Cuba Announces Military Exercises Following Trump Win

Cuba announced Wednesday that it would be launching nationwide military exercises after Donald Trump captured the U.S. presidency. Cuba did not link the exercises to the news of a new president.

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The government said that the “Bastion Strategic Exercise," taking place from Nov. 16 to 20, is designed to “raise the country’s ability for defense and the troops’ and people’s preparation to confront different enemy actions,” said state newspaper Granma.

The Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces announced in a statement that the five-day exercises would include “movements of troops and war materiel, overflights and explosions in the cases where they’re required.” The ministry added that the exercise “constitutes a fundamental element of the implementation of the doctrine of War by the entire people.”

Many in Cuba are worried that Trump’s incoming administration will unravel the recent warming of tension between the two cold war rivals. The U.S. has imposed a blockade on Cuba since 1960 and is estimated to cost the country US$4.7 billion in past year and a massive US$753.7 billion in total. In October, for the first time ever the U.S. abstained from voting on the Cuban blockade at the United Nations Security Council.

Trump says that he want to renegotiate Obama’s “weak agreement” and threatened to reverse changes made under Obama unless President Raul Castro carried out “our demands.” The president-elect was also accused of carrying out business in Cuba which violated the blockade.

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"All of the concessions that Barack Obama has granted the Castro Regime were done through executive order, which means that the next president can reverse them, and that I will do unless the Castro regime meets our demands,” said Trump in September.

"Brace for what's coming … With Trump, I reckon we are headed back to the era of George Bush," said Tomas Gonzalez Cuban engineer to Reuters.

“While we will always put America’s interests first, we will deal fairly with everyone, with everyone — all people and all other nations. We will seek common ground, not hostility; partnership, not conflict,” said Trump in his victory speech on Tuesday night.

What will result from this rhetoric in practice for Cuba remains to be seen. Analysts say that given Trump’s previous stance on Cuba and the Republican control of the Congress, Trump will have significant power to do as he pleases in relation to the blockade and Cuba in general.