Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel confirmed Friday that his government had held talks with the United States, which is pushing to topple the island’s communist authorities.
President Donald Trump has said Cuba will be “next” on his agenda after Iran and the US overthrow of top Cuba ally, Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela.
In January, Trump placed the impoverished island under a US oil blockade, strangling its fuel supply on the basis of what he called the “extraordinary threat” posed by Cuba to the United States. This comes on top of a decades-long economic embargo by Washington.
During a meeting with top Cuban officials, broadcast live on national television, Diaz-Canel said that Havana was negotiating with Washington, but gave little away about the nature of the talks.
“Cuban officials recently held discussions with representatives of the United States government,” he said, confirming negotiations first revealed by Trump in mid-January.
“These conversations have been aimed at seeking solutions -- through dialogue -- to the bilateral differences that exist between our two nations,” he added.
Mexico’s left-wing president welcomed the development.
“Good. Mexico has always pushed for peace and diplomatic dialogue -- particularly given the injustice of the blockade against the Cuban people for all these years,” President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters.
US media reports say Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro, a grandson of former president Raul Castro, has been holding secret talks for weeks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is Cuban-American.
Rodriguez Castro was seated in the front row at the meeting addressed by Diaz-Canel.
The Cuban government has been in Trump’s sights since the January overthrow of Washington’s other bete noire in the Caribbean, Maduro, on whom Cuba relied for cheap oil.
The oil embargo has brought Cuba’s already troubled economy to the brink of collapse.
The blockade has also starved Cuba’s power plants and farms of fuel and brought daily life to a near standstill. Airlines have curtailed or suspend flights to the island for lack of kerosene.
Trump last weekend predicted that Cuba “is gonna fall pretty soon” and told CNN: “They want to make a deal so badly.”
Diaz-Canel said the talks were being supported by “international factors” without elaborating.
In a goodwill gesture, Cuba said Thursday it would release 51 prisoners after talks with the Vatican, which has previously acted as mediator between Washington and Havana.
Underlining the tension across the Florida Straits separating Cuba and the United States, Cuban forces opened fire on a speedboat carrying a group of alleged armed, US-based assailants on February 25. Five of the people on the boat were killed.
rd/jb/mel/cb/msp/bgs
