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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://resumen-english.org/2026/03/cuba-does-not-want-war-but-it-does-not-fear-it/">resumen-english.org</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Cuba Does Not Want War, but It Does Not Fear It</h1>
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<p>By Rosa Miriam Elizalde on March 26, 2026 from Havana</p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_34167" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-34167" src="https://i0.wp.com/resumen-english.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/3-26-yvnqgz2c02321.webp?resize=300%2C203&ssl=1" alt="" width="300" height="203" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img"></p><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-34167" class="gmail-wp-caption-text">Cuba\u2019s victory in the Bay of Pigs invasion.</p></div>
<p>The first time I saw a tank was on the streets of Sancti Spíritus,
the city in the center of the island where I was born. It was April
1975, and with the fall of Saigon, Vietnam\u2019s victory was being
celebrated after nearly 20 years of U.S. aggression. My child\u2019s eyes do
not remember that World War II steel behemoth as a threat, but rather as
an early lesson that, in Cuba, even the triumphs and sorrows of other
peoples are also experienced as a warning.<span id="gmail-more-34154"></span></p>
<p>Then came the military parades, the armored vehicles, the air shows,
the discipline of the columns. All of that gradually shaped a defense
education that eventually became familiar. Not because we Cubans were
fascinated by war, but because we learned very early on that we had to
be prepared for it. Since the Bay of Pigs, the possibility of a U.S.
attack became part of the national common sense\u2014which is not a bored
acceptance of what is taken for granted, but rather a careful
examination of reality and its threats.</p>
<p>By the late 1980s, when I was in college, that conviction already had
a doctrine, a method, and a language. We trained under the concept of
the War of the Whole People. We learned to fire AKM rifles at training
camps facing the Atlantic. Exercises multiplied, shelters were built,
tunnels were dug, and a Havana without a subway system began to be
described with a metaphor that was both humorous and accurate: a Swiss
cheese.</p>
<p>That was the backdrop for those of us born after the triumph of the
1959 revolution. For more than six decades, there has been no imminent
war, but there has been one certainty: peace can never be taken for
granted. Fidel Castro summed it up clearly in November 1981: \u201cCuba would
not be revolutionary if it did not have the conviction that it could
defend itself.\u201d</p>
<p>That conviction did not arise solely from an internal political
decision. It also rested on the awareness, shared by both sides of the
Florida Straits, of the cost that an armed intervention would entail.
Declassified Pentagon documents show that, during the October Crisis of
1962 and in response to a query from President John F. Kennedy regarding
the feasibility of an invasion, General Maxwell Taylor estimated up to
18,500 U.S. casualties in the first 10 days of combat, even in a
non-nuclear scenario. The conclusion was unequivocal: Cuba was not, nor
would it ever be, a military walk in the park.</p>
<p>Today, it is reasonable to assume that such political, human, and
strategic costs would be even greater, despite the United States\u2019
indisputable military and technological might. For this reason, the
recent statements by Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de
Cossío on <em>Meet the Press</em> should not be interpreted as an
outburst or overreaction. Rather, they express a long-held position:
Cuba neither wants nor would initiate a war, but has been preparing for
decades to defend itself.</p>
<p>No one on the island desires a military confrontation with the United
States, no matter how loudly the opposite is shouted from Miami. It
would be the worst possible scenario in human, economic, and social
terms. The Cuban government\u2019s priority remains avoiding an escalation,
preserving sovereignty, and sustaining daily life amid a very severe
crisis. But that desire for peace does not imply naivety.</p>
<p>Washington\u2019s hostility does not belong to the realm of remote
hypotheses, but rather to a policy of sanctions, diplomatic pressure,
threats of regime change, and, more recently, increasingly aggressive
rhetoric from the White House. In March 2026, bilateral tensions
hardened once again due to increased U.S. pressure and Donald Trump\u2019s
statements about a possible \u201cfriendly takeover\u201d of Cuba\u2014a phrase as
ambiguous as it is unsettling. In this context, Havana seeks to deter,
not provoke.</p>
<p>Those tanks I saw as a child in Sancti Spíritus taught me, even
before I fully understood it, that peace in Cuba is more than just the
temporary absence of hostilities. If anyone allows themselves to be
swept up again by the fantasy of a military aggression against the
island, they are very likely to come up against a deeply rooted common
sense: this country does not want war, but it does not fear it.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.jornada.com.mx/noticia/2026/03/26/opinion/cuba-no-quiere-la-guerra-pero-no-le-teme">La Jornada</a>, translation Resumen Latinoamericano \u2013 English</p>
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