Cuba said Friday (May 1, 2026) that U.S. President Donald Trump's fresh sanctions on the island amounted to "collective punishment," as an enormous May 1 procession outside the American embassy in Havana vowed to "defend the homeland."

Mr. Trump has mused about taking over Cuba, which lies 145 kilometers (90 miles) from Florida and has been under a nearly continuous U.S. trade embargo since Fidel Castro led a communist revolution in 1959.

Late Friday (May 1, 2026), he told an audience in Florida that the U.S. would be "taking over" the Caribbean island "almost immediately."