"Now is the time," cries Marco Rubio after Trump orders that ships returning from Iran pass through the Cuban coast

"The US government makes it clear that it does not renounce its ambitions for domination over Cuba," Miguel Díaz-Canel reacted, after learning of the latest dialectical barrage from Washington. Since the US pressure against the Cuban dictatorship began, as soon as Nicolás Maduro was arrested in January, the Cuban president has led the government response in an attempt to transform the island into the new revolutionary Numancia.

This time it was Donald Trump who shot first: "We're coming back from Iran and those beautiful ships are going to pass through Cuba. We're going to have one of them stop about 50 yards off the coast. They're going to raise their hands and then we're going to send Marco Rubio to close the deal."

The tenant of the White House took advantage of an electoral rally to once again threaten the Castro revolution, but this time he was immediately supported by his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. "Now is the time," the Cuban-American leader stressed in a message addressed to "those who seek to create positive change in Cuba," whom he also invited to collaborate discreetly with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

It is not the first time that Trump has flirted with the possibility of sending ships to an island that is located 90 miles from Florida. In its operation to dethrone Maduro, the Southern Command deployed its ships in August of last year and bombed the first alleged drug boat in early September. The immense spider web narrowed in the following months until the operation culminated with the military attack on Fuerte Tiuna, the fort where the Chavista dictator was hiding.

The imposition of a remote-controlled regime in Caracas also led to an energy blockade against the island, which stopped receiving the almost gifted oil from its former Venezuelan allies. In parallel, the State Department began secret negotiations with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, Raúl Castro's favorite grandson, who at some point thought he could become the Cuban version of Delcy Rodríguez.

The talks did not end because they were "bombed" by exile and Republican legislators from Florida, and also because they meant the fall of Díaz-Canel and the "retirement" of Fidel Castro's little brother. Havana's announcement of economic reforms, recycling old promises, did not convince Washington either.

"On our coasts there are beautiful beaches, but also dog teeth, limestone peaks sharp as razors, inhospitable for those who arrive with hostile purposes and desire for domination," threatened Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez.

"We won our independence and we are determined to defend it," Díaz-Canel preached to close his statement.