Cuba is willing to discuss any issue with the United States, except for the country’s independence, sovereignty, self-determination and internal affairs, stated Deputy Foreign Minister Josefina Vidal in an interview published today by the Mexican newspaper La Jornada.
According to the deputy foreign minister, a channel of communication exists, and there have been meetings and exchanges with representatives of the United States, but without significant progress.
“We haven’t seen the United States abandon its historical aspiration — and I’m not just talking about the past 65 years, I’m going back two centuries — to impose its dictates on what Cuba should be.”
Josefina Vidal mentioned that “there have been cases where we sit down to talk and, a few days later, a new sanction arrives.”
“This raises doubts for us about how seriously and responsibly the United States is viewing this conversation, which we in Cuba are treating with absolute formality,” she stated.
Regarding how real Cuba considers the threat of military action, the deputy foreign minister commented that statements from the highest levels of the U.S. government indicate that Washington has not renounced such aggression against the island.
“We don’t want it, because people will die, Cubans and Americans. But since this threat remains latent and constant, we cannot be naive: while we are talking, we are also preparing to exercise our right to legitimate self-defense,” she emphasized.
In response to a question about whether the recent economic measures announced in the Caribbean nation change the socialist character of the Cuban state, she asserted that they do not.
“Control over fundamental resources ” energy, biotechnology, tourism — will remain with the state and for the benefit of the people. What is being incorporated are changes in management, but ownership will remain in the hands of the Cuban people,” she explained.
She explained that income redistribution will operate through taxation, and public services such as education, health, and social security “will remain an absolute priority.”
The deputy minister emphasized that these transformations “didn’t happen overnight,” but rather had been under consideration since 2020 and 2021.
She denounced the existence of a vast propaganda machine attempting to shift responsibility for what is happening in Cuba onto the Cuban government, “when it is very clear that the aggressor is the United States.”
“The most dangerous thing is the attempt to normalize the aggression, to make it acceptable to public opinion. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has already stated: Washington’s measures are suffocating the Cuban people; children are dying who shouldn’t be dying. This has to stop.
[ SOURCE: PRENSA LATINA ]
