Amid crippling U.S. sanctions, an oil blockade and threats of a takeover, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel on Friday said his government has held direct talks with the United States “aimed at finding solutions through dialogue to the bilateral differences between the two nations.”
The acknowledgment came in a publicly broadcast speech during a meeting in Havana of the top levels of the government and Cuban Communist Party. It confirmed widespread reports of recent secret meetings between senior Trump administration officials and Cubans close to Raúl Castro, the still-influential former president and party head.
“We want to avoid manipulation and speculation,” Díaz-Canel said in a news conference following his speech. The talks, he said, were still “in their first phase … to establish an agenda” that high-level groups of officials on both sides would address.
“We have to construct the space that lets us move forward,” he said.
Just hours before Díaz-Canel spoke, the government said it would release 51 prisoners, the latest in a gradual granting of pardons following mass arrests during 2021 anti-government protests. The names of the prisoners were not released, and it was unclear whether they were political detainees.
President Donald Trump has made clear that Cuba is next on his agenda of states to topple, following the January capture of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro and the launching of a war against Iran.
The U.S., Trump said late last week, “is looking forward to the great change that will be coming to Cuba,” a country that is “at the end of the line” and in its “last moments of life.”
“They’re down to fumes,” Trump said Monday, “It may be a friendly takeover, it might not be a friendly takeover. It wouldn’t matter.”
“We are talking to Cuba, whose leaders should make a deal,” a White House official said Friday in response to questions about the talks. “Cuba is a failing nation whose rulers have had a major setback with the loss of support from Venezuela and with Mexico ceasing to send them oil.” The official spoke on the condition of anonymity under rules set by the White House.
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