President Miguel Díaz-Canel stood by Cuba’s management and didn’t concede a necessity for any adjustments to its authorities amid President Donald Trump’s stress marketing campaign against the communist nation.
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In a wide-ranging interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker in Havana on Thursday, Díaz-Canel mentioned there’s no “justification for the United States to launch a military aggression against Cuba.”
“An invasion to Cuba would have costs. … It would affect the security of Cuba, the United States and of the region,” he mentioned via a translator in his first American broadcast interview.
“If that happens, there will be fighting, and there will be a struggle, and we will defend ourselves, and if we need to die, we’ll die, because as our national anthem says, ‘Dying for the homeland is to live,’” the Cuban president mentioned.
“Before making that decision, which is so irrational, there is a logic, that is, the logic of dialogue, to engage in discussions, to debate and try to reach agreements that would move us away from confrontation,” Díaz-Canel mentioned.
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Kristen Welker experiences on the bottom from Havana, Cuba
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Welker requested Díaz-Canel whether or not he was prepared to commit to responding to “key demands” from the U.S., together with releasing political prisoners, scheduling multiparty elections and recognizing unions and a free press.
“Nobody has made those demands to us, and we have established that in respect to our political system or constitutional order, these are issues that are not under negotiations with the United States,” Díaz-Canel answered, including that these points are “extensively manipulated.”
Welker then pressed Díaz-Canel on the difficulty of political prisoners, asking whether or not Cuba would commit to their launch and particularly naming Cuban rapper Maykel Osorbo, a Latin Grammy winner who has been in prison since 2021 for writing a protest tune after thousands of Cubans took to the streets to protest circumstances and shortages through the Covid pandemic.
Díaz-Canel didn’t commit to releasing political prisoners and rejected their characterization as such, saying there are folks in Cuba who aren’t in favor of the revolution “and manifest themselves on a daily basis” who aren’t in jail.
“This narrative that has been created, that image that anyone who speaks against a revolution is thrown into jail, that’s a big lie, that’s a slander, and that’s part of that construct in order to vilify and to engage a character assassination of the Cuban Revolution,” Díaz-Canel mentioned.
International human rights organizations like PEN International and Amnesty International have known as for Osorbo’s launch.
There is proof that the Trump administration’s stress marketing campaign has been felt within the nation. Around mid-March, Cuban officers took a pointy flip of their tone towards the U.S., saying they’re ready to confront any assaults from the U.S. The authorities ordered a rise in army workout routines that usually air throughout nationwide newscasts.
Díaz-Canel has insisted Cuba’s place is “entirely defensive and not aggressive,” and he’s made related remarks in current speeches and interviews.
“Again, let me repeat. This is not what we want. We don’t want war. We don’t want an attack,” he mentioned.
Díaz-Canel urged a dialogue based mostly on “respect” between the 2 nations’ types of authorities.
Welker requested if it was attainable to “get a deal with President Trump.”
“I think dialogue and deals with the U.S. government are possible,” Díaz-Canel answered, “but they’re difficult.” He mentioned he had not spoken to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and he doesn’t know him.
Trump mentioned final month when requested about Cuba that there may be “a friendly takeover, it may not be a friendly takeover.” Rubio advised reporters on March 27, “You have to change the people in charge,” including the nation was a “disaster” as a result of its financial system didn’t work.
In response to Díaz-Canel’s feedback to NBC News, a White House official on Thursday mentioned that the administration is speaking to Cuba, including its leaders need to make a deal and may make a deal, which Trump believes “would be very easily made.”
“Cuba is a failing nation whose rulers have had a major setback with the loss of support from Venezuela,” the White House official mentioned Thursday.
Throughout the interview, Díaz-Canel blamed the 67-year-old U.S. financial embargo when he was requested about Cuba’s current circumstances, together with its electrical energy disaster in addition to ongoing supply shortages and poverty.
When requested whether or not Cuba would “take some responsibility” and alter its financial system to relieve struggling within the nation, Díaz-Canel mentioned, “That’s got nothing to do with the political system.”
The U.S. imposed the embargo in 1962 as a response to Fidel Castro’s confiscation of American companies and properties on the island following the 1959 revolution.
Díaz-Canel known as the embargo “genocidal and cruel” and mentioned that even through the Covid pandemic, the coverage prevented the nation from accessing sure parts — although he touted his nation’s skill to manufacture a Covid vaccine and different gear.
“I think the U.S. government should review how cruel and how mean they’ve been to Cuba and to the Cuban people,” he mentioned.
When requested why Cuba hasn’t made reforms like different communist or one-party nations like Vietnam and China, Díaz-Canel cited the embargo in addition to the truth that Cuba is an island 90 miles from the U.S.
Cuba produces lower than 40% of the gasoline it wants and depends on imports to function its crumbling electrical grid. Venezuela was Cuba’s essential provider of oil till it was reduce off following the U.S. seize of former President Nicolás Maduro.
Trump then threatened to impose tariffs on any nation that sells or provides oil to Cuba, although he just lately mentioned he had “no problem” with a Russian oil tanker delivering reduction to the island.
People have been already coping with inflation, shortages and blackouts, and the scarcity has exacerbated an already dire scenario.
Amid the large gasoline scarcity, Díaz-Canel mentioned Cuba was open to doing enterprise with U.S. firms.
“We’re open for foreign investment in Cuba in oil exploration and drilling. And that’ll be an opportunity for American businessmen and firms who can come and participate in Cuba in the energy sector,” Díaz-Canel mentioned.
It is against U.S. legislation for Americans (people and firms) to spend money on Cuba’s oil sector, however the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control can challenge a license permitting an American firm to achieve this.
Díaz-Canel cited collaborations between the U.S. and Cuba equivalent to medical analysis and combating drug trafficking as he agreed there’s a necessity to interact in dialogue.
But he additionally alluded to the warfare within the Middle East — and the Trump administration’s earlier requires dialogue.
“The U.S. has been engaged in talks with other countries, and while these negotiations are underway, they have attacked those countries, and all of this creates a lot of distrust,” Díaz-Canel mentioned.
Nicole Acevedo reported from New York, Carmen Sesin from Miami and Orlando Matos from Havana.
