Most Cubans understand that it is the protracted U.S. blockade of [the Republic of] Cuba which is causing the severe food, medical and supply shortages, with the aim of forcing Cubans to overthrow their government.

Díaz-Canel accused the U.S. of always looking for justifications and turning things around. He said similar protests in the U.S. and other parts of the world are more severe and more severely repressed, “However, those in Cuba make headlines. Why? Because there is an entire perversity when it comes to dealing with the Cuban problem.” He said the U.S. has shown an “enormous contempt for the Cuban people and the Cuban revolution.”

Díaz-Canel said the U.S. “resorts to a policy of maximum pressure, which has two fundamental elements, through economic asphyxiation to provoke a social explosion that breaks the unity of the Cuban people with the revolution,” and “social media intoxication,” which is what happened on March 17.

Díaz-Canel ended: “Let them try to bring us down. They’ll see what will happen to them. The revolution is very solid, and the Cuban people are very aware of what it would mean to lose the revolution.”