yet they reinforced a pattern of escalating pressure that has included a naval oil blockade, the indictment of former President Raúl Castro on murder charges, and the positioning of the USS Nimitz carrier strike group in the Caribbean.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel responded in a July 2 interview with Sky News, declaring that “we do not want war, but we are not afraid of it” and that the country is preparing “so that we are neither surprised nor defeated.” He characterized Washington’s rhetoric as “a strategy of media poisoning and psychological warfare” and accused the Trump administration of “telling many lies”. The regime has also reportedly floated a proposal to offer a luxury resort development on Cayo Santa María under the Trump brand, a move described as a desperate attempt to ward off military intervention.