In what was seen as a last-ditch effort to save his hobbled government, President Miguel Díaz-Canel of Cuba announced on Friday that his government had been holding talks with the Trump administration while managing an increasingly severe lack of fuel.
Cuba’s government is facing an existential crisis as the Trump administration ratchets up pressure on the 67-year-old Communist state, maintaining what amounts to an oil blockade. Fuel is rapidly running out, plunging Cuba into prolonged periods of darkness.
Though the discussions with the United States had previously been reported by U.S. news outlets, it was the first time the government had acknowledged that talks were underway.
Mr. Díaz-Canel, in a 90-minute news conference broadcast on state media, said the talks were aimed at finding solutions to Cuba’s differences with the United States. He said the discussions were based on “respect for the political systems of both countries, sovereignty and our government’s self-determination,” suggesting that, from his point of view, political changes in Cuba were not on the table.
He said international factors had facilitated the exchanges, without providing specifics. Cuba’s foreign minister recently met with the Vatican, as did Mike Hammer, the top U.S. diplomat in Havana.
The Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said the Vatican had taken “the necessary steps, always with a view to a dialogue-based solution to the problems that exist.”
Cuba’s government announced on Thursday that it would soon release 51 prisoners, in what appeared to be an effort to appease the Trump administration.
Mr. Díaz-Canel said a development to be announced on Monday would “greatly facilitate” the participation of Cubans abroad in the island’s “economic and social development program,” strongly suggesting that the government would allow Cubans overseas to invest in the nation’s economy. Exiles in Florida and other places with large Cuban communities have been pushing for that for years.
Over the past year, Mr. Díaz-Canel said, the island’s foreign ministry has held talks with Cubans abroad to listen to their ideas. He acknowledged that there had been a significant exodus from the country, saying the number of Cubans overseas “has grown.”
More than two million Cubans have left the country in the past five years, demographers estimate. “It is our responsibility as the government to embrace them, listen to them, tend to them and offer them a space to participate in the economic and social development,” Mr. Díaz-Canel said.
He said Cuba’s power grid was growing increasingly unstable because the country had imported no oil in three months.
Two crucial power plants had exhausted their supplies of fuel, he said. “Therefore, a considerable number of megawatts that we were generating, especially during peak and nighttime hours, are lost from that generation system, putting the grid in a very unstable situation,” Mr. Díaz-Canel said.
He said that Cuba was rushing to expand its use of solar energy, but that the challenges were daunting. Nearly 7,000 homes in Cuba are now connected to solar power, he said.
Electric cars are being used to bring patients to dialysis appointments, he said. About 700 bakeries have converted to wood-fired or charcoal-fired ovens, Mr. Díaz-Canel said.
Mr. Díaz-Canel said the talks with the United States were needed, in part, “to determine the willingness of both sides to take concrete actions.” He said the discussions were unlikely to yield results soon.
“Agendas are built, negotiations and conversations take place, and agreements are reached — things we are still far from because we are in the initial phases of this process,’’ Mr. Díaz-Canel said.
He put the blame for Cuba’s ills squarely at Washington’s feet. “Workers are making an effort to overcome the impossible,” he said. “It’s the fault of the energy blockade that has been imposed on us.”
The Cuban government has been in dire straits since the United States attacked Venezuela in January, arrested its president, took control of its state oil industry and blocked fuel shipments to Cuba. Venezuela had been Cuba’s top supplier of oil.
President Trump threatened to impose severe tariffs on any country that provided Cuba with oil. The Cuban government was forced to curtail public transportation, elective surgeries and other services that depended on diesel fuel.
With Cuba dependent on foreign oil for 60 percent of its fuel supply, experts have estimated that it would run out of fuel this month. Mr. Trump has repeatedly said that the Cuban government would collapse on its own.
On Saturday, Mr. Trump suggested that a Cuba deal was imminent. “As we achieve a historic transformation in Venezuela, we’re also looking forward to the great change that will soon be coming to Cuba,” Mr. Trump said.
“Cuba’s at the end of the line,” he added. “They have no money. They have no oil.”
Earlier in the week, hosting the Inter Miami soccer team at the White House, Mr. Trump indicated to its co-owner Jorge Mas — the son of a prominent Cuban exile leader, Jorge Mas Canosa — that travel restrictions to Cuba would be eased. “You’re going to go back, and you won’t need my approval,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Mas.
He also said about Cuba, “They want to make a deal so badly. You have no idea.”
Any meaningful deal between the United States and the Cuban government, experts say, would have to include the release of all political prisoners, an end to the criminalization of dissent, permitting independent political organizing, the legalization of political parties besides the Communist Party and a restoration of basic civil liberties, including freedom of speech and the press.
“The main question for me is whether and what political, social and civic changes will also be included in any deal,” said Ted Henken, a Cuba scholar at Baruch College.
Jack Nicas contributed reporting.
Frances Robles is a Times reporter covering Latin America and the Caribbean. She has reported on the region for more than 25 years.
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