HAVANA—Cuba on Friday rejected any suggestion that its political system or the time period of its president was topic to negotiation in talks with the US, following experiences that Washington sought to take away Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel from energy.
“I can categorically verify that … the political system of Cuba shouldn’t be up for negotiation, and naturally neither the president nor the place of any official in Cuba is topic to negotiation with the US,” Deputy International Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio advised a press convention.
Cuba mentioned every week in the past that it had entered talks with the US authorities as an oil blockade imposed by US President Donald Trump pushes the Communist-run nation deeper into financial disaster, and as Trump has mentioned he can do “something I need” with Cuba, a sovereign neighbor.
Talking later to a bunch of overseas activists bringing humanitarian assist to Cuba, Diaz-Canel mentioned Cuba was making ready for a doable US “aggression.”
“We’re not simply crossing our arms. Within the first place, we acknowledge that there could possibly be aggression in opposition to Cuba,” mentioned Diaz-Canel, who has struck a extra defiant tone lately.
He mentioned on social media on Tuesday that “any exterior aggressor will face an impenetrable resistance.”
USA Right this moment, citing two sources with information of the Trump administration’s plans, reported earlier than Cuba’s announcement that Trump was making ready an financial cope with Cuba that might chill out commerce restrictions however embrace an “off-ramp” for Diaz-Canel.
The New York Instances, citing 4 folks aware of the talks, later reported that the Trump administration was searching for to push Diaz-Canel from energy with two years remaining on his time period as president and 5 years left as chief of the Communist Occasion.
Each experiences mentioned the US proposal would depart untouched the household of former presidents Fidel and Raul Castro. Fidel Castro died in 2016 however Raul Castro, 94, stays extremely influential eight years after handing the presidency over to Diaz-Canel, 65.
Such a deal would resemble what has occurred in Venezuela, the place the US deposed President Nicolas Maduro on January 3. Relatively than try to put in an opposition authorities, the US has cooperated with appearing President Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s former vp who took energy when US forces whisked away Maduro in an early morning raid.
AUTHORITY SPREAD WIDELY
Authority in Cuba is unfold extensively amongst senior Communist Occasion leaders, different authorities officers and the armed forces, not like the focus of energy that characterised the Castro years from the beginning of the 1959 revolution till Diaz-Canel’s time period started in 2018.
De Cossio, who has led the overseas ministry’s workplace on US relations, declined to supply additional particulars of the bilateral discussions, leaving unanswered the questions of the place and when they’re going down.
However he did say there have been loads of matters of mutual curiosity, together with commerce between the 2 international locations that has been severed by the great US financial embargo in opposition to Cuba.
He additionally talked about lengthy standing financial compensation that every nation seeks. Cuba has claims in opposition to the US for damages attributable to the embargo, whereas there are 5,913 claims from People whose properties had been nationalized in Cuba after the 1959 revolution that introduced Fidel Castro to energy.
“These are very complicated points that may be mentioned, however they require dialogue,” de Cossio mentioned. “They require sitting down and are legit issues.”
