Cuba vows 'never again' to empire after Trump posts annexation map

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Tuesday declared that the island nation "will never again" serve as a colony of any "empire," responding to a map published by US President Donald Trump that depicted Cuba under the colors of the American flag.

Trump's provocative map

The publication appeared Monday on Trump's Truth Social platform. The image shows the colors of the US flag covering Mexico, Canada, Cuba, Greenland, Iceland and portions of the Caribbean and Central America. Diaz-Canel addressed the controversy on X without explicitly naming the US president.

"Cuba knows well the meaning of having been a colony and neocolony of two empires," he wrote, adding that "the blood that has been shed for our independence, sovereignty and self-determination will not have been in vain."

Sharp response from Havana

Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez responded with sarcasm to the cartographic provocation. "Soon they will not know in which gulf, lake, building, country, continent or planet they are," Rodriguez wrote on social media, suggesting the US government would leave its own citizens "geographically disoriented."

'Maximum pressure' campaign

The exchange comes as relations between Havana and Washington face their highest tensions in decades. The Trump administration has pursued a policy of "maximum pressure" against Cuba since the beginning of 2026, including an oil blockade and secondary sanctions introduced in May that have deterred foreign companies from operating on the island.

Washington's economic embargo cost Cuba $8.08 billion between March 2025 and February 2026 — the highest recorded figure for any 12-month period and 7% higher than the previous year — which Rodriguez described as "cruel collective punishment." Cuba's economy contracted 15% between 2020 and 2025, while independent forecasts project an additional contraction of up to 10.3% this year.