Interview with Cuban Leader Ernesto Limia Díaz

We are pleased to publish below the second part of an interview with Ernesto Limia Díaz (EL), a historian, writer, member of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (known as UNEAC, its Spanish-language acronym), and director of the TV program MARCAS. He is also the author of the bilingual book Patria y cultura en Revolución (Homeland and Culture in Revolution).

Duane Stilwell (DS), editor of Panorama-Mundial, the Spanish-language sister publication of World-Outlook, conducted the interview in Havana, Cuba, on April 30, 2026.

Last November, World-Outlook published its first interview with Limia Díaz, ‘Cuba Is the Moral and Political Compass of the World’, which readers may want to go back to. In that earlier interview, Limia Díaz dealt more extensively with the problem of homelessness and begging in Cuba that he refers to in the portion of the interview that follows.

The interview was conducted in Spanish. Translation into English, as well as photos and notes, are by World-Outlook. Due to its length, we are publishing the interview in two parts, the second of which follows.

— World-Outlook editors

*

(This is the second of two parts. The first can be found in Part I.)

DS: What role are civil organizations in Cuba, mass organizations such as the Federation of University Students (FEU), the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), and others, now playing in mitigating the effect of U.S. sanctions and the blockade? You spoke earlier of solidarity being institutionalized.

EL: There is a great battle. It is terrible, dramatic to see how in Cuba the cases of begging have increased. It breaks my heart.

Because the truth is that it was not seen even three years ago. In the midst of this hard battle, because supply is so affected, prices are prohibitive for a certain sector of the population and vulnerable groups have increased.

So, there is work to be done, and it is not only in Cuba, in other countries as well, but we were not used to that.

I have been to several countries and begging there is much more widespread than in Cuba. But I wasn’t used to seeing that here.

In the countries of the region, I saw children begging.

DS: And in the United States there are people who die in the street.

EL: Right. You don’t see children begging here, but in the case of adults it is seen. There is an enormous effort by the state, the government, by social and humanitarian organizations in the country, and by private business as well, to help vulnerable people, to help alleviate the situation.

The central government has in fact allocated funds for municipal governments to hire young people as social workers to help identify vulnerable areas in neighborhoods and participate in helping those segments of the vulnerable population.

Of course, that’s easier in the rest of the country than in Havana.

Havana is very complicated because Havana is bigger; it is a huge and diverse city. So, obviously, it’s easier to see cases of panhandling here than in the rest of the country. And this despite the fact that in the rest of the country there are fewer resources, there is more scarcity, and there is less fuel.

However, there are fewer vulnerable people unprotected in the rest of the country because it is easier to reach out and interact with them. Havana is more complicated.

As the capital of the country, in Havana everyone rules. Everyone is in charge and organizing it is always very difficult.

There is a great effort, but it is very hard, including when you go to the doctor and you have a problem, an illness… I myself had a health problem that needed an antibiotic and there was none in the pharmacy. So, you have to buy that antibiotic from private people who import it from other countries.

They sell medicines in the neighborhoods, in WhatsApp groups. But then they sell it at prices prohibitive for some.

Of course, the country has preserved public health care. The country has preserved attention to the most serious cases.

But there are times when you get treated, you have the diagnosis, but then you have to look for medicine. You, alone.

The country is living through the hardest moment since the victory of the revolution. In the ’90s we faced a similar crisis, but no one had access, and therefore there was not so much social differentiation.

Now I’m going to give you an example so that you can see how the country is working and how even young people are participating.

There is serious problem in education. Why? In order to get into college, to take college exams, it’s very complicated because you have to pay for tutoring — that is, pay a professor to prepare you to take the college entrance exam.

Most low-income families cannot afford the cost.

Sometimes it is the same teacher at the children’s school who does the tutoring at his house. Since the salary is not enough, at night, in his extra time, he tutors a group of young people. With that extra income, he makes up the money he needs to live. Many teachers look for this solution.

Now, there are parents, families, who cannot afford this. So, what is the result in the medium and long term? That only the children of wealthier families can enter the university and therefore the popular essence of the revolution is lost.

Well, what is the country doing today to confront this situation?

My daughter, for example, is studying physics at the University of Havana, which is one of the most complex careers.

The physics faculty at the University of Havana began to offer tutoring for free in physics and mathematics to low-income families. And it is the students who are teaching the classes.

My daughter today taught classes to 150 teenagers preparing for the university entrance exam.

That instills in my daughter the value of solidarity. At the same time, she contributes — being barely 20 years old — in preserving the popular character of this revolution.

That is a solution spreading throughout the country. My daughter said that today there were 200 young people in her faculty. That begins to spread like wildfire. Next Wednesday there will be 400.

It is the young students themselves preparing adolescents. This is how the future is being built today.

That is what they don’t forgive us for.

DS: In Karibuni, where I was a few days ago with the labor and youth delegation from the United States, Kenia Serrano said that “they are still punishing us for what Cuba did in Africa,” and I had never thought of it that way, but it is true, because what Cuba did in Africa was something epic.^[1]

EL: One of the first things that Cuba achieved in Africa, which is little talked about, was aiding the anti-colonial struggle in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde in the mid-1960s and ’70s, which gave impetus to the Carnation Revolution in Portugal.^[2]

Portuguese intelligence recruited bodyguards who assassinated Amílcar Cabral,^[3] the central leader of the independence struggle in Portuguese Guinea, now Guinea-Bissau.

Commander Raúl Díaz Argüelles, and the then commander, Víctor Dreke — today he is a general — were part of leading Cuba’s internationalist missions in Africa along with Che.^[4] Dreke headed Cuba’s military mission in Guinea-Bissau fighting for its independence from Portugal.

Fidel [Castro]^[5] asked them to draw up an operational plan that would allow the Guinean and Cape Verdean combatants to attack the Portuguese barracks.

The tactical change that took place from that moment on, and the strong blows the African combatants dealt in their offensive against the Portuguese garrison helped trigger the Carnation Revolution in Portugal, which brought about the fall of the Portuguese dictatorship. The left-wing government that followed in Portugal agreed to the independence demands of the country’s colonies in Africa.

So, the first result of Cuba’s influence in Africa was the fall of the Portuguese dictatorship.

The second, after the fall of the Portuguese dictatorship, was the process of decolonization of Portugal in Africa.

The third achievement was to help defend the independence of Angola, which was invaded by South Africa’s apartheid army after the end of Portuguese colonial rule.

The fourth achievement was Cuba’s contribution to ending the apartheid regime and bringing about the independence of Namibia.

So, look at Cuba’s impact on Africa!

During all those years, and until today, a plethora of African intellectuals and professionals from more than 10 African countries were educated in Cuba, who would never have been able to become university students without Cuban solidarity, and a number of whom today hold government positions in African countries.

Therefore, what is happening today in Burkina Faso, in Mali, in South Africa, is closely related to those Cuban actions from the 1960s and ’70s, until the end of Operation Carlota [the code name for Cuba’s missions in Angola] in 1989.

That is the truth, and the Yankees cannot forgive us for that.

DS: You made a point in a Facebook post on March 27 that “our generation may have the responsibility to defend the revolution with arms in hand.” What is the possibility of that?

EL: Well, the risk today is very strong. On a personal level, I have the perception that they cannot venture into armed aggression against Cuba while they focus on the Middle East, while their war on Iran is burning.

Now, the sectors of the Cuban mafia in Miami,^[6] who know that it is now or never, and who know that the midterm elections in November may leave Trump on the ropes, are generating a psychological, political climate — headed by [U.S. secretary of state] Marco Rubio — tending to push toward armed aggression.

Therefore, the country is preparing. We are preparing for an armed aggression, and they will never forget our response. Those cowards. The first coward is Marco Rubio.

We saw what happened in the Washington Hilton, when an individual fired shots [outside the White House correspondents’ dinner].^[7] A shot was heard and Marco Rubio ducked under the table, almost got under the ground. The most cowardly guy in the world.

But that’s how cowards are. He feels that he has a powerful army behind him.

Everything points to the fact that my generation is going to have to defend the revolution with arms in hand. They will never forget the blow we are going to give them. I have no doubt it is going to be another Vietnam, a re-edition of Vietnam; it’s going to take them years before they are able to get involved in another aggression again.

But the terrible cost we’ll have to pay will take us back 200 years. Hopefully, we won’t have to, but as I have said on many occasions, I’m not optimistic.

I’m not optimistic because there’s a fascist clique in the White House today, which has turned the U.S. military into a mercenary corps.

DS: Has Washington been successful in using the current crisis it has sparked in Cuba to foment dissent within the Cuban population? Can you also discuss how much political space do Cuban workers have now to express critical opinions about the Communist Party and government’s management of the ongoing economic and social crisis, including the latest measures related to the economy?

EL: I am sure, I have no doubt, that In Cuba there is more freedom of opinion than in Miami and probably than in the United States.

As part of the escalation against Cuba by this anti-democratic, fascist clique in the United States, they are trying to paint a false picture to legitimize aggression.

They are trying to paint Cuba as a dictatorship, of course.

The first right that the revolution has is the right to exist. There are prisoners here who have carried out acts of vandalism, who have carried out terrorist acts in the service of the United States, who have called for a Yankee invasion.

I would like to see what would happen to someone in the United States calling for a Russian invasion of the United States. Or someone calling for a Chinese invasion of Miami. If anyone could, in Miami or in New York or in Washington, call for a Russian invasion. Who would dare to demand a military invasion of the United States from Putin, what would happen to him then?

The U.S. government is dedicating between $20 million and $30 million dollars to generate toxic information against Cuba, to generate propaganda aimed at forming monsters inside Cuba in a situation of widespread poverty caused by the U.S. siege. This political and ideological indoctrination is also the antidote to solidarity, the antidote to human sensitivity, to empathy, which is what a monster is, of course. They are trying to multiply the monsters within the country, who could undermine and destroy the ideology of the revolution.

The truth is that they have not succeeded. The truth is that despite all their efforts here, there is no opposition capable of disputing the power of the revolution.

And that’s why they have to bet on the U.S. military coming and doing the job.

Now, they can drop bombs. They can do surgical operations. They can send drones. But to change the revolutionary government they have to invade with troops.

They are going to come. That’s when the war begins.

War does not begin with bombs or planes. The war begins when the Marines have to come and fight. In Cuba, 750,000 to 1,000,000 people are going to fight, that’s the issue.

Are they going to fight against 1,000,000 people? Are they willing to pay that cost? Do they think the cost will be low?

If they invade like this, how are they going to leave, because this is going to become a hornet’s nest.

Of course, the Spaniards already lived it, they had to leave, we forced them out. We gave such a big blow to the largest army in Europe — in 1895 they had more than 250,000 men under arms — we gave them such a blow that they had to run away, humiliated.^[8]

The Yankees came when the Cuban war against Spain was already won.

That was in a country without military training, without adequate weapons, without combat experience.

Today we have adequate weapons, combat experience, and very solid political and ideological training. And the determination to defend our homeland from a legacy of more than 160 years of struggle.

They have no idea of the cost that their army is going to have to pay, because they have also been purging the Pentagon, the CIA, their security forces, the State Department. They have replaced experienced officers and have filled those posts with madmen, with fascists.

Trump’s madness lasts until the fight begins. Trump did not do military service, he did not have the courage, he evaded military service. It’s easy to command, it’s easy to send others to fight.

Clownishness, he looks like a buffoon. But it is sad that he is the president of the most powerful country on earth, which today no one respects.

They have had to ignore international law and international conventions, because no one respects them and so they are trying to impose their will by force; they are not imposing peace or respect through force.

But hey, we’ll be here. As I have said many times, we, the sons and daughters of Cuba, learn in school from a very young age, from our national anthem, that to die for the homeland is to live.

(This was the second of two parts. The first can be found in Part I.)

NOTES

[1] Karibuni is “a global foundation, philanthropic fund as well as multinational policy think tank. We do education initiatives, helping nutrition projects, technology programs, as well as global humanitarian assistance. We put a special global attention and focus on communities that have large numbers of Afro Cuban population,” according to organization coordinator Kenia Serrano. The group hosted a meeting in April 2026 between the U.S. Hands Off Cuba delegation and veterans of the Cuban campaigns in Angola and Ethiopia.

Cuba carried out 23 military missions aiding the struggles against colonialism in Africa, including in the Congo in the mid-1960s, Angola (1975–1991), Ethiopia (1977–1978), and Guinea-Bissau (1966-1974).

In the Horn of Africa, Cuban volunteers helped defend Ethiopia — where an anti-feudal land reform and deepening anti-imperialist struggle was unfolding — from a U.S.-backed Somali invasion.

In November 1975, the Cuban government responded to a request from the government of Angola, sending thousands of volunteer troops to help defeat the invading armed forces of South Africa’s apartheid regime. Pretoria was determined to block the Angolan people from realizing their hard-fought independence from Portugal, set for November 11, 1975. Cuba’s mission in Angola was code-named Operation Carlotta.

When Cuban volunteers arrived, South African troops had already pressed more than 400 miles into Angolan territory and anti-government forces had reached the outskirts of the capital city of Luanda. By late March 1976, however, the last invading forces had been pushed back over Angola’s southern border into Namibia, at that time still a South African colony.

This initial defeat of apartheid’s army gave new impetus to the struggle for a nonracial, democratic republic inside South Africa. The new rise of struggles reinforced the African National Congress (ANC), which had been banned in 1960 and many of whose leaders, including Nelson Mandela, were imprisoned for their anti-apartheid activities. The advancing struggle inside the country increased the pariah status of the apartheid regime worldwide.

In November 1987, in the face of a critical situation in which South African troops had encircled Cuito Cuanavale in southeast Angola, Cuba made the decision to send thousands of volunteer reinforcements and massive amounts of weaponry and supplies. By March 1988, the South African troops had been dealt a decisive military defeat there by the combined forces of the Cuban volunteers, the Angolan army, and fighters from SWAPO (South West Africa People’s Organisation) in Namibia. The South African invaders were forced to withdraw from Angola.

In subsequent negotiations, the apartheid regime ceded independence to Namibia, which celebrated the end of colonial domination and the establishment of its own government in March 1990. The outcome at Cuito Cuanavale gave another impulse to the battle against apartheid — leading to the unbanning of the ANC and the release of Nelson Mandela and other ANC leaders from prison and its eventual defeat inside South Africa. On July 26, 1991, ANC president Nelson Mandela — who was elected president of the country in 1994 — and Cuban president Fidel Castro spoke together for the first time at a historic rally in Matanzas, Cuba.

“The crushing defeat of the racist army at Cuito Cuanavale was a victory for the whole of Africa!” Mandela said in his speech. “The defeat of the apartheid army was an inspiration to the struggling people inside South Africa! Without the defeat at Cuito Cuanavale our organizations would not have been unbanned! The defeat of the racist army at Cuito Cuanavale has made it possible for me to be here today! … Cuito Cuanavale has been a turning point in the struggle to free the continent and our country from the scourge of apartheid!”

For more information see How Far We Slaves Have Come by Nelson Mandel and Fidel Castro.

[2] The Carnation Revolution took place in Portugal on April 25, 1974. It was a nearly bloodless military coup in Lisbon that overthrew the regime of Marcelo Caetano, ending 48 years of dictatorship during which Portugal led grueling colonial wars in Africa. The 1974 uprising got its name from civilians who placed red carnations in the rifles of soldiers who refused to shoot at them. It was led by young, left-leaning military captains frustrated with Portugal’s unending colonial wars in Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau.

[3] Amílcar Lopes Cabral (1924-1973) was a founder and secretary-general of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde, who helped lead Guinea-Bissau to independence. He is one of the most well-known African revolutionary leaders of the 20^th century. He was shot and killed in January 1973 outside his home in Conakry, in the neighboring independent Republic of Guinea, where his party had established its headquarters.

[4] Ernesto “Che” Guevara, an Argentine by birth, was a commander of the guerrilla forces during the Cuban Revolution and a leader of Cuba’s new revolutionary government, spearheading the agrarian land reform and literacy campaigns alongside other roles. Inspired by revolutionary possibilities in Africa and Latin America, Guevara left Cuba in 1965 for internationalist missions, first in Africa and then in Latin America. He was captured and executed in Bolivia by CIA-assisted forces in 1967.

Raúl Díaz Argüelles (1949 – 1975) was a Cuban revolutionary who distinguished himself in the struggle to overthrow the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. He was assigned by the Cuban government to head the country’s mission in Angola in 1975. He died on December 11, 1975, in Hengo, in Angola’s Kwanza Sul region, while leading Cuban volunteers and Angolan forces to hold back South Africa’s invading army.

Víctor Emilio Dreke Cruz, born in 1937, has been a leading participant in Cuba’s revolutionary movement — as a high school activist; cadre of the July 26 Movement; Rebel Army fighter; one of the commanders of the fight against counterrevolutionary bandits in the Escambray mountains of central Cuba; internationalist combatant in the Congo, Republic of Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau; political leader and educator; and representative of the Cuban Revolution in Africa. In 1990, General Dreke retired from active military service. He is currently vice president of the Cuba-Africa Friendship Association and a member of the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution.

For more information see From the Escambray to the Congo: In the Whirlwind of the Cuban Revolution.

[5] Fidel Castro Ruz was the central leader of the Cuban Revolution. He served as Cuba’s president from 1976 until his  retirement in 2008. He died in 2016.

[6] The “Cuban mafia in Miami,” or “Batista mafia,” refers to right-wing Cubans who left the island following the overthrow of the U.S.-backed Fulgencio Batista dictatorship in 1959. These exiles have been among the most ardent supporters of U.S. efforts to undermine the Cuban Revolution for more than six decades.

[7] On April 25, 2026, gunshots were fired near the security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton during the White House correspondents’ dinner. U.S. president Donald Trump, U.S. secretary of state Marco Rubio, and other senior U.S. officials were evacuated unharmed by the Secret Service. A heavily armed suspect — identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen — charged a security checkpoint outside the main ballroom and exchanged gunfire with federal agents, who subsequently subdued and arrested the gunman.

[8] Cuba’s war of independence against Spain (1895–1898) was the final and most successful of three liberation campaigns fought by Cuban insurgents. Initiated by José Martí — a poet and essayist who died in battle in 1895 fighting for Cuba’s independence and is considered the country’s national hero, the rebellion overwhelmed Spanish forces, ultimately contributing to ending over four centuries of Spanish colonial rule in the Americas.

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