“Dialogue, Not Sanctions” - Cuba Responds to U.S. Pressure

Responding to Washington’s intensified blockade on Cuba, President Díaz-Canel says the island remains open to dialogue with the U.S. - but not under coercion. His statement comes amid escalating hostile rhetoric from the Trump administration and a new wave of economic pressure. 

The U.S. has used decades-long sanctions, financial strangulation, diplomatic isolation, and now the targeting of fuel shipments, to pressure Cuba, deepening the economic crisis, affecting electricity, transportation and the daily lives of millions of Cubans. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently admitted the strategy is aimed at forcing regime-change on the island.

In this context, a key question emerges: how can U.S. policymakers claim to act in a country’s interest while also suffocating it?

TRANSCRIPT

“Cuba is willing to engage in dialogue with the United States,” stated Miguel Díaz-Canel, President of Cuba.

“Dialogue on any of the issues we wish to debate or discuss,” he continued. “Under what conditions? Without pressure.”

“Dialogue is impossible under pressure,” the Cuban leader emphasized.

“Without preconditions, on an equal footing, in a position of respect for our sovereignty, our independence, and our self-determination,” Díaz-Canel explained, “and without involving issues that we might view as interference in our internal affairs.”

“From such a dialogue, it is possible to build a civilized relationship between neighbors,” he added, “one that can bring mutual benefit to our peoples, to the peoples of both nations.”

“We are not a threat to the United States,” the president asserted. “Yet they are constantly talking about aggression and have ramped up insulting rhetoric about a possible aggression against Cuba.”

“It is the U.S. government doing this right now,” Díaz-Canel said.

“The statement from the National Defense Council that was published reads exactly as follows,” he explained.

“This Saturday, the National Defense Council met to analyze and approve plans and measures for a transition to a state of war,” Díaz-Canel read, “as part of the country’s preparation under the strategic concept of the people’s war.”

“It does not say that we are moving to a state of war,” he clarified. “It says we are preparing for it, in case it becomes necessary to move to a state of war at some point.”

“This is the reality,” the Cuban president concluded, “and everything else is manipulation.”