Cuban officials have held talks with the US government to seek solutions to the blockade imposed on the Caribbean nation, Miguel Díaz-Canel has said in a video broadcast on national television.
“These talks have been aimed at finding solutions through dialogue to the bilateral differences we have between the two nations,” Díaz-Canel, the Cuban president, said in the video, which aired on Friday, shortly before he was scheduled to address Cuban media in a rare appearance that comes amid a severe economic crisis and as the Communist government has come under increasing pressure from Donald Trump.
Díaz-Canel said that the Cuban negotiators had participated “on the basis of equality and respect for the political systems of both states, and for the sovereignty and self-determination” of the Cuban government.
Díaz-Canel said no petroleum shipments have arrived on the island in the past three months, which he blamed on a US energy blockade.
Cuba’s western region was hit by a massive blackout last week, leaving millions without power.
He said that Cuba, which produces 40% of its petroleum, has been generating its own power but that it hasn’t been sufficient to meet demand.
He said the lack of power has affected communications, education and transportation, and that the government has had to postpone surgeries for tens of thousands of people as a result.
“The impact is tremendous,” he said.
The address was billed as a continuation of a 5 February event when Diaz-Canel warned that Cuba was approaching a situation that would require “extreme measures” given the economic crisis, frequent power blackouts and fuel shortages exacerbated by Trump’s imposition of an oil blockade on the Caribbean island.
Trump has said repeatedly that the United States was already in high-level talks with Cuban representatives. Until now, the Cuban government had denied that any official encounters are underway but had not explicitly denied media reports of back-channel discussions with Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro, the grandson of Raul Castro, who is 94 and still wields great influence.
Rodriguez Castro was seated behind Diaz-Canel and among the Communist Party officials pictured in the video.
Last month, US officials held talks with former Cuban president Raúl Castro’s grandson, on the sidelines of Caricom, the annual meeting of Caribbean leaders, in St Kitts and Nevis.
Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, 41, does not have an official role in the Cuban government, but remains close to his grandfather, who holds huge sway in the country’s power structure.
Trump in recent weeks had made a series of statements, saying Cuba was on the verge of collapse or eager to make a deal with the United States. On Monday he said Cuba may be subject to a “friendly takeover”, then added: “It may not be a friendly takeover.”
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